Stephen Gentle

I'm an Embedded Systems Engineering consultant working mostly in satellite/wireless communications.

[the Juice Media @thejuicemedia]

The Australien Government has made an ad about our next federal election, and it's surprisingly honest and informative!

#auspol #2025Election #PreferentialVoting #ProjectGina

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@jamesmassola What do you expect when the modelling was from Ergas? He was part of the group that recommended building a sub-standard NBN that cost more than just doing it with fibre (the standard international best practice) would have...

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@DrCameronMurray Wow, the modelling was from Henry Ergas - the same guy who pushed for years to build a sub-standard copper NBN, claiming it would be cheaper. It was even more expensive than if we'd just build best-practice FTTP that would last decades with cheap upgrades every now and then...

[Australia Institute @TheAusInstitute]

"Australians think gas & oil companies pay huge amounts of tax and employ huge numbers of people.

This could not be further from the truth." - @ebony_bennett #auspol #climate

[Rex Patrick @MrRexPatrick]

In an era of rampant misinformation, propaganda and falsehood, Australia’s national interest would be best served by a much stronger, better funded @ABCaustralia. Shame on successive govts that have gutted our independent national broadcaster. #auspol https://t.co/MlWqZKMTjj

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@Paul_Reinhardt @MarcusHouse All the experts say the Government’s regulation is wrong and more harmful, but the Government is rushing it through in less than a week with no real consultation (box ticking exercise only) and zero evidentiary basis to any of it…

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@Paul_Reinhardt @MarcusHouse I’m not arguing, just trying to provide some context for just how ridiculous the situation is!

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@senatorpennyqld I expected some of the less tech-savvy organisations might agree in principle, but they were almost all (rightly) against the idea both in principle and as drafted in the bill.

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@senatorpennyqld Basically every single expert that responded to the Senate Committee with a submission said that a under-16s social media ban was the wrong thing to do and that it would create more harm! The rejection of the bill by experts was even more universal than I expected!

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@Paul_Reinhardt @MarcusHouse (To clarify, many of the submissions are group submissions by 2-5 experts, which is how I get to ‘hundreds’ and not just ‘one hundred’. Also there were open letters urging the Government not to do a blanket ban also signed by hundreds of researchers and experts)

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@Paul_Reinhardt @MarcusHouse They had a Senate Committee, hundreds of experts whose responses have been published so far universally condemned it as the wrong way to try and solve the problem, and that it will cause more harms. 107 responses have been published of reportedly about 15000 received.

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@anguscoventry @MarcusHouse My hunch is that it will all collapse in a heap because it can’t be implemented without invasive digital ID. But some millions of dollars will be spent on “age assurance” snake-oil like webcam age-estimation that can’t possibly reliably work and win eventually be abandoned…

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@Paul_Reinhardt @MarcusHouse Of the 107 public submissions published so far, only about four or five are in support of the idea principle. This is only giving the public 24 hours to respond too. https://t.co/vRA8Zqcv3r

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@AlboMP You are not on my side. I oppose this legislation 100%.

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@cameronwilson Their bill is so rushed and poorly thought through… not a chance they actually thought of anything like this… Amazing how universal the condemnation is from basically every expert who submitted to the committee, even some orgs I thought might support in principle, don’t!

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@matt_barrie @Matt_Camenzuli Apparently banning under-16 access to social media (changing the status-quo for 20 years) is so important that it has to be rushed through with no scrutiny or debate. Despite basically every expert saying it's the wrong way to deal with the problems and will create more harm...

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@lesstenny Labor have more than proven their uselessness. What a waste of a term of Government... Honestly starting to feel that they're hardly much worse than even Dutton anymore. I was thinking minority Government might be the best outcome last election, I'm desperate for it now.

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@lesstenny That's not how preferential voting works. I will not vote for Labor, but I will not vote for LNP more.

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@NeilBoltonRSPL @BelindaJones68 Who cares about ChatGPTs input? Likely a bunch of those are plausible-sounding but wrong numbers it made up itself...

[Stephen Gentle @stephengentle]

@cameronwilson I mentioned this in my submission - the bill does seriously seem to be written to allow the minister to decide basically any online service is or isn’t ‘age-restricted social media’. Anyone runing any service couldn’t get legal advice that would give you a reasonably sure answer