Being located nearby doesn’t mean much so long as the IT side is set up securely.

My experience is Unis now take this seriously and have compulsory induction courses for staff on foreign interference. I’ve had to do them.

It also seems a bit hypocritical considering defence signals directorate and other Australian intelligence agencies are so inappropriately influenced by their US equivalents. The needs of Australians seem to come a very distant second in their priorities compared to what US govt and business want. Im guessing it’s because orgs like ASIO and DSD have gotten too lazy to develop their own sources, and have come to rely mostly on secondhand US intelligence. Their worldview is shaped by whatever heavily curated intelligence the US chooses to feed them. This in turn flows through to the advice they give to the Foreign minister… I could be wrong, but it would seem to explain a lot of the decisions she makes.

No longer Adelaide, nor Darwin. (Aukus sub construction, US Marine base.)

They’ve now become targets.

Crushing the bikes so wastefully reminds me of deodand in the middle ages, like when they tried and punished a statue for falling on someone.

“The bikes are evil and they too must be punished”

Im starting to wonder if data centres are a pretext to grab and hold licenses to as much fresh water as possible. Awaiting the announcement of their pivot to water speculating

“Suggest” and “could be used” are weasel words already. When they’re spoken by researchers with no say in how the budget is spent, i cant help feeling sceptical.

More likely it gets lost into general revenue with only some big media buys and ad campaigns to show for it; (with message variations of “Govt good😀, Sugar bad☹️” )

I think people underestimate all the potential channels for lobbying. Try to regulate the obvious channels and lobbyists will slither just out of sight and influence the people you aren’t watching.

Trading bribes and future jobs for introductions and influence is easy in a major political party with their powerbrokers and informal mates networks.

The gambling lobbyists voted down most of the ideas in their breakfast meeting with our PM.

Someone should pitch the reality show “Farmer wants a Slave”.

So this these “initiatives funded by the tax”, this will be dental in medicare?….right?