James P
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tchaypo.bsky.social
James P
@tchaypo.bsky.social
Slave to two cats. Formerly in IT. Erstwhile trombonist.
Reposted by James P
Do you care about your #RightToKnow and Freedom of Information? Do you know there's currently a bill before the Australian Parliament?

Do you have lived experience with the #FOI system?

Consider sharing your perspective?

www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar...

@oaf.org.au @asherwolf.bsky.social
Freedom of Information Amendment Bill 2025
Committee: Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee Date referred: 4 September 2025 Submissions close: 1 October 2025 Reporting date: 3 December 2025 On 4 September 2025, the Senate...
www.aph.gov.au
September 25, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Reposted by James P
The Govt should be introducing legislation to provide more transparency, not less.

Their proposed changes to FOI are deeply troubling, though not surprising given in the last parliament they were the 2nd most secretive in 30 years.

That needs to change.
www.canberratimes.com.au/story/907156...
Australia's FOI system is broken, but proposed reforms miss the mark
This proposed bill risks doubling down on the very problems it should be fixing.
www.canberratimes.com.au
September 24, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by James P
As parliament winds up for the summer I’d like to draw your attention to the OpenAustralia Foundation.

We are a small charity with a hard working team running services to support our unique democracy.

We need your help to fund our work.
Please donate now.
donate.oaf.org.au

Please boost.
OpenAustralia Foundation
We need your help: Make a donation today to support the OpenAustralia Foundation
donate.oaf.org.au
November 28, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Reposted by James P
Amid all the sound and fury of the senate inquiry, the submission from Optus on the triple zero outage reveals a bit more.

Firstly, a customer who called to report the outage to Optus was sent into a store, where they bought a new phone.
November 3, 2025 at 6:51 AM
Reposted by James P
Danny Pearson, Vic Minister for Economic Growth and Jobs:
"Data centres are going to be to the 21st century what the rail lines were to the 19th century."

Most of them went bankrupt, not infrequently causing wider economic harm. Read some goddam history, I beg of you.
Panic of 1873 - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
October 31, 2025 at 6:12 AM
I can never ride a train without mourning the fact that English only has the cumbersome “in the direction of travel” to meet German’s sleek svelte “fartrichtung”
October 28, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by James P
Finally figured out what has fuelled Kid’s desire to cycle hundreds of kilometres in his spare time: spite for a teen cycling influencer
October 26, 2025 at 5:41 AM
Reposted by James P
Enjoying Ben Butler speak about the experience of FOI as a journo... He waited five years for one request to be finalised. www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9ep...
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee | 17/10/2025
YouTube video by Australian Parliament House Streaming Portal
www.youtube.com
October 17, 2025 at 3:39 AM
Reposted by James P
You gently run your hand through the rack. You can feel it—pure cotton, rich wool, Irish linen. The plump buttonholes are handsewn; the buttons attached with a firm shank. You flip the price tag over. It's affordable

You buy the jacket and go home, which is only 15 mins away. Your apt is $600/month
October 15, 2025 at 7:00 AM
There’s companies who only pretend to care about today’s young people are going to survive in the mess the boomers have made of the world.

Then there’s MLC, who seem to think it’s a virtue to not even pretend to care.
October 15, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by James P
Love that in a few short weeks OpenAI has gone from pretending to be about LLMs as a restrained social good to creating a pure slop TikTok and turning ChatGPT into an explicitly sychophantic fuck machine for gooners
Sam Altman says OpenAI plans a ChatGPT version with a "personality that behaves more like what people liked about 4o" and will add "erotica for verified adults" (Sam Altman/@sama)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
October 14, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Reposted by James P
I pledge to sext only with adult humans, moreover my sexting will be artisanal, small batch and produced under the highest ethical production standards, that said, some images may be edited to increase contrast, correct lens distortion and heighten curb appeal
October 14, 2025 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by James P
Imagining this as the opening text crawl for The Phantom Menace
“We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution.”
October 14, 2025 at 9:25 PM
Reposted by James P
There is no democracy without transparency
Proposed changes to Australia’s FOI laws would make a repeat of the disastrous Robodebt coverup more likely, rather than less, our new research shows.

