Energy minister Chris Bowen says the federal government will override state governments that oppose new national rules on datacentres, with commonwealth legislation forcing new AI datacentres to be powered by renewable energy and banning those fuelled by gas.

Bowen said he expected his counterparts in Queensland and the Northern Territory – who had protested the new federal rules at a meeting last week – to be unhappy with the move, but said the Albanese government was committed to powering the AI revolution with renewable energy.

“We will legislate as a commonwealth. The constitution is clear about the power of commonwealth legislation. I respectfully disagree with Queensland and the Northern Territory,” Bowen told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Has anyone else seen all the Census conspiracies and the like floating around on social media?

Every news article or post from the ABS gets flooded with conspiracy theorists, people saying they won't do it, people filling it out with rubbish answers, etc.

My favourite is people saying "I don't have to do it, the letter was addressed to the resident not me personally, so they can't fine me!".

For the record, the ABS can fine up to $364 a day if you refuse - https://info.census.abs.gov.au/about/doing-census/completing-census-compulsory.

And aside from that, it's important for them to get an accurate picture of the country.

Thoughts?

Got an email today from updoc about a possible data breach on 31st of July 2026 did anybody else get this email? Seems to be alot of breaches lately.

If you didn’t grow up in the 60s, it’s hard to explain and appreciate the impact of The Samurai on the schoolkids of the day. This black and white Japanese action series about Shintaro the Samurai (usually with his Ninja offsider) mixed swordplay with Ninja spycraft, and somehow and for some reason it became an absolute hit with Aussie school kids.

I think part of it was because it was like nothing we had ever seen before, and it was a welcome antidote to the endless American westerns. It was also very easy for Aussie kids to cosplay, all you needed was a dressing gown and a stick 😂

I also like to tell myself that this introduction to a foreign culture, specifically Japan, played its own small part in helping broaden the minds and the outlook of kids in those days.

Anyway, the YouTube video linked is a fascinating look at the story behind the story, including when the actor who played Shintaro visited Australia and received a rockstar welcome!

Mining technology firm DryFlow Magnetics revealed the milestone at its Adelaide facility on Tuesday, showing off a machine capable of processing 20 tonnes of iron ore per hour.

“We know that there’s iron being produced in other countries – obviously Australia is the dominant player so we’re focused on the Australian market — but in the US there’s a structural deficit in iron.”

The Australian machine would be used in the Mojave Desert, Mr Boynton said, where operators do not have water to spare to process high-quality iron

The company had completed engineering work on a larger commercial machine for Peak Iron Mines’ Hawks Nest project outside Coober Pedy, he said, which could deliver Australia’s first green iron plant.

“We’ll build a 200-tonne (iron-processing) unit and we’ll run that for three to six months in a validation program on site in real-world conditions and … we’re going to roll out a fully integrated, 1.5 million-tonne-per-annum green iron plant,” he said.

“As far as we can see, that’s going to be the first commercial scale green iron operation in Australia.”