Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has for the first time offered explicit government support for a cut to penalty rates, saying he agreed with the decision announced this month.

Mr Turnbull had drawn criticism for repeatedly deflecting questions on his support for the Fair Work Commission's draft decision, which will see Sunday rates reduced from July.

read more:

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-s...

Senate crossbenchers are questioning whether the Government's plan to expand the Snowy Hydro scheme is feasible and a good use of taxpayers' money.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced he was prepared to invest $2 billion to expand the capacity of the Snowy scheme to increase electricity production by 50 per cent.

After 35 years defending his industry, Palmer, a Roman Catholic, remains as literally evangelical about coal as he was in 1997.

The weather is our saucepan. The climate is our stove. No super computer in their right mind would be able to calculate or predict at any point in time, where the bubbles and convection currents are and will be, though we can see them. The normal setting for the climate and weather combo is simmer. No boil, barely a ripple at the surface. We know the energy lost around the saucepan -- or in the case of the planet, what energy is lost into the blue yonder.

Bill Leak may have been the poster boy for "free speech" anti-Section 18C nutters, but his death has not heralded the end of racism and bigotry, writes John Passant.

The ABC has demanded an explanation from Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party after its reporters were blocked from attending election celebrations on Saturday, describing the move as an attack on independent media.

There is a battle between Christian factions which seems to indicate their fear of becoming irrelevant. 

The Federal Government must "take its medicine" and learn from the West Australian Liberal Party's landslide defeat at the polls on the weekend, Treasurer Scott Morrison says.

stasi HQ

shampoo

As we survey the 2017 Oscars from the eminent sociological source of Mad Magazine December 1975, in regard to the value of entertainment versus reality, reality TV President, fake news, Wikileaks dump of strategical CIA cyber nosing, we can only wonder about our worth, measured in peanuts, gold and afterlife demerit points.

This is where we need to do a detour via Bruno Latour:

RT

The Western media is starting to get pissed off at the Russian media, especially RT... It is a race as who can promote the best fake news about the other and about the state of the world... At this stage, The New York Times is winning. 

...

The ABC has announced a significant restructure, cutting up to 200 jobs to create a $50 million Content Fund and new positions in regional areas.