This document is part of an archive of postings on Australian Politics, a blog hosted by Blogspot who are in turn owned by Google. The index to the archive is available here or here. Indexes to my other blogs can be located here or here. Archives do accompany my original postings but, given the animus towards conservative writing on Google and other internet institutions, their permanence is uncertain. These alternative archives help ensure a more permanent record of what I have written. My Home Page. My Recipes. My alternative Wikipedia. My Blogroll. Email me (John Ray) here. NOTE: The short comments that I have in the side column of the primary site for this blog are now given at the foot of this document.

Two of my ancestors were convicts so my family has been in Australia for a long time. As well as that, all four of my grandparents were born in the State where I was born and still live: Queensland. And I am even a member of the world's second-most condemned minority: WASPs (the most condemned is of course the Jews -- which may be why I tend to like Jews). So I think I am as Australian as you can get. I certainly feel that way. I like all things that are iconically Australian: meat pies, Vegemite, Henry Lawson etc. I particularly pride myself on my familiarity with the great Australian slanguage. I draw the line at Iced Vo-Vos and betting on the neddies, however. So if I cannot comment insightfully on Australian affairs, who could?

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31 October, 2019

A-G backs silk over Labor campaigning

The swamp defends one of their own.  A politicized judiciary is OK if it's Leftist.  Nobody can see anything wrong about Qld Bar Association president Rebecca Treston QC handing out Leftist propaganda on the streets

Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath has declared her full confidence in state Bar Association president Rebecca Treston QC amid disquiet over the silk campaigning for Labor at the federal election. Ms D'Ath threw her weight behind the first woman to head the state Bar after The Weekend Australian revealed former president Christopher Hughes QC had written to federal Attorney-General Christian Porter dissociating himself from Ms Treston's actions.

Hitting out at Mr Hughes, Ms D'Ath said: "Mr Hughes has not written to the Queensland Attorney-General, who is responsible for making Queensland judicial appointments. "It is regrettable that Mr Hughes has chosen to politicise the matter by writing to the Commonwealth Attorney-General, who has no authority over state appointments."

Ms Treston said she was acting in a personal capacity when she donned a Labor T-shirt and handed how how-to-vote cards for her friend and ALP candidate Ali France before the May 18 federal election. This happened once, for only a few hours, she said. Ms Treston insisted she did not belong to a political party and her position did not preclude her from being "supportive to my friends".

In a shot at the federal government's quasi-judicial appointments in Queensland, Ms D'Ath said the state Labor government's selection process was transparent, unlike the Coalition, which "has no concern with appointing former LNP politicians and staffers" to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

"I have full confidence in Rebecca Treston QC, her leadership of the Bar and in the members of the Bar Association in Queensland," Ms D'Ath said.

Ms Treston's critics have cited her 'responsibilities to advise the state government on judicial appointments and consult over the designation of barristers as Queen's Counsels in arguing that she has compromised the supposedly apolitical standing of the Bar president.

The annual intake of QCs can be contentious because of the valuable stakes: the investiture of silk typically bumps up a barrister's earnings and prospects of advancement, including later appointment to the bench. This year's prospective crop in Queensland is being circulated for comment among Supreme Court judges by Chief Justice Catherine Holmes, who will provide recommendations to Ms D'Ath on who should get silk. An announcement is due by November 20.

Victorian Bar president Matthew Collins QC said he was not aware of rules anywhere in the country preventing the office-bearers of a legal representative body from being actively engaged in political campaigning. Asked whether this was appropriate conduct, Dr Collins said: "My concern would be about whether any conduct had undermined the ability of the office-bearer to engage in a constructive relationship with politicians from whatever side of politics. So it would depend very much on the circumstances."

Ms Treston said she had developed strong working relations with MPs on all sides, and would continue to represent the interests of barristers.

From "The Australian" of 28/10/2019






Chill out: lessons Joe Hockey says the US can learn from Australia

Australia’s Ambassador to the United States Joe Hockey has warned that the values that made America great are under pressure and that no-one should take the US-Australia alliance for granted.

In a blunt and at times emotional speech in New York, Mr Hockey who finishes his term in January, offered some heartfelt advice for the US from his observations in his four year posting.

“Patriotism, respect, freedom and hope are values that are essential for America to continue to be exceptional and they are all under extreme pressure in a world that is increasingly fraught,” Mr Hockey told the annual gala dinner of the American Australian Association on Wall St in New York.

Mr Hockey, who was presented with the AAA’s “Legend Award” for his services to Australia’s most important alliance, gave a speech that was generous towards the US but had a sting in its tail.

“Americans can learn from Australians as well,” the former Federal Treasurer said. “Your infrastructure is terrible. Your banking system is really hard work and I don’t understand your health care system.

“Americans also have to learn to chill and they should think a little bit more about bridging the divide between the haves and have-nots in a society that is broad, diverse and inherently generous,” Mr Hockey said.

His comments came less than a week after Mr Hockey, who enjoys a close relationship with the Trump White House, warned that the US was at risk of permanently abdicating its global leadership role if it continues down the route of trade protectionism.

Mr Hockey told the AAA dinner that the risk for both the US and Australia was that both countries took the relationship for granted.

Mr Hockey was introduced by the Secretary of the US Navy Richard Spencer who lauded the strength of the military relationship between the two nations.

The dinner of around 1000 people then watched a video about Mr Hockey’s time in the US which included tributes from singer Olivia Newton-John, golfers Greg Norman and Jan Stephenson and members of the Friends of Australia Caucus in the US Congress.

The night began with Mr Hockey’s favourite band, Human Nature, making a surprise appearance and singing for him as he walked into the building for the function.

For many months Mr Hockey had been trying to get Human Nature to perform at an Australian embassy function somewhere in the US. But the band, which has a solid regular gig in Las Vegas, was never available.

Hockey wanted them for the AAA gala dinner — but his minders said no they are not available.

Except that they were. Hockey stepped out of his car in the front of Cipriani’s Wall St where the AAA gala dinner was held and as he posed for a formal photo, Human Nature emerged from behind a concrete pillar to sing him a song in front of startled New York commuters. Hockey’s face said it all — he had no idea.

Among those also attending the dinner were former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and his wife Lucy and the chief executive of News Corp Robert Thomson.

Mr Hockey, who has been Ambassador since January 2016, has been credited with forging close personal connections with the Trump White House.

He has played an important role in helping navigate Australia’s most important alliance relationship through the turbulent Trump administration with an unpredictable president who has often lashed out at close allies.

Mr Hockey has largely ignored the traditional US State Department channels that ambassadors in Washington have relied upon and has instead sought to forge personal relationships inside the White House itself.

He has developed a close friendship with Mr Trump’s chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and has frequently played golf with both Mulvaney and the president.

During his tenure as ambassador Mr Hockey helped repair an early rift in the relationship when Mr Trump argued with then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull over the refugee deal in a phone call just days into his presidency in early 2017.

Mr Trump lashed out at the deal struck between Mr Turnbull and outgoing president Barack Obama to resettle refugees from Nauru into the United States and accused Mr Turnbull of wanting to export ‘the next Boston bombers’ to the US.

Months later Mr Hockey helped to organise a meeting between the two leaders in New York for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea – a meeting that helped put the relationship back on track.

Mr Hockey has also had to deal with the threat of Australia being hit by Mr Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs which he initially threatened to levy on US allies and rivals alike.

Mr Hockey was part of a successful government-wide lobbying effort to persuade the White House to grant Australia a special exemption from the tariffs.

Mr Hockey’s term ends in January when he will be replaced by former Senator and John Howard’s former chief of staff Arthur Sinodinos.

SOURCE  






The West Australian Government will ban students from using mobile phones in all public schools in a major push to reduce distraction and focus on learning

The ban, announced today by Premier Mark McGowan and Education Minister Sue Ellery, will come into effect from 2020.

The prohibition on phones will take effect during school hours, beginning from the time students arrive until the end of the school day, including before school and during break times.

"We want to create the best possible learning environment for WA kids and our policy will allow students to focus on their school work without the distraction of a mobile phone," Mr McGowan said.

With no phones, life returns to the schoolyard

The "off and away all day" policy comes after consultation with schools such as Ocean Reef High School that already had successful guidelines in place for controlling access to mobile phones.

Principal Karon Brookes said despite initial resistance from some students, the ban immediately reduced disruptions in the classroom and increased interaction in the schoolyard.

"Teachers felt that at every change of lesson, they weren't dealing with students and reminding them, prompting them to put away their phones," she said.

"But we also noticed this growing noise in the yard … students were actually talking, laughing and engaging with each other."
Ms Brookes said the school set up extra activities at recess and lunch breaks to help students get used to the new policy.

One Year 11 student at Ocean Reef Senior High School, ZJ Tan, said the ban had paid dividends. "We are not distracted by notifications, so we are more focused in class and we are aware of what homeworks are given out [and] when assignments are due. So grades have improved," she said.

The ban restricts the use of mobile phones, smart watches, earbuds, tablets and headphones unless students are under the instruction of a staff member.

Students from kindergarten to Year 6 will not be permitted to have mobile phones in their possession during the school day.

Students from Years 7 to 12 must have their phones turned off during school hours and kept off and out of sight until the end of the school day.

Additionally, under the new policy, smart watches must be set to airplane mode.

Mr McGowan said exemptions to the policy would be made for students with special circumstances, including those who needed to monitor a health condition, were under the direct instruction of a teacher for educational purposes or had teacher permission for a specified purpose.

Education Minister Sue Ellery told ABC Radio Perth the ban, which had been trialled at six secondary schools, had been relatively well received. "Most of [the students] said they found it useful to have a break," she said. "Some of them whinged a little bit, but nobody said that it was completely unreasonable."

Ms Ellery said teachers would also be allowed to give students permission to use their phone — for example, to take photos of work on whiteboards or to confirm shifts with employers.

She said while other states pointed to the rise of cyberbullying as motivation for similar bans, that was not the case in WA.

"I don't know that it will do that of itself, because most of that happens actually outside of school hours," she said.

"But if this policy helps kids form the habit of having a break and knowing that the world isn't going to end, the sky isn't going to fall down, if you're not on social media 24/7.
"That will probably help with cyberbullying as well."

Ms Ellery said the response at Ocean Reef Senior High School, one of the schools to have trialled the ban, gave her confidence the change would be a success.

"When they introduced the policy at the start of last school year, they were amazed," she said. "They hadn't anticipated the level of noise in the playground at lunchtime because kids were actually talking to each other."

SOURCE  





$102m to help keep the lights on

The usefulness of interconnetors consists in some suppliers having excess capacity. With all states shutting down traditional generators, that seems to be less and less likely.  It's a poor substitute for new coal or gas-fired generators

An upgrade of the Queensland-NSW Interconnector will be underwritten by Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in a move to increase competition between generators in the electricity market and drive down wholesale energy prices amid pressure from coal station closures.

The federal and NSW governments will underwrite the project up to $102m to help TransGrid fast-track early works ahead of final approvals by the Australian Energy Regulator.

Ahead of the Liddell coal-fired power station closing in the Hunter Valley in 2023, the Prime Minister said unlocking transmission infrastructure was crucial in ensuring the future of the NSW energy grid. "This is about putting downward pressure on wholesale prices so businesses and households have access to reliable and affordable power," he said.

"Industry needs certainty. They need to know their electricity won't cut out, and their power bill won't suddenly double. "You can't run a business like that, and you can't employ people. That's why we are underwriting this interconnector. It's a practical step to make sure it happens, and it happens quickly."

Support for the interconnector upgrade is separate to the Morrison government underwriting the new generation investments program, which has shortlisted 12 renewable pumped hydro, gas and coal upgrade projects in NSW, South Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria.

In mid-2018, the Australian Energy Market Operator released an integrated system plan outlining transmission investments required to preserve long-term affordability and reliability in the national electricity market.

The QNI project, which will provide an extra 190MW of transmission capacity from Queensland to NSW and an upgrade of the Victoria/NSW interconnector provide an extra 170M W. of transmission capacity, were identified as key priorities by the AEMO.

Upgraded interconnectors would increase wholesale market competition in NSW and push down prices. Upgrades would also provide a reliability buffer in NSW, delivering an extra 360MW of supply across the state during peak demand.

Ms Berejiklian said her government committed to the QNI up-grade to "ease cost of living pressures across NSW" and provide "reliable and affordable power to households and businesses".

"Last year, the NSW government announced its transmission infrastructure strategy, which outlined our commitment to accelerate the delivery of key interconnector projects, including the QNI," Ms Berejiklian said.  The joint federal-state agreement, of which the Commonwealth's liability is capped to a maximum of $51m, will see upgrades to the QNI brought forward to late-2021 and help cushion the impact of the Liddell closure.

Regulatory approvals for the QNI project were progressing under the NSW transmission infrastructure strategy but further action would be required to ensure the upgraded QNI was "fully operational by the summer of 2022-23".

Under the arrangement, the federal and state governments
would be liable only for early work costs not yet approved by the AER. TransGrid chief executive Paul Italiano said the underwriting commitment was essential to the "early delivery" of the transmission project: "TransGrid is building the interconnector to ensure a reliable supply of electricity to cus-tomers over the summers ahead and as older, coal-fired generators shut down."

NSW Energy Minister Matt Kean said the project would help "keep the lights on and keep power costs down as the energy market transitions", while federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor said NSW industries required lower energy prices and reliable transmission to protect jobs.

From "The Australian" of 28/10/2019





In defence of the recent Leunig toon



It behoves me to defend Michael Leunig, despite having never met him, nor warming to the whiny tone of his cartoons, and holding a bit of a grudge against him because he didn't support his fellow cartoonist, the late, great Bill Leak, in his hour of need.

