Latest news with #Pocock
Wales Online
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Rugby legend still looks ripped after major career change as he shares secret
Rugby legend still looks ripped after major career change as he shares secret David Pocock takes himself through a multitude of mini-workouts, while pursuing a new career in the limelight Former Wallabies captain David Pocock is in incredible shape. (Image: (Photo by Alex Ellinghausen / Sydney Morning Herald via Getty Images)) Australia legend David Pocock has revealed how he stays in jaw-dropping shape after making a huge career change. The former Wallabies flanker has gone into politics since he hung up his boots in 2020 but exercise remains at the forefront of his day-to-day life. Posting to Instagram over the weekend, Pocock revealed how he keeps himself in immaculate physical condition. The routine, taking place in the nippy Murrumbridge River, involves various exercises coupled with intermittent cold plunges in the river. He trains with a group of like-minded fitness enthusiasts called Granimals. The footage and pictures drew many comments from fans who were impressed with Pocock's physique, which still resembles that of an elite athlete in his prime. While this workout will be a big contributor to his ripped appearance, there's no doubt a strict diet and weight training also keeps him looking in peak condition. The workout is listed below, and is taken from Pocock's Instagram post. A) 5 X rock slams, 10 X Thrusters, 20 x double leg raise, 100m run - two rounds B) Rock complex, Squat + pushup + rock toss + broad jump = 1 - 50 reps C) 30s lunge iso hold with rock lateral flys - X two each leg D) 30 X rock row, 10 X archer push up, 50 X rock reverse fly, 10 X shoulder press - three rounds E) 100 ankle taps, 10m gecko crawl - two rounds F) 2 minute plank, 10 jack-knives, 10 v-snaps, 20 bicycles, 100 mountain climbers Article continues below The post can be viewed below. Content cannot be displayed without consent "If I don't at least do some sort of exercise in the morning, I just never do it,' Pocock said the Sydney Morning Herald in 2024. "You can spend the entire day inside [parliament]. You get there, the sun isn't up; you're leaving, sun's down." "I think I've become a lot kinder to myself," he said, touching on turning down the intensity of his training since retiring. "As an athlete, you rely on your body but you're also punishing it, like it's kind of a tool of your trade, almost, and so you're constantly sort of pushing it to the edge. And that certainly takes its toll." Pocock entered the world of politics in 2021, following the conclusion of his rugby career in Japan with Panasonic Wild Knights. The former back-row star has a strong connection with nature and worked to help create project in Zimbabwe with the aim of securing space for wildlife and improving degraded landscapes. He spent most of 2021 on this project. He announced his intention to run for Senate in December 2021 as a voice for people "sick" of politics. Pocock then became the first ever independent ACT Senator in 2022 at the general election. Written on his website, Pocock's priorities are centered around nature, economics and jobs. "His vision is of a future where our planet and economy thrive," it reads. "Where good jobs abound, businesses are supported to seize the huge opportunities in front of them, and where Australia leads the charge on climate action instead of trailing behind other countries and thereby jeopardising our future security and prosperity." The former ACT Brumbies player came out of retirement for one rugby game in November last year in the Jack Fitzgivvon Cup for the Commando Welfare Trust. Article continues below Pocock donned the 12 jersey for the match and former Wallabies teammate Will Genia was blown away by his physique. "Mate I can definitely still see you in a gold seven jersey, for real," he wrote.
Canberra Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Canberra Times
Labor opens door to PwC after tax scandal
"This government has betrayed the Australian people who had very rightly held the expectation that the rogue consulting firm PwC would be held to account for colluding with foreign multinationals to defraud our tax system," Senator Pocock said.
