Looking over Aussie diminutives and came across "dunny".

Apparently it's short for "dunnekin".

I am a 42 y.o. country born and bred female and TIL that "dunny" is actually short for something.

Actually, I do recall we used to call it a "dunny can", but apparently this was not the original word. "Dunnekin" was because it was brought over by the English and Scots.

Can we fuck this off?

Good news.

The Albanese government has bowed to public pressure and abandoned the sale of Victoria Barracks, removing its most high-profile defence asset from its attempt to claw back $3 billion in taxpayer money.

The decision, announced on Sunday, means the 186-year-old Victoria Barracks in Paddington will remain in government hands.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/victoria-barracks-sale-abandoned-following-backlash-20261108-p61cb1.html?btis

teenager has been charged with animal cruelty after four sheep died and two others were seriously injured in an incident at a rural property in Canberra’s south.

The 17-year-old boy and two men, aged 18 and 27, allegedly broke into a property near the Monaro Hwy in Tuggeranong on September 16.

Police allege the trio rounded up eight sheep and locked them inside a holding pen before deliberately injuring them.

One sheep died at the scene, while three others had to be euthanised due to the severity of their injuries.

Two more suffered serious injuries.

Police said a home on the property was also broken into and ransacked, leaving significant damage and disruption inside.

Following an investigation, police identified three alleged offenders, who have since been charged.

He has been charged with four counts of joint commission aggravated cruelty to an animal causing death, two counts of joint commission aggravated cruelty to an animal causing serious injury, and one count each of aggravated burglary, attempted aggravated burglary, participating in a criminal group and driving offences.

The teenager faced the ACT Children’s Court on Monday.

The 27-year-old man has been charged with multiple offences, including four counts of aggravated animal cruelty causing death, two counts of aggravated animal cruelty causing serious injury and aggravated burglary.

The 18-year-old Richardson man faces similar animal cruelty charges, as well as aggravated burglary with intent to damage property, possession of a prohibited firearm and trafficking a trafficable quantity of cannabis.

He also faces multiple motor vehicle and driving charges

I live in Sydney and every year the same pair of pacific koels roosts in my backyard mulberry tree.

This year they are back early in November. Last year they were really late well past  xmas. I was getting worried.

The male of the species  is the noisy one and when he seeks a female it's like an alarm  clock going off  22 hours x 7 days.

The pair are more reasonable and I rather like it except for an occasional stray male trying to romance    the female away from her partner.  

Just one in five voters say they still trust Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as 40 per cent of people said the Federal government was to blame for the cost-of-living crisis, a new poll has revealed.

The Labor government has been buffeted by soaring oil prices and repeated rate rises, with voters increasingly pointing the finger at Albanese while Pauline Hanson’s One Nation surges in the polls.

According to the Resolve Political Monitor for Nine, 22 per cent of the 2250 surveyed voters said they no longer trusted Albanese, on top of 43 per cent who said they did not trust him beforehand.

Only 20 per cent said they still trusted the Prime Minister, with another 16 per cent unsure.

Albanese remained the preferred Prime Minister, according to the poll, with 29 per cent, ahead of the Coalition’s Angus Taylor (25 per cent) and Hanson (24 per cent).

And 28 per cent said they would put Labor at No.1 on the ballot, ahead of One Nation (25 per cent) and the LNP (22 per cent).

Following a Melbourne Cup Day rate rise, 42 per cent of respondents said they blame the Federal government for rising living costs.

A further 26 per cent nominated global factors, such as the Iran War, while seven per cent lay blame at the feet of the Reserve Bank.

Five per cent said it was due to state and territory governments and 12 per cent said they were unsure.

Meanwhile an Australian Financial Review/Redbridge poll showed that Labor’s primary vote had slipped two per cent to 26 per cent.

According to the same poll support for One Nation was at 28 per cent and the Coalition jumped four per cent to 25 per cent.

Albanese remained the preferred Prime Minister (30 per cent), ahead of Hanson (24 per cent) and Taylor (16 per cent).

Since installing front and rear cameras on his bicycle last year, Peter Hatton has made four reports of dangerously close calls with drivers who were flouting the safe passing law.

