Part of this comes about because of bad local government policies. Airbnb being used for housing would be much less of a problem if:

• There were more hotels. Why aren’t these people going to the existing hotels? Are they too expensive? What causes that? Not enough competition? Do local zoning ordnances forbid the creation of more hotels entirely, or make it prohibitively expensive? Or
• There was more actual housing available for residents. Australia has this problem too, though not nearly to the same extent as America, from what I’ve seen. Zoning is far too restrictive on housing, making the provision of enough housing impossible. Remove restrictions on medium-density housing entirely, and ease them up to allow more high-density housing in key areas nearest to the major employment centres and major transport hubs. Also: governments should directly fund the building of a whole heap of housing themselves.

Restrictions on Airbnb are a good idea, in my mind, but they’re a bandaid solution. They don’t address the underlying issue, which is that there literally isn’t enough housing to satisfy demand for residents, and in some tourist areas there aren’t enough hotels at the price points customers are demanding.

The biggest long-term problem with Airbnb, which would still exist even if housing were abundant, is its unregulated nature. Its customers need to be assured that they can get reliable help if there is a major fault with the service, just like they could with any other business. Regulating them like hotels, with some easing of that regulation in some aspects (but not the key ways affecting customer experience) for Airbnbs that are used only for a few weeks per year while the long-term resident is away, is something that needs to happen regardless.

I prefer an apartment that I have to clean myself

The shitty thing is that you have to clean it yourself and then they charge a “cleaning fee”.

In Australia, I’ve also seen a relative rise of what are basically just hotels. The Airbnbs I’ve used overseas (admittedly not recently) have felt just like what you described. In Australia they’ve felt more like an apartment or townhouse bought by someone with the explicit intent to rent out as an Airbnb, with a whole bunch in the same building or complex owned for that purpose—or at least the vibe that that’s the case. A couple in Brisbane that my parents have used a few times when visiting is even in the same building as a hotel. Some rooms are hotel, others are privately-owned apartments, many of which are seemingly Airbnbs. (One of said hotels made the news recently for a really awful cockroach infestation, which is neat…) You feel just as disconnected from the city as you would in a hotel. Perhaps even more so, since in a hotel there’s at least a semblance of a sense of connectedness to other hotel patrons, which you lose in these hotel-based Airbnbs.

They look like they’re about to start snapping their fingers menacingly at 0:46.

While we’re talking about it, at 0:16 on the first video it kinda looks like the PC just sticks their hand in between the wolf’s jaws, before punching it with their other hand. Got a chuckle from me.

bcs they were too stupid to use plumbing

IIRC it was because she was talking about what they did before there was plumbing? So it’s because they were too stupid to use a garderobe. But the bigger question is why the fuck she thought it was an appropriate thing to mention at all? It’s fucking Harry Potter. You’d expect that sort of thing from a story with a grimdark tone like George Martin’s world. Nobody wanted that from her.

That last sentence is particularly appropriate here too. Nobody wants to hear her shitty views. Except, apparently, the Labour party. It’d be one thing if they agreed to meet with her, but actively saying they’re seeking her out? Wtf Starmer.

That explains why he wasn’t required to enter a plea, but there’s no justification for failing to deliver a private apology to his victim.

“It would have just been nice to have some sort of apology.”

Kinda gross that he hasn’t given one. It might not have any legal bearing, but in the court of popular opinion (at least my opinion), it makes him extra guilty and makes me hope he gets the book thrown at him.

Needing proper planning approvals is a no-brainer. Technically, this has probably always been required, but they never bothered enforcing it. It’s nice to see that that’s going to change.

I strongly oppose the idea that it should need body corporate support. The body corporate should function to maintain and upgrade the property and its facilities. They shouldn’t be able to tell you how you use your own apartment. They already have too much control over such things. My body corporate is actually really good, but our by-laws theoretically give it the power to say you can’t dry your clothes on your balcony, and that’s just not ok in my opinion. Allowing the body corporate to tell you what you can do with your apartment is very in keeping with the LNP’s paternalistic attitude, and it’s gross that they’re using the current anti-Airbnb zeitgeist as an opportunity to reinforce that.

