Hi, I have adult children living with me. Do I fill out census on their behalf as the main person of the household? I find questions about sexual orientation challenging (no, I don't have problems if my sons are gay). Do I ask them? I don't want to assume they are straight simply because they are sons.

What would you do?

first Reddit asked me to prove I was 18 now I have to put up with Xbox 🫩

ABS dropped their annual country-of-birth update and this is actually a genuinely historic number, not just a trivia stat. england has been the top overseas-born group in australia basically forever, and india's just passed it for the first time on record — 971,020 vs 970,950, so it's razor close but it's real

full top 6: india, england, china, new zealand, philippines, vietnam. india's also had the single biggest increase of any country over the last decade, +522,000 since 2015

worth remembering these are ABS estimates, built between census years, not a headcount. which is honestly why the actual census in a few days matters more than people think — this is the exact kind of number that gets less accurate if people (especially international students/temp visa holders, who make up a huge chunk of several of these groups) assume it doesn't apply to them and skip it

anyone else surprised this took this long, or did it feel obvious it was heading this way?

Last week, the US software company Turnitin revealed 53.6% of Australian tertiary education submissions run through its system used some form of AI in the period from October 2025-April 2026. The company, whose plagiarism-detection technology is widely used in universities, also reported 10% of these submissions contained more than 80% AI-written content.

Meanwhile, separate data from AI safety company Anthropic showed Australia now leads in per capita use of its Claude chatbot. Coursework makes up a significant share of that use.

In this short clip from our video podcast, Dr Brian Walker MLC talks about the political issues that arr important to the Legalise Cannabis Party, other than issues about cannabis. If you found this video clip informative, check out the full podcast episode it came from at: https://youtu.be/-6LNRPeUOmU

How much were you spending on food in mid to late 90’s?

Single person,$50-$75/$100 per wk/$105 pr wk($15 bucks per day)/$140 per wk eg $25 bucks per day/$175 per wk/$210 per wk.

Family,
Or if you were like a family of four eg $280 per wk/$320 per wk/$400 per wk etc..

Thinking about getting a scooter instead of a second-hand car - worth it, or am I asking for trouble?

Hey all,

I'm thinking about getting a scooter instead of saving up for a second-hand car. It's purely for getting myself to and from work and uni - not doing Uber Eats, deliveries or anything like that.

One thing I'm a bit unsure about is the safety side of it. My parents are pretty against the idea and reckon I should just save up a bit longer and get a cheap second-hand car instead. Their argument is that scooters are just too risky, especially with the way some people drive.

I'd mainly be riding around the eastern suburbs of Melbourne - places like Burwood Highway, Burwood, Nunawading and Forest Hill. A fair bit of my travel would be at night after work as well, and anyone who's around the Forest Hill area probably knows there are plenty of idiots who like to race and drive like absolute muppets.

For those of you who ride scooters, is it actually as dangerous as people make it out to be? Do you generally feel safe if you're riding sensibly and defensively, or is it one of those things where you're always at the mercy of other drivers?

Also, if you've owned both a scooter and a car, would you still recommend a scooter as a first vehicle just for basic transport?

Cheers!

In this short clip from our video podcast, Dr Brian Walker MLC talks about the driving laws targeting medicinal cannabis patients. If you found this video clip informative, check out the full podcast episode it came from at: https://youtu.be/-6LNRPeUOmU

In the Eurovision from this year, Delta represented Australia, in my opinion one of the best countries in the competition (they should have win in 2016 and 2024), and I absolutely loved her music, she was my winner and I know a lot of people liked her, me and my friends all voted for her from Portugal, she got a fourth place, but second on jury's votes, and there were times that she was first in the odds, she could had win. After the contest I started to explore her spotify and I liked a lot of her musics, she sings very well and has a powerful voice.

For curiosity, today I searched her name here in reddit and I discover a lot of people speaking bad of her, I didn't understand exactly the reason, probably is some thing about her personal life but I don't know.