Still, we need to stand by Leunig because the bullying handed out to him in the searing world of social media is another assault on free expression. Were he around today, Leak would be in Leunig's corner, showing a solidarity too many spared for him.

Leak was probably helped into his early grave in 2017 because of a nasty and illiberal pile-on over his provocative cartoon about indigenous community dysfunction. He was given the full thought-police treatment under Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

In miserable comments soon after Leak's death, Leunig said Leak had probably been "egged on" by others to draw his "cruel" cartoon that was a "terrible mistake". He could hardly have been more insulting, wrong or cowardly.

Still, when Leunig last week dared to suggest that some of us —in his drawing, a mum — might be distracted from the better and more important things in life by our smartphones, all hell broke loose. A social media barrage attacked Leunig for things he did not choose — his age, sex and skin colour — as well as for his cartoon.

On Channel 10's The Project Leunig was denounced as a'"dinosaur" and a "74-year-old dude" who' was "targeting mums" and has "form going after women and mums in particular". We were told it was "time he exited the public sphere for good".

At least Leunig didn't confront an AHRC investigation trying to taint him as sexist or racist. But the vigour and tone of the public shaming was worrying; not seeking to disagree or discuss but to silence, condemn and de-platform.

Lucky for Leunig, some cartoonists are consistent. Leak's old mate, The Daily Telegraph's Warren Brown, defended Leunig from what he called an "extraordinary" overreaction. 'We've all copped it out of the blue," Brown sympathised. "A cartoon is about making people think."

Yep, Leunig gave some readers pause to think. Well played, Warren, Bill would have loved your work, and he would have rung you to say so, not deferred to social media.

From "The Australian" of 28/10/2019

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






30 October, 2019

Senator Amanda Stoker exposes our unjust universities

Bettina Arndt

Finally, I am seeing some real action from my campus campaign. I’m just back from meetings with parliamentarians in Canberra, including the outstanding Queensland Senator, Amanda Stoker.

Yesterday Amanda put on a brilliant display, grilling TEQSA, the university regulator, in Senate Estimates committee about the higher education sector’s abysmal failure to protect the rights of the accused in new rape regulations now in operation in universities across Australia.

Watch the bureaucrats squirm when she rightly points out that the regulations contain barely one word about ensuring proper legal rights for accused young men. It is a disgrace that TEQSA has been shown to have cow towed to feminist lobby groups and bullied universities into adjudicating rape on campus, shelving the legal rights of the accused and using lower standards of proof to ensure more convictions.

Remember it was Senator Stoker who put pressure on TEQSA over my Sydney University protest last year, which ultimately led to the French Inquiry and universities now reluctantly introducing voluntary free speech codes.

Now Amanda is promising to help the regulator ensure they address the appalling bias in their own instructions to universities regarding this issue.

I have a team of serious players on board. We have a number of plans of attack to persuade universities to leave the serious crime of sexual assault to be dealt with by our criminal law system, which is designed to offer proper justice to both sides in these cases. I’ll be writing about some of the other fascinating developments in the weeks to come but couldn’t resist sending you the Stoker video today. I’m really keen that we circulate this as widely as possible.

This is a shot across the bows of the feminists who have been had the running on this issue for so long.  And the more people who know about it the better.

Here are the links you can use to view the video and circulate it on social media.

Facebook video:

https://www.facebook.com/thebettinaarndt/videos/3415892945102495/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/thebettinaarndt/status/1187570064368627712?s=20

Email from Bettina Arndt: Bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au





Climate abounds with deception

Chris Kenny

Blatant deception has become endemic in what is an extreme debate on global warming. The alarmists who sneer at so-called climate deniers are, all too often, fact deniers. The ABC and The Guardian Australia have shown when the assessments of climate scientists don't fit their catastrophist narrative, they are prepared to ignore or verbal scientists and attack other media for sharing the information.

Consider a forum at the University of Sydney on "The Business of Making Climate Change" in June that included the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes director Andrew Pitman. Asked about climate and drought, Professor Pitman said this:

"This may not be what you expect to hear but as far as the climate scientists know there is no link between climate change and drought. Now, that may not be what you read in the newspapers and sometimes hear commented but there is no reason a priori why climate change should make the landscape more arid. "And if you look at the Bureau of Meteorology data over the whole of the last 100 years there's no trend in data, there's no drying trend, there's been a drying trend in the last 20 years but there's been no drying trend in the last 100 years and that's an expression of how variable the Australian rainfall climate is."

You will not have heard that comment, in full, on the ABC, nor read it in The Guardian Australia; yet they have run many comments from Greens and Labor politicians saying the drought is linked to climate change. This self-censorship is extraordinary enough because there could hardly be a more relevant and factual contribution from such a reputable source that puts the lie to the political posturing over a crippling drought that is dominating political debate.

But it gets worse. What the ABC's MediaWatch did a fortnight ago, and The Guardian Australia replicated last week, is run cut-down versions of that quote and accuse me and others at Sky News of misrepresenting Professor Pitman. That's right, it is commentators sharing a reputable climate scientist's own words, uncut, that they criticise.

These journalists failed to run the pertinent information but slammed others for running it. Their tenuous justification is a statement from Professor Pitman's centre claiming he should have said "no direct link" rather than "no link". The insertion of the word "direct" into his assessment is mere semantics and changes nothing. Indeed the statement begs the question of how and why this ex post facto qualification came about, not directly from Professor Pitman, but from his centre.

In that June forum Professor Pitman also said the "fundamental" problem in this field of science is that "we don't understand what causes droughts" — again under-scoring the absence of a climate change/drought link. Last week he was reported on the topic again in The Guardian Australia "But the fact that I can't establish something does not make it true or false, it just means I can't establish it."

Astonishingly, the website argued this quote bolstered its claims of misrepresentation when clearly it reaffirms his critical point; there is no link established between our drought and global warming. The evidence is in, no matter how much it is buried, denied and spun away by the ABC and Guardian Australia.

All of Professor Pitman's comments demonstrate that politicians are making a link between global warming and drought that climate scientists have not established. In comparison, some of us at Sky News have run Professor Pitman's comments in full a number of times, drawn our conclusions, asked others to comment and allowed audiences to make their own judgments.

Additionally, I have repeatedly invited Professor Pitman to discuss the issues, live and uncut to air. He shrinks away. We can imagine it is difficult for scientists to have their work pushed and pulled for political point-scoring but they have a public duty to share the facts.

Professor Pitman's work is being grossly misrepresented by the ABC and The Guardian Australia, who argue the opposite to his declared reality. His centre should be clearing the air but is doing the opposite.

The dishonesty of the reporting by Paul Barry's Media Watch, at your expense, is stunning. They cut, trim and misrepresent what has been broadcast on Sky News, fail to ask pertinent questions of Professor Pitman and try to convince the public that his research shows the exact opposite of what he has said repeatedly.

There has seldom been a clearer demonstration of George Orwell's 1984 maxim: "War is Peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength."

The Guardian Australia should be left to its own devices, I suppose, but Ita Buttrose should not sit idly by and allow Media Watch to implement the antithesis ofthe ABC's charter mission.

From "The Australian of 28/10/2019






Police arrest over 40 climate activists outside IMARC conference in Melbourne

More than 40 climate protesters have now been arrested after police doused them with capsicum spray as they clashed outside an international mining conference in Melbourne.

The activists were aiming to shut down the International Mining and Resources Conference at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre which began on Tuesday and is being attended by thousands of global delegates.

Victoria Police Acting Commander Tim Tully said the majority of offences related to failing to obey police direction or intentionally obstructing an emergency service worker.

Two people were arrested in relation to cruelty to animals after they allegedly struck a police horse.

Commander Tully said four police officers have been injured while making arrests with three taken to hospital for injuries including a dislocated finger and minor head injuries.

One woman was taken to hospital after she allegedly was injured by a police horse and a man was treated at the scene for a minor cut to his head.

“The police operation is ongoing,” Commander Tully said. “However Victoria Police would like to state that any action taken by officers this morning has been in response to the protesters’ activity and in accordance with training.”

From 6am, activists from 11 different groups began blocking entry to the conference amid a heavy police presence. Clashes erupted between police and the protesters who held up signs calling for mining to be “shut down” as they tried to push back the police line.

“We have the right to demonstrate, this is not a police state,” the activists chanted. Protesters also blocked Clarendon Street at Southbank.

One police officer received minor injuries during the arrests and was transported to hospital for treatment. A protester was also taken to hospital in a stable condition after she was injured by a police horse.

Capsicum spray was fired into the crowd, with officers yelling at protesters to “get back” as attendees attempted to enter the conference.

The activists picketed at multiple entrances to the centre, chanting “land rights not mining rights, shut IMARC [the conference] down” and “blood on your hands” as they pushed back against a police line.

Just after 7am, police deployed horses to protect the entrance to the conference. Two people were arrested in relation to cruelty to animal offences for assaulting a police horse. These are summary offences.

Protester Emma Black from the Blockade IMARC Activist Alliance said the police tactics had been quite aggressive. “There’s been very little communication from the police when they would like to move us,” she said “They’ve just been storming us, pushing us.”

Ms Black said she had been hit with a police baton on her right arm which was extremely swollen. She said her arms were raised and was trying to get out of the way when the officer hit her. Ms Black said she didn’t witness the alleged attack on a police horse but said she couldn’t understand why the protesters who were generally aligned with animal rights would target a horse.

She said the point of today was to get the message of the protest which was to stand up against “ecocide and for human rights’’.

“It was always going to be impossible for us to shut down the whole thing without having tens of thousands of people,” she said.

More than 7000 delegates from about 100 countries are attending the three-day conference and organisers say the protest action is based on misconceptions about the mining industry.

Among them is Craig Ian McGown, chairman at Pioneer Resources, who said he had a bottle of water emptied over him, had been pushed and forced to walk 40 metres with a woman next to him shouting “shame”.

“I’m just very confused by people having too much time off,” he said. “I’m just in attendance at the conference because my company is involved in major projects that can help the country move forward.”

The conference organisers said in a statement: “There is a misconception that as an industry mining does not operate with sustainable principles in mind”.

Mining was vital for the production of electricity, solar panels, electric car batteries, pacemakers and medical apparatus and public transport, they said. This year the conference will consider the importance of battery minerals, used in the emerging electric car market, and the growing importance of ethical investment for resource companies.

The mining and resources conference is scheduled to run for three days. Protesters plan to disrupt all three days of the conference and will be joined by Victorian Greens Leader Samantha Ratnam on Tuesday and federal Greens MP Adam Bandt on Wednesday.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack described the protests as “disgraceful, absolutely disgraceful”.

The Extinction Rebellion group ran a week of climate protests early in the month and Victoria Police acting commander Tim Tully predicted on Monday that activists would ramp up their methods this week.

“We expect to see heightened tactics by the protest groups,” he told reporters in Melbourne. “Our intelligence would suggest that the protesters have been planning, and are well co-ordinated, to undertake different tactics to what we saw, or very similar tactics to what we saw, in the recent protest activity.

“We are well prepared to respond.”

Victorian opposition leader Michael O’Brien said people should be allowed to go about their business without being confronted by “constant demonstrations”.

“It’s turning Melbourne into a joke and unless the premier starts giving the police the powers they need to do with it, it’s just going to continue and go on,” he said.

SOURCE  




Union to Labor party: change tack on trade or cash stops

They are dead against further immigration.

The 'CFMEU will not donate another cent to the Labor Party if it continues to support free-trade policies that the union says hurt Australian jobs.'

National construction division boss Dave Noonan also says the party has been overrun by "broken-down Tony Blair spin doctors". who have orchestrated a conflict with his union for political gain.

In a defiant interview with The Weekend Australian at the end of the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union's five-day national conference in Adelaide, Mr Noonan declared his division's besieged Victorian chief, John Setka, an "asset" to the CFMEU who had been treated "unfairly" by Anthony Albanese.

Mr Noonan also backed 'Mr Setka's assessment that Labor was "losing its soul" by signing up to trade deals that allow foreign workers into Australia. He said there were about l.4 million Workers in the country on temporary visas who were being underpaid and driving down wages and conditions for Australians.

He warned that as long as Labor backed 'the government's free-trade deals', it should not expect any more donations from the union, which has handed more than $13m to the ALP since 2000, almost all of it from Mr Setka's Victorian branch.

"We will not be donating to any political party that does not put the interests of Australian workers first," he said "When we think Labor has got it wrong we will call it out. We are certainly not donating any money out of this conference. We are not going to be going out funding politicians who undermine job security. "We don't understand why the Labor Party is going down this path. We were trying to point out to them the level of wage theft that's going on with workers on temporary work visas.

Mr Noonan said Labor was confused about what it stood for as it tried to retain its appeal to blue-collar workers while seeking support from inner-city professional voters. "It's not just about Albo," he said. "The party needs to have a good look at itself. You will never out-green the Greens. They should look to working people — not just blue-collar workers, but in other industries such as IT who are getting underpaid."

His comments cap the end of a CFMEU conference that exploded into life courtesy of Mr Setka and his searing attack on the Federal Opposition Leader on Wednesday. He announced then that he would nor be appealing against his expulsion from the ALP

The Weekend Australian has been told Mr Setka was hailed as a hero by delegates for standing up tothe Labor leader. Mr Noonan confirmed there was strong support for Mr Setka across the CFMEU

Excerpt from "The Weekend Australian" of 26/10/2019





Morrison is on top of Australia's "swamp"

Sharri Markson

John Barilaro made a disturbing admission one Friday evening when he sat down to chat with me on Sky News. He said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and he, the Deputy Premier, do not run the state of NSW. "Unfortunately one of my frustrations is that the bureaucracy does," he complained.

As he publicly ruminated about whether he should leave his plum job as Deputy Premier, Barilaro expressed his grievance about the public servants that stop projects being built or policies being implemented in the state that is Australia's economic powerhouse.