The PM described Robodebt as a “gross betrayal and human tragedy”, yet his government plans to make cabinet documents harder to access. #auspol
Government’s FOI changes could cover up the next Robodebt - new research
Proposed changes to Australia’s Freedom of Information (FOI) laws would make a repeat of the disastrous Robodebt coverup more likely, rather than less, according to new research by The Australia Insti...
australiainstitute.org.au
October 7, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Reposted by James P
A major new peer-reviewed Australian report warns that the UK’s Cass Review is fundamentally ill-suited to guide care for trans young people — and should not be adopted as a benchmark in Australia www.starobserver.com.au/news/new-rep...
New Report Says Cass Review Should Not Be Benchmark For Trans Healthcare in Australia - Star Observer
A major new peer-reviewed report warns that the Cass Review is fundamentally ill-suited to guide Australia's care for trans young people.
www.starobserver.com.au
October 6, 2025 at 3:16 AM
Reposted by James P
the best answer i got for this:
October 6, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Reposted by James P
Really, truly amazing that OpenAI wants us to believe that they are worth a trillion dollars but also they are so desperate for revenue that they created an infinite SlopTok app that opens them up to a billion lawsuits just so that they can maybe someday make it even worse by filling it with ads.
October 5, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by James P
My undergrad criminology lecturer Colleen Lewis in the Canberra Times this morning: when secrecy wins, democracy loses www.canberratimes.com.au/story/908146...
Who's scared of the spotlight? Accountability is supposed to be uncomfortable
When secrecy wins, democracy loses.
www.canberratimes.com.au
October 5, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by James P
Have kept digging into the Optus triple zero outage (not the one last night) but they're now doing that crisis management thing of saying they won't answer any questions about it because of the independent review that is due to report back by the end of the year.
September 28, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Reposted by James P
Well I worked on my dissertation today and it is abundantly clear based on my own survey as well as published research that Queer people generally view police more negatively than their Cishet peers

But in my own crosstab analysis, I found younger and non-cis Queers to hold more negative opinions
September 30, 2025 at 2:54 AM
Reposted by James P
EXPLAINER: Howard government puts Albanese government to shame on freedom of information australiainstitute.org.au/post/explain...
EXPLAINER: Howard government puts Albanese government to shame on freedom of information
The Albanese Government announced today they want to charge people a fee for putting in a freedom of information request.
australiainstitute.org.au
September 25, 2025 at 6:49 AM
Reposted by James P
Call me conservative, but I’m Catholic & I believe murder is morally wrong—even the murder of a repulsive bigot. Enabling the preventable death of even 1 child—much less thousands—by denying them vaccine access is also morally wrong. Pointing this out isn’t a violent threat.
September 14, 2025 at 2:16 AM
Reposted by James P
Australia’s proposed FOI amendments add layers of secrecy, says Professor Gabrielle Appleby from UNSW Faculty of Law & Justice, and Head of Research for the Centre for Public Integrity www.governmentnews.com.au/foi-amendmen...
FOI amendments add layers of secrecy - Government News
The federal government’s proposal to amend Australia’s freedom of information laws is taking the legislation in a more secretive direction, says an expert.
www.governmentnews.com.au
September 11, 2025 at 8:20 AM
Reposted by James P
A couple of years ago Charlie Kirk claimed gun deaths are 'worth it' to protect second amendment rights.
September 10, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by James P
Thank you for this.

Say their names.

We probably should have been saying that then.
Melissa Hortman,the Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband Mark were killed. John Hoffman and his wife Yvette were shot but have recovered. The assassin had a list of several names.
September 10, 2025 at 9:18 PM