There are more people who need/want a dog to partner them than there are dogs available to give them. A lot more. Because an individual dog will take so much time and effort to train, the bottleneck is kind of inevitable.

An accessibility tool that can handle “a lot of what a dog does” without needing years of training like the dog does would be a huge help, because it means that some of the people currently waitlisted for a dog (and unable to be independent while they wait) now have other options for independence that might suit them.

Mate, the woman he ran over was actively trying to get better health care access for her seat. She was in meetings with the government about it about two days before he flattened her

That’s an issue the woman he ran over campaigned on, and was actively in meetings with the government a few days before the incident to try to correct. Health care access in the region was Helen Haines’ big Thing

I absolutely get what you’re saying with explanation vs excuse. I agree with you as far as that goes. He sounds like he was very ill.

My point is that he’s still very nearly killed someone, and the person he chose was actively working to help him. There have to be consequences for that, even though he’s so ill.

Stick him in Thomas Embling, get him the care he needs and keep him from doing any more harm

He ran over her on purpose. Twice.

I don’t CARE about his “strong sense of justice” in this context. If he had that, he wouldn’t have tried to flatten an innocent woman who’s done him no harm.

I care that he ends up somewhere where he can be kept from hurting anyone else.

That’s sort of my point. He’s laid out a policy stance that alienates a specific community, and now he’s blaming THEM for not finding him or his party trustworthy, telling them off for alienating themselves from the Greens.

They didn’t alienate themselves. He did.

However sound his reasons might have been or whatever else other parties might also be doing wrong…he has to own that policy choice, not blame the vulnerable minority community he’s upset by it for being upset

Is it a dealbreaker for me? I don’t know, I’m still thinking about it.

Is it a dealbreaker for the Ukrainian community Shoebridge is actively speaking to saying “don’t turn away from us”? Yes. It absolutely is, and it’s absolutely right for this to be so.

He needs to own that policy choice to actively alienate the community he’s talking to. Not just lecture them about why his enlightened pacifist stance is so much better than “people I love are dying. Right now. Today”

What I want is for you to stop defending it with “but everyone else is worse, so this is fine”

Both things can be true. Labor can be fucking up massively AND Shoebridge can still have made a serious error and shoved his own foot down his throat.

This is bad policy regardless of what other parties are doing.

Be honest. Many of their policies are good ones, or at least solid ones. This is one of the few TRULY bad ones, and it is - fairly - probably going to be a deal breaker for the Ukrainian community he’s asking for trust from.

He burned a bridge. Whatever his reasons for doing so, he chose to burn it…and he’s blaming other people for the ashes.

Grow up, David. Own up.

He said no aid at all without UN approval, which is never coming because Russia’s got a security council veto.

This position leaves Ukraine to die. If what he says he wants comes to pass, they won’t get the medical aid either

You burned it first mate. You told them you were leaving their families still in Ukraine to die