"A lot of these bureaucrats, and I'm going to admit this, I believe that 12 months leading into the last election in March, mate, they were sitting idle thinking there was going to be a change of government and it's time to square that little ledger up. I want to get on with building projects," Barilaro said in the August interview.

For him to make this admission publicly indicates how high his level of agitation must be behind the scenes. It's quite extraordinary that, in Barilaro's opinion, not even the Premier can get stuff done in NSW, blocked by an obstructionist public service.

It partly explains why Barilaro is weighing up a move to Canberra, should Mike Kelly leave Parliament and spark a by-election in Eden Monaro. But a more important question than Barilaro's political future is, who gives these faceless public servants power?

There is a familiar scenario. A new minister is sworn in, heaving with policy ideas to implement, which they may even speak about in media interviews. But they are quickly put back in their box as the advice from their department comes back that their innovative solutions cannot be implemented, due to one constraint or another.

Scott Morrison faced this as immigration minister when he wanted to turn back the boats. However, he quickly worked out how to drive the agenda using his personal leadership, rather than become a puppet for a department that has seen a revolving door of politicians. It's why one of his earliest moves after being elected Prime Minister was to haul every departmental secretary into the Cabinet room and make it clear who was in charge: Him. Not them.

He laid down the law and said they work for the government and not vice versa. He used an analogy from his rugby coach, which he has since repeated, calling it the bacon and egg principle: the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. He used it to say that accountability to the public ultimately lay on his shoulders, not theirs.

Since then, Martin Parkinson stepped down as secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and there is expected to be another high-profile head of a department leaving in the near future.

Unlike Parkinson, this anticipated resignation is understood to be a case of the department head not being aligned with Morrison's agenda. If a department secretary is not on board, it becomes a clash of cultures.

Before any Home Affairs opponents get their hopes up, the person leaving is not Home Affairs Secretary Michael Pezzullo. His position may have been on shaky ground momentarily, as a result of a perception he was trying to do the "pre-election Olympics" as the business of the AFP referral for the media raids, but his role is secure and has the confidence of the PM.

Another public service appointment Morrison is really happy about is the new Treasury Secretary, Dr Steven Kennedy, who was formerly head of the Infrastructure Department. "He's a Labor guy but gets things done," a senior figure remarked.

Morrison has more contact with the heads of department than usual as a result of policy "deep dives" he is conducting in areas he thinks need extra attention like veterans' health, recycling, the drought, the NDIS, taxation and indigenous health. He has done about a dozen since the election and has about eight to go this year.

The sessions involve the relevant minister, backbenchers that have a particular interest in the policy area, the department heads and other senior public services figures. They have a two or three-hour meeting to run through all the problems in the space and discuss what can be done to bring about change.

The only drawback with this hands-on approach of Morrison's is when it comes to a policy area like drought, Morrison's ownership of the drought may be as problematic as Malcolm Turnbull's was of electricity prices.

Electricity prices were considered a state government issue before Turnbull decided he would campaign on lowering prices and solving the energy crisis. It was a decision that ultimately cost him hiS leaderShip.

Now, there are concerns within the Government that Morrison is doing the same thing with the drought; personally taking responsibility for an incredibly complex problem he will not be able to solve.

While it is risky, and has already proved politically damaging for Morrison, Aussie farmers deserve attention from the very top, with the best minds in Government focused on how Australia can set itself up better for the next drought. These farmers deserve more than just bureaucrats, they deserve leaders.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail of 26/10/2019

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here







29 October, 2019

How the world's Leftist media has reacted to the Uluru climbing ban

With hate, predictably. That the climbers might have been motivated by simple adventure-seeking hasn't occurred to them

We also get a glimpse of that unique leftist logic whereby being denied a privilege (the privilege of climbing the rock at any time) counts s white privilege.  Its like arguing with a madman.  Their seething hatred of the ordinary people doing the climbing trumps all else


Media outlets around the world have reacted to the permanent closure of public access to Australia’s most iconic landmark, Uluru.

Rangers at the sandstone monolith closed the climb — a decade’s old tradition of visitors both local and from around the world — at 4pm Friday, after the ban was unanimously voted on in 2017.

A new sign was set up at the base of the rock, notifying visitors that the climb was now permanently closed, almost 34 years to the day since the Anangu people — the traditional owners of the land — were handed back the title to Uluru.

From today, climbing will be punishable by a $6,300 fine.

The decision to ban the climb has divided Australians and those around the world for months in the lead-up to its closure.

And a final scramble of visitors yesterday hoping to be among the last to climb the rock — after months of thousands trekking to the Red Centre — has been described by a writer for The New York Times as “a reminder that a segment of the population remains resistant to some of the decisions indigenous people make when ownership of land is returned to them.”

“They have absolutely no shame,” one reader wrote on Twitter about the flock of climbers. “This is what white privilege looks like in Australia.”

“The lengthy queue of people waiting for one last crack at violating indigenous rights before the white government finally puts an end to it is pretty depressing,” wrote another commenter on the publication’s website.

While the ban is “a once-unimaginable act of deference to a marginalised population,” writes the piece’s author Jamie Tarabay, it is “a partly symbolic gesture that does nothing to address the myriad social problems endured by indigenous Australians.”

“Many of the Anangu themselves live in a trash-strewn community near the rock that is closed to visitors, a jarring contrast to the exclusive resorts that surround the monolith, where tourists seated at white tablecloths drink sparkling wines and eat canapes as the setting sun turns Uluru a vivid red.”

There a certain parts of Uluru so sacred that the Anangu people don’t want it photographed or even touched, writes Tarabay, yet tourists are welcomed to “tool around its base on camels or Segways, or take art lessons in its shadow.”

The climbers were like “a little ant trail,” tweeted one reader of The Washington Postwho published an article titled, “The last climb up Australia’s majestic Uluru”.

The Outback monolith is sacred to indigenous people, who have long implored visitors not to ascend the rock and have now imposed a ban on climbing it.

The Guardian echoed the sentiment of Central Land Council member Sammy Wilson in a cartoon posted overnight — written in the Pitjantjatjara language of the Anangu people — with the message
English. Uluru is a very important place, it's not Disneyland.

“As a result of Aboriginal people asking white people not to do something, hordes of tourists are hurrying in their thousands to do the exact opposite before time runs out,” the cartoon read.

Readers of the BBC’s coverage on the climbing ban have also reflected the world’s shock at Australian’s attitude toward climbing Uluru.

BBC News (World)

“I am truly embarrassed for these humans,” tweeted one reader, while another said, “It’s 2019, and the cultural white patriarchy still struggle with their greed. I am embarrassed for some of these interviewees — dripping in their own self entitlement and disrespect for the true landowners and spirit.”

It’s now time, Phil Mercer wrote in a piece for the publication, for the Anangu people to “rest and heal.”

“The Anangu believe that in the beginning, the world was unformed and featureless. Ancestral beings emerged from this void and travelled across the land, creating all living species and forms,” Mercer wrote.

“Uluru is the physical evidence of the feats performed by ancestral beings during this creation time.”

Independent media organisation NPR was one of the many to report on the closure. One reader tweeted, “If this was America, we would just add a gift shop on the top of it and continue to discriminate against the natives. Hopefully Australia treats its Natives better than we do here in America.”

“For the rock’s Aboriginal owners, whose tenure here goes back tens of thousands of years, this a momentous decision, one they have dreamed of and worked toward for decades,” wrote Kennedy Warne for National Geographic.

“Imagine the euphoria felt by the Aboriginal owners when the park board voted unanimously to end climbing.”

SOURCE  




Call for demerit points for unions

Senate crossbenchers have urged the Morrison government to soften proposed laws making it easier to ban union officials and deregister unions, calling on the Coalition to consider "extensive changes" including a demerit points scheme for law-breaking officials.

Attorney-General and Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter said amendments proposed to the Ensuring Integrity Bill by Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick in a Senate inquiry report released on Friday "appear largely workable".

With Labor and the Greens opposed, the government requires four of six crossbench votes when the bill, and the Worker Entitlement Fund bill, are voted on by the Senate in about two weeks.

Senator Patrick said Centre Alliance could not support the Ensuring Integrity Bill in its current form as it was like using a "sledgehammer to crack a nut". While a small number of unions and officials had not respected the law, he said the current bill would likely result in the disqualification of officials and deregistration of unions that were "by and large, involved in good".

Calling for the government to drop the proposed public interest test for union mergers, he said it was Centre Alliance's strong view that law-abiding organisations should be allowed to amalgamate without interference.

He said Mr Porter and employers should not be able to apply to deregister a union or ban an official. "Only an independent and impartial registered organisation commissioner should be permitted to make such an application," he said.

Courts should be given more discretion when considering whether to make an adverse order, while a provision allowing automatic disqualification for convictions in a foreign country should be scrapped.

Senator Patrick said the bill allowed a court application for disqualification of a union official or deregistration of a union to be made for trivial or technical breaches of the law. He said a different approach that addressed minor breaches without disqualification or deregistration must be adopted.

"A demerit points scheme similar to that used for drivers' licences could be adopted," he said. "Under the drivers' licence scheme, minor breaches are penalised but don't give rise to licence cancellation. Significant breaches or repetitive minor breaches could. Like a drivers' licence scheme, the passage of time should see a drop-off of accumulated demerit points.

"If a similar scheme is incorpor-ated, an application to the court under this bill should only be possible once a particular demerit threshold is reached."

Referring to the conduct of construction unions and officials, Senator Patrick said the behaviour had been "by any standard incorrigible, never expressing regret, or contrition; never admitting wrongdoing or accepting fault despite judgments finding evidence to the contrary".

Government members on the Senate committee supported the bill without amendment while Labor and the Greens produced dissenting reports. Mr Porter said the government would "closely examine the suggestions" by Centre Alliance. "I have been engaging with Senator Rex Patrick and, on the face of it, his suggested changes appear largely workable and a resolution is now much closer," Mr Porter said.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry welcomed Senator Patrick's comments. "The suggestion, in particular, to amend the bill to mandate consideration of the gravity of the offences by the court has merit," the chamber's deputy director of workplace relations, Tamsin Lawrence, said.

ACTU president Michele O'Neil said unions were concerned the Centre Alliance proposals would fail to address the bill's "extreme and biased nature".

Excerpt from "The Weekend Australian" of 26/10/2019





Conservative alliance targets climate army

The new voice of Australia’s conservative movement has vowed to go after radical left-wing groups in a national campaign against “clim­ate alarmists”, after accusing members of activist group Extinction Rebel­lion of being criminals who pose a menace to society.

Liz Storer, a 36-year-old former Liberal councillor and ministerial adviser, will be announced on Wednesday as the new national director of ­centre-right campaign machine Advance Australia, which has positione­d itself as the political counter to GetUp.

Her appointment comes as GetUp’s national director, Paul Oosting, fronts the National Press Club on Wednesday amid internal inquiries into its failed campaign to unseat a list of targeted conservative MPs at the May election.

But Ms Storer said while GetUp was on her radar, her first campaign­ would be aimed at Extinctio­n Rebellion, which has risen from obscurity to promin­ence in the past week by closing down traffic in the CBDs of Brisbane and Melbourne.

“These people are seriously unhinged­,” Ms Storer said. “They are going to be one of our first campaigns­ … These guys are very strategic but the truth is they are not a climate change action group.

“They may market themselves that way. They are hell bent on deconstructing society as we know it … they operate on a manifesto of delusions based on a rejection of European colonisation and trad­itional values that most mainstream Australians hold dear.

“They are a menace to society … We saw last week the Victorian police saying they had to stop ­normal policing to deal with them. ER are proving to be the real crim­inals …. Gluing themselves to streets (and) hanging from ­bridges.”

Ms Storer, who has a masters degree in human rights and was elected to the suburban Perth council of Gosnells before becoming an adviser to conservative federal Coalition senator and assist­ant minister Zed Seselja, said the militant advance of climate activism had not been effectively ­challenged and that Advance Australia’s mission was to be the voice of “mainstream Australia”.

It would also run counter campaigns against MPs with “radical agendas” and run lobbying and public campaigns against state governments over activism in the education system.

“A mate of mine called me this morning to tell me his daughter had texted him from school to tell him that her teacher said a third of their class would be dead by 2050 because of climate change,” Ms Storer said. “Climate anxiety is becoming­ a real thing.”

While Advance Australia is heavily outgunned by established groups such as GetUp, it quickly raised $2.5m in donations with a 45,000-strong supporter base in its first 12 months of operation since being formed in November last year with the backing of prominent businessmen including Maurice Newman and James Power of the Queensland brewing dynasty.

“GetUp are a well-oiled mach­ine and we are in our infancy,” Ms Storer said. “But we intend to even the score. There is clout in the silent­ majority … we saw that at the May election.”

GetUp’s Mr Oosting, who ran the left-wing group’s failed election campaign strategy to unseat a rump of conservative MPs, will deliver a speech at the National Press Club on Wednesday titled Politics Belongs to Everyone.

GetUp, which launched internal and external reviews after the May 18 election, has been targeted by Scott Morrison and Coalition frontbenchers, who have accused the political activist group of being a front for Labor and the Greens.

A prominent Liberal Party ­figure said the group had struggled to gain traction but claimed the appointmen­t of Ms Storer signalled a significant gear shift in the conservative­ movement’s battle against the left-wing lobby. “I do love kicking doors,” Ms Storer said.

SOURCE  





Outcomes-based school funding easier said than done

There’s good reason to support government rhetoric about becoming more ‘outcomes-driven’. Who doesn’t want “an ongoing focus on value for money” as proposed by the NSW Government’s approach?

Momentum has been gathering to correct the misplaced perspective that sees education issues exclusively in terms of inputs (namely, how much money is being pumped in), to one based on outcomes.

