Coercive Control
If there was ever a word, or we could believe a word that was around us, when the world around us turned sick, the difference between good and evil, when all around the evil and the sick.
Michael had been and gone.
He was shocked by the sick state of him, and the room where he slept smelt as if it had been inhabited by a sick old man.
All around they leapt into play.
The falcon finished grooming its armoured feathers, metallic, beautiful, it's beady eyes no longer curious but ready for flight.
Here in the forest, there in the ether.
What the fuck are they doing to us? Why are they doing it?
All around the sick, the jabbed, their rotting flesh. Everywhere the scandal. You didn't have to look far. The economy in a slowdown, if not collapse. Well he saw it as impending collapse.
Out on the road in the Depression era flair.
He was shocked by Michael, that was all there was to it. The ungracious guest. The negativity. The sneering at Australia. The ossified views; left. Climate. They've all been programmed to prat on about climate.
We're between two ice ages, but they think climate climate climate, because the rich get richer, because Bill Gates said so.
Because they're mad.
My God!!!
MAINSTREAM NEWS
ILLAWARRA MERCURY
The slowing economy is catching up to small businesses and muted conditions are expected to linger.
Small business sales growth as tracked by Xero via its accounting software record averaged 5.1 per cent annually for the December quarter, down from 6.8 per cent in the September quarter.
Weakness was most pronounced in interest-rate sensitive industries, such as retail (sales lifted 1.2 per cent annually) and agriculture (sales fell four per cent annually).
Xero economist Louis Southall said multiple interest rate hikes and high inflation was weighing on household budgets.
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Coercive control and affirmative consent laws will be debated in Queensland parliament just months after the government introduced a landmark bill to make coercive control standalone offence.
The laws, when passed, will introduce an affirmative model of consent and criminalise the tampering or removing of a condom without consent - called stealthing - to bring Queensland in line with other jurisdictions, barring the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
They will make coercive control, a form of abuse where perpetrators display a pattern of manipulative behaviour designed to intimidate and isolate the victim, an offence under law.
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Big business is largely ready for climate disclosure but thousands of suppliers may be unaware they're about to be swept up in a new mandatory reporting regime.
A climate governance study released on Tuesday by the Australian Institute of Company Directors shows mixed readiness as Treasury works on aligning the nation's accounting rules with international sustainability standards.
"The big end of town is better prepared than the rest, and that stands to reason," the institute's CEO Mark Rigotti told AAP.
THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA
THE NEW DAILY
Millions of people risk being left behind as the big banks close hundreds of branches nationwide to cut costs, with new analysis showing a gap in access to digital services.
Researchers at RMIT and Swinburne University published a report on Thursday showing a pullback in face-to-face banking has been worsened by a lack of affordable internet in many communities, particularly across Australia where bank closures are concentrated.
GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has joined western governments across the globe in holding Vladimir Putin responsible for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Navalny, 47, died while being held in a jail about 65km north of the Arctic Circle, where he had been sentenced to 19 years under a “special regime”.
Albanese told reporters in Newcastle on Saturday that Australia was shocked and saddened by the news.
SKY NEWS
Concerns are being held over how many boats have reached Australian shores after two groups of asylum seekers were found in Western Australia within hours of each other.
On Friday, it was reported a group of about 30 asylum seekers from Pakistan and Bangladesh arrived in the remote community of Beagle Bay, about 100km north of Broome.
The Australian Border Force began taking control of the situation under Operation Sovereign Borders however stopped short of providing further information.
ABC
In short: The Queensland government has refused to suspend Adani's coal mining operations despite experts finding evidence of potential contamination of the Doongmabulla Springs.
Adani denies any environmental breaches but traditional owners say the government has violated their legislated rights to conserve their sacred wetlands.
What's next? The Supreme Court will be asked to decide whether the government should make a different decision in line with the Human Rights Act.
SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA
France, the nation that likes to boast about its approach to liberty and free speech, has passed a law through the National Assembly on Valentine’s Day that appears to impose severe penalties on those who criticise mRNA vaccines.
According to The People’s Network:
‘As of today, criticism of such therapeutic treatments, when deemed obligatory or recommended by the state, could result in up to three years of imprisonment or a fine of 45,000 euros.