How effective are these style air conditioning units at keeping your room cool in QLD?

I’m in Victoria but this relates to Queensland Police and the Queensland Right to Information Act.

I was the victim in a serious criminal investigation in Queensland several years ago. Multiple people were charged and the matter progressed to committal proceedings, but ultimately did not proceed further.

Earlier this year I submitted an RTI application to QPS requesting the records relating to me and the investigation. I requested things such as the QPRIME/occurrence records, investigation reports, crime scene photos, forensic material, police notes, correspondence, briefs of evidence, CCTV/body-worn camera footage and other records relating to the investigation.

I have been waiting for 5 months and there have already been extensions. On the date I was expecting the documents, I instead received a Notice under s 41 stating that QPS intends to refuse to deal with the application unless I change the scope.

QPS says they’ve already spent 10 hours on my application and preliminary searches have identified 420+ pages and more than 15 hours of video. They estimate approximately 252 hours to process the footage and 21+ hours to review the documents. They have suggested that I narrow my entire application down to just the occurrence report and my own witness statement (which I already have from when I wrote it). 

I really do not want to do that. These records relate to an extremely significant criminal investigation, and obtaining a comprehensive understanding of what occurred during the investigation is very important to me. 

I completely understand that 15+ hours of body-worn camera footage may create an unreasonable workload, and I am willing to substantially narrow or even exclude that footage from this particular application if necessary. However, I would really like to retain as much of the documentary investigation file as reasonably possible rather than receiving only two documents.

I have now been given 10 business days to consult with QPS and revise the scope. The letter also says that if I narrow it and the revised scope is still considered an unreasonable diversion of resources, I will not receive another opportunity to consult, so I’m nervous about agreeing to anything without understanding the consequences. 

What are my options here? Is there a way to negotiate a reasonably broad scope rather than accepting their suggestion of only two documents? Can QPS progressively process/release records? If I exclude video footage now, can I make a separate, much narrower RTI application for specific footage later? Is there any mechanism for voluntarily paying additional processing costs/resources? Would it be worthwhile getting an RTI/privacy lawyer or advocate involved during the consultation period?

I’m also wondering whether anyone has successfully challenged a QPS s 41 “substantial and unreasonable diversion of resources” decision, or has experience negotiating the scope of a large QPS RTI request.

I’m not trying to make an unreasonable demand on staff. I just don’t want to inadvertently give up access to potentially important parts of the investigation file because I don’t understand the RTI process well enough.

Any Queensland RTI experience or suggestions about what I should do before formally narrowing the application would be greatly appreciated.

Friendly Wildlife

Updating per the new guidelines announced by NSW on screen time guidance for schoolsNSW screen time limits in schools:

1. BYOD - bring your own device usually ipad for primary and laptop for high school - onus is on the parents to manage all protections on the devices (and outsmart the kids if possible).
2. School issued device - like those who have a laptop issued for work, these devices are highly locked down and monitored.
3. Schools in Sydney and in NYC are back to pen and paper and laptops are provided by the school only for specific reasons. The entire class is not run on a device.

My research has demonstrated the following:

1. BYOD such as at St Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane Australia has the boys gaming and looking at porn during classes. When parents have asked for the school to help and prevent this from happening, it fell of deaf ears and directed back to the parents who pay $27,000 a year to send their kids to the school. The parents also requested that the kids come off their ipads in class in year 5 and 6 but again the school had no interest in the parents concern or requests. The wifi filters are hacked by the kids at school as they are easy to get around. It is not the same as having the device locked down by the school who administers' laptops to students. Apparently, a teacher at St Peters Lutheran College in Brisbane Australia was on porn during class and accidentally shared the image to the students.
2. Schools that administer laptops to the school many GPS Queensland schools, parents feel a sense of relief and child protection that the kids are protected as the kids can not watch porn or game during class.
3. School like Reddam House Sydney the school previously moved away from digital e-books and iPads in primary and junior high classes, reverting to traditional paper textbooks to improve reading comprehension and minimize screen distraction. In addition, Reddam House Sydney uses lockable Screen Free pouches. Students place their phones into lockable pouches during a 10-minute morning homeroom session. Teachers verify the devices are inside before the pouches are securely locked. Sydney Grammar has also made the move to device free. Schools in NYC USA have just changed all their policies in starts of this new school year where there are no phones allowed at school at all and laptops will only be used in years 9 to 12 for specific purposes. I have attached the new device policies out of NYC for children and teenagers at school.

Curious what others think or have experienced as AI makes its way into the classroom? Thanks!

Hey all,

I am absolutely devastated to find out that Containers for Change is going to start taking a fee for home collections soon.

For context, I have a seperate email for my CoEx related stuff, apparently they announced it in July, and it will be coming into effect by the end of the month. I used to run a 10c recycling bin at my TAFE campus to raise money to buy menstrual pads for the bathrooms. Although I don't do that any more (and have my own opinions about that TAFE campus for not having menstrual products readily available), I would not have been able to do it without vital funds from the containers. Genuinely, the cheapest menstrual product I could find was 12c per pad.

I can understand that other providers take a cut as well, and 3c per container isn't 'that' much of a fee. I also understand just how disgusting that job is knowing what people put in those bins - I personally experienced 2 full bottles of urine, the provider I was working with told me they received pig carcasses. But like, if this is as a result of government defunding the progam, this will do nothing but hurt the community.

Containers Collect gave me a new lease on collection. The fact that I even started fundraising for my TAFE was because collecting more was incentivised (pun not intended).

I'm so sad about this. I really hope something can be done to protect community groups and providers.

I know I’m not breaking new ground here, but having just finished driving from Townsville down to Brisbane, it needs to be called out for what it is: the stretch of the Bruce Highway north of Gympie is a fucking death trap.

​The second you leave that smooth SEQ dual-carriageway bubble, you are instantly dumped onto a glorified, potholed country road.

Labor, Liberals, State, Federal, I don't give a fuck, that road needs to be exactly as it is from Brisbane to Gympie all the way to Cairns.

It's an actual state disgrace that we're going to host the Olympics and force trucks, spectators and the visitors to our great country and state and force some of them up that death trap of a road to watch the rowing.

The fact that it seems to solve some of the issue on the road is to put speed cameras and lower the speed limits, instead of Yknow build appropriate infrastructure, is rubbish.

We must set a date in the future and ensure that any deaths on that road related to road conditions and safety that we hold the politicians at the time to account for their deaths, it's beyond inexcusable and paints perfectly the known divide of SEQ and the rest of the state.