This flips the conventional wisdom that funding should be decided simply according to the students coming into a school, to one based on what schools are actually doing for their students.

The evidence of today’s unwise and ineffective spending is seen in the ongoing decline in student achievement.

However, introducing new outcomes-based school funding reform is proving to be easier said than done.

Buoyed by the NSW Education Minister’s promise to “ensure that we match education funding to outcomes”, an ambitious parliamentary inquiry was established earlier this year to investigate “measurement and outcomes-based funding for schools.”

This is a natural extension to the NSW Treasurer’s bold plans for “shifting to a focus on outcomes” when it comes to public finances more broadly. At the same time, the NSW Productivity Commission has prioritised lifting school performance and education outcomes in its quest to lift the state’s productivity.

Teachers and school leaders want what’s best for their students, but current funding arrangements don’t support these aims.

For instance, a school receives additional funding for enrolling more students, particularly those suffering from disadvantage, but there are no implications — such as financial incentives —  nor accompanying checks on, how well, or poorly, these students are served.

An outcomes-based funding approach would benefit all students because schools and educators would have clear incentives to improve teaching and learning practices.

Yet, before the committee had the opportunity to hold hearings into reform, the policy approach became muddled, with the Education Department suggesting that any change would merely be “a different financial practice” and that “there will be no change to the way schools are funded and operated.”

A reasonable observer might then ask: if there is no change to the funding and operation of schools, what, and how, are educational outcomes expected to improve?

For genuine outcomes-based funding, the OECD suggests applying financial consequences for over- or under-achievement of performance objectives, which should be supported by performance management. Yet, recent evidence has highlighted that performance management is all but non-existent in NSW schools — which goes some way to explain the poor educational outcomes being experienced.

It’s true that there are pre-existing commitments to so-called ‘needs-based’ school funding — that is, funding is supposed to be redistributed for equity purposes. But ensuring that schools deliver outcomes for students, and deliver better value for money, cannot be considered mutually exclusive to needs-based principles.

It is hard to see that a change in the accounting treatment of corporate departmental line items could have any impact on educational outcomes. It would seem that what’s on the table could be more of an accounting change rather than accountability one.

But a change in accounting treatment is no substitute for educational reform. The NSW government should not permit another opportunity to go by to introduce genuine school funding reform that cares about how money is spent, not just how much.

SOURCE  






Sydney University academics free to criticise under free speech charter

Sydney University intends to protect the right of staff to criticise the institution as part of its response to a national review of free speech in higher education.

The university's academic board will next month consider reforms to the Charter of Academic Freedom that would bring it into line with a free speech code proposed by former chief justice Robert French.

The reforms include clarifying that professional staff were free to express their "lawful opinions" about the university, and there were no restrictions on staff making public comment on any issue in their personal capacity.

It also recommends free protest should be permitted on university land, but should not be exercised in a way that prevents the free speech of others, causes property damage or physical risk to others.

The univeristy's report, written by academics in consultation with staff and student unions, also recommends the charter be renamed the Charter of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom.

Sydney University was the stage for one of the controversies that prompted the Morrison government to launch the review, when protesters tried to stop commentator Bettina Arndt from speaking at a campus event.

Another was a furore over James Cook University's decision to sack marine physicist Peter Ridd after he criticised colleagues, including a coral researcher at his own university, who he described as having no "clue about the weather".

SOURCE  

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






28 October, 2019

Sydney university abolishing its chair in Australian literature

Literature has an important role in enriching people's lives. I greatly enjoyed my own literary studies of long ago. And formal literary studies have an undoubted role in introducing people to works they might not otherwise come to know. So this decision seems like a step in the wrong direction to me. I personally think that taxpayer-funded education should primarily be vocationally focused but it would be a bleak system that did not also have some role for personal development.

So what's behind this decision? It's pretty clearly a part of the Leftist attack on patriotism. The Left want us all to become undifferentiated internationalists. It's only a slight revision of the old aim to create a "New Soviet Man". The corrupt United Nations is the great multicolored hope of the Left. Mr Trump strikes at their very heart

There is a lot of distinctively Australian literature and I think a lot of it is pretty good -- Patrick White and Kath Walker excepted. It introduces us to times and places in Australia that we would not usually come to know about otherwise.


Publisher Michael Heyward has launched an attack on the University of Sydney, describing the sandstone institution's decision to cut off funding for its Australian literature chair as a "shocking betrayal of readers and writers" that "reveals a contempt for books"

The university recently said it had withdrawn internal funding for the chair; the oldest and most prestigious of its type in AUstralia, while it searched for external funding for the role.

The move, which follows the retirement of the university's fourth professor of Australian literature, Robert Dixon, shocked many as the chair was the nation's first dedicated professorship of Australian literature when it was set up 57 years ago.

Heyward, managing director of Melbourne publishing house Text Publishing, said withdrawal of university funds from the historically important role was a case of Sydney joining the "philistine ranks" of other universities, whose Australian literature offerings had traditionally been "paltry".

"In the sorry history of the teaching of Australian literature in our universities, Sydney has been the outlier since 1962 when its chair was founded by public subscription," he said "Now it has joined the philistine ranks of its fellow institutions.

"Not even the Australian National University has a chair in Australian literature. What kind of country can't bear to teach its own literature? What kind of university has no curiosity about the writers who have shaped our imaginations, and have informed how we think?"

Heyward, whose company publishes local and international authors as well Australian classics, said "our universities are increasingly cut off from Australia's dynamic literary life, from our festivals and from our bookstores and from the readers who keep them alive".

Elizabeth Webby, a former professor of Australian literature at Sydney University, called the defunding of the role "very disappointing", warning that if external funding wasn't found and the chair was abandoned, it would leave just one Ozlit chair for academics nationwide, at the University of Western Australia.

"The only (full-time) chair that actually involves an academic doing courses in Australian literature is at UWA, which is government-funded," she said, The UWA chair was established after The Australian exposed how, in 2006, there was just one full-time Australian literature chair still operating -- the Sydney role now under threat

The University of Melbourne has had an externally funded professorship of Australian literature since 2015, reserved for authors rather than academics.

Paul Giles, Sydney University's Challis Professor of English, said the withdrawal of university funds from the chair was caused, in part, by falling student enrolments in Ozlit subjects and fewer research grants going to the humanities. He said the university still employed three fUll-time Ozlit specialists and two part-time lecturers, but admitted that the university had yet to begin its search for external funds

From "The Weekend Australian" of 26/10/2019






It's not "men" who are to blame for domestic violence

A big study has shown that it's a few repeat offenders from poor communities who do most of the violence. The feminists are dead wrong. No demographic is a powerful predictor but the most relevant demographic is income, not sex

A recent watershed moment that sank to the bottom of the sea was a landmark study by the Australian Institute of Criminology that examined 39 quantitative studies of domestic violence over the past decade or so, entitled simply “Domestic violence offenders, prior offending and reoffending in Australia”.

Astonishingly, given the amount of publicity and so-called “research” this life or death issue has received in recent years, the study noted in its opening statement: “To our knowledge, there has been no attempt to develop a comprehensive understanding of what characterises domestic violence offenders and offending across Australia.”

In an effort to actually tackle this problem, it combed through almost 3000 records and more than 300 papers from almost every conceivable agency and source, painstakingly eliminating those that were not scientifically sound, such as sources more than 30 years old, those not from Australia and those based on non-hard data, such as focus groups and interviews.

The evidence from this comprehensive, fact-based and tragically unprecedented analysis was clear and overwhelming. There was a massive concentration of domestic violence in disadvantaged and indigenous communities and that alcohol was also a driving factor.

Perhaps most significantly, despite the prevailing narrative that domestic violence is a simple male versus female issue, it found that in fact it was a tiny minority of men who were responsible for a vastly disproportionate amount of abuse.

“There is growing recognition that domestic violence offending is concentrated among a relatively small group of offenders or couples,” the AIC found.

One 2016 study it cited “found that a very small minority of repeat offenders (2 per cent) were responsible for half of all harm (50 per cent)” and another 2017 Northern Territory study “found that eight per cent of couples accounted for 27 per cent of the harm associated with domestic violence”.

The conclusion was unequivocal: “First, a very large proportion of offenders involved in domestic violence incidents attended by police, and who then move through the justice system, are recidivist offenders.”

Moreover, these were concentrated in the poorest and most long-suffering communities, as the AIC found and stated again and again.

“The likelihood of domestic violence reoffending appears to be higher in more socio-economically disadvantaged communities,” the report said.

And again: “Those in highly disadvantaged areas were also at a greater risk of violent domestic violence reoffending compared with those in the areas of least disadvantage.”

And once more: “Perpetrators of physical violence were found to have higher levels of unemployment (a 2007 study) and were more likely to be from more disadvantaged areas (another study from 2016).”

It literally could not be clearer.

And yet only four of the 39 studies the AIC analysed even looked at the socio-economic status of offenders — compared to 21 that focused on gender. Apparently most of the academic research over the past decade is either oblivious or wilfully blind to the most critical factor in this scourge.

By contrast, I and precious few others have been crazybrave enough to publicly draw attention to the fact that poorest communities are hardest hit by domestic violence. And it is a matter of public record that whenever I have said or written precisely what the evidence shows I have been summarily crucified by self-proclaimed progressives, including suggestions that I am a closet abuser myself, that I should be bashed or defiled and veiled threats from activists saying they knew where I lived or went to the supermarket.

Meanwhile these same so-called progressives are happy to consign poor and indigenous women to their deaths in their darkly narcissistic campaign to argue that they are no more at risk than upper-middle class professionals because it is simply men that are the problem, not broken communities. This is the deadliest of lies.

As a result you won’t see or hear these progressive gender warriors championing the findings of this most comprehensive and belatedly groundbreaking study, because they know they are condemned by the truth.

If they had any decency they would hang their heads in shame for abandoning the most vulnerable women in our society for the sake of a few retweets and an undergraduate ideological war. But the fact is they have no decency, nor any shame.

Still, I promised a happy story and so it is. Because, as the outrage subsides and the evidence rolls in, it will become evermore clear that the social media arbiters of social justice are mindless hypocrites far more obsessed with their own pontification than the real problems besetting society — not to mention wholly unaware of what those problems even are.

And as the outrage is constantly disproved and defrocked, not only does the emperor have no clothes but the emperor has been stripsearched at Splendour and found to be carrying not so much as a disco biscuit up the jexy.

The truth will out, the truth will prevail, and the truth will put the horseshit in the pail.

SOURCE  





Qantas chairman rejects activists' demands over illegal immigration


QANTAS Airways chairman Richard Goyder says the high-profile airline is being singled out by activists who are trying to use it to change government policy around asylum seekers.

The comments were made at the Flying Kangaroo annual meeting which was again dominated by attempts to get the airline to stop carrying asylum seekers who were being forcibly transferred or deported by the government.

A resolution by activist shareholder group the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility to get the company to review its policies in this area failed to win share-holder approval. The resolution attracted a yes vote of 23.5 per cent, up from the 6.4 per cent support a similar resolution put to last year's meeting gained. The ACCR said the result was the largest support vote for a human rights resolution ever put to an Australian company. [It's a human right to enter another country illegally?]

Mr Goyder said other airlines had not attracted the same sort of attention from the ACCR as Qantas. "The ACCR, for all its good things, is using the Qantas brand to try to change government policy," he told the meeting yesterday. "I'd encourage ACCR to take up this cause with the Federal Government, and I'd like to reiterate the directors recognise the complexity of Australian immigration policy and recognise the courts are the best places to make decisions on the rights of asylum seekers, not airlines."

Mr Goyder acknowledged some parties had accused Qantas of hypocrisy for taking a stand on social issues like gender diversity, indigenous reconciliation and marriage equality but not taking up charge on asylum seekers. He rejected the suggestion, saying the airline was not duty bound to speak up on all social issues.

"We are pleased to be part of broader conversations on social and economic issues," he said. "But it's absurd to suggest that because a company speaks up on some issues, it is therefore duty-bound to speak up on all issues." Chief executive Alan Joyce said if Qantas agreed to stop transporting asylum seekers, it could disadvantage those in need of medical assistance, or transfers between detention centres due to overcrowding.

"How can the airlines be the judge on each of these individual cases?" Mr Joyce said. "You're asking us to do an impossible task and we could do more damage by not carrying these people."

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail of 26/10/2019





Household recycling nightmare.  Italy is a warning

I have seen the future of household recycling; it wasn’t a dream — it’s a nightmare.

A five-coloured rainbow of daily rubbish duties for the householder; constant sorting in the basement; living under the threat of having your garbage left behind because you failed to follow the rules; being bossed about by a council worker in hi-vis rejecting your rubbish; rules that your garbage must be in transparent plastic to allow inspection, or costly biodegradable bags for organic waste; and colour coding that is an immutable law unto itself.

In addition to daily duties for household waste there are the supplementary collection days for old clothing and large items and garden waste that can take months to organise.

Last Monday’s report from Infrastructure Victoria that sees a future for Melburnians separating materials into organics, plastics, paper and cardboard, glass, metals and “regular” waste is part of a global shift to recycling and sorting by the householder to make the rubbish handlers’ job easier.

Scott Morrison has adopted a personal campaign to encourage recycling as an industry, to cut waste, reduce landfill and help the environment.

But the prime ministerial vision is at an industrial level. On his visit to the US he attended the opening of Anthony Pratt’s cardboard factory in Ohio, which is recycling waste paper, and the largest recycling plant in North America, also Australian-owned, where glass, rubber and plastic are turned into building materials.

This is a vastly different view of recycling than the idea that households have up to six bins to sort a family’s waste.

I have lived it in a mountain village in Italy — what evolved was a complicated, increasingly costly and endlessly time-consuming rubbish collection system.

