This sort of holier than thou attitude is definitely one reason why people aren't flocking to the Greens...

The Victorians apparently had almost 25000 machetes between those put into their 45 bins and handed back from retailers, that's a lot for a tool you reckon nobody uses or buys. I seriously doubt that any major percentage of that came from the criminals - it was already illegal to carry machetes in shopping centres and have fights with them and they obviously didn't care about that so why would they hand any in just because that was also now illegal.

For the small chance you're not doing some sealioning bullshit with your questioning I've used mine to clear a considerable amount of lantana and crofton weed every time I head up to Grandad's property, as well as controlling a bunch of invasive running bamboo and clearing blackberry from single track runs. It's an effective and useful tool - I just don't make youtube videos of me using it so I guess it's not real in your world.

Who did the machete ban inconvenience exactly?

People who had one and used it for the actual purpose of the tool rather than street fights.

I've had one for a few years now and it's been quite useful, particularly when you want something more portable than a brushhook (which is another useful tool idiots would probably like to ban because it looks scary). I don't live in Victoria but the push to expand the ban would directly inconvenience me.

Believe it or not it's not just the far right who use edged tools, and it's annoying how often people who don't have or use one feel the need to pop up and speak authoritatively about how nobody should use one because they don't (this goes all the way down to pocket knives sadly).

Hopefully those who were promoting the machete ban and trying to convince other states to follow suit see what Blind Freddie could have and realise that they only screwed over normal people rather than those who get into street fights with machetes.

The minimum award rate is a different category to the minimum wage, and most lower paid jobs fall under one award or another. It's basically the same outcome but that distinction is why they're saying the national minimum wage covers a very small proportion.

As someone who finally managed to buy an apartment a few months back I'd prefer to not get screwed over both ways by a price crash, but I'd be ok with prices flatlining for the foreseeable future so some sanity eventually returns to the housing market.

I feel like you'd have be a philistine to do this to a functional proper classic. If the original drivetrain was beyond repair it'd be more acceptable though and an electric swap would be no worse than trying to shoehorn an LS in or something else similarly non-original.

Doesn't surprise me that the numbers are back up, I saw plenty of signs of horses when I was up around Bondo a few weeks back and even had one launch out right in front of my bike while going along Firey Range. Didn't see any dead horses though which was pretty common a few years back before a few efforts at shooting them.

I hope they don't go and close off large swathes of the area for months again though like they did with the last concerted effort at aerial shooting in the north of Kosciusko park.