I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what we’ve lost when it comes to Australian pub culture. Maybe it’s because I passed by my old local the other day and saw they’d expanded their gaming room again, or perhaps it’s just the creeping realisation that a simple night out now costs more than my first car payment back in the ’90s. Either way, it’s got me properly wound up.

The complaints are familiar enough: eye-watering drink prices, pokies dominating every available square metre, and bartenders who seem to have learned their trade from YouTube tutorials rather than years of actually connecting with punters. But there’s something deeper going on here – we’re witnessing the systematic dismantling of what used to be genuine community spaces.

The proposed social media ban for under-16s in Australia is yet another spectacular example of our government’s knack for missing the point entirely. While scrolling through discussions about this latest policy announcement, I found myself getting increasingly frustrated at the sheer absurdity of it all.

Picture this: we’re living in a country where teenagers can’t watch YouTube videos about their homework or play online games with their friends, but they’re bombarded with gambling advertisements at every turn. The cognitive dissonance is staggering.