A New Challenge for Libertines

Whether it's endorsed by the Federal Parliament or not, August 13th looks set to become Australia's National Marriage Day. Since the highlight of yesterday's inaugural National Marriage Day was a parliamentary breakfast, organised by Mrs Senator Bill Heffernan, it's only a matter of time before that endorsement is given.

SBS had some footage of the first ever National Marriage Day, including a soundgrab from a speech by the spokescouple from RISE Australia, who raised the question 'Do we really want longer lasting sex?' Some may be heartened to learn that the tradition of lying back, thinking of the ironing and getting it all over with as quickly as possible managed to survive the 1960s after all.

National Marriage Day - who could possibly oppose it? I certainly don't. I'm just going to start agitating for August 14th to become Australia's National Adultery Day and August 15th to become National Divorce Day. Those are just ambit claims - I'll happily settle for the declaration of one day every year to be celebrated as Australia's National No Bullshit Day.

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Andrew Bartlett on the international student mess:

There are now reports that the education sector is trying to crack down on so-called ‘rogue education agents’. It’s hard to see how that achieves anything more than window dressing. The previous government specifically exempted education agents from the regulatory requirements which currently apply to migration agents. This exemption was provided specifically to make it easier for Australian educational institutions to recruit students, without the ‘red tape’ of registration and quality control. (my emphasis)

Another fine example of that much loved Australian tradition, the rort.