Robert Watkins

I live in Brisbane, AU. My politics lean socialist, I'm an atheist, my attitude is condescending, and my moral standing is lying down. ❤️ is ❤️, people. He/him.

Blog: https://twasink.net/
Country: Australia

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twasink_at_aus.social@momostr.pink

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Last Notes

2026-09-30 10:14:48 UTC

Politicians should _not_ just “let the RBA get on with its job”
Fighting non-demand-driven inflation is not a job for the RBA. Interest rates are a _very_ blunt instrument, inflicting a lot of extraneous damage.
Politicians shouldn’t just let the RBA do this alone. Government, through taxation policy, can make much more targeted interventions.
Tax the data centres. Tax the resource sectors. Slow down their excessive spending that’s drawing capacity away from the rest of the economy. Redirect that money into areas that are hurting badly (e.g. unemployment benefits).
Heck, increase the tax rate on the upper-end of town. These are the people who aren’t being hurt by high interest rates, thanks to their large income levels. Or at least continue closing off the loopholes.
Same for company tax. So few companies - particularly the large multinationals - pay anywhere near the headline 25% tax. Cut that off. In particular, why not limit how much tax losses can be carried forward into profitable years?
There is a _lot_ the government can do to fight inflation that won’t have the same broad scale impact that the RBA does.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/sep/30/rba-inflation-blame-game-politicians-reserve-bank-australia

2026-09-01 07:36:46 UTC

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Queensland is the Florida of Australia.
Heck, we even have Miami Beach.

2026-08-29 23:21:02 UTC

The health system would have better outcomes, for less cost, if _all_ the rebates were taken away and redirected to public health.
Private health insurance in Australia is a scam. Not as bad as a scam as it is in the US, but still a scam anyway. Unfortunately, it's a scam that we can't afford to buy into.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-30/private-health-insurance-rebates-older-regional-australians/107083218

2026-07-29 07:25:56 UTC

There is no reason that having datacenters _must_ force power prices to increase.
The only reason for that to happen is if _the datacenters aren't paying enough for the power!_
There's a simple fix to that.
Make datacenters use renewable energy exclusively. Make them pay for the addition of new energy to the grid for every megawatt they draw out. Make them be energy-neutral or even slightly positive.
Don't let them push the cost of providing them with power out as an externality to the rest of the country.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/29/queensland-northern-territory-reject-ai-datacentre-renewable-energy

2026-06-16 08:58:07 UTC

Without medical assistance, giving birth is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do. The death rates are hideous.
The tradition of midwifery - having an experienced person (usually a woman) who knew what they were doing - is the oldest tradition of medicine, and is practiced in every culture.
The idea of relying on someone with no medical training, and who's experience boiled down to having giving birth herself, is just insane.
And then she goes and cleans up the evidence...
Honestly, both the doula and the husband should be facing manslaughter charges.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-16/vic-stacey-warnecke-freebirth-emergency-services-delay-claims/106797878

2026-06-14 02:34:58 UTC

Who's accountable? Well, the US was the one who attacked those ships, so they're accountable.
They also started the war, which makes them broadly responsible for all of it.
Good luck getting any compensation, though.
Also, the analysis provided by the "former Australian naval officer" is garbage. The US blockade is an illegal act of war, The Iranian blockade of the Straits of Hormuz is an illegal act of war. They are equivalently wrong, they are being enforced in a similar manner (including with warnings). There's no difference - and the US attacks are certainly not okay.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-14/indian-sailors-deaths-strait-of-hormuz/106792790

2026-06-09 13:49:05 UTC

RE: https://gives.hugz.online/@MelissaBearTrix/116719447922938698
Honestly, unless the plane is on fire, I think I'd be fine with letting people go ahead of me until I can grab my bag...
(Holding people up to grab my bag would be too far)
#note13rp…w45m

2026-06-04 11:16:08 UTC

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Definitely. We really should get onboard Canada's "middle power alliance" deal, and if not leave the US behind at least make it clear we aren't a client state.
We won't, though.

2026-06-04 11:06:33 UTC

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For better or (mostly) for worse, we're locked into the US's orbit as a client state. While we didn't have to get into AUKUS, having done so, there's no easy alternative to back out.
Unlike some countries, Australia honours its alliance agreements regardless of party. Having secured the deal, Morrison knew that the ALP would _have_ to back it.
Fortunately, the US almost certainly won't keep their side of the deal...