Ten years ago there was a weekly garbage collection for everything. Then the commune — the council — introduced large communal bins to take bottles and paper for recycling as the system of waste management changed across Italy. (The irony being this is a country where corruption and inefficiency would regularly create mountains of garbage on the streets of Naples and the illegal dumping into the sea of everything from toxic waste to radioactive materials.)

Because the collection of our garbage was often delayed, the communal bins filled with all sorts of waste so the council moved to control garbage by increasing household sorting.

This summer in the little mountain village in the Abruzzi — and across Italy — there will be five separate rubbish bins; every household must put out or bring in a rubbish bin every day of the week and spend every evening sorting the rubbish to avoid contamination that would see collectors leave it behind.

There are five categories of rubbish, each with their own colour-coded bin, which must have its own designated bin-liner of a specified type.

The categories are organic (a five-litre brown bin and biodegradable bag); glass (a 10-litre bin and green transparent plastic bag); paper and cardboard (10-litre blue bin with transparent bag); plastic and metal (10-litre yellow bin with transparent bag) and; “secco”, loosely described as “hard” rubbish (a five-litre grey bin with a transparent bag).

Of course, all bins can’t be collected on the same day. Each is collected on a set day of the week.

But because organic waste has to be collected more often, the collection days shift and you must keep a daily calendar. No bin is collected on Sunday but you need to put one out Sunday night.

Typically there are three organic — food scraps from the kitchen — collections a week, with two as close to the weekend as possible but never guaranteed. There is also a sorting issue: plastic trays from the supermarket that have had meat in them can be placed in the organic bag, as can kitchen paper towels. But nonetheless, there’s a risk it will be deemed incorrect and left on your doorstep.

Likewise, glass and plastic collections are in transparent bags so they can be inspected to ensure there is no sheet glass or unwashed containers.

My neighbours this summer, up from Rome for their annual holiday, had their rubbish rejected three days in a row because they used black plastic bags. The garbage man told them that I was “from Australia” and even I knew the rules.

The real problem is “secco” such as CDs, DVDs and toothpaste tubes, but there is a limit to how many CDs you are throwing out and our village simply shrugs its shoulders and says “secco” is for “too hard” waste. It ends up the rubbish of the rubbish.

Apartment dwellers without a basement are cursed; they must store five bins or are given keys to small communal bins appropriately coloured and locked.

The cumulative result of rejected rubbish, a lack of public bins, confusion over categories and a reluctance to store putrid rubbish is that sneaky piles of trash appear around the place, and in the rural areas woodstoves and fires have the distinct smell of burning plastic.

My wife reckons I’m obsessed but I think it’s a modern recycling equivalent of fear of missing out — missing out on having our stinky rubbish removed.

SOURCE  





Andrews dabbles in foreign policy to state’s detriment

Victoria began in 1851 as a colony of the United Kingdom. On January 1, 1901, it became a state of the Commonwealth of Australia. It did not have a foreign policy in either capacity.

Nor did Australia during its early decades. On September 3, 1939, prime minister Robert Menzies declared war on Nazi Germany. His message was that “Great Britain has declared war upon” Germany and “as a result, Australia is also at war”.

This was an accurate statement. It is not clear precisely when Australia developed a complete independence from Britain. But this occurred on or after the passing of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act received royal assent in October 1942.

Through the years since Federation, the powers of the commonwealth government have increased at the expense of state governments. However, no state has queried the right of the commonwealth government to determine Australian foreign and defence policies. That has been ­regarded as a constitutional ­responsibility of the commonwealth.

Until this week, that is, when Victoria’s left-wing Labor premier Daniel Andrews appeared to do precisely this. Last Wednesday, it was announced that the Victorian government had signed a framework agreement with China’s ­National Development and Reform Commission.

This is a manifestation of what China refers to as its Belt and Road Initiative. It amounts to China interacting with governments in ­respect to infrastructure, innovation (high-end manufacturing and technology) and aged care along with trade development and market access.

Under the plan, a joint working group will be established to oversee future co-operation that And­rews and NDRC vice-chairman Ning Jizhe will chair. The framework agreement is not legally binding but is regarded by ­Andrews as an example of the strength of the relationship between the two entities.

It remains to be seen whether the framework agreement between Victoria and China is a good idea that will have a positive outcome. Certainly it has been criticised by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who raised two questions: “Why does he (Andrews) believe this is in our national interest; why does he believe it’s in Victoria’s interest?”

At this early stage, the framework agreement is of little consequence, except for the symbolism involved.

In the Victorian government’s media release on Wednesday, three quotes were provided attributable to Andrews. The intent of one was clear, namely: “We don’t see China as our good customers, we see them as our good friends.”

This can only be read as a criticism of contemporary Australian foreign policy with respect to China in general — and of Scott Morrison in particular. Just before the May 18 election, the Prime Minister was quoted as saying the US was a “friend” while referring to China as a “customer”.

Morrison’s position was a reasonable one. He was running the line developed by former prime minister John Howard — namely that Australia can have a good relationship with both ­nations without weakening our historical links with the US.

Morrison put it this way when asked about trade tensions between the US and China: “You don’t have to pick sides; you don’t have to walk away from the relationships that you have.”

Again a sensible point. China trades with Australia because it wants to purchase our high-quality goods and services at market prices within a legal system that works.

There was no reason for ­Andrews to sneer at the Prime Minister’s response. In any event, he would be advised to realise that many nations of the Indo-Pacific region are wary of embracing China — among others, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore and India.

Foreign policy in Australia is the preserve of the commonwealth government; in particular, that of the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Marise Payne. Yet Andrews regarded Beijing as a suitable base from which to criticise the Morrison government’s policy towards China.

If Andrews wants to determine foreign policy from government, there’s always the option of running for a seat in the commonwealth parliament. It’s impossible to imagine a provincial leader of the Communist Party of China criticising President Xi Jinping’s foreign policy while on an official visit to, say, Canberra.

It’s not as if Andrews is without reason for self-criticism back home. In July, Sky News ran a two-part documentary titled Lawyer X: The Untold Story. Last Monday, ABC television’s Four Corners followed up the story of Lawyer X (Nicola Gobbo) with a program ­titled Reprehensible Conduct. It’s the (now) familiar story, which Victoria Police tried to bury, about how it engaged Gobbo to spill the beans on many of the clients she was engaged to defend in her capacity as a defence counsel — thus perverting the course of justice.

Without question, this is one of the greatest scandals in Australian legal history. Certainly Victoria Police were attempting to end the gangland murders in Melbourne that ran from about 1999 to about 2010. But you can’t pervert the law to defend the law.

The matter is subject to investigation by the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants headed by the former Queensland chief justice Margaret McMurdo. It is expected that Victoria Police commissioner Graham Ashton, and Simon Overland (one of his predecessors) will give evidence. Both men held senior roles in Victoria Police at the time of what we now know to be the Lawyer X scandal.

And here’s the problem. Overland left the Victoria Police some time ago. However, Ashton currently heads the organisation that is under investigation by the royal commission. An extraordinary situation — with which Andrews is apparently content.

Interviewed on Four Corners, Gavin Silbert QC (a former Victorian chief prosecutor) said those in Victoria Police who knew of the Lawyer X affair “were guilty of terrible breaches of duty and extraordinarily unethical behaviour”. Silbert added that he was “absolutely surprised” that Ashton has “lasted so long” and that anyone in the Victoria Police hierarchy who sanctioned the Lawyer X operatives “should have gone” by now.

It would seem that Andrews is more focused on lecturing the Prime Minister on China than starting the task of reforming Victoria Police.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





27 October 2019

Political bias in the Qld. judiciary

This is a disgrace. Treston QC should be unseated

Australia's first law officer, Attorney-General Christian Porter, has been pulled into political infighting among some of Queensland's top barristers, triggered by the actions of the state Bar association president to don a Labor T-shirt and campaign for an ALP candidate at the federal electidn.

Rebecca Treston QC was so pleased with her efforts in May she tweeted a photo of herself pressing Labor how-to-vote material on Home Affairs Mini'ster Peter Dutton at a polling station in his tightly fought Brisbane seat.

The past president of the Queensland Bar Association, Christopher Hughes QC, has written to Mr Porter dissociating himself from Ms Treston, the first woman to head the organisation, and to assure Mr Porter it remained non-partisan.

The position is supposed to be apolitical because the president of the Bar has a formal role in advising the Queensland government on appointing judges and also helps draw up the list of Queensland Bar Association barristers to be designated Queen's Counsel, the most-travelled path to a seat on the bench. The emergence of the row, during the annual jockeying by junior barristers for silk, will raise further questions about the claimed politicisation of the judiciary in Queensland.

Former premier Campbell Newman has said the state's courts are stacked with Labor-appointed "left-wingers" who administer justice "from that perspective". Mr Dutton said: "The community doesn't respect weak magistrates and judges, and neither do criminals. "Appointing members of the Labor Party who are quasi-social workers to the judiciary is never going to end well."

Ms Treston insisted in a written statement she had taken only a "few hours" to help friend Ali France campaign as the labor candidate challenging Mr Dutton in his seat of Dickson. The contest had been tipped to go down to the wire, but instead was won relatively comfortably by the senior LNP minister.

Stressing she had been acting in a "personal capacity", Ms Treston said she was not then nor now a member of any political party. "My role as the president of the Bar Association of Queensland, in which I seek to represent the interests of barristers across our state, is an important one," she said. "In that role I haVe developed strong working relationships with elected members of parliament of different sides of politics. "Those relationships helped me provide' input from Queensland barristers on important legal issues. I will continue to do so. "The role does not preclude me, however, from remaining supportive to my friends."

Writing to Mr Porter in what he said was his personal capacity, Mr Hughes said he respected Ms Treston's right to be involved in the political process, and while president of the Bar in 2017 his position was this should neither qualify nor disqualify a candidate for judicial appointment

But it was important the Attorney-General understood that Ms Treston, in exercising her "obvious personal and" political persuasions", did not represent the barristers of Queensland.

Mr Hughes declined to be interviewed or to comment when approached this week.

Another senior advocate cited concern that Ms Treston's open backing of a Labor candidate could affect her standing with Mr Porter when he was presiding over the planned merger of the Family and Federal Circuit courts, a hot issue for lawyers.

Mr Porter said the "privileged place" held by judges extended to senior members of legal associations and they needed to ensure they were free, and seen to be free, "from any situation which could give rise to a real or perceived conflict of interest with their professional roles".

Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts, who sits with Ms Treston on the Judicial Appointments Advisory Panel that shortlists candidate judges and magistrates for the state attorney-general, who takes a recommendation to cabinet, said the decision should be taken out of the hands of politicians and vested in an independent judicial commission. [of Leftists]

From "The Weekend Australian" of 26/10/2019







The university degrees you SHOULDN'T be studying if you want to land a job after graduating - and the ones that are almost certain to get you hired

Thousands of graduates are facing an uphill battle to get a job after university, a new report has revealed.

The study by the Australia Institute's Centre for Future Work found it was those with medicine and teaching degrees who have the best prospects after graduation.

By contrast, low levels of private and public research in Australia have restricted demand for graduates specialising in science, technology, engineering and maths.

THE DEGREES THAT WILL LAND YOU A JOB THE QUICKEST

The percentage of graduates who find work in the first four months:

Medicine 94.9 per cent

Teacher education 83.3 per cent

Engineering 83.1 per cent

Nursing 78.7 per cent

Business and management 77.9 per cent

Law and paralegal studies 77.2 per cent

Computing and information systems 73.2 per cent

Science and mathematics 64.6 per cent

Humanities and social sciences 64.3 per cent

Communications 60.5 per cent

Creative arts 52.2 per cent

Source: Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching 2018, four months post-graduation for undergraduate degrees


Survey data from 2018 showed 94.9 per cent of those with degrees in medicine were in full-time work within four months of graduation.

The median salary for medicine graduates when they first enter the workforce is about $70,000 a year. 

Teacher education degrees, where graduates start on an average of $63,500, had a 83.3 per cent success rate of finding work quickly. 

The report said jobs with a human connection would continue to be ready in supply.

'This is especially true in human, caring and public services - which have been strong sources of new job-creation in recent years,' researchers said.

Other industries which have experienced high demand for skilled graduates are nursing, business and management and law.

Science and mathematics came in at eighth on the list at 64.6 per cent.

The data showed a clear split in success rate between those holding vocational and generalist degrees.

Humanities communications and creative arts students, considered to be studying a generalist qualification, had as little as a 52.2 per cent chance of landing a full-time job in the four-month window. 

Data presented in the study also showed health care's share of the job market has grown the most - by five per cent since 1986.

Lead researchers Alison Pennington and Jim Stanford argued rather than taking away jobs, the rise of technology was actually 'freeing up' jobs for humans.

They said the rise of social media and digital technology industries has led to the creation of new roles not previously possible.

'The future of work will be marked by an increased role for jobs where technology complements human labour, and "frees up" humans to undertake more abstract, cognitive and emotional labour,' the report said.

Researchers said problem-solving, leadership and people management skills will all be important qualities in the future of the Australian working world. 

SOURCE  






Carbon fears put heat on festivals

I must say that I see no loss for Australia in a pack of gullible Leftists deciding not to visit us

International artists and writers are snubbing Australia as a journey too far, turning down expenses-paid invitations from leading festivals and events because of their desire to reduce carbon emissions.

While artists in Europe and North America can opt for rail over air travel to minimise their carbon footprint, the prospect of long, fossil fuel-burning flights to Australia means some are simply refining to come. The Swedish buzzword newly circulating among Australian arts groups is flygskam, or "flight shame" — a taboo on polluting the atmosphere with jet travel.

