Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺

l like to share the wonders of Space and Science. Don't mind a bad joke 😁 Appreciate great photography. Star Trek fan!
Love the Mighty Hawks!! 🤎💛🤎💛

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@Martina @ChrissieEvert I love you both. I'm so grateful for what you and Chrissie gave us as a part of the tennis audience. I cannot wait to watch this documentary. I wish you both health and happiness. ❤️❤️❤️

[Australian Patriot. @JimThom90458694]

The Australian Tax Office has returned the Tax Return to a man in Penrith. In response to the question, "Do you have any dependants?"

The man wrote: 64,000 illegal immigrants, 1.1 million crackheads, 4.4 million unemployable scroungers, 80,000 criminals in over 85 prisons plus 450 idiots in Parliament, thousands of 'retired politicians' and an entire group that call themselves 'Senators."

The ATO stated that the response he gave was unacceptable.

The man's response back to ATO was, "Who did I leave out?"

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@news_australian Clearly a sarcastic post. Otherwise you're nuts!!

[Yuri Beletsky @YBeletsky]

The Milky Way rising above the Local Volume Mapper (LVM) at the Carnegie Las Campanas Observatory in the Atacama Desert, Chile 🇨🇱 LVM is an SDSS-V survey designed to produce the first contiguous, sub-parsec map of ionised gas in the Milky Way and its neighbours. I captured this image when the Southern Cross was just aligning above the building, together with Alpha and Beta Centauri.

[PROFESSOR RODGERS SPEAKS FOR THE HARD WORKING AUST @HelpRodger]

BREAKING_NEWS
VIDEO
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨
Anthony Albanese just dumped millions in investment properties — cashing out a portfolio worth around $5 million — right before his own government rams through toxic new taxes on negative gearing and the capital gains discount. This isn't leadership; it's the rankest hypocrisy and textbook insider trading by a Prime Minister who built his wealth on the very property perks he's now torching for everyone else. While everyday Aussies get screwed with higher taxes and wrecked aspirations, Albo quietly pockets his gains and moves on. Pure, self-serving corruption from a man who lectures the rest of us about 'fairness. Vote Pauline Hanson One Nation.

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@suekatski @BhattiLaib9960 🤣🤣🤣

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@sassybella53 @SoulReaper2222 @BNose42 Watching the world go by 😁 🌧️ ☔

[Duncs 🇦🇺👀🍿 @__Duncs]

Pretty sad you are hanging your hat on a 4.75% increase when real cost of living has doubled in 5 years.

A nice decoy to cover the fact you are bringing in the single biggest tax grab in recent history. Your new CGT taxes rip wealth from mum and dad investors and new investors who work hard to invest their already highly taxed wages trying to become financially independent.

With one socialist stroke of the pen you divide and pit Australians against each other by calling families that have worked hard for their wealth “privileged” and deserving of higher taxes.

Be prepared for significant economic downturn and loss of jobs as you “de-incentivise and kill” the inspiration of all Australian businesses and hard working Australians looking to invest in their future.

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@FOXFOOTY Because they are Labor lite and that tells you everything.

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@BNose42 @SoulReaper2222 @Amitpai6982Pai @sassybella53 @scardenas63 @kathrynhadley3 @GalushaDarlene @stephsings1 @GloriaCiaccio @LisaCam11084556 @artkitchen76 @Yoycation Thank you my gastronomic King!!

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@__Duncs @L_AWalker It's definitely obscene.

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@ClareONeilMP A very different one than you do.

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

What everyone else is saying here!!

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@__Duncs @L_AWalker Not to mention

[Bob @BobBurn97207272]