I don’t know what I think about the property manager requirement. Guests at short stay should absolutely have someone they can call if something goes wrong. If that’s all this means, no issue. But if there’s some specific qualification or accreditation that person needs, or it has to be anything more than “phone number of a person who can authorise emergency repairs”, it seems unnecessary.

As a separate point, my biggest question is: how is any of this going to affect temporary Airbnbs? The original selling point of Airbnb was that you can rent out your place while you’re away on holiday, to help subsidise your trip. The article gives no indication of how people who use it in this way will be affected. I don’t think it should mitigate the requirement that a guest be able to call someone in an emergency, but it should mean you don’t need the same kind of planning approval and don’t pay a higher rates fee. And it’s a situation where the body corporate should absolutely have no control, even if someone were willing to give them power over more permanent Airbnbs.

Connections
Puzzle #381
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🟦🟦🟦🟦
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In Australia I don’t think teachers are underpaid, but schools are absolutely underfunded. Which can often mean teachers end up spending personal money on school resources, which means their actual effective pay isn’t as good as it looks from the outside.

They also work way longer hours than is reflected in their contract.

stress balls in funny shapes and things like that.

Got pulled into the office for using my own money on that one lol

Next time don’t buy squishy dicks for work colleagues.

Amy Webb? I’ve just rewatched her latest appearance and I didn’t think she was that bad. If anything, Kevin Rose (the other guest that episode) was far more willing to accept the near-magic claims about AI than she was. She does call herself a futurist and has some of those techbro vibes at times, but I thought most of her AI comments on that episode were fairly measured. My biggest criticism might be the same as that quote you posted: that they’re not very profound or actionable.

Slightly off topic, but I don’t find her anywhere near as annoying as Alex Lindsay and his constant defence of big business and criticism of even the mildest of pro-consumer regulation. And he’s a regular co-host, not an occasional guest…

Can I play it in front of my kids?

It’s been a while since I played, but I think the answer is mostly yes. There are sex scenes, but they’re pretty well-telegraphed ahead of time and I don’t think you can get into them by accident.

how long from startup to the next save point?

What’s a save point, to you? The game allows saving at any point (except maybe during combat?), but this may or may not be a satisfying experience to you. For the most satisfying experience you’d probably want to consider your camp the save point, and that can go a couple of hours between occurences, depending on the quest and how good you are (/the difficulty level).

Is it a lot like Mass Effect?

A very similar narrative style with the focus on your relation to the NPCs. Gameplay is very different. Much more about tactics and less about action. Personally I found that balance really awkward and not enjoyable: I’d rather lean more into the action like a Skyrim (or, indeed, ME) style game, or do tactics properly in a turn-based manner like BG3 or Lord of the Rings: Tactics. But I stuck it out for the story & characters which were great, though I couldn’t bring myself to keep going with the big DLC once I lost momentum thanks to finishing the main story, or to pick up either of the sequels.

Fantasy series with a very D&D-esque world and a combat system that feels a bit like an MMO or a turnbased tactics game. It’s real time with optional pausing, and you operate your whole party at once, with the ability to pause to give each of them precise orders, or to pre-program them with specific responses to situation.

I think it mainly became popular on the back of its characters. The story was good but nothing special, and personally I found the combat in Origins to be absolutely terrible. But building up your party, getting to know the characters and making decisions that affect them was amazing. At least on par in this respect with the original Mass Effect trilogy.

To be clear, my main question here is: is he playing defence for Labor again (like he frequently does whenever Labor and the Greens have a disagreement), or is this a genuine look at the issue?

I’m more interested in some karage chicken from that Japanese place. Though something tells me their self-description as a “fine” dining place is optimistic.

Yeah but at least we (millennials) exist in popular culture and the public discourse. You never even hear about gen X unless it’s someone pointing out how you never hear about them.

Is that one of his good “exposing corruption in our political system” type videos, or one of his shitty “here’s a misrepresentation of our voting system to encourage you not to vote third party” type videos?

i.e., should I bother watching it or not?

Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is also the leader of the government in the Senate, was not present in the chamber at the time of the vote.

Absolutely gutless move, Labor. For shame.