Adelaide Writers Week director Jo Dyer said three authors recently had turned down invitations, including Pulitzer Prize-winning Eliza Griswold, who declined on environmental grounds.
British natural history writer Robert Macfarlane reportedly will not fly to Australia because of his carbon footprint, and another writer had accepted an invitation to Adelaide but then had a "crisis of conscience".

While there may be other reasons why authors decide not to travel, Dyer said, "a number of authors this year are saying that they do not want to expand their carbon footprints".

Jonathan Holloway, a former director of the Melbourne and Perth festivals, could not name specific instances of artists refusing to travel but said: "I am sure it has been a factor for some people." "I think there has been a sea change about travel ... and people are considering the environmental impacts of what they do," he said.

The Adelaide Festival's co-artistic director, Rachel Healy, mentioned renowned Canadian,. choreographer Crystal Pite as an artist who was sensitive about reducing her carbon footprint. Pite's agent, Jim Smith, said Pite continued to use air travel but her company, Kidd Pivot, considered the financial and carbon impacts of its touring activity.

"The company is trying to raise awareness that there is a need to work collaboratively in terms of touring a production, to ensure that carbon footprint of the tour is being considered," Smith said.

Dyer, formerly chief executive of the Sydney Writers Festival, said concern about reducing carbon emissions had emerged as a potential new barrier to Australia's cultural dialogue with the world.

From "The Weekend Australian" of 26/10/2019






Recycled water to be tapped if rains fail

Good for the bottled water industry

Another failed wet season could force southeast Queensland dam authorities to again consider introducing recycled water to boost the region's drinking supply. Southeast Queensland is on the brink of drought, with the water level in Brisbane's major dam, Wivenhoe, dropping to less than half, its loWest in a decade, and the region's dams slipping to a combined total of 61.6 per cent

Authorities are ready to switch the Gold Coast's desalination plant to full capacity to supplement drinking water should dam levels hit 60 per cent, forecast to happen next month. Formal water restrictions will kick in if levels slump to 50 per cent, predicted to occur as early as May if this summer is dry.

And if there's no significant summer rain, in March authorities will consider whether to start the two-year process to recommission southeast Queensland's recycled-water treatment plants.

The trigger to introduce recycled water — wastewater or sewage disinfected and treated to become purified drinking water —into the region's drinking supply is when dam levels hit 40 per cent

In 2006, in the depths of the Millennium Drought, residents of Toowoomba, west of Brisbane, controversially rejected plans by the local council to introduce a recycled water scheme. But community attitudes to recycled water may have softened, and the parched northern NSW town of Tenterfield is investigating the option.

Mike Foster, spokesman for the Queensland government's bulk water supply authority, Seawater, told The Weekend Australian that on current modelling, if no signifi-cant rain occurred, dam levels in southeast Queensland could hit 40 per cent in two years. "We will watch very carefully over this summer to see where our levels go," Mr Foster said. "If we happen to have a poor summer, there'll be a decision point, probably about March next year ... do we now need to consider starting the remobilisation process (of the recycled water plants).

"Our plan is predicated (on) if we get down to about 40 per cent, we'll need the Western Corridor Recycled Water Scheme, and the three plants that make up that scheme, we'll need the three to be fully operational by the time we hit that 40 per cent"

The recycled water scheme was put into care-and-maintenance mode in 2013, and needs significant work to get ready. But Mr Foster said the region was not at risk of running out of water because of the $6bn spent by Peter Beattie's Labor government on building water grid infrastructure — including the Gold Coast desalination plant and the Western Corridor scheme -- in response to the Millennium Drought water crisis. "The water grid, without overstating it, has been a godsend," he said.

Mr Foster said initial fears about the Gold Coast plant were unfounded. "There was a bit of an image about that plant that it was a white elephant, a rust bucket, and it's not working," he said. "Nothing could be further from the truth, it's a cracking asset. "If we do find ourselves headed into an extended dry, it'll be ready to do what it was ultimately designed to do, which is supplement our drinking water when our dams are under pressure." At full capacity, the plant can produce 133 million litres of water a day. Southeast Queensland's average daily usage is about 850 million litres a day.

Residents won't immediately pay extra for water if the desalination plant is cranked up next month, but any extra cost will be considered when the Queensland Competition Authority again reviews bulk water prices in 2021.

From "The Weekend Australian" of 26/10/2019





Butcher targeted by militant vegans trying to cripple his small business explains why they actually HELPED him - as he trolls them with a VERY witty comeback online

Militant vegans trying to ruin a small butcher shop by protesting outside actually helped the business by giving it publicity, the owner has told Daily Mail Australia.

Protesters lined up outside Tenderwest Meats in Perth's Belmont Forum on Sunday and shouted at passing customers with a megaphone. 'They never wanted to die for you,' the group's leader yelled while his followers held up signs showing animals in slaughterhouses.

The group was trying to stop people buying and eating meat - but the protest  backfired.  'In terms of publicity the protest has been much better for me than it has been for them,' said Mike Fielder who owns and runs the small, independent shop.

'Since the protest I have received hundreds of messages of support,' he added.

The protesters posted a video of their stunt on the Facebook group Direct Action Everywhere - and Mr Fielder chimed in with a sarcastic response.

He commented on the post with a picture of some pork cooking in an oven, and wrote: 'Here's a piece of the very same pork cooking for my dinner right now. 'Please let me know when you're coming again and I'll put more on for you. Cheers.'

Explaining why he decided to fight back, he told Daily Mail Australia: 'I just thought I'd troll them a little bit.

'They are coming for me because I'm a small, independent business and an easy target. 'I don't have lawyers or large finances behind me so they target me instead of a big company like Coles or Woolies.

'But they are totally misguided - everything I sell is free range and of the highest quality.' 

Mr Fielder said the protesters had come for him once before. On that occasion he knew they were coming and put up cloths to cover the meat displayed in the windows.

'That took the wind out of their sails and they left pretty quickly, he said. 'But this time they ambushed me and they got to make their little scene.'

During the protest, the group's leader, wearing a white T-shirt, told customers: 'We are here to shine a light on an inherently cruel industry.' 'They never wanted to participate in this, they never wanted to die for you,' the leader said of the animals killed.

'They died in a gas chamber at six months old - and all they died for is for your simple meal, your simple pleasure, needlessly.'

Personifying the animals, the leader added: 'There are thousands of babies just around this city being driven to a slaughterhouse.

'Animals do not have to die for us to survive - we don't have to be doing this.'

The leader then shouted 'it's not food' and the protesters chanted back in unison 'it's violence'.

He yelled: 'What do we want? and his supporters replied 'animal liberation'. 'When do we want it?' he asked, before the vegans replied 'now.'

The video was taken by an activist who narrated the action. She called the display cabinets a 'display of death' and said the butchers 'have no shame in what they do.' The protesters then laid flowers under the display cabinets to 'remember' the animals.

'We are here to bring light to the lie that animals can be killed and exploited and somehow this is humane,' said the narrator. 

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





25 October 2019

Fury as popular public swimming pool introduces gender segregation and women-only sessions in response to requests from Muslims

A popular public swimming pool has come under fire after introducing gender segregation.

Canberra Olympic Pool brought in new program earlier this month after a series of demands from the city's Muslim community.

The pool will now hold women-only sessions on Saturday nights from 5.30-7, and the same for men on Sunday nights.

One mother said her daughter had been left devastated after she arrived at the pool only to be turned away because it was open to 'boys only'.

'My daughter, in tears, couldn't understand why it was 'boys only'. Like many Canberra parents, my husband and I are trying to raise our child to believe that her gender is not a barrier to anything and to not be self-conscious about her body,' the mother told The Canberra Times. 

'How can we do this when public institutions blatantly turn her away because she is a girl?'

Others slammed the idea on Facebook, labelling it as 'backwards'.

'Does the government not trust males and females in the same pool. Gone crazy totally. We have fought for equality for years and the government and religions are slowly chipping away at it,' one person wrote.

'This country is heading backwards,' another said.

Despite the controversy, Tracy King, the centre's manager told The Australian that the pool has seen an increase in swimmers after the program was introduced.

'We've had two weeks of the trial so far and had extremely high attendance numbers especially for the female sessions,' Ms King said.

She said they picked certain time slots that would be the most convenient for other swimmers.

'The hour also incorporates learn-to-swim classes, which has been greatly appreciated because many are unable to swim or don't often have access to a pool.'

'Because of their culture, some can’t be around men in that setting so they really enjoyed the experience. It was like they were having a party and could relax.' 

The program will run until the end of the month where it will be reviewed over whether it will continue long term.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Canberra Olympic Pool and the ACT Government for comment.

SOURCE  






Maths to be compulsory for NSW students

What if a student has no talent for maths? Will they be unfairly held back?

Maths will be compulsory for all students up until Year 12 under a back-to-basics overhaul of the NSW curriculum.

The NSW government will make maths compulsory for year 11 and 12 students under a plan to ensure school graduates have key numeracy skills.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the NSW government would begin consultation with education stakeholders over how mathematics could be incorporated from kindergarten to the end of the HSC.

“We promised to take the curriculum back to the basics and today we are taking the first steps to deliver on that commitment by prioritising maths,” Ms Berejiklian said in a statement on Thursday.

“My vision is for every child in NSW to have the necessary maths skills to succeed in life, whether that’s managing home budgets or preparing them for the jobs of the future in science, technology and engineering.”

Earlier this week an interim report into the NSW Curriculum Review was released, which signalled the start of a major shake up to the NSW curriculum.

The state government on Tuesday released the interim curriculum review headed by Professor Geoff Masters covering kindergarten to year 12.

It marks the first shake-up of the system in 30 years.

The report suggests reducing the amount of curriculum content so students can develop in-depth subject knowledge and develop the skills to apply knowledge “in the real world”.

This includes a sharper focus on maths, English and science.

It also proposes “flexible progression” for students through the public system, which would involve using levels of attainment to organise syllabuses, so students are recognised and challenged according to where they are on the learning scale.

Premier Berejiklian said the review’s emphasis on fundamentals aligned with the government’s aim to give young people the tools they need to get ahead in life after school.

“The NSW government strongly supports a back to basics approach,” she said in a statement.

“Students need to have strong foundations in maths, English and science to be prepared for the jobs of the future and for attaining lifelong skills.”

SOURCE  





Renewable energy cutting emissions at a cost to users

Extinction rebels and others whingeing that Australia is not doing its fair share to cut greenhouse gas emissions need a reality check. New research from the Australian National University shows emissions could fall from next year following a boom in renewable power investment. Australia is on track, between last year and next year, to invest in wind and solar power three times faster per capita than Germany, four to five times faster than China, the EU, Japan and the US, and 10 times faster than the global average. The researchers expect emissions to fall by 3 to 4 per cent from next year to 2022.

Environmentalists should be cautious, however, before proclaiming the imminent demise of fossil fuels. Sustaining the fall in emissions would require billions of dollars more to be spent on behalf of taxpayers on energy storage and transmission, Graham Lloyd writes on Thursday. The additional costs would add about $5 a megawatt hour to the cost of power in the national market when there was 50 per cent renewable energy in the system. That would soar to an additional $25/MWh at 100 per cent renewables — on top of at least $50/MWh for generating renewable power, which is heavily subsidised. Conversion of the entire system to renewables would reduce emissions by 33 per cent, the ANU researchers calculated. But without more government spending on storage and transmission, they warn, investment in renewables may slow down, causing emissions to start rising.

While admitting the transition to renewables would not be “without headaches’’, the ANU’s work, which envisages “straightforward solutions to the teething problems of technical change in the energy industry”, is a potential road map towards a long-term transition that could provide reliable, affordable renewable power to domestic and commercial users.

The size of the challenge may have been underestimated by the ANU researchers, however. Other reports have made clear that making the switch becomes progressively more difficult as the percentage of renewable energy in the system increases. Large-scale storage has yet to show that it is both achievable and economically feasible.

While the Morrison government is committed to meeting Australia’s Paris target — to cut greenhouse emissions by 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 — affordable, reliable power must remain its main energy policy goal. Some states and the opposition are also starting to show a welcome pragmatism. Anthony Albanese and opposition climate spokesman Mark Butler have not ruled out scrapping Bill Shorten’s 45 per cent emissions reduction target, although Mr Butler has rejected frontbencher Joel Fitzgibbon’s call to adopt the government’s target, also favoured by the Australian Workers Union.

NSW is legislating to stop international emissions being used as a reason to block new mines being approved. That sensible move follows the NSW Land and Environment Court’s rejection of the Rocky Hill coking coal mine, citing “dire consequences” on global pollution. And while Queensland is still refusing to release consultants’ reports on “overseas scope 3 emissions” levels being linked to approvals of resource projects, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says such legislation is not being considered. Nor should it be. Australians’ jobs and quality of life depend on rational energy policies that provide affordable, reliable power, regardless of the source.

SOURCE  






Big payout to disgraced Labor figure

She must have known too much

Senior NSW Labor figures are furious general secretary Kaila Murnain will receive a payout believed to be worth $250,000 as severance cover and a further $450,000 to pay for legal costs related to the ICAC investigation that ended her career.

In confirming her resignation, which was announced on Thursday, Ms Murnain attacked a "nasty culture" of sexism in the Labor Party. However, she said she was sorry she had let people down.

The amount paid to Ms Murnain was less than what The Australian understands she sought — $600,000 or two years' pay, as well as legal fees.

Ms Murnain was forced to admit to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption that she sat on an allegation that a $100,000 illegal donation was made by Chinese developer and suspected agent of foreign influence Huang Xiangmo to the ALP prior to the 2015 state election.

Ms Murnain's resignation paves the way for Rail Tram and Bus Union official Bob Nanva to become party general secretary after his endorsement by the Right faction on Monday night. The ALP confirmed yesterday Mr Nanva would not be appointed until a review ordered by federal leader Anthony Albanese into the general secretary's position was completed next month.

