I don’t have data to base this on but would place decent bets on it being noticeably more dangerous than driving for the individual riding the scooter and noticeably less dangerous for anyone they run into. The rate would depend on how you measure accidents though - per kilometre would be a lot worse than per trip.

Escooters aren’t really good vehicles for rider safety - small wheels (often with no suspension), unstable geometry, and a riding position with limited ability to brace oneself means you do have to be careful. It does require a solid readjustment coming from my dirt bike in particular (where hopping 20-30cm logs is easy) onto the scooter where hitting a little tree root raised bit of tar at 25km/h will just about throw you off the thing.

They are definitely convenient and fun though, it’s a good thing that NSW is finally moving to allow them.

Slowly catching up with the times, classic NSW though having to be different to everyone else and make it 20km/h rather than 25.

Really should be allowed on footpaths (maybe with lower limit) but I guess small steps are better than the current situation where they’re illegal but mainly ignored. The ACT allows both escooters and bicycles on the footpath and this works fine, so take claims it’d be super dangerous with a large serving of salt.

I was expecting Pocock to have a strong showing this time around, I wasn’t expecting Jessie Price though - I hadn’t really heard much about her except for the corflutes around town.

I’d probably run with a small amount of white lithium grease - that should last for a good while.

If they had a disability permit it’d be fine, the yellow lines are there for extra space. The permit should have been displayed somewhere visible though (typically the windscreen but I don’t know if that’s a requirement).

If it were a council carpark you could report non-permitted use to the local council, being Bunnings it’s probably private land though so you’d have to find out whose responsible for their parking enforcement.

I actually saw a feral deer today while riding some single track out at the Cotter - to see one in the day probably means there’s a good amount of them out and about.

Parks does often give the impression that they’d rather the plebs didn’t actually go into their parks, but I think them booking ghost camps might be a step too far given they could just reduce the nominal capacity further to get the same effect.

I would bet the vast majority of the problem is your second option of people booking out campgrounds to avoid others (with a side helping of those who aren’t sure which day they want to go out so they book all options). Looking at who has a record of cancelling bookings would probably allow one to cut out a lot of this as I suspect you’d find a bunch of repeat offenders.

Closer to cities where demand is higher, the campsites are more desirable and therefore the ghost booking issue is worse. A higher fee discourages that. On the downside, you pay more for convenience of not having to drive far.

The tier system described appears to be more based on available facilities though rather than visitor numbers, while it does mention demand in passing this isn’t quantified and the tier table shown works off facilities/servicing.

I would agree there does tend to be correlation between high demand campgrounds and highly serviced ones so you do have a point with high prices for higher tiers being necessary to some extent. I do think though that applying a state wide pricing system will end up with noticeably higher prices in a lot of places not near the major centres (or the major attractions).

The removal of fees and bookings for the unserviced and largely unmanaged tier of campgrounds is a welcome change, I did not like it when they introduced these.

Not getting 100% of the booking charge back sounds like it should cut down on people booking when they don’t actually mean to turn up, so I’d say that’s reasonable.

I have reservations about how expensive the higher tier charges are though, even the mid tiers are getting pricey for what’s supposed to be a cheap activity.

When it comes to preferences they go to the parties/candidates in the order that you number them. Others can suggest where you send your preferences (how to vote cards being the typical method) but ultimately it’s up to you.

For the house of reps if a third party doesn’t win the seat you will ultimately end up voting for Labour or Liberals, because you have to number all the boxes. You’ll have to decide which you like more (or least) and number accordingly. In the senate you can potentially exhaust your vote before reaching the majors (assuming you reach the minimum numbering before getting to them) but unless you truly believe both majors are the same I’d advise including them.

If you vote above the line in the senate your preferences follow party lines as you have numbered them (i.e. preferences will count towards the candidates for the first party you number, then the second and so forth). You still control what parties you’re voting for and what order.

It was always a shame watching the old timber bridges get replaced with the comparatively soulless concrete designs, nice to see that some are escaping that treatment.

Their meat free mock sausage rolls on the other hand are decidedly average - unless the one I had a while back was a real outlier they’re pretty dry and bland. I decided my old stalwart for the occasional times I buy servo food - the spinach and feta roll - was a noticeably superior option.

Something that was touched upon in the article but I think worthwhile enough to mention specifically is we should have a greater ability to manufacture essential materials ourselves - this would not be strictly defence spending but is definitely adjacent to it. Things like fuel are an obvious one here but there’s plenty of basics we don’t make on shore. As an example I’m thinking of the shortage of saline solution that got into the news a while back - that’s something very commonly used and literally just salt mixed with water, but we rely on importing it…

It looks like you should be able to undo the pivot bolt nut, tap out the bolt, and slide out the blade. The hardest part will be undoing that nut as you’ve only got a flathead slot for purchase on the other side and the nut’s likely rusted in place along with the end of the bolt appearing to be peened over a bit (either deliberately or through being banged against stuff over the years).

The easiest way may be to simply sharpen the blade in place, I would expect there to be just enough room to slide a file in to sharpen the blade as you move it inwards.

If you do have to remove the blade put some penetrating fluid on the bolt threads and let it sit overnight before trying to undo it (ATF and acetone mixed 50:50 works well or buy one of the commercial sprays).

Once you’ve got to the point of reassembly how tight you want to go will depend on whether you’ve got something fixed at the pivot point acting as a spacer. You might find the bolt is stepped with the threaded end being slightly smaller, or potentially a bush around the bolt. In this case you can tighten the nut firmly as the bolt or spacer will maintain the distance between the two plates.

If there is nothing to maintain the spacing between the side plates you can’t tighten the nut right up as it’ll push the plates into the blade and stop it moving. In this case tighten the nut gently until the blade is moving freely with little free play side to side, and you will want to use thread locker on the threads or peen the end threads over to prevent the nut coming undone again otherwise it’ll likely work its way off over time.

Make good handling a desirable attribute again and it’ll naturally drive an uptake of lower and lighter cars. Things like raising speed limits to suit modern cars/tyres, actually repairing roads properly, and helping boost motorsport rather than actively discouraging the development of tracks would help.

I looked into volunteering for the local SES once (when I was looking for stuff to do with my life after uni) and they turned me down, so actually accepting people who are interested is something that might help with their numbers.

Not only at Christmas, but delicious soft cheeses are a more occasional food normally (as I work on avoiding both draining the bank account and having to buy larger pants).

Nice, my Christmas time Brie supply is secure again.

The gender pay gap is not about “equal pay for equal work”

Indeed, it seems to be primarily about making rage bait headlines.

Women work less hours on average, with considerably more working part time and those who work full time working less hours than men overall (so less overtime pay). What are you going to do to fix that gap, force women to work more? Between that and less women choosing to work in various higher paid and more physical/dangerous jobs (e.g. trades, mining) it’s no wonder there’s a difference.

I use my fingers like a normal person. The only problem I have with these is the occasional time when the tab shears off completely as you flip it up and you’re left contemplating whether to stab something into the groove or dig out the can opener…