PM tries to present himself as a leader reborn – but you just can’t take the marketing out of Scotty

These days have shown us once again who we are: so patient, so obedient. We do what we’re told. The order goes out to empty the district and the district hits the road. Of course there are holdouts. Tempers flare. How many times have we heard that beep on the radio that hides a heartfelt “Fuck!”

The Australian prime minister, Scott
Morrison, discusses the
government’s response to the
bushfire crisis at Parliament House

We wait in the smoke for hours for a place on the boat, for a sandwich, to get past the next roadblock. Queues for Woolworths and Caltex are so orderly. We don’t need to be told, as the prime minister told us again today: “Stay patient.” We do.

Disappointment came early with the sight of David Elliott, the widely disliked New South Wales emergency services minister, back from his European holidays and back on the job. For a time at his premier’s press conference all that could be seen of him was an unhappy face over a gut hanging out of his trousers. Then he had his moment: “I came to step up not step down.”

Read the story from The Guardian by David Marr - “PM tries to present himself as a leader reborn – but you just can’t take the marketing out of Scotty.” 

What you’d spend to prevent climate change — and what you could get with your money

As the country burns and temperatures rise, climate change is once again at the forefront of our national consciousness. 

How much would we spend to prevent climate change? 

It’s a problem that seems intractable and has dogged politics for decades.

More than 54,000 Australians took part in the nationally representative Australia Talks National Survey, and the number one thing they said was keeping them up at night was climate change.

When we asked how much more they’d be personally willing to spend to help prevent climate change, the numbers varied.

Some people wouldn’t spend anything more (21 per cent) and some were happy to spend thousands (9 per cent) — but most of us sit somewhere in the middle. On average, we’re willing to chip in at least $200 each year*.

To halt climate change we’d need to make some major changes to the way the world works, so would an extra couple of hundred dollars a year even make a difference?

Read the special article from The Age - “What you’d spend to prevent climate change — and what you could get with your money.”

Coles flips again on plastic bag ban, puts end date on freebies

Coles has once again sounded the death knell for free plastic bags at its checkouts, with the supermarket saying it will start charging 15 cents for "reusable" bags later this month.

Coles will start charging for "reusable" plastic bags from August 30.

The latest decision comes after the supermarket chain provoked the wrath of environmentalists by saying it would give bags away for free indefinitely while customers got used to bringing their own.

Read the story by Patrick Hatch from The Age - “Coles flips again on plastic bag ban, puts end date on freebies.”