Ms Murrain's golden handshake was not welcomed by former party secretary John Della Bosca, who said those who negotiated the deal had "failed in their fiduciary duty to the ALP and its members" and that the payout was "obscene".

"The notion that she should have provision for her legal fees flies in the face of long-accepted party practice," Mr Della Bosca said. "The actions that led to her admissions in the ICAC are a betrayal of the trust of the party's rank-and-file, who are entitled to expect more from the organisational leadership of the party.

"The party should not pay her legal fees. I can think of no case where an incumbent ALP minister, MP or party official has admitted wrongdoing and had the party pay legal fees ... This is  obscene and offends against the values of the ALP, particularly in light of the ICAC revelations."

Ms Murnain said in a statement posted on Twitter: "I am sad to leave the party office. Many wonderful party members have supported me in my ll years in the party office. I joined the Labor Party in 2000 when I was a high school kid growing up on a farm in Narrabri ... In February 2016 I became general secretary. I was the first woman to fill this role. I was 29 years old.

"The circumstances leading up to my election ... were horrendous. I believe it is inarguable that our party has never fully grappled with the nasty culture of sexism which women face in politics."

Part of those circumstances involved her predecessor, Jamie Clements, who is accused of receiving the bag of cash from Mr Xiangmo, quitting over sexual harassment allegations.

Ms Murnain finished: I dedicated my entire life to Labor. I am devastated to leave. I'm sorry to have let you down."

Labor Party president Mark Lennon said in the statement announcing Ms Murnain's resignation that the terms of the separation agreement were confidential but consisted of her basic legal entitlements.

Mr Lennon said the party was actively considering seeking the recovery of all its costs related to the ICAC inquiry, including the sum payable to Ms Murnain, under its insurance policies and from its previous lawyers.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" 16/10/2019
 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here




24 October 2019

Preschool is accused of 'manipulating' kids by encouraging them to petition for the Aboriginal flag to be raised permanently on the Harbour Bridge

Preschool staff have been accused of manipulating three-year-olds who are petitioning to have the Aboriginal flag flown permanently on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

Children aged three to five at Kelly's Place Children's Centre in Crows Nest on Sydney's North Shore have been supporting a petition by Aboriginal activists since early this year.

They have been walking up and down station platforms and sitting outside their houses to get as many signatures as possible.

Last month the children visited the NSW state parliament and presented their signatures to Labor leader Jodi McKay who supports the idea.

More than 120,000 have signed the petition started by activist Cheree Toka - but many do not approve of children getting involved.

Respected child psychologist Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said they are being used by their teachers.  'These children do not even have the cognitive ability to understand what a petition is,' he told the Daily Telegraph.

Referencing 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg's speech at the UN last month, he added: 'I think the idea of roping children into political campaigns seems to be in vogue. Children should not be used as props.'

Institute of Public Affairs executive director John Roskom agreed, saying the children are 'being manipulated by adults in positions of responsibility for the adults' own political purposes'.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said she was 'deeply concerned' that young children were being politicised. 

A spokesman for the preschool denied that the children were being used and said the idea to support the petition came from the youngsters themselves.

He said: 'One of the children noticed there was no Aboriginal flag on the Harbour Bridge and said that was disrespectful.

'He was four-and-a-half at the time and came in and told the other children that was disrespectful.'

'They went through the process of learning who to speak to - and they achieved what they wanted. They were incredibly empowered by their abilities.'

SOURCE  





Conservative politician had to take order out against stalker during election campaign

Liberal MP Nicolle Flint was forced to take a police order out against a stalker who followed her campaign events with a “zoom lens camera” and pursued her online launching personal attacks on his social media pages.

The 41-year-old, targeted by GetUp, the unions and Labor at the May 18 election, has also outlined the “sexist” harassment and intimidation tactics used against her during the campaign including the defacement of her campaign vehicle and office.

In a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters inquiry into the federal election, the South Australian MP detailed personal safety fears and efforts to seek protection.

Attorney-General Christian Porter and leading conservative Kevin Andrews — also targeted by GetUp — also provided JSCEM submissions attacking GetUp’s “misleading” and “defamatory” tactics.

Outlining the personal attacks against her, Ms Flint revealed the windows of her campaign office were targeted with posters plastered with abuse including “skank”, “$60/hour” and “Blow & Go”. Her office was also egged.

Ms Flint’s submission described the campaigns targeting her as “well-coordinated, well-resourced and unrelenting”.

But the most serious incident involved an alleged stalker who would “appear frequently when I was at events and when I was campaigning, always with his zoom lens camera”.

“Posts about me on his social media pages appeared almost daily, as did his engagement on other sites aimed at unseating me,” Ms Flint said.

“As I often campaign alone and would not know when he would appear, this became a serious personal safety issue. Because I was driving a branded campaign vehicle I was highly visible and I was very concerned he would find out where I lived.

Ms Flint said she did “everything I could to stop his behaviour”.

“I confronted him and asked him to stop following me, photographing me and harassing me, which seemed to embolden him,” she wrote.

“I reported his behaviour to the Australian Federal Police, who confronted him, but this also failed to stop him.”

As the incidents escalated and the stalker’s “social media posts became more concerning”, the Boothby MP was encouraged by colleagues to report the matter to the South Australian Police.

“The South Australian Police took the matter seriously and issued a stalking order for my protection.”

In August, Scott Morrison attacked GetUp, Labor and the unions over the tactics used to unseat Ms Flint, saying they should be “ashamed of what they did to Nicolle Flint in Boothby” and accused them of “misogyny and bullying”.

Ms Flint said many voters “recognised and criticised the tactics used by GetUp, the unions and Labor”, citing comments in The Advertiser which described their behaviour as “dirty” and “grubby”.

She warned the JSCEM committee that similar campaign behaviour at future elections could “risk the safety of candidates and sitting MPs”.

“This will harm our democracy. If candidates and Members of parliament no longer feel safe in their electorates, whether on their own or in the company of staff, colleagues and volunteers, the free and easy access Australians currently enjoy in relation to their elected representatives will end.”

Ms Flint recommended to the committee that GetUp, unions and Labor should undertake independent reviews of their campaign tactics in Boothby and publish their findings.

“They all claim to support women’s equality and safety and so should act accordingly.”

Backing calls from other Coalition MPs, Ms Flint also called on GetUp to be deemed an associated entity under the Commonwealth Electoral Act.

In his submission, Mr Andrews, a prominent conservative and former Howard and Abbott cabinet minister, said GetUp’s defamatory tactics were withdrawn only after he threatened to issue defamation proceedings. He said the “damage had been done”.

“Countless voters had been phoned by GetUp. GetUp had not checked the veracity of their claim,” Mr Andrews said.

The Victorian Liberal MP also cited a defamatory message sent to “many constituents of an Asian background in Menzies” who received a personal letter in Chinese and lashed GetUp’s telephone script for Menzies which suggested the organisation was not a political party and that the left-wing group’s volunteers were simply giving “independent” voting advice”.

Mr Andrews, the Father of the House, also detailed harassment of voters, singling out both GetUp and Colour Code who had volunteers handing out material at polling booths.

“The GetUp/Colour Code people often harassed voters, seemingly in the belief that by thrusting materials in their face and continuing to advocate their cause as they waited in line to enter the polling booth, people would vote as GetUp/Colour Code wished. “Many voters reported feeling harassed and intimidated.”

Mr Andrews told committee members in “light of this behaviour” they should consider amending laws to restrict the “handing out of electoral materials to only authorised representatives of candidates”. He said “such authorisation should be in writing, similar to requirements for scrutineers”.

In his submission, Mr Porter — whose West Australian seat of Pearce was targeted — said assertions by GetUp that it made 180,000 calls to local constituents appeared to be a “wild exaggeration”.

The Attorney-General said if GetUp’s claims it had 5400 members in his electorate were accurate it would “be the biggest political organisation by membership in the state which seems unlikely”.

“The veracity of GetUp’s claims about the extent of its campaign activity and the extent and nature of its ‘memberships’ remain largely unverifiable,” Mr Porter said.

“GetUp claim that they are a democratic and grassroots movement of one million members from across Australia who directly control the decision making of the organisation. Yet it has been shown that there are just a handful of true members who direct the campaigns that GetUp run.

“An inspection of their register of members shows that GetUp is ultimately controlled by just nine board directors and three ‘founding members’.”

Mr Porter also singled out a number of ‘misleading’ claims made by GetUp including that he had been criticised for “gifting numerous six-figure government jobs to Liberal Party colleagues and donors, including after one of them gave him a free campaign bus”.

The Leader of the House said the GetUp claim, which they suggested was based on an ABC article published in March, was false as his campaign had “not ever been given a ‘free bus’”.

“These examples are not dissimilar to GetUp’s conduct in other electorates across Australia and parallels can be drawn to other important examples,” he said.

“A further example of deceptive conduct occurred in a targeted GetUp letter that was sent to a number of residents in the Pearce electorate during the final week of the campaign. The letter was addressed as “Dear Neighbour” and signed by “Dr Geoff Bower, WA”.

“A constituent receiving this letter would conclude that the letter was sent from someone within their immediate community or at least in the same electorate. In reality, the letter was authorised by GetUp, printed in NSW, and its signatory, Dr Geoff Bower, appears to reside far outside the Pearce electorate, in close proximity to the Perth CBD.”

Mr Porter said his campaign team had made the decision to avoid taking legal action or other avenues against the misleading claims as it was “not practical or affordable in a marginal seat campaign, notwithstanding the potential damage these false statements were likely to cause”.

“GetUp is willing to promote and publish material of a type and in a way that a mainstream party would not ever promote as a responsible political organisation.”

Mr Porter called on GetUp to be “rightly classified as an associated entity.

SOURCE  




Australia's top academics call for Murdoch University to drop case against whistleblower

An open letter published today from 57 professors to Murdoch University vice-chancellor Professor Eeva Leinonen stated they believe the court action sets a "dangerous precedent for all Australian universities".

The signatories are all recipients of the prestigious Australian Research Council's Laureate Fellowship, and come from 15 universities across the sector in disciplines including arts, humanities, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Quotes from the letter:

"It is a long-established principle of academic freedom that academics must be able to criticise university governance. This right is especially important where aspects of university governance might compromise the integrity of teaching and research."

"The claim for damages is highly intimidatory to all Australian academics and therefore risks the capacity of Murdoch University and all Australian universities to pursue excellence in research and teaching."

"We urge you to withdraw the claim, to settle any dispute without punitive measures, and to affirm the commitment of Murdoch University to academic freedom as an essential university value."
The letter comes after the Australian Institute of Physics and a coalition of 23 international academics issued public statements condemning the university's actions.

One of the letter's signatories, distinguished Professor Michael Bird from James Cook University, told the ABC that academics have been disturbed by the case against Dr Schroder-Turk.

"It appears to be more intimidatory than anything else. I'm a humble scientist. I don't ordinarily feel I should be doing this sort of thing, this was an exceptional case and and we felt that it required an exceptional response," he said.

Professor Bird said the group of academics don't know Dr Schroder-Turk personally but felt compelled to act after reading about the case. "I do not understand how a university could think this was an appropriate action to take," he said

"Academic freedom gives people the right to query decisions that have been made and that's for the good of democracy in the same way that press freedom is there for the good of democracy ultimately.

"If that is eroded, that is not conducive to a healthy democracy and it really needs to be called out whenever it happens."

Dr Schroder-Turk's lawyer, Josh Bornstein from Maurice Blackburn, told the ABC his client remains undeterred despite the legal action.

"Look, he's very resolute and principled but at the same time … he's keen to let people know that this sort of behaviour by a university is out of bounds and is designed to intimidate and silence not only him but any other academics or staff members of universities," he said.

"Obviously there is a David and Goliath dimension to this sort of case, where you've got such a big, well-funded institution which receives public funding and private sources of funds, attacking and seeking to intimidate one of its staff members."

Mr Bornstein said he's concerned about the implications of the case for employees considering speaking up about wrongdoing.

"It's unprecedented for an Australian university to do this, but it's a tactic that we have seen many times before where a corporate entity seeks to shut down criticism or exposure of wrongdoing," he said.

Each year hundreds of thousands of Chinese students flock to Australia to study, lured by promises of enhanced career prospects — but are they getting what they pay for?

"We rely on the bravery of whistleblowers to come forward when they see issues of concern, when they see possible maladministration or corruption," he said.

"They're a vital source that feeds public interest journalism and the public's right to know.

"It's incredibly concerning because we've been talking about the culture of secrecy in government, it now seems that this is an indication that the culture of secrecy is seeping into other parts of our public life."

Students at Murdoch University are planning to hold a protest on campus this week.

Five thousand people have also signed an online change.org petition calling on the university to drop the cross-claim action and conduct a transparent inquiry into the issues raised by Dr Schroder-Turk in the Four Corners program.

In the wake of the program, former Murdoch University Chancellor David Flanagan denied there were problems with international student admissions at the institution.

Murdoch University did not respond to a request for comment but has previously refused to comment on the case as the matter is before the courts.

SOURCE  





Appeals court declares ex-judge ‘irrational’ in anti-coal ruling

A Land Court judge deemed to be “irrational” by Queensland’s highest appeals court has quietly retired, raising searching questions­ about the performance and accountability of the state’s judiciary.

Paul Anthony Smith left his $412,956-a-year post as a presiding member of the Land Court of Queensland ahead of the ruling by Court of Appeal president Walter Sofronoff that he had formed an “extreme and irration­al animus” towards a coalmine developer during high-stakes court proceedings.

Justice Sofronoff upheld an earlier Supreme Court finding that Mr Smith displayed appre­hende­d bias against the New Hope Group, which wants to expand­ its Acland mine, west of Brisbane, with an open-cut operation three times the size of Adani’s controversial Carmichael coal project in the state’s central west.

