Australia probably ought to have two more ... but the political climate means one mob is manoeuvring to capitalise on the shift to dumb down the population from

Australia probably ought to have two more ... but the political climate means one mob is manoeuvring to capitalise on the shift to dumb down the population from the 90s, when it started restricting free access to higher education, by way of loans instead, removing various educational elements, and removing a considerable amount of subsidised adult education at TAFEs. (So now very often we hear experts / skilled people from overseas were needed to fill various positions - sad isn't the right word.) Given how it is at the moment, not longer is idea of having a really good science division all that important to the general population, what seems to be winning out instead is it's better to have multi billion dollar defence air plane purchase to upgrade older planes even if however those in the air force pointed out don't compare well to what already exists, ie not well suited to a vast region like Australia without $$$$ infrastructure needing to be built or additionally purchased. Same ninnies next time they got some power, also decided we need billion dollar subs that are nuclear as they can hide ... eh satellite data analysis is already fairly good - and one can expect in coming years that detection will be far more accurate. IMHO, biosecurity is far more important as well as the ecology of the environment remaining in a balance regardless of the causes. But I don't expect great outcomes any more - even a new ferry commissioned in a southern state, I sort of recall the surprise when it was found before delivery it wouldn't go under a certain bridge ... PR of course in years following have softened this but still if they knew, why then the scramble to figure out where it could refuel - IIRC it still has a 600km trip at the moment to refuel, but I could be wrong, if searches were better I'd find a bunch of news links to confirm but the best I could find in a few minutes was [1] [1] https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-07/new-spirit-of-tasmania-ferries-unable-to-run-full-capacity/104194716 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-07/new-spirit-of-tasmani...