Spectator
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
A road trip like no other – crossing America by Greyhound bus
There were years when, like many others, I dreamed of crossing America coast to coast, riding the Greyhound bus. It was the thing to do – a rite of passage. For those who never made it, all is not lost: Joanna Pocock has done it for us. Twice. In 2006, fending off depression after her third miscarriage and the death of her sister, Pocock took the Greyhound from Detroit to Los Angeles, 'running away from loss'. Seventeen years later she has gone back, looking for the motels, diners, cities, suburbs and truck stops encountered on that first trip, and she is stunned by what she finds – stations closed or pared back, with nowhere to wash, rest or buy food. 'Everything is stacked against you unless you have a car, a full tank of gas, an iPhone and a credit card linked to an array of apps.' She fears for the have-nots. Greyhound is a road trip like no other, a personal memoir interwoven with history, anthropology and landscape. Looping between past and present, Pocock observes the microcosmic universe of the bus. There is a young woman softly reading the Bible aloud to her daughter; a woman crocheting a bedspread; a man arrested for carrying drugs. Other companions include stressed-out workers, crazies, charmers, bigots, conspiracy theorists and the homeless. Once, cigarettes and food were shared; now, smoking is banned and phones have replaced conversation. She senses increasing desperation. Pocock gives us others who have rolled across the land: Simone de Beauvoir, Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck – the pages are studded with illustrious names. Beauvoir rode the Greyhound in 1947 and her account of it in America Day by Day reads like a Who's Who of postwar intellectual celebrities, among them Le Corbusier, Marcel Duchamp and Kurt Weil. A bartender asked how Sartre was getting on. Fast food and juke boxes were an amusing discovery – fame shed a rose-tinted light. At least Beauvoir took the bus; the male writers had their own wheels. In The Air-Conditioned Nightmare Henry Miller made his feelings clear: 'We recklessly plunder the Earth under the maniacal delusion that this insane activity represents progress.' Pocock homes in on that plundering. Irish-Canadian, she grew up in a tranquil American suburb. 'No one told us that the fuel needed to prop up our lifestyles was destroying the Earth.' She doesn't hate America; she loves the place. She is just appalled by what has been done to it in the name of progress. An environmentalist campaigner, she repeatedly celebrates the endangered beauty of the landscape and delights in the radiance of light and colour. Pocock won a prize for her first book, Surrender, a loving study of Montana, where she and her husband spent two years – 'the best place we had ever lived'. How different from what she discovers as she travels now: millions of gallons of waste oil dumped in rivers and canals; chemicals contaminating the land, causing disease and birth defects. Decrepitude co-existing with gentrification. She namechecks towns romanticised by old songs: St Louis, Tulsa, Amarillo, Albuquerque… then hits us with the contemporary reality. In Phoenix, 'the hottest city in the US', if skin touches the tarmac in summer it can result in third-degree burns; in winter it's -5° C. It now has a bus kerbside pickup in a six-lane road with no access to water or shelter. The relentless desire for progress and growth encompasses intensive cattle farming – calves force-fed growth hormones, surrounded by shit that's rainbow-coloured from chemicals; antibiotic-resistant faecal dust blowing in the wind. During one stretch, as the bus passed a cattle pen the length of a freight train, a mother called to her children: 'Hey, look kids, that's where they make the meat!', the verb hideously capturing the action. On both trips Las Vegas attracts Pocock's most caustic condemnation: 'A human folly… an environmental catastrophe; the ecological devastation necessary for it to exist.' Occasionally she's buoyed up by hope, meeting volunteers working in urban farming, planting trees and growing food outside the system, sometimes illegally. In the years between the journeys Pocock herself changes. She has a teenage daughter; she calls her husband for a morale boost. And at fiftysomething she is sexually invisible. On her first trip she was propositioned, chatted up. In Albuquerque a conversation in a bar led to a long dinner. There was chemistry. Looking back, she admits: 'In another life I most certainly would have said yes.' Instead, they met up for breakfast and he showed her Georgia O'Keefe's Ghost Ranch. Despite the apocalyptic passages, Greyhound is not a miserabilist read. Pocock's rage is infectious and energising; her prose vivid. In unexpected places she finds kindness and generosity. There is both darkness and brilliance here: affection and laughter brighten the pages of this fierce, accusatory, tender and unforgettable book.
