The problem is not that there isn't solutions, it's that there is zero political appetite to implement them.

Even suburbs like Kalamunda and Mundaring are hardly rural.

My work let's us swap the day off. With it being on a Friday this year I don't think many are swapping. Plenty did in previous years when it fell mid week. Ends up being a bit ridiculous with everyone taking different days though.

I'm really not attached to it being on the 26th. I think shifting it to always being the last Friday in January or first Friday in February would be better anyway. I reckon most people don't give a shit either way about the actual date and just want a long weekend in summer.

When I was younger it was always a fun day, hottest 100 party and the fireworks in Perth. Hottest 100, I don't even know when they do that and the fireworks have been canned also.

Maybe if a new day is picked then it can go back to being a unifying celebration. Probably not likely though, I think those pushing the divide and conquer thing like having excuses for culture wars. Getting people angry about stuff other than the massive wealth inequality in our country is their priority.

That actually looks good.

I think the devil will be in the detail on this.

Is there a prescriptive target energy use target of kw required per unit volume of building?

Or is it one of those points/star systems that industry can game.

Certainly will be interesting to see what happens to those roads + rail line. Guessing the building goes on top of the rail as it's still quite low there. Roads put in tunnels?

I remember quite a bit of discussion when Colin's hole was getting built about how it would have been better to put riverside drive in a tunnel at the same time rather than after his hole is full of water.

I don't have a search bar on Graphene OS. *removed externally hosted image*

IMO burning wood for heating shouldn't be allowed in suburbia at all. So if the price of firewood rises that's a good thing.

Rural folks will still be able to harvest dead wood from their properties.

Gifts from the sea.

Could have been a white xmas.

Looks a bit like a Jawa sand crawler in the thumbnail.

How convenient that the changes are far off, when current politicians will be long retired.

We would obviously emit a lot less with a linear trend to net zero than with if we keep doing the same thing and then have a very sharp decline at the end.

Fairfax coverage of this also includes a poll of some sort indicating voter preferences.

https://archive.is/pieMq

Interesting that coalition voters want less immigration. Do they not realise their hero John Howard was the one who cranked immigration numbers to record levels? He realised he could screw unions, lower wages and raise real estate prices in one go.

Since then we have had unsustainable levels of immigration from both major parties until covid hit. But Labor has certainly made up for that this year.

The point is Labor want to give the appearance of doing something, while not really doing it.

They probably got some opinion poll results and found people are not happy about over crowding and seeing so many homeless.

Typical of this Labor govt, this policy is about appearing to do something, than actually doing it effectively.

Why not have levies for all houses sitting vacant, not just foreign owned? Why not make annual fees higher and higher if you own more than say 3 properties? How about fees for land banking in cities ?

Also better make sure that a house used for air BNB 2 weeks a year doesn't count as being used.

That's why we call those type of "bike lanes" a murder strip.

Have them where I live too.

31°57'30"S 115°54'16"E

If the govt is going to exert control over "smart" TVs, I would rather they ban ads and data collection from TV operating systems / apps that can't be removed.

Not sure I would want to live in an apartment that close to the freeway. Would be noisy and polluted.

That said I can see how if you lived next to the batch plants you would rather something else as a neighbour. Making a case for affordable housing being there is likely to win political support.

I think in the future there will be a market for putting insulation plus cladding on the outside of double brick homes. Mine turns in to a pizza oven after a few consecutive 35+ days.

We are already taxed to move about though. Roads cost a lot to build and maintain and are paid for with proceeds from taxes. (And no, fuel excise does not cover all of it)

We also subsidise health care. Cars cost us a lot there too in terms of health outcomes from their emissions, crashes etc.

What you overheard about leaving the zone and paying a tax is a bit of an exaggeration.

The intent is to discourage car usage within the zones, and one possible method is a levy on vehicles entering them. A better method is improved street design.

There hasn't been a proposal I'm aware of that actually prevents people moving around by any means of transport other than private motor vehicles.