I don’t know if you’ve read the article. Adults can watch “what they want to watch” but the problem is that these videos can attract boys and young adults who are still maturing and the videos can have negative impacts on their self image and their life in general.

Whatever they are, they are having a negative effect on boys and young men. That’s the issue.

??? What’s wrong with exploitation?

“No one is in harm’s way.” Really, perhaps not to westerners. But tell that to all those who have been beaten from the flotilla and those were taken to Israeli jail and witnessed what was happening to Palestinian people there.

Israel now in damage control. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-21/israel-ambassador-wont-apologise-for-ben-gvir-actions/106707956

We may not need more reviews but we sure need more effective action against the violence. We’re looking at femicide alone here but the number of women with injuries from domestic violence is significant and then there’s the emotional violence perpetrated not only on adult women but on the children who live in dv situations over which they have no control. Absolutely shocking.

According to Australian Femicide Watch, 29 women and nine children have been killed by violence so far this year…

…it’s clear, from last week’s budget, that the Albanese Government is far from throwing “everything it can” at the issue.

The billions in funding the Women’s Statement noted were derived from repackaging existing funding announcements.

The $717 million in relevant new commitments we counted addresses everything from the ADF military sexual violence inquiry to community housing for young people at risk and the child support scheme reform, spread out over the next four to five years, so around $150 to $ 180 million a year. The $4.4 billion the Australian Government has contributed to addressing the issues is the cumulative amount since 2022, amounting to around $1.1 billion a year across the entire National Plan to End Violence Against Women.

Last week’s Budget also committed an additional $53 billion to defence over the next decade, amounting to $5.3 billion a year in new defence spending. That one year in additional defence spending amounts to more than what’s being outlined for the entire National Plan to End Violence Against Women invested over four years.

And to really demonstrate the capacity to throw “everything” at the issue, consider what Australia loses from fossil fuel subsidies and forgone tax revenue, with this Budget indicating it amounts to $19 billion annually, according to the Climate Council.

Clearly, the funding allocated to end violence against women and children isn’t enough because we’re far from seeing a change in the number of those murdered.

https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/eds-blog/five-women-two-children-killed-since-budget-but-pm-claims-theyre-throwing-everything-at-the-issue/

And all other scientists agree with them too, but to be modest we’ll just say 97%.

Those who put together the principles for journalists document are really worthy of respect. Thank you for sharing.

Perhaps try the Victorian electricians association (I don’t know what they’re called, but there must be some trade association} and explain your problem and see if they can help in any way. It’s a long shot but perhaps worth trying.

I also had a Catholic education (all-girls) but it was not as harsh as yours sounds like it was. Nevertheless, I rebelled in high school and asked too many questions (I was given a warning) about the religion. I’m not in touch with any of the people I went to school with but in the early years after school they were a very varied bunch, nuns, divorcees, and non-marriers but that was a long time ago. One thing that I do value about the Catholic education is the social justice aspect which is strong.

You’ve made me wonder what happened to all the girls I went to school with. Most of them would be grandmothers now.

The Australian colonial ‘ruling class’ was predominantly Anglican even though many in the convict class and some of the lower army ranks were Catholic. There were also other protestant denominations. In the early days of the colony, in NSW and Tasmania the children of Catholic convicts and all orphans under the care of the colonial government were brought up as Anglicans. As the population grew and more Irish convicts and migrants arrived the Catholic population also grew. If you’re interested there’s a great summary of the Christian churches in Australia have a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Australia

Thank you for doing so.

Since September of last year. Not a peep. In the meantime, the antisemitism response is upturning our democracy.

I don’t know if you’ve read the whole article but the people doing the research are not just giving an opinion.

Perhaps she can get a free time machine from Gina. Pauline can then send her racist ancestors back to where they came from.

I think you’re right and it’s been like that for a long time yet look where we are. We need building trades more than ever and we’re still dealing with what sounds like the same problems.

One of the jobs I did within the education sector was as a careers adviser in a senior high school in a working class area and this was roughly 2 decades ago. We knew then that Uni was not for everyone and encouraged kids to take a ‘gap year’ to try some different jobs, or go to TAFE and do a course related to their interest to see if they liked it and then use that to help them into uni, or do a traineeship to learn skills, get a taste for the working world, get to know themselves a bit better and get a break from the academic routine before making the decision to choose a particular course at uni or elsewhere (amongst other pathways). It wasn’t unusual for kids straight out of school to find uni overwhelming, or that they’d chosen a course they actually didn’t like and had to drop out or find another course. Nowadays it must be even harder considering the cost of university study. Sometimes, it wasn’t the kids that wanted the uni but the parents who wanted the kids to have what they had not been able to, plus status, etc. I’m surprised they’re still saying that kids are being steered towards uni by schools. There are so many choices. I wonder if the system’s worse than it was.

I think the problems with kids and trades is that, as FE mentions in the other comment here, some kids are still not mature enough plus they get paid a pitiful amount, it takes years to get paid a decent wage and are often not treated well. So many times I’ve heard tradesmen say the usual thing of ‘kids don’t want to work these days’ and that having an apprentice was a hassle. It sounds to me that neither the tradespeople nor the apprentices are getting the support they need.

Thank you for sharing your insights from inside the trades situation. Seems to me there’s a lot of work to be done to clear up the murky parts.

So do I. We seem to have the country’s priorities wrong. Chasing super expensive submarines, for example, while so many people are in need of a roof over their heads.

😆. Luckily we’ve been spared 🥳

Personally I agree with you but not everyone thinks the same. There are also other matters to consider like whether you are a repeat offender, the age the offence was committed, etc. In the current authoritarian climate we need to warn kids not to stop protesting and pranking but to think how they’re doing it so it doesn’t become self-harming.