ANTHONY ALBANESE, Prime Minister of Australia: Thank you for joining us. For all of us tonight, the devastating scenes at Bondi Junction are beyond words or understanding. Australians will be shocked this evening. This was a horrific act of violence, indiscriminately targeted at innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday, doing their shopping. Tonight, the first thoughts of all Australians are with the victims of these terrible acts and their loved ones. Our nation offers our deepest condolences and sympathies to all those who are grieving for someone they have lost. And we send our strength to those who have been injured. And all of us are thinking of the dedicated doctors, nurses and healthcare workers who will be working through the night to save lives and to care for their fellow Australians. Today, Bondi Junction was the scene of shocking violence. But it was also witness to the humanity and the heroism of our fellow Australians, our brave police, our first responders, and of course, everyday people who could never have imagined that they would face such a moment. And some of the footage is quite extraordinary. Staff for whom this should have been a normal shift, shoppers peacefully going about their lives, and yet for these Australians, their first instinct in the face of danger, was to help someone else. That is what we hold onto tonight as Australians. That’s confirmation of who we are. Brave, strong, together. The work of the NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police is ongoing. But what we can say for sure tonight is this, to any Australian affected by this tragedy, every Australian is with you.

A very interesting article from Global Citizen listing the results of a survey on perceptions of the five most peaceful countries in the world.

Earlier this summer, research firm Ipsos released their findings from a poll asking this question to over 18,000 people across 25 countries. They asked participants whether a handful of countries and supra-national governmental agencies (like the European Union) were “having an overall positive or a negative influence on world affairs.”

Their results might surprise you.

One of the entities is not even a country, and based on the fact you’re reading this post on this website, you’ll likely be pleased at #1 and #2.

http://glblctzn.me/2hw43n5

Australia’s government is currently circulating a public survey, or something to that effect, on the topic of same-sex marriage. Many are questioning why that country’s leaders are taking this decision to this method of public consultation.

Online news source The Conversation writes in an editorial 

As the nation continues to wrangle over same-sex marriage – when much of the developed world has long since resolved the issue – it might be tempting to wonder if we’ve always been a little conservative on social change, hamstrung by a collective fear of the new. But as Frank Bongiorno writes, it hasn’t always been the case – you need only look at Australia’s early embrace of women’s suffrage, for example, to see that we were once pioneers rather than laggards on social progression.

What’s happening, Bongiorno argues, is a profound failure of leadership rather than any innate cultural problem. Political leaders are trailling behind public opinion rather than doing anything to influence it.

Read their whole story on the topic here.