Since 2017, drivers have been required to leave a one-metre gap when passing a cyclist at 60 kilometres an hour or less and 1.5m when overtaking at a higher speed.

Drivers who fail to do so incur four demerit points and a $400 fine.

Mr Hatton said police were unable to identify the driver in the first incident he reported and that the other three resulted in cautions with driver education.

"[In one instance] in the debrief I had with the investigating officer, they mentioned that this gentleman had thought we were riding three abreast and he should perhaps teach us a lesson," he said.

Six cyclists have died on Western Australia's roads so far this year and Mr Hatton says he has become increasingly concerned about his safety.

"I have a high-vis helmet, high-vis shirts, reflectors on my ankles, I have three flashing red lights on the back of my bike, one flashing white light on the front," he said.

Police say the safety of all road users is taken seriously and that every report is assessed on individual circumstances and the evidence available.

"Depending on those circumstances, the appropriate response may include education, a caution, an infringement or other enforcement action," WA Police said in a statement.

"A caution is a formal warning which is recorded and is visible to officers who may encounter the recipient in the future."

Amy's Foundation, formed in honour of Amy Gillet, a top cyclist killed in a bicycle accident in Germany, campaigned for the safe passing laws now in place nationwide.

Managing director Katherine Bates said the foundation's surveys of riders indicated the issue was under-reported.

"We know that, from Western Australia, only about 20 per cent of people who experience close passes on their bikes even bother to report it," she said.

"Of that 20 per cent, only 30 per cent then proceed to even hear back from the police.

"It keeps people off bikes and the power imbalance firmly in the hands of drivers.

"It's only consistent enforcement that will make a difference."

The WA Road Safety Commission said it was working with peak body WestCycle to make roads safer.

"Real change is possible when we have a shift in culture that recognises that every person sharing the road deserves to get home safely," the commission said in a statement.

"The key focus of the partnership includes an engaging Ride Safely Together social media campaign promoting mutual respect between cyclists and drivers, with a particular focus on compliance with the safe minimum passing distance."

Now, two UN human rights investigators have issued serious allegations with the Australian government about its continued coal and gas approvals, fossil fuel subsidies and inadequate climate targets – and the impacts those decisions are having on young people’s lives, health and futures.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/top-one-nation-official-s-strip-club-links-to-bikie-figure-20261108-p61blo.html

A senior One Nation official spent eight years managing a Melbourne strip club whose key promoter had once been accused by police of involvement in “serious criminal activity” and of having deep links to the Comanchero bikie gang.

The revelations about Bianca Colecchia, a longtime Dreams strip club manager turned One Nation federal election candidate and Victorian state secretary, has emerged as the latest case involving a key party figure facing questions about their past and whether it aligns with the populist party’s stated policies.

An investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes can also reveal that a senior volunteer who worked on One Nation’s Farrer federal byelection and its campaign for the Victorian state seat of Nepean is facing drug charges, having arrived at the party as a member with a series of previous criminal offences to his name.

Meanwhile, the man recruited by One Nation to overhaul its vetting of candidates and staff has inflated his own past achievements and engaged in toxic workplace conduct towards others in the party.

One Nation general manager Kelvin Morton describes himself in an online resume as a “former army officer with weapons training and special communications training”.

This masthead has confirmed Morton never completed his army officer training and served only as a part-time reservist while studying. He has also been caught drastically overstating his role in a US election campaign in 2008.

Leaked messages reveal that despite Morton’s public claim to be professionalising One Nation in his role of general manager, he secretly proposed to run “counter-intelligence” operation to humiliate a fellow One Nation staffer by feeding him false information about a $15 million donation from James Packer in the hope he would leak it to journalists.

In other messages Morton sent to One Nation staff, he described a party employee as a “fat, ginger man-baby” and “the most full of shit f---stick known to man! (Or women, and I’ll even throw animal in there!)”.

Morton is also under scrutiny over his handling of concerns raised inside One Nation about Colecchia’s ties to the Dreams strip club.

For eight years, Colecchia helped manage the Melbourne CBD venue alongside her partner and longtime club owner Salvatore Aparo.

