Keeping in mind that I have no idea how to properly read this, as for the pricing it looks like in 2016 letter post from Hong Kong to Sydney was 0.538 SDR per KG, which was about AU$1.03 per KG.

Interesting, so on face value, that works out to about $5 for a max 5kg package to arrive from China, whereas the same 5kg package within Australia would be $10.60.
Either Australia Post is taking a loss on every international package, or making a big profit on every national package.
Possibly both, where one offsets the other.
Whilst that would keep Australia Post solvent, it has externalities, simplistically it’s a tarif on local manufactured product.
That cannot be a desirable outcome, especially as China already has a $/man hour advantage.

Also the 77c for the head torch is a one time welcome deal, it shows up as $8.97 for me when logged in. So Aliexpress is probably just making a loss in hopes to make a profit from you later.

Yeah, entirely possible. I haven’t ordered one of these and don’t intend to, but I just bought some screw drivers etc for ~ $8, which means they would have to make them for like $4 to turn a profit.

You’ve taught me something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union

I can’t find anywhere listing what we get in UPU fees for things coming into Australia from China, but I have recently ordered items for a few dollars which have not charged me for postage.

This is head torch, for 77c, that will be posted to me for free from China.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004823147597.html

This page lists the cheapest domestic package I can send from the Adelaide CBD to another Adelaide CBD address:
https://auspost.com.au/parcels-mail/calculate-postage-delivery-times/#/option/domestic/5000/5000
$10.60

Something doesn’t add up here.
The minimum cost of anything coming out of China should be the UPU, completely ignoring handling, packaging and the item itself.

So either Aliexpress/China is subsidizing sending crap over here, or Australia Post is not getting the fees.

edit: Page 111 of the annual report: https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/2021-australia-post-annual-report.pdf
shows in 2020, Australia Post had a $4.3M Foreign exchange loss (net).
Which is honestly WAY better than I was expecting.

I’m not denying your story, I lived in rural SA for a long time and saw the services get peeled away.
But I stand by my broader point of what should be the case, because it’s certainly not what is.

The bureaucrats normally do.
It takes a politician to say something like “The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that applies in Australia is the law of Australia,”

There’s a perspective problem here.

Australia Post doesn’t make profits and losses, it provides services - and services have costs, not losses.
Expecting Australia Post to:
A) Deliver packages of international origin for free
B) To unprofitable remote/rural areas C) AND turn a profit like a business whilst D) For profit courier companies undercut them on profitable metro areas…

Well it’s not going to work long term.
And post offices are more than just places to drop off a package you want delivered, lots of people use them as their local bank branch for necessary in person tasks - especially in the a fore mentioned rural areas.

Long story short, Australia Post should not have been privatised - it’s an essential service and essential services are natural monopolies.

Wait until they find out about how much profit there is in elderly homes for us

Wait?
The “village” my grandparents moved into had to be bought into, which is fine.
They had to sell their house to do so, again fine.
When they died, we couldn’t sell it, the village “bought it back” from us, for about 1/4 of what was paid for it AND we had to have it repainted and new carpets etc at our expense.
I understand the new tenants bought it at market rate, which is a HUGE profit for the company running the village.
And it’s not like that expense paid for the various shared facilities or groundskeeping or anything like that, no that was all fees on top.

Long rant, didn’t read: The government needs to step in and take control of this, private companies can’t be trusted.

Roggeveen argues, unequivocally, not long enough to be able easily to mount hostile operations against Chinese territory or in its near seas: “why compress the distance between us when we can exploit it?”

Whilst I agree that diplomacy should always be the primary route, having a stick is useful to diplomacy, and foreswearing the ability to hit China even in retaliation when they could certainly hit us is idiotic.
We don’t need to go full “North Korea” and lob missiles over our neighbours heads in a show of dominance, we can literally buy working stuff from our allies.

This article is basically saying “In the event of war, we’re definitely going to see Alice Springs go boom, so we should just stick our heads in the sand and wave a pocket knife vaguely above us until the big bois are finished”.

TNG had some movies (bald guy on the poster) and they were written by people who didn’t like the show for people who didn’t watch the show.

So many of my undefined feelings of sadness about TNG movies just snapped into focus.
I HATE how true this is.

I would definitely look to hire that kid with a high wage just to make sure he doesn’t hacke me again, if I were one of the companies he hacked into. Companies should really think about trying to hire these hackers because then the threats against them might go down ever so slightly.

I understand your thought, but some people just want to watch the world burn and you definitely don’t want to bring that sort inside.
This guy seems to be driven, capable and lacking the common sense to know when to stop.

That CSAM exists is horrible.
That people would maliciously spread it as some sort of prank puts an extra disgusting veneer on this whole thing.
I hope at least some of these “it’s just a prank bro!” people get caught by the police and get shown just how funny society finds them.

Enormous ecological and financial damage?

Yeah, I’m going to need a 30 calibre clip and the shoulder thing that goes up.

This guy is a disingenuous asshole.
Talking about the whole life cycle of an electric car, but only mentioning the tail pipe emissions of an ICE car.
Comparing the greenhouse emissions of a house to a car, but not mentioning that this is based on the type of technology used to generate the power used at the house.
Pretending that the government can’t do 2 or more things at a time, such as change the grid AND subsidize electric cars. The whole condescending tone at the end where he conflates veganism and EV ownership as some purely performative nonsense for the naive.

The whole demeanor is designed to make “the libs” angry, which in turn is supposed to please conservatives who come away with the vague notion that continuing to drive ICE SUV’s is not only ok, but somehow preferable because politicians are liars!

He might be advertising Olight, but what he’s apparently selling is outrage.

Only 6?
Brave of you to assume Antarctica won’t burn.

I’ve read Revelation Space and Chasm City.
I’m sorry, but they are a massive struggle.

Sour grapes shouldn’t be this sweet…
Oh, I dislike everyone involved…

This is the nuance that givesomefucks failed to express.
Long term motorcyclists are aware of the choice they have made.
That doesn’t abrogate other drivers of their own responsibility.

I found some Vic stats from which you could infer some stuff: https://www.tac.vic.gov.au/road-safety/statistics/summaries/motorcycle-crash-data

It seems that it’s a roughly half half split of single vehicle vs multi vehicle.
Even if you conservatively assume that only a quarter of the mutlivehicle accidents are the fault of the rider, it’s still well over 50% motorcyclists killing themselves.

But that’s not what this particular campaign is about.

No, I’m saying it’s weird to ask everyone to care more about someone’s health and safety than that person does.

Now do “provocatively dressed women are asking to be raped…”