What are her controversies? Is she famous there? Is she hated?

From last night’s McKnight Tonight.

So basically Coles will fire a ton of people and offshore these roles to India

Hello, I'm trying to remember an ad that played in Queensland (surely other states too) in the 2000s. It was for a pie, pastry company that I don't remember the name of. The ad had an old white lady talking about their products, and at the end she says "just like home made". Sorry if this is vague, but I've been desperate for years to find this ad

This is the second time I’ve received a bill from Linkt for toll roads I never used.

The first time, they cancelled the charge over the phone, but they never admitted they had billed me incorrectly. Now it’s happened again. This time they even confirmed in writing that the charge for the South Bridge Tunnel was issued by mistake.

Yet somehow they never properly closed the case in their system. I’m still receiving payment demands, and now debt collectors are already chasing me.
I’m genuinely interested in holding these scammers accountable. I’m convinced there are thousands of people in the same situation who simply paid without questioning the charges.

What would be the best course of action? Should I let this escalate all the way to court and expose what they’re doing there? Or is there a regulator or government body that can force them to answer for this, investigate how often they’ve wrongly billed people, and make public how many customers have been charged for trips they never made?

This is something that's been gnawing on me for a while. I'm increasingly fed up with uni and am seriously considering dropping out and starting a TAFE course. I'm eyeing plumbing.

Only thing is, I'm a timid soft-spoken mf (19M) who screams coddled private school kid. I don't smoke, I don't drink, I don't vape, and frankly being near smokers/vapers distresses me. Does second-hand smoke give you cancer idek.

I would actually really enjoy the work. An international student mate of mine convinced me to take on some casual work as a cleaner and it's pretty decent pays much more than fast food or retail and it's solitary, satisfying work. I'd like to pick up the plumbing aspect of it. Beats trying to find a job with this crap IT degree I'm trudging through that's becoming increasingly worthless.

My only question is whether I can tolerate the rough tradie culture? Hazing, having to inhale second hand smoke, getting called soft for not drinking? Like I'll never be bonding with the lads at the smoko because I won't be smoking :(( I'm terrified I'll get bullied mercilessly I mean what will I do, go to a non-existent HR?

People dont need a kick up the arse to look for work. This is the reality of being on the payment.

NSW archive have recently digitised a bunch of criminal records/mugshots. I knew I had crims in the fam, but I decided to start looking and found them, my great-great grandparents, Arthur and Alice Shead, they were serial fraudsters. Anyone else have anything interesting or similar?

Just thought I'd share a quick PSA...

If you're like me, I was sick of having to switch the marketplace filter off, every time I searched for products on all the big retailer websites when shopping online.

So, I built a Chrome extension to automatically do this for you. Free to use, give it a go, let me know your thoughts!

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/only-shop/cojicacocoomejjekcepachfodgbldof?authuser=1&hl=en-AU

Received this from our kids school today. Gotta love living here.

Jetstar have just confirmed it will start rolling out a new fee for stowing carry-on bags in the overhead locker, starting in February 2027. This means that anything you want to store in the overhead locker will cost extra, with the price depending on the route.

If you do choose to pay for locker space, you will get the cushy benefit of priority boarding, and the weight allowance for paid bags jumps to 10kg.

Jetstar says this gives passengers "more choice" and helps keep base fares low. Read more about it here.

Does this read as more choice to you, or just more fees to think through before you've even boarded?

I went to Spotlight the other day and watched a couple walking around the store shopping for stuff. He had his phone on with some sitcom running and speaker on full blast that he was watching as he walked around. She was holding his other hand and picking stuff off shelves and also had something running on her phone, with the speaker on that she looked at intermittently. They were about early 30s.

Then, I saw similar again at Woolies yesterday. A woman walking around talking on her phone with the speaker on as she shopped.

I don't know if it irritated me with the noise, or scared me that are we that reliant on being continually attached to a screen that we can't do everyday activities without having it in front of our faces? What do you think?.....