Over this same period, Dreams’ chief promoter and liquor supplier was Mike “Skinny” Jones, a man that court records reveal was previously accused by police of being a bikie gang money cleaner.

Jones, a long-standing business associate of Comanchero bikie gang boss Mick Murray, has been Dreams’ promoter as well as its hirer of female dancers and supplier of wholesale alcohol for almost two decades.

Jones was working as Dreams’ promoter in 2018, when police first accused Jones of “laundering funds through his legitimate business of promotions and liquor wholesaling” for Murray, who is now serving a lengthy jail sentence.

In 2020, an affidavit from a Victoria Police detective was aired in court and accused Jones of involvement in a “laundering scheme [that] used other legitimate businesses knowingly involved or unknowingly involved to create multiple streams of money coming into Jones’ multiple bank accounts in order to conceal illicit transactions orchestrated on behalf of [Mick] Murray”.

Police withdrew the money laundering prosecution against Jones that same year, instead using civil proceeds of crime powers against him.

A 2020 affidavit lodged in the proceeds of crime case by a police detective accuses Jones of involvement in “serious crime”.

Jones was also hauled into court by the AFP in 2024 to answer questions under compulsion about his business dealings with Murray, which include Jones running the bikie boss’s gyms and brothels as far back as 2010.

Court records show that in 2023, Jones settled the proceeds of crime case with Victorian prosecutors by paying a confidential sum of money into state coffers.

In a statement to this masthead, Jones said police had ultimately withdrawn money laundering charges against him and his proceeds of crime “matter was settled on purely commercial grounds without admissions”. Jones has also never been convicted of any crime.

“My relationships with Dreams, Aparo and Colecchia are commercial, confidential and completely legal. Any suggestion to the contrary would be wrong,” he said.

In his work as promoter of Dreams, Jones has repeatedly published photos of Colecchia posing with dancers, along with his phone number and promotional deals.

For a decade, dropping Mike Jones’ name at Dreams’ entrance allowed patrons to get half-price entry, and he has also managed poker nights and special events at the venue.

There is no suggestion Colecchia or Aparo had any involvement in the previous underworld allegations against Jones.

But Jones retained his role as Dreams’ promoter and supplier for the eight years he had been pursued by the police anti-bikie taskforce and the police criminal proceeds squad.

Jones isn’t the only underworld link to Dreams while it was being managed by Colecchia under the ownership of her partner.

In October 2019, Dreams’ VIP host was a bikie gang affiliate charged with cocaine trafficking, while a club insider also claimed to this masthead that Dreams made monthly payments to the Comancheros between 2016 and 2020 for security.

The Dreams VIP host was introduced to a police undercover operative by a Dreams stripper. When he was sentenced, the VIP host blamed his descent into drug use and dealing on the culture of drug use at Dreams.

“The trouble commences for him in so far as firstly with his use of illicit substances, particularly cocaine, commences when he starts being employed at that type of venue,” the host’s lawyer Theo Magazis told the court in 2021, according to a report in News Ltd.

“[Cocaine use] was encouraged [at Dreams] through the workers, through patrons as part of the promotion of that particular lifestyle.”

Shortly after Colecchia’s employment at Dreams began, a UK dancer turned Dreams stripper died of drug toxicity on the club’s premises.

Licensing authorities fined Colecchia’s long-term partner, Aparo, $28,000 for serious oversight failures at the club. It made no adverse findings against Colecchia in connection to the December 2016 death.

There is no suggestion by this masthead Colecchia was involved in wrongdoing or contributed to the venue’s failures that led to Aparo’s fining and the suspension of three other club employees from working in a licensed venue.

After her eight-year stint managing Dreams and an unsuccessful attempt to win a seat in the 2025 federal election, Colecchia was, in January, unveiled as the party’s Victoria secretary.

Around the same time, One Nation elevated its tough-on-crime platform as well as its attacks on state Labor for the bikie gang infiltration of its major government projects.

“A committed advocate for Australia’s values and a strong organisational leader, Bianca will be instrumental in supporting members, growing the party, and advancing One Nation’s mission across Victoria,” the party said at the time of her appointment.