2026-06-04 07:10:09 UTC

RE: https://aus.social/@luciedigitalni/116689597230824767
Back when Howard was PM and realised he was going to lose, he locked in tax cuts to starve a future ALP government of revenue.
Morrison decided to throw out a submarine transition plan started by Labor and cemented by Turnbull (who he had undermined and eventually helped topple), and replaced it with AUKUS, to be a millstone around the soon-to-come ALP government.
These were never about doing the right thing for the country; it was about making life difficult for the ALP. I wouldn't be surprised if Fraser did this to the Hawke government, but my living memory doesn't go back that far.
Meanwhile, the ALP gives legacies like the NBN and the NDIS, only to see the Libs screw up the rollout...
#note14sz…a9jp

2026-04-01 21:18:11 UTC

Unlike the Liberal Party, One Nation doesn't have a problem with vetting its candidates.
That's why they are able to find exactly the kind of candidates who represent the core values of the PHONy party.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-02/fresh-questions-over-one-nation-candidate-vetting-processes/106517960

2026-03-14 07:05:49 UTC

RE: https://bne.social/@phocks/116225965311177316
At the last census (2021), the number of people per occupied property was the lowest it had ever been. At the same time, the percentage of unoccupied properties was about 10% - highest since 2001.
The problem has _never_ been the number of houses.
#note1vm7…rd5z

2026-02-24 08:35:17 UTC

So the guy developing the Trump Tower on the Gold Coast:
* has been bankrupt twice (which is 4 times less than Trump)
* has never built an office tower before. His relevant experience is building housing projects.
* is being totally funded by foreign investors.
Smells like a money laundering operation with a convenient local patsy to me.
And anyone who gets involved in this: get paid up front.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-24/trump-tower-developer-went-bankrupt-twice/106379446

2025-09-05 05:34:00 UTC

David Bryne, of Talking Heads fame, declares that kindness and empathy is the new punk.
As was the old punk.
I mean, it's the same as it ever was...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-05/david-byrne-talking-heads-who-is-the-sky-album-australian-tour/105731344

2025-01-12 21:40:30 UTC

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There's lots of obvious reasons why Xcel Energy didn't make it public.
Why didn't the "state and federal authorities”?

2024-12-12 08:35:15 UTC

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worse. A lot worse. Nuclear power is cleaner than coal and gas - and even less radioactive!
But it sucks compared to renewables, and is regularly waved as a banner to fend off renewables.

2024-11-21 09:18:50 UTC

*shudder* Pregnancy – and child birth, in particular – is one of the most dangerous things a typical woman will do in their life. Pre-modern medical care, both infant and maternal mortality rates were in the double digits.
The idea that people reject medical care and supervision entirely to give birth just staggers me. The fact that there is an industry of people preying on these women sickens me.
The general push-back against modern medicine (see the anti-vax movement) just astounds me.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-21/sovereign-birthkeepers-in-freebirthing-putting-lives-at-risk/104528640

2024-11-20 20:05:28 UTC

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The US will be like this until either the GOP collapses entirely, or until it purges the MAGA elements.
MAGA is a cancer that will corrupt the US as long as it is around; merely getting back into power won't stop it (see the current situation). Nor is MAGA limited to Trumpism – it's the current evolution of the Tea Party, after all.

2024-11-20 09:47:48 UTC

For all the bluster, there is zero chance that Putin escalates the war in Ukraine between now and the end of January. Certainly not to a nuclear level.
He _knows_ that when Trump gets in, all of this will get undone anyway – unless he provokes to an extent that even Trump can't get away with ignoring. The use of nuclear weapons would definitely do that.
https://toad.social/@davetroy/113514561241263967

2024-10-22 07:01:25 UTC

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well, I don’t do it every day, but when I need one, I try to fit it in after lunch. Set the alarm for two hours later and just have a snooze.
I’m sure if you keep practicing it, you’ll get better at it.
And then remember that everything you need to succeed in life, you learn in kindergarten. This especially applies to nap time.

2024-10-09 09:45:26 UTC

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worth remembering that many of the standard training sets for these tools include CSAM…

2024-10-09 09:19:45 UTC

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I suspect ICANN will declare it a special TLD instead.

2024-08-21 03:13:47 UTC

I have no sympathy for the banks. Leveraged buyouts are a cancer, and should never have been legalised.
The act of transferring debt from the buyer to the bought is an accounting trick used to make the rich richer. If Musk needed to borrow money to get the liquid capital to buy Twitter, that should have been his debt - not Twitter’s https://fortune.com/2024/08/20/elon-musk-tesla-twitter-leveraged-buyout-debt-banks-barclays/

2024-08-18 03:05:58 UTC

The thing to remember is that if Trump loses, this becomes Project 2029. If that fails, it’s Project 2033. And so on, until either the GOP regains sanity, collapses, or gets back into office. (In increasing order of likelihood)
And their whipping boys in the House and Senate will continue pushing this agenda. https://mastodon.social/@DrALJONES/112977519765133840

2024-08-09 02:54:26 UTC

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The DMA allows Apple to charges fees. So Apple charges these fees. Maybe they're compliant, maybe not – but if they're not compliant, they’ll be made more complicated until they are compliant.
If the EU doesn't want Apple to charge these fees, they should change the DMA to disallow fees being charged. Then the only compliance option is to not charge fees.
Asking a for-profit company not to charge fees when they are allowed to is wishing for the moon.
(I personally think Apple would be better off _not_ charging these fees. But Apple clearly has a different opinion)