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Yesterday WA police were being praised for their decision to permanently fly the Indigenous flag at police stations as a sign of reconciliation.

Also yesterday, Kearah Ronan, a six months pregnant Indigenous woman was arrested, strip searched and jailed because she was too sick to attend court and give evidence against her former partner. Kearah Ronan is a cousin of Ms Dhu, a 22 year old Indigenous woman who died in police custody after she was arrested for unpaid fines in 2014.

Since the election about 30 detainees have attempted suicide on Manus Island. They are sent to Lorengau Hospital, who do not have the staff or facilities to cope. They have not seen one cent of the $21.5 million the government claims they spend on medical care for detainees on Manus and no one can explain where the money has gone.

What do you think we can expect now that the government have been given another three years and the man responsible for overseeing this fiasco has been reappointed with increased powers?

I'm running for Environmental Caucus Party Policy Director, and it will be a competitive race. This means you need to come vote for me! The election will be at the Environmental Caucus meeting at 7:30 pm on Friday. We'll be meeting in room 215-216 in the Moscone Center. You don't need to be a delegate to vote, but you do need to be a member of the caucus. Membership dues are $10, and you can join at the meeting.

After all the rubbish during the election about "retiree taxes" and "death taxes", neither of which existed, we're now looking at "reforms" to industry superfunds. Why? Because of union influence in such funds.

Push to curb industry super power
https://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/push-to-curb-industry-super-power-20...

Donald Trump committed tax fraud, insurance fraud, financial fraud, and helped the mafia launder money (this was all easy to find out before he ever ran for President). His taxes and financial statements will prove this. Congress issued a subpoena for his taxes and Trump told the IRS to refuse to comply with a Congressional subpoena. That is clear obstruction of justice! Congress issued a subpoena for former White House Counsel Don McGahn to testify before Congress.

One of the climate change issues people like to debate is how much of an effect our individual actions can have. Grubler's paper offers a fascinating perspective on that. It models what would happen if we make behavioral changes to reduce energy use - things like ride sharing in electric vehicles, reducing air conditioner and heater usage, eating less meat, buying locally sourced products, telecommuting, planting trees, and so on.

Greetings. Long-time reader, first-time poster. It's disappointing that my first blog post is in the aftermath of the terrible Australian election results; however I feel I need to vent my spleen, so here goes. I hope my post can live up to the high standards of the other wonderful bloggers on this website.

Anyway, my thoughts on the election results and where we go from here:

Well, it seems my seat predictions were a little off. In my defense I simply followed what both the bookmakers and opinion polls were saying, which was Labor to win c85 seats. As it turns out, the polls over-estimated the Labor vote by about 4% and under-estimated the LNP vote by about 3%, the sum of which is quite significant. I did express concerns about Queensland and, grimly, they turned out to be correct and worse. The 11% vote for One Nation and Palmer, who directed preferences to the LNP, now means that the ALP holds 5 of the 29 seats there, and with no change seen in WA.

Day 36 and 37 of the campaign, and I thought it was all going to be over. But then the Liberals provide their costings just before the electronic media blackout (hilarious on the days of the Internet, right) and announce $1.5bn public service cuts to fund election promises. Surprise! Also, the last quarter's unemployment figures were announced an they came with a spike to 5.2% unemployment, 8.5% underemployment, and the dollar's down. Move along, nothing to see here, right?

A real-estate lobby group has just blocked me from commenting and deleted my posts on Facebook. Apparently, they didn't like the fact that my comments on negative gearing were getting so many "likes", and that they didn't like that they were coming from a landlord.

Because the reality is the real-estate lobby is lying through their teeth and squealing like stuck pigs. I am quite happy to argue against my own interests and even *lose* money if it means that more people have a less expensive roof over the heads.

Australia's negative gearing system is absolutely terrible.