Perth Now
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Ministers coy on gambling reform as advice kept secret
Ministers have drawn scorn for not disclosing progress on curbing gambling harm and advertising reform, as one senator pushes for more transparency. Independent senator David Pocock forced the social services and communications ministers to table briefing materials about the reforms with a Senate order to produce documents. It relates to the recommendations from a landmark parliamentary gambling harm report handed down in 2023 by late Labor MP Peta Murphy. The keystone recommendations were a ban on gambling advertising and inducements. A draft response to recommendations was ready in November and Senator Pocock has been pushing for its release after Labor shelved any action ahead of the May election. Senator Pocock accused the government of being overly secretive. "Pages of redacted information shows how much this government doesn't want to talk about gambling reform or a proper response to the landmark Murphy review," he told AAP. Aside from a two-page summary of gambling harm statistics, Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek refused to release the documents to the Senate. The advice stated that young people are more likely to increase their betting behaviour when exposed to gambling advertising, citing the Australian Gambling Research Centre. Betting ads used humour, distinctive voiceovers and celebrities to influence children's attention and recall, the centre found. Ms Plibersek argued she didn't have to comply with a Senate order to release the documents as it would prejudice the policy decision-making process. The release could also impede the government from getting commercially sensitive information from stakeholders in the future and "have a chilling effect on comprehensive and candid advice to ministers", she said in a letter to the Senate. Communications Minister Anika Wells disclosed highly redacted documents outlining meetings with key stakeholders as part of the Senate order but documents about policy development were withheld. Ms Wells said she was still getting her feet under the desk after being sworn into the portfolio in May but that work on the issue continued when asked whether a response to the gambling harm report was forthcoming. "I have met with all the different groups that have a stake in that ongoing work," she told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday. A large number of the report's recommendations sat with the social services minister, she said. Ms Wells is overseeing the response to the recommendations that advised a full advertising ban and the prohibition of betting inducements. The communications minister also pointed to the government implementing the self-exclusion register BetStop as part of the government cracking down on gambling harm, saying more than 44,000 people had signed up. Almost four in five were under the age of 40 and nearly two in five chose a lifetime ban, briefing materials prepared for the communications minister reveal. A review of BetStop is set to be finalised by February 2026. National Gambling Helpline 1800 858 858
Sydney Morning Herald
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Sydney Morning Herald
Never mind the economy, climate change is bad for the health
Your article (' Pocock springs test on fate of future children ', July 31) quotes Anthony Albanese, saying that rejecting any moratorium on new fossil fuel projects is 'disastrous for the economy'. Try telling that to the Greeks, or to the 33 million victims of the Pakistani floods in March, or to the flood and fire victims of the eastern half of Australia over recent years. Not only were these events 'disastrous for the economy', but at what cost to human health and welfare and to the environment? Bring on the moratorium. We cannot afford not to. Hugh Barrett, Sanctuary Point May the noise made by the main parties not drown out the sane and sensible discussion in federal decision-making. Changed thinking and behaviours are needed about the approval and assistance provided to fossil fuel projects. When community and expert concern and worsening outlooks concerning 'global boiling' are being raised time and time again, stronger federal leadership is needed. The public values considerations that go well beyond party-political eyes being focused on getting past the next election and maintaining sources of donations, and the current yet still modest 2030 and 2050 emissions reduction targets. Sue Dyer, Downer (ACT) Pocock's bill to force legislators to consider the impact on future generations of new fossil fuel licences will be unpopular with Labor if it threatens new coal and gas, which Labor relies on for revenue and to contain energy prices. It throws up in stark relief whether future generations must be considered against winning the next election. It seems surprising that it needs legislation. I was under the naive assumption that governments should consider all our welfare in any legislation anyway. Or is it only those who can afford lobbyists who are considered? The independents are doing a good job of forcing government to face up to difficult issues. Gary Barnes, Mosman Pocock says we have a 'moral duty to young people and future generations'. The burden on the youngest members of our society is not just logistical, it is an overwhelming emotional burden. Today's children and young people with whom I work as an occupational therapist are more anxious (scared, fearful, despondent) than this group have been in the last thirty years – and it is over climate. The rest of the article makes it clear that the federal Labor government is trying to shrink the scale of the task in our eyes. Their attempt to displace the emotional burden they promised to take up when they entered office is hurting our children right now. Jo Jackson King, Gidgegannup (WA)
