The cost of making an Australian public good like beaches, museums, transport and phones free or universal is marginal – while the benefits are immense In a world that seems increasingly keen to monetise every interaction we have with it, how nice it was to watch my daughter discover she could make a “call to Santa” from a public payphone … free of charge. I say “payphone”, but in Australia payphones are not in fact “pay” phones. In 2021, Telstra, the now-privatised national telco, made all local and national calls from public phones free – as well as calls to Santa, which I guess count as “international”. Continue reading...

Star Wars: Starfighter is getting ready to hit the ground running.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese says ‘we are stronger than the cowards’ as people return to the scene of Australia’s worst ever terror attack * Victims named so far * What we know about the Bondi terror attack In the fading light, they came back to Bondi, to light candles, to sing and to stand together, in solidarity and in defiance of the terror that had been visited upon their beach, their world. Across Bondi, and Sydney, and Australia, people lit candles in solidarity with the Jewish community which suffered the worst antisemitic attack in the country’s history when two gunmen allegedly opened fire on a Hanukah celebration at Bondi Beach shortly after 6:40pm on Sunday evening. Continue reading...

Gun owners face limits on the number of weapons they can own and only Australian citizens would be able to hold a licence, prime minister says * What we know about the Bondi terror attack Gun owners face limits on the number of firearms they can hold and licences would only be issued to Australian citizens under tougher new controls to be considered nationwide after the Bondi beach massacre. State leaders agreed to strengthen gun laws across the country after Anthony Albanese convened a urgent meeting of national cabinet on Monday afternoon following the worst terrorist attack in Australian history. Continue reading...