ANIKA WELLS, $118,000 FLIGHTS, A PARIS DINNER, AND THE VETERANS SHE LEFT BEHIND
This is a story about priorities. About what this government considers worth spending your money on and what it considers expendable. And it is a story that every Australian who has ever worn a uniform, or loves someone who has, needs to read.
But it is also a story about something bigger than one minister's expenses. It is a story about a government that will come after every dollar in your pocket through taxes, levies, power bills and cost of living pressures, while treating your money as a personal travel budget once it arrives in Canberra. A government that lectures ordinary Australians about sacrifice and belt tightening while dining at Michelin star restaurants in Paris on your tab. A government that cannot find $9 million for wounded veterans but can find $12.5 million for a football tournament and $118,000 for a flight to New York.
The people paying for all of this are not the ministers flying business class to international forums. They are the tradie getting out of bed at five in the morning. The farmer juggling drought and debt and a power bill that keeps climbing. The nurse working double shifts. The small business owner lying awake at three in the morning wondering if they can make payroll. The pensioner choosing between groceries and heating. Those are the people this government taxes, lectures and then ignores while it spends their money on itself.
Remember that as you read what follows.
FIRST, THE INVICTUS GAMES
Invictus Australia is the charity that supports wounded, injured and sick Australian veterans and their families through sport, rehabilitation and community programs. It was founded following Prince Harry's establishment of the Invictus Games in 2014 and has grown to support almost 30,000 Australian veterans and their families. Its programs address mental health, physical rehabilitation and social reconnection for people who gave this country their health, their safety and in some cases their sanity in its service.
At a time when Australia is still confronting the findings of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, a Royal Commission that found systemic failures in how this country supports the people who served it, Invictus Australia was one of the most visible and effective programs actually delivering results on the ground.
We lose an average of around 78 Australian veterans a year to suicide, roughly six to seven every single month, according to Royal Commission data. Invictus Australia athlete Vanessa Broughill said the funding was life changing for veterans, pointing directly to suicide rates and the importance of support networks for those dealing with PTSD, anxiety and depression.
On May 12 this year, the Albanese government's budget completely cut all $9 million in federal funding for Invictus Australia. Every single dollar. Gone.
Invictus Australia CEO Michael Hartung said the organisation only found out hours before the budget was tabled in parliament. He described being deeply shocked. The organisation had staff, programs and long term plans in place. They were given minutes notice before the announcement went live. Australia would not have been able to send a team to the 2027 Invictus Games in Birmingham. Thirty thousand veterans and their families faced losing access to programs that were keeping some of them alive.
The public reaction was immediate and furious. Veterans, families, ex-service organisations, media outlets and ordinary Australians flooded social media and the government's office with outrage. Within weeks the government backed down and reinstated the funding just days ago, acknowledging the critical importance of the work only after being forced to by public pressure.
Let that sink in. They cut it first. They only gave it back because Australians made enough noise. That is not compassionate government. That is political management dressed up as a backdown.
And here is what that pattern tells you about this government. It will always cut the people who cannot fight back first. Veterans. Regional communities. Pensioners. Small businesses. The quiet Australians who do not march on Canberra or hire lobbyists or make large donations to political parties. They get cut in the budget and they get told it was a difficult decision while the minister boards a flight to New York.
NOW THE RUGBY LEAGUE WORLD CUP
In the same budget period that saw $9 million cut from wounded veteran rehabilitation, Sports Minister Anika Wells announced $12.5 million in federal funding for the 2026 Rugby League World Cup. A sporting tournament. Not veteran rehabilitation. Not mental health support for people who served this country. A football competition.
Both decisions sat on Anika Wells' desk as Sports Minister. She signed off on cutting the veterans. She announced the football money with pride.
NOW THE EXPENSES
In December 2025 a major parliamentary expenses controversy erupted and Anika Wells was at the centre of it. What was revealed and subsequently referred to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority for audit is this.
Wells spent more than $118,000 in taxpayer funds for herself and accompanying staff to fly to the United Nations in New York to promote the government's social media ban for under 16 year olds, with some reports putting the broader trip cost including all personnel at close to $189,000. Last minute international booking inflated the costs significantly. One hundred and eighteen thousand dollars minimum. For one trip. To New York. To promote a domestic social media policy at an international forum that had no direct bearing on passing the legislation through the Australian parliament.
She spent $1,800 in public funds to attend the 2024 Formula One Melbourne Grand Prix with her husband after receiving free tickets to the event.
She claimed a trip to Adelaide that coincided with a friend's birthday.
She expensed a 1,000 euro dinner in Paris for four people at a Michelin star restaurant during the 2024 Olympics, describing it as a working meal.
She paid a government chauffeur nearly $1,000 to wait outside the Australian Open for around seven hours while she watched the tennis.
Every single one of these claims was referred to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority for audit. Following the audit Wells repaid more than $10,000 in expenses found to be improper, including family travel claims, and received a penalty. That repayment is an admission that the expenses were not appropriate. Her office acknowledged the remaining expenses were within IPEA guidelines but they were universally described as conflicting with the government's stated focus on cost of living.
Think about that framing for a moment. Within IPEA guidelines. The same defence that every politician who has ever rorted their entitlements has used. Legal and appropriate are not the same thing. Claiming a Paris dinner on expenses is not illegal. It is a choice. Choosing to attend the Formula One with your husband on public money is not illegal. It is a choice. And cutting $9 million from wounded veteran rehabilitation while making those choices is not illegal either.
It is just a statement of what you value. And what this government values is not the person getting out of bed before sunrise to pay the taxes that fund all of it.
THE FULL PICTURE
So let us put it all together.
The Sports Minister who cut $9 million from a veteran rehabilitation charity, giving them minutes notice and forcing them to consider pulling Australia out of the 2027 Invictus Games, is the same minister who spent more than $118,000 flying to New York, $1,800 at the Formula One with her husband, $1,000 on a Paris dinner at a Michelin star restaurant, and nearly $1,000 on a chauffeur waiting outside the Australian Open. She was subsequently audited, found to have made improper claims including family travel, repaid more than $10,000 with a penalty, and had remaining claims described as within guidelines but conflicting with cost of living rhetoric.
She only reinstated the Invictus funding after Australians forced her hand through public outrage.
She announced $12.5 million for a Rugby League World Cup while that same public fight was still fresh.
And through all of it, the same government that wants to increase your taxes, change the rules on your super, restrict your negative gearing, push your power bills higher and lecture you about your carbon footprint, was spending your money on Paris dinners, Grand Prix tickets and chauffeurs waiting outside the tennis.
This is not a government of the people. It is a government for itself, funded by the people, that has confused access to public money with a personal entitlement. The hard working Australians who get up every day and pay their taxes deserve better than this. They deserve a government that treats their money with the same respect they earned it with.
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide found that Australia has failed the people who served it. It made recommendations about improving support, funding pathways to recovery and taking veteran mental health seriously as a national priority.
Cutting Invictus Australia with minutes notice while expensing a Paris dinner at a Michelin star restaurant is not taking it seriously.
Around 78 Australian veterans take their own lives every year. Six to seven every single month.
Remember that number when you read about the $118,000 flight to New York. And remember it when you open your next power bill, your next tax assessment, or your next letter from the government telling you to tighten your belt.
Because somebody has to pay for all of this. And it is never them

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@amazing_physics 20

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@ThoughtGuardian Awesome news!!! Go@PaulineHansonOz 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

[Tom Fulop-Lover of all things SPACE 🇦🇺 @TomFulop]

@sassybella53 @SoulReaper2222 @BNose42 😂😂😂