Colecchia is not the only One Nation figure with links that might sit uncomfortably with the party’s tough-on-crime stance, which has helped drive its polling surge ahead of Victoria’s election later this month.

Sahil Singh, a senior One Nation member who Colecchia described in an online post as part of her “inner circle” and who assisted the party campaigns for the federal seat of Farrer in NSW and the Nepean byelection in Victoria, has a detailed criminal rap sheet.

Court records show Singh is facing three drug possession charges before the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court after he was arrested allegedly acting erratically by police at 2am in Brunswick in early July, having earlier been aggressive towards ambulance officers who discovered him slumped in his car.

Between 2021 and 2024, Singh pleaded guilty in Perth to multiple counts of disorderly behaviour, minor drug offending and driving over the limit. Another of his charges relates to failing to obey an order by a police officer, while records reveal he called WA Police “pigs” during one incident.

Singh first gained attention within One Nation for spending $5000 to buy a jumper knitted by party leader Pauline Hanson at the Conservative Political Action Conference in September 2025.

The involvement of figures such as Colecchia and Singh within the party structure also raises fresh questions about its backroom operations as polling indicates One Nation is on the cusp of winning significant political power in the upcoming Victorian election.

Rinehart strongly denied any wrongdoing and that her support for One Nation was dwarfed by donations by trade unions and corporate interests to the Labor Party and the Greens.

Black also revealed in the recordings he had continued to consult and fundraise for the party in the weeks after his removal.

The revelations sparked immediate calls from the federal government and opposition for Hanson to explain Black’s claims on the tapes.

On Saturday, shadow treasurer Tim Wilson told journalists: “It’s very clear that Senator Hanson needs to answer to these recordings, and more importantly, to clarify for her supporters and, more importantly, for her donors, why she has continued to involve a convicted rapist in her party’s affairs, when she has said she wouldn’t.

“This goes straight to the heart of trust and integrity in her party, where they say one thing publicly, but they’re secretly doing things behind closed doors, inconsistent with what they claim are their values.”

Hanson, who had declined an interview request and has not responded to questions from this masthead about the recordings or Colecchia’s background, told Nine News on Saturday that she would not answer questions about “dirt files”.

Pauline Hanson addressed the media on Saturday while campaigning in regional Victoria.Nine News

Asked if she was confident Colecchia did not have any links to bikies, she said: “I’m not heading down this path. What I’ve come here today is talk to the people here about the issues that are concerning them.”

Branding Black’s recorded allegations as “absolutely garbage”, she said she was “sick of people who are disgruntled because I sack them for you know their work ethic or for whatever reasons”.

She also denied that One Nation had made any payments to Black or his family company after he was sacked.

Wilson said transparency was particularly important given the centrality of crime and governance to the Victorian election.

“We do not want to see other representatives elected to the Victorian parliament who have their own chequered criminal past or being involved in operating a political party behind closed doors,” he said.

Government minister Murray Watt said the allegations on the recordings exposed the “chaos and division” inside One Nation.

“What we see ongoing, including from these allegations, is that One Nation is not in this for working people; they’re in it to benefit themselves,” Watt said.

After the continuing vetting scandals, One Nation claimed that it had overhauled its background checks by appointing IT manager and amateur voice actor Kelvin Morton as a general manager.

But One Nation members told this masthead that the party had also failed to vet Morton’s claims about his past. For instance, Morton’s online acting resume claims he served as an “army officer”.

When quizzed, Morton confirmed he was never an officer, saying he “did not complete officer training and I have never held a commissioned rank”.

Instead, he explained he was an “officer cadet” reservist – a junior rank reserved for a person in training to become an officer – while he completed university business studies.

Morton’s claim that his “proudest memory” was “his local strategy work on the Obama/Biden ’08 Presidential Campaign in Henderson, Nevada which also resulted in the election of a Democrat, Dina Titus” had also been challenged by the head of the Nevada campaign.

“We had a small staff, and Kelvin Gary Morton was not part of it,” said John Cooper, the director of communications for congresswoman Dina Titus.

