Well well well. I did not expect this. New passenger train named 'The Mainlander' to link Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill in NZ'. Very experimental just yet, limited travel dates and priced as an 'experience' rather than transport. But, better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick.

Here's what Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie has to say about today's environment law reform. Breaking down the good, the bad, and the please-can-we-actually-regulate-polluting-fossil fuel-projects?! Learn more here climc.nl/EPBC 💚

as a reminder, if you visit with a referrer from one of the major ai sites, you get this message. you can easily continue to the real article, if you read the text — it's just a link you click

In terms of Malcolm Turnbull's new official portrait...gotta say it looks kinda familiar. That's the same pose as GOUGH WHITLAM'S.

After years of campaigning, we finally have a new national environment law. Some important wins came through, but the law still fails the climate test. Until emissions are fully accounted for and climate impacts properly weighed, our forests, our future, and our climate remain at risk.

Huge news from the UK today: after UN climate talks in which there was a massive fight over language on fossil fuels, the UK government today announced that it will in fact be keeping many millions of barrels of oil & gas in the ground. Deeds rather than just words for a change! 🧵

Today saw a landmark announcement from the UK Govt that it will end exploration for new oil & gas fields. 🛢️ People power has forced them to make this happen and it makes clear that we are on the path to ending fossil fuels. ✊

The Federal Greens have secured significant improvements to Australia’s environment laws that will provide new protections for native forests, better regulate land clearing and stop Labor’s 30 day fast-track of coal and gas projects.

Lots of people sharing this clip because it's funny and cathartic but I also genuinely believe it's important. We have to win the narrative battle between "I live in a corrupt society and that's just how it is" and "I live in a corrupt society and we are going to defeat and humiliate these ghouls."

Today is #WorldSustainableTransportDay! The Greens have recently negotiated $150 million for walking and cycling infrastructure in five of Melbourne's most congested councils - which will give more people a clean, healthy and affordable way to get around!

Today is World Sustainable Transport Day! Public transport can help reduce emissions, noise pollution, air pollution, and more. And the more the service is upgraded, the more people will use it.🚉🚌🚋🚆

Alt text: from ABC news, Zero cervical cancer cases diagnosed in Australian women aged under 25 in 2021 - the first time since records began in 1982. (Please use alt text, people.)

The State Library of Victoria’s ‘major’ proposed cuts include slashing the number of reference librarians and free computers for public access. Some staff are shocked.

Rental affordability is getting worse (or continuing at the same level of bad) in every part of Australia... except the ACT. The difference there? They introduced rent controls 4 years ago when the Greens were in government with Labor! Full article via @abcnewsbot.bsky.social

With a mixed-results at COP30 - i.e. good intentions but no concrete plans for the “transition away from fossil fuels” - don’t give up. Let’s remember the progress made since the Paris Agreement and the options ahead of us. That’s the message of the image below

A movie that takes place where you're from

"Any bomb dropped by these planes can only do so because the Australian government has written a blank cheque to Lockheed Martin, selling them Australian-made parts with no human rights restrictions or monitoring.”

Twitter pays people based on engagement (views, retweets, comments, etc). It appears that many MAGA accounts are based abroad and they use AI technology to generate low-effort rage bait. My guess is that this will get worse as AI tech improves. For instance, fake videos of minorities doing crime.

‘She’s a shrewd Green’: meet Alice Springs’ new mayor, determined to rewrite the story of her beloved home town

Any centrist uttering "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" is an absolute guaranteed pre-emptive alarm they're about to do something extremely bad

I once knew a Federal bank examiner, and one time someone asked him why we had to KEEP inspecting banks over and over. He basically said every new batch of business school grads invents bank fraud from first principles.

since the "google is now training gemini on your email contents" thing keeps bumping around here: it's _not happening_. I say this not to defend google but because I know a lot of people that have broken their filtering and made their lives much more annoying from sheer misinformation.

I think entirely too much about how California’s climate plan explicitly says that converting to EVs is not nearly enough to meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets so we need to reduce VMT 25% by 2030, and then we do basically nothing to try to achieve that goal

Today on the blog, I take a look at the latest V/Line passenger stats and see how they're recovering from the COVID era the-iron-road.blogspot.com/2025/11/vlin...

We all like freebies, but with little or no extra capacity expected to be added to V/Line trains over summer, services are likely to be packed.

See Betteridge's law of headlines

Fantastic, thoughtful piece from Rachel Iampolski --- From Apple to Amyl: fighting for the soul of Federation Square – and what this weekend's chaos teaches us www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-a...

“If Australia is serious about supporting Ukraine and upholding sanctions, it must follow the UK and EU by announcing a ban on imports of fuels refined from Russian crude and shutting down the backdoor channels that continue to finance Russia’s aggression.” Isaac Levi, CREA

Today on the blog, I take a look at the latest V/Line passenger stats and see how they're recovering from the COVID era the-iron-road.blogspot.com/2025/11/vlin...

This is such a goddamn shame. Geoscience has been a core part of the institution for 175 years, and those skills are crucial to our present and future economy. And still they cut it. I spent most of my adult life studying or working there and I've never been more worried about its future.

[watching every law and order svu episode where benson and stabler threaten some random innocent person with obstruction charges or wrongly use their police powers to get some more info about their case] me: ahhh the wheels of justice

What is motonormativity? I'm on my way to an air pollution event in a city centre and the organisers have put the driving directions ahead of the public transport directions in the email

At this rate, Melbourne won’t have a fully accessible tram network until the year 2160. Read our statement calling for more State Government action on tram accessibility. www.ptua.org.au/2025...

Not satisfied with just destroying their own brand goodwill, OS companies are now using AI to try to destroy the good names of the apps users install. (Scrivener taking out adds to explain how it has no AI but Apple adds some anyway.)

The Auditor General has published their update on tram service accessibility... the progress by the State Government in the past five years has been minimal. Read more: www.audit.vic.gov.au...

Make it so! $15 million a year for walking and cycling projects? 'The funds will be distributed to the five inner-city councils where the levy applies: Melbourne, Merri-bek, Port Phillip, Stonnington and Yarra' www.theage.com.au/national/vic...

The ban is bad policy and it's clear not enough has been done to prepare young people and their families about what is about to happen. Where are the education packages and support that were promised? Just telling kids to log off and go touch grass is not going to cut it!

Victoria's Auditor-General has found less than one in five tram services in Melbourne are accessible, with the Department of Transport and Planning failing to set any targets or direct funding to improve the tram network.

Labor is trying to crush peaceful protest - because peaceful protest gets results. The Greens will always defend it - for the same reason.

Just wanted to give this a bit more of a boost, because it's a really solid win, it's been in the works for SO LONG, and it's a really great example of how the Greens can use their negotiating power to get shit done!

Quite the framing choice here ABC.

Tasmania government hails tourist ferry service which has decided against going electric and will use methanol produced from burning native forest wood chips instead.

Electric vehicle chargers will be rolled out across regional hotspots in a bid to attract more visitors to country towns.

do you resent playing AI detective online??? does it make you so, so annoyed to spend time looking for generative AI red flags? me too!!! my latest piece for the guardian is for those of us who are fed! up!

The guy from the Go-Betweens said in the intro that the second-last song on an album is always the worst, and I have been furiously reviewing tracklists ever since. I call bullshit! #SpicksAndSpecks

So now Australia will be making F35 fighter jet parts for Saudi Arabia. A country that Amnesty says ignores people’s basic human rights, restricts their freedoms and inflicts severe punishment. The regime also kills dissenters. No one even asked us.

This looks like Albo running up the white flag.