Francis Lynch

The Point Essential Reading List 2025 As the year draws to a close, the Point team has compiled a list of our favourite essential reads of 2025.

thepoint.com.au/news/the-poi...

The welfare system isn’t just on fire, it’s burning out of control The problem with having pattern recognition is that you can always see the fires before they start. Governments are a bit like that, too.  It’s not that they don’t see the fire before the smoke, it’s...

Been rather dispiriting how much ink has been spilled by the gallery on MP expenses, while the report into mutual obligations has been pretty much ignored. @amyremeikis.bsky.social is on it #ThePoint (what is The Point? It’s not news, but it SHOULD be)

thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...

Australia passes a shameful milestone: over one million children now living in poverty For all the focus on inflation, interest rates and cost-of-living pressures this year, the nation quietly passed a shameful milestone in 2025, ensuring a bleak Christmas for more Australian families t...

thepoint.com.au/news/251212-...

Facts are among the biggest casualties in the war against renewable energy The point.com.au

thepoint.com.au/opinions/251...

Universities and other antidotes to authoritarianism - ABC listen The United States has long been famous for its world leading universities. But in the face of research funding cuts, government attacks on free speech, DEI and the right to protest, and the persecutio...

Universities and other antidotes to authoritarianism.

(Where I ask the question, what would George Orwell or Hannah Arendt expect of us?)

Thanks @natashamitchell.bsky.social ‬⁩from Big Ideas at ⁦‪@RadioNational in Australia for broadcasting this. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...

Australia’s comfortable advantage in geothermal heating and cooling reneweconomy.com.au/australias-c...

Poverty is a policy choice. Time for a new policy to bring a million Australian kids out of poverty The point.com.au

Nothing new, but very true

thepoint.com.au/news/251031-...

Wonderful record Everald. We need more people like you. As an 84 year old with a comfortable life, my main issues are housing, health, child care and age care. I worry for all those affected by those things.🙄😢😊

An Australian Human Rights Act would make our lives better by putting human rights at the heart of laws and government decisions.

Legislating Human Rights Acts from Whitlam to Now Report shows why the Albanese Government should make an Act a reality.

More: www.humanrightsact.org.au/news-events/...

Electric CAT TransPerth bus, Perth, Western Australia

Electric CAT TransPerth bus, Perth, Western Australia

Not quite #caturday
My first electric CAT 🐈
TransPerth bus, #perth, Western Australia

Looks like a bus
Feels like a bus
The wheels on the bus go round and round, all the way to town
Just no diesel rattle and noise
Nor any diesel emissions

The future is electric

This dam tells the story about how our new climate reality skews perceptions The last time it rained that much in winter, Perth's drinking water dam overflowed. Now it's barely half full. It's telling the story of a water crisis that's not only affecting Australia, but the glo...

Water in Perth is a limit we ignore yet may be our biggest risk

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09...

Unless one is a climate denier, the evidence says govt should be subsidizing e-bikes WAY MORE bsky.app/profile/sfro...

Older adults walking on sidewalk next to people cycling on cycle path

Mom and daughter cycling in sunset on bridge

Presenters on a stage

Three women holding velo-city flag on a stage

Gdańsk Mayor Aleksandra Dulkiewicz opened the @Velo-city-conference.com with these words: “The way here is not revolution. It’s peaceful evolution.”

After an inspiring week I list five takeaways for supporting the cycling revolution in my first Zag Daily contribution.

zagdaily.com/featured/fiv...

Imagine all the space these people on bikes would be taking if they were in cars? Imagine the pollution, noise and emissions. Multimodal cities and urban greening is just common sense.

Paris is still a tight city with many streets that are just choking with cars. Despite the remarkable progress, there’s still plenty of work to do making the city work better with fewer cars and more choices.

Paris & @annehidalgo.bsky.social are praised for their visionary, progressive city-building, but they don’t get nearly enough credit for just being really pragmatic! Everything they’re doing is common sense.

They’re moving a lot more people with less space while cleaning the air & cooling the city.

Upright is a much more pleasant way to ride

“There is no going back:” AEMO bids goodbye to baseload grid and spins high renewable future AEMO says there is “no going back” to a baseload and peaking power system, but for the moment prefers spinning machines over battery inverters for system security.

Makes sense to me

“So the paradigm shift underway in our power system is from the economics of baseload and peaking, to renewables and firming”

Wow! Biggest increase in cycling in the City of London since records began💥

🚲139,000 people cycling a day
⬆️ 50,000 more than 2022
⬆️Cycling up 70% since 2017
⬇️Motor traffic down 34%

Building cycleways is working! Inspo for @citywestminster.bsky.social next door? 😍

More info: bit.ly/3RzS4FY

Policy of the Day: Truth in Political Advertising

9 out of 10 Australians (89%) support Truth in Political Advertising laws, according to our new research.

South Australia and the ACT have had truth in political advertising laws for years. Now for Australia! #auspol

Things that *should* be a big issue in the Australian election but sadly won't be:
- Climate change (even though our election was delayed by massive floods)
- Indigenous rights
- Inequality
- Poverty
- Our treatment of asylum seekers
- {NEW!} Our relationship with the US

History Professor Answers Dictator Questions | Tech Support | WIRED YouTube video by WIRED

This is good youtu.be/vK6fALsenmw?...

Separated Bike Lanes Means Safer Streets, Study Says — Streetsblog USA Cities that build protected lanes for cyclists end up with safer roads for people on bikes and people in cars and on foot, a new study of 12 large metropolises revealed Wednesday.

Never forget, a 13-year study found that protected bike-lanes led to a drastic decline in fatalities for all road users.

ALL ROAD USERS.

And painted bike-lanes? No safety improvement at all.

For sharrows, it’s actually safer to NOT have them.

Via @usa.streetsblog.org @nyc.streetsblog.org

Billboard saying “You are not stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic.”

Our regular reminder that when we’re driving, we’re not stuck in traffic.

We ARE traffic.

That’s a product of our individual choices, as well as our collective choices, including who we choose to give massive city-building powers to and the choices they make with that power.

It's our budget special this week! Watch the #SundayShot for expert analysis from panellists @grogsgamut.bsky.social and @nickihutley.bsky.social and interviews with @squigglyrick.bsky.social and @theacoss.bsky.social's Cassandra Goldie.

We'll likely know the election date by then too...
#auspol

A very good #SundayShot this morning - our best yet technically (aka I didn’t push a wrong button) - with guests Punters Politics, Crystal from ZeeMedia/Crikey (who was very good)

Worthwhile insights on younger people and #auspol

Replay to watch or listen here > linktr.ee/SundayShot

The Yunupingu case and native title

The High Court has ruled that Yolŋu land rights cannot be erased or diminished without just compensation. This decision shifts the legal landscape, writes Marcia Langton. What comes next?

And a reminder - this is for someone who has been on the Male avge FT earnings - which is roughly more than 80% of people earn - for 10 years. So assuming they were earning that even when they were what 28?

It also assumes you save 15% every month for 120 months and you never touch it.

I cannot understand why Standards Australia is rewriting standards for parking spaces, car parks etc to accommodate huge American trucks. Much better to remove the tax concession for them and ban them from CBD. When will we take measures to prioritise people? #auspol

Utrecht: Planning for People & Bikes, Not for Cars YouTube video by Streetfilms®

WATCH: “You really get the idea that people are the boss on the street, & not machines.” Watch a GREAT mini-film on one of the most inspiring world cities, #Utrecht Netherlands, via exceptional urban film-maker @streetfilms.bsky.social with @modacitylife.com @bicycledutch.bsky.social & more. #Dutch