After great dispute this morning at No Award, we’re singing along to Savage Garden, and I’ve realised how many Aussie bands are from Brisvegas.
No Award is an Aussie blog with an anti-private-healthcare agenda: Market failure: private health insurance only worth it for ‘the pregnant, the rich and the sick’
Octopus in the parking garage is climate change’s canary in the coal mine
UScentric, but the point about thinkpieces and hot takes being largely ineffective is a good one: I’m eating turkey with Trump voters tomorrow, and this is what’s on my mind.
For the first time in a long time, Steph reconsidered her NO Qanda stance:
Related: Nakkiah Lui And Benjamin Law Tore Into The 18C “Circle Jerk” In The Fiery 2016 Finale Of ‘Q&A’
The excellent Luke Pearson: All media need to do better at reporting on Indigenous issues
Speaking of people you should be following, Yen-Rong Wong: Australia, I’m Tired of Your Casual Racism
Anne Aly: ‘Women Like Me Don’t Need To Be Saved’
Ambelin Kwaymullina: Thoughts on Being an Ally of Indigenous Writers
You should definitely have a read of the transcript of Monday’s HCA sitting as Court of Disputed Returns in the matter of Senator Culleton, because it is a doozy. It has a certain air of ‘it’s justice, it’s the law, it’s the vibe’ to it.
SENATOR CULLETON: So is it best that I go back to George Brandis and we hug and say, look, perhaps there is a way that we can move forward without wasting the Court’s time on this, your Honour, please?
HIS HONOUR: I am not going to speak about your personal relationships with the Attorney-General.
Ugggh why is she here: Pauline Hanson Is Sick And Tired Of People Calling Her Racist
From Steph’s hometown: Fake police car pulled over by real cop in Perth CBD
Grassroots Business:
Operation OBP (Orange-Bellied Parrot) has reached their initial funding goal since I first decided to include them as this week’s grassroots business, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t learn about them. Read about Operation OBP at Pozible (and donate).
no-award.net 
One thing which keeps striking me on a regular basis about the Culleton case, as an unemployed person, is that we’re looking here at a Senator who could not have presented a current police clearance at the time of the election.
Now, for those who have the good fortune not to be unemployed in Australia at present, I’ll just explain that a police clearance is a document attesting you have no outstanding warrants against you, no outstanding judgements against you, and no criminal history. It costs about $60 each time you get one, and Australian employers tend to demand one as a regular component of job applications these days (which is heaps of fun if you’re on the dole, because the JobActive agencies won’t pay for ’em unless you’re definitely going to get a job out of the application), and they generally want one from within the last three months. If you can’t supply one, or aren’t willing to get one, it’s pretty much a black mark against you.
So I find it rather frustrating and annoying to learn that apparently some of the highest offices in the land don’t require applicants to supply even this most basic criterion for working status. Certainly when the WA state election starts for real, I’m going to be asking that all the candidates in my electorate supply a valid police clearance, a valid Working With Children Check, and proof of Australian citizenship – just like I’m asked to do with just about every single damn job I apply for at present.