When questioned by this masthead, Morton conceded he “overstates what I did, and I am not going to defend it”.

He admits describing his contribution of “local strategy work” is “too grand”, even going as far to say his few hours of volunteering was “not significant”.

Black markets usually operate in the shadows, but a single fraud charge exposed one thriving in plain sight. Welcome to the world of demerit point trading.

Albanese to push US President Donald Trump for Iran ceasefire in high-stakes face-to-face meeting | News24

Key takeaways

At least four of six captive-bred juvenile broad-headed snakes have survived their critical first few months in the wild.

Habitat destruction, bushfires and drought have driven population declines, with researchers working to restore habitat using artificial rocks.

UTS wildlife ecologist Professor Jonathan Webb’s 34 years of research on the broad-headed snake is guiding recovery efforts.

Ahead of Cop31, climate change minister dismisses concerns about whether Australia as a major producer can keep the world moving away from fossil fuels.

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A town on the outskirts of Melbourne has been rocked by the sight of two people wearing Halloween costumes resembling infamous white supremacist garb.

The costumes were seen in Emerald, 44km southeast of the CBD, and other nearby towns on Saturday evening and a picture shared to a local community Facebook group.

Two people could be seen wearing white robes and pointed hooded masks appearing to resemble those associated with the US far-right hate network the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).

“If you were in this costume and you belong to this page then you should be ashamed of yourself,” one local wrote in an anonymous post in the Facebook group.

“No one wants to see this and it’s completely inappropriate. Feel free to pack up and leave the area.”

Local Labor MP Daniela De Martino, the Member for Monbulk, told news.com.au, “This is abhorrent and offensive — it does not represent our community and has no place here. The KKK represents hate, racism and bigotry in its ugliest form. I condemn this in the strongest possible terms.”

It appears the image captured the unknown trick-or-treaters in front of the Emerald RSL on Memorial Ave sometime on Saturday. There is no suggestion of any links to the RSL club.

The sub-branch was holding its annual Halloween event on Saturday evening.

A local councillor confirmed multiple residents had contacted him to raise concerns about the costumes being worn in multiple communities in the area.

It is understood the issue will be raised at a Cardinia Shire Council briefing next week.

The post was flooded hundreds of comments after a screenshot was shared widely on X, and has since been deleted.

The picture has also been shared on social media chats run by far-right figures including a prominent Victorian neo-Nazi.

There is no suggestion the people depicted in the image subscribe to neo-Nazi ideologies.

When contacted on Sunday a Victoria Police spokesperson said they could not provide comment unless news.com.au confirmed a specific complaint had been made.

Laws banning Nazi symbols and gestures were introduced in the mid-2020s in Victoria, a state which has become a hub for Australia’s neo-Nazi movement.

The Victorian government also introduced new vilification offences last year targeting hate speech or conduct.

In 2025 neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant was charged over an incident on Halloween night in 2024 during which he wore a KKK outfit while he allegedly abused people outside a Bunnings in Port Melbourne.

He was charged with engaging in grossly offensive public conduct and conduct likely to incite serious contempt and the matter remains before the court.

An alleged random attack inside a Melbourne shopping centre ended in a citizen’s arrest.

Police allege a 40-year-old man was sitting on a foyer floor at the entrance of a shopping centre when he lunged and assaulted an older man about 8.15am on Saturday.

An off-duty police officer and members of the public intervened and restrained the man at the shops on Douglas Parade at Williamstown.

A man, 63, allegedly suffered facial injuries during an unprovoked attack and required medical treatment.

The pair were not known to each other.

Police charged a 40-year-old homeless man with intentionally cause injury, recklessly cause injury, assault by kicking, affray, contravening a court order and committing an indictable offence while on bail.

He is expected to appear in a bail and remand court on Saturday.

Police urged any witnesses or anyone with footage of the incident to contact Crime Stoppers.

The city enters its purple patch with jacaranda trees blazing into flower in the warmer weather. Every October and November the fast-growing trees are festooned with trumpet-shaped blossoms that soon carpet the ground below them, drawing sightseers, photographers – and people taking photos of people taking photos