Justice Sofronoff warned that bias by judges undermined the justice system. “Allegations of bias, whether actual or ostensible, constitute a challenge to the very validity of a judicial decision,” he said. “Such allegations involve an assertion that the administration of justice has failed.”

State Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath is under pressure to appeal against the sentence from federal Home Affairs Minister Peter ­Dutton

Her office confirmed that Mr Smith retired from the Land Court on May 31, but would not be drawn on whether he had faced sanction over his handling of the Acland case.

Ms D’Ath’s spokesman said: “The Attorney-General doesn’t comment on individual judges, past or present, but she would like to acknowledge the improvements at the Land Court over the last 12 months, which include dramat­ic reductions in the time taken to deliver judgments.”

A finding of apprehended bias against a judge is rare, but the blunt language of Justice Sofronoff, a highly regarded former Queensland solicitor-general, cata­pult­s the judgment into the realm of the extraordinary.

It came after Mr Smith recommended that the state government reject applications by New Hope subsidiary New Acland Coal to ramp up production by an estimated seven million tonnes a year through the planned pit.

Formerly a high-flyer in the Department of Premier and Cabinet­, Mr Smith was appointed to the Land Court in 2004 by Peter Beattie’s Labor government.

In May last year, on appeal by the company, Queensland Sup­reme Court judge Helen Bowskill set aside Mr Smith’s orders, finding that his reasons were inadequate and there were reasonable grounds to apprehend bias on his part.

Protest group Oakey Coal Action­ Alliance took the case to the Court of Appeal

Justice Sofronoff found the rea­sons Mr Smith cited for his orders­ against the company contained­ errors of fact and “unnecessary­, unsupportable and irrati­onal criticisms” of New Acland’s commercial and litigious behaviour. “In such circumstances, a reasonable lay observer might well conclude that the member was, at that point of the proceedings, animated by an extreme and irrational animus against Acland,” the judge said.

He found Mr Smith had directed sarcasm at the company and was combative and argumentative. Although New Acland’s lawyers had conducted themselves in an orthodox and proper manner, he wrongly accused them of playing games, “wormings and turnings” and departing from every tenet of “common-law justice in this world”, Justice Sofronoff said.

Further, Mr Smith’s appropriation of cult movie The Castle to frame the dispute had been ­“wholly inappropriate”. One of the principal objectors to the mine expansion, Glenn Beutel, a local refusing to sell his home in the ghost town of Acland, had been likened by Mr Smith to the hero of The Castle, which the Land Court judge lauded as being a film about a “little person trying to protect his property from a corporate giant”.

Justice Sofronoff said: “It is notoriou­s that in The Castle it was the ‘little person’ who ultimately won the litigation and that the ‘corporate giant’ had behaved unethical­ly and had lost. Whatever might be the respective financial power of the litigants, it is the duty of a court to afford them equal justice and to favour neither of them, where rich or poor, for irrelevan­t reasons. The member’s use of this simile was wholly in­appropriate and conveyed partiality by reason of sympathy.”

New Hope declined to comment, pending further orders from the Court of Appeal. With a projected yield of 7.5 million tonnes of coal annually, New Hope claims the new pit would deliver economic benefits to the state of $8bn over 12 years. Critics of the development, including Sydney radio broadcaster Alan Jones, who grew up in the area 50km west of Toowoomba on the Darling Downs, insist it would destroy some of the best farmland in the country.

Land Court judges in Queensland are paid the same as those of the District Court, earning $382,108 in yearly salary, lifted to $412,956 by benefits.

SOURCE 

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here




23 October, 2019

Medevac transfers are just a rort

Fewer than one in 10 refugees and asylum-seekers transferred to Australia under Labor-backed medivac laws has required hospital treatment, and none is currently receiving in-patient care.

Operation Sovereign Borders head Craig Furini told Senate estimates on Monday that just 13 medical-transfer detainees, out of 135 brought to Australia so far, had been hospitalised. "As of this morning, there are zero of those transferred in hospital," Major General Furini said.

He also revealed that six peo-ple had been transferred to Aus-tralia under the legislation despite security concerns, and a further two had been approved for transfer despite similar character concerns.

Five people transferred under the laws had refused treatment after arriving in Australia, and a further 43 had refused chest X-rays or pathology tests.

The Senate heard 10 detainees in Port Moresby had been approved for transfer but were unable to travel because they were being held under PNG law.

As the government prepares to introduce legislation to overturn the medivac laws, General Furini said all refugees and asylum-seekers who had been transferred remained in Australia.

Home Affairs Department secretary Mike Pezzullo said it was a "grievous flaw in the legislation" that detainees could be brought to Australia for assessment without the ability to return them to offshore processing. "(It) the assessment leads to the conclusion ... that, well, actually there is no further treatment required, there is no ability to return," he said.

Mr Pezzullo also rejected claims of a "crisis" in refugees arriving by plane, saying just 0.23 per cent of those entering the country with valid visas went on to claim protection visas.

Labor home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally tackled Mr Pezzullo in Senate estimates on Monday over onshore refugee claims, which she argues are at crisis levels. Mr Pezzullo confirmed there were 92,000 on-shore claims in the past five years from more than four million arrivals.

He said trying to get that number down would deliver a "vanishingly small return". "The marginal gain that you would achieve in tapping that number down by putting onerous restrictions in terms of students, tourists, visitor visas and the like would be completely disproportionate to the gains that you end up getting," Mr Pezzullo said.

"You end up creating so many disincentives in terms of tourist, visitor visa, student categories, that the pain would not be worth the effort."

He said onshore refugee claims were a "completely different problem" than asylum-seeker arrivals by boat, which had led to an estimated 1200 people dying at sea. "I've dealt with a border crisis. This is not a border crisis, I can assure you," Mr Pezzullo said.

He said among members of the Five Eyes security alliance "there is a degree of incomprehension that we have got the numbers as under control as possible". "Frankly, the reaction we get is the Meg Ryan reaction — 'We'll have what they're having'," he said, referring to a scene in the 1989 romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally.

Senate estimates heard 24,520 refugee claims were made in 2018-19 by people who arrived by air. This was down on the pre-vious Year, when about 27,900 onshore claims were made. Malaysian and Chinese travellers have previously made up a large proportion of onshore refugee claims, with their applications overwhelmingly rejected.

From "the Australian" of 22 Oct., 2019





Great Barrier Reef has 'vibrant future', authority agrees

They are walking back their Greenie gloom

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has supported Environment Minister Sussan Ley's appraisal that the reef is "good" and has "a vibrant future". A Senate estimates committee hearing on Monday heard a downgrading of the reef condition from poor to very poor was a long-term forecast based on no action being taken on climate change.

GBRMPA chief executive Joshua Thomas said the out-look report was an assessment of the likely condition of the reef if a series of issues were not addressed. These included reducing global greenhouse gas emissions along with improving reef water quality, better marine park compliance, controlling crown of thorns starfish and reducing marine debris.

"The reef is a vast estate and many areas remain vibrant and ecologically robust," he said. "It continuo to be an extraordinary experience for visitors to the region, supporting beautiful corals and abundant marine life."

After her first visit to the reef as minister, Ms Ley said: "It gives me great heart and hope that the future of this magnificent part of the world is a good one." She said at the time the reef
was not dead, was not dying and not even on life support.

"Today we saw coral that was struggling but we also saw coral that was coming back, that was growing, that was vibrant"

Mr Thomas said Ms Ley had been "referring to the fact there are many areas, of the reef that remain vibrant and worth visiting and we support that statement". "It is also true that the reef over the past five years has been subjected to unprecedented changes, including those bleaching events in 2016-177 he added.

The authority's chief scientist, David Wachenfeld, told Senate estimates the outlook report was evidence-based. He said the downgrade from poor to very poor was the long-term outlook for the reef that was largely a consideration of the impacts of climate change on current green-house gas emissions trajectories.

From "the Australian" of 22 Oct., 2019





`Back to basics' plan for new NSW curriculum

The abandonment of year-denominated progress will require a lot more work from teachers and administrators.  Where will the money for that come from?

The NSW school curriculum is poised to be pared back significantly to enable a greater focus on the core subjects of English, maths and science, with the state government promising a "back to basics approach" to education.

Mandated content within the curriculum could be reduced by as much as 20 per cent, while subjects relating to health, safety or social concerns could face the chopping block, under recommendations proposed in the interim report from the NSW curriculum review to be released on Tuesday.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the draft report, which stemmed from a review under way since May 2018, indicated "significant change" was required to be made to the curriculum. "Students need to be equipped with strong literacy and numeracy foundations to succeed in the 21st century," she said. "We want a curriculum that leaves no student behind while stimulating students who are advancing faster than others."

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said NSW "strongly supports a back to basics approach". Many of the findings from the review, led by Australian Council for Educational Research chief executive Geoff Masters, appear to mirror those made in the 2018 report into Australian school education by David Gonski.

Among more than a dozen recommendations, described as "reform directions", is a call for NSW to scrap the year-level curriculum and instead deliver learning based on each student's level of attainment.

Under such a model, students would progress through a sequence of attainment levels — most likely at different times and rates — rather than all moving in "lockstep fashion from one year-level syllabus to the next" de-pending on their age.

Such a change would have implications for the assessment and reporting of student learning, with A to E grades to be scrapped. "Rather than grading each student's performance against the same year-level syllabus expectations, information will be provided about the highest attainment level a student has achieved in each subject at any given time and the progress they are making towards the achievement of the next level, as assessed by their teacher," the report says.

"In this way, parents/carers and students will be provided with information about how a student is progressing and whether they are on track with learning expectations."

According to the report, "the crowded nature of many syllabuses, particularly in primary schools ... was described as encouraging superficial coverage of material rather than teaching for under-standing, exploring relevance and meaning, and providing opportunities for students to transfer and apply their learning".

"The review also heard wide-spread concerns about additional expectations and demands placed on schools and that further reduce time for quality teaching and learning. "A number of submissions observed that schools are fulfilling functions once the responsibility of families and other institutions in society ... particularly in relation to student mental health, wellbeing and the development of personal qualities."

From "the Australian" of 22 Oct., 2019





Desperate attempts to save aluminium smelter from high electricity costs

[Federal] Energy Minister Angus Taylor has called on the Andrews government to prioritise affordable, reliable power, amid doubts over the future of the Portland aluminium smelter in Victoria's southwest, which consumes about 10 per cent of the state's power.

In its third-quarter earnings results released on Wednesday night, US aluminium giant Alcoa, which operates the Portland plant, said it planned to restructure its global portfolio, placing under review "15 million metric tonnes of smelting capacity and four million metric tonnes of alumina refining capacity".

"The review will consider opportunities for significant improvement, potential curtailments, closures or divestitures," Alcoa said.

The company did not name Portland, but chief executive Roy Harvey told analysts on an earnings call on Wednesday night that the smelters in focus would be those where Alcoa had already curtailed capacity. "The review numbers that we've provided are for both operating capacity and currently curtailed capacity, so all of that capacity would be under review," he said.

That list included Portland, where 15 per cent of the smelter's annual capacity is idled, and facilities in Brazil, Canada and three of Alcoa's US operations. The annual capacity of all of those smelters combined is 15 million tonnes.

Alcoa also declared its ambition to become "the lowest emitter of carbon dioxide" among the world's aluminium companies, adding to the clouds over Portland's future, given 70 per cent of its power comes from brown coal from Victoria's Latrobe Valley.

Mr Taykir said of all energy-intensive industries, smelters were "particularly sensitive" to electricity reliability and price.

"The Australian government is already engaging with NSW and Queensland on the future of their domestic smelters," he said. "The future challenges facing the Victorian energy grid are well known.

"The Andrews government needs to prioritise the affordability and reliability of their grid, and ensure their thermal generators stay in the market, running at full tilt, to ensure the viability of Victorian industry into the future."

Australian Workers Union Victorian branch secretary Ben Davis also highlighted the importance of affordable pcower,saying he had sought assuraces from Alcoa that jobs would not be lost. "The review will take its course," he said. "In the meantime, Alcoa will be seeking negotiations around their power contract,  which expires in mis 2021

He said the aluminium industry was facing challenges and the review did not come as a surprise, but added "To see Alcoa close in Portland would be a catastrophic hit to the economy in southwest Victoria, which none of us wants."

In 2017, the Andrews government provided $200m over four years to ensure Portland would operate until at least 2021. The federal government has also contributed $30m to guarantee operations through to June 2021.

In response to extensive questions about the future of the Portland smelter, an Andrews government spokeswoman said: "This is a matter for Alcoa." Liberal MP for the state seat of ‘South  West Coast Roma Britnell said State government policies had forced electricity prices "sky high" and placed enormous pressure on the Portland smelter.  Andrews can't sit on his hands, he must act and support Alcoa to make the Portland smelter sustainable," Ms Britnell said. "The potential closure of the Portland smelter would be devastating for the community."

Federal Industry Minister Karen Andrews said Alcoa had not identified any specific operations likely to be affected by its review. "It's premature to speculate about the future of its Portland smelter," Ms Andrews said.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" 16/10/2019

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here




22 October, 2019

Cases that raise serious issues about forensics and fundamentals of justice

Bibi Sangha and Bob Moles

It is now clear David Eastman in the ACT and Henry Keogh in South Australia both spent over 20 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.

Both murder convictions were based upon fundamentally flawed forensic evidence given by witnesses not properly qualified in the relevant fields of expertise. Over the years prosecutors (and others) had known about the concerns but had not disclosed them, as they ought to have done.

In addition, in recent weeks, the president of the Court of Appeal in Victoria acknowledged earlier reports emanating from the US which established that all of the forensic sciences (apart from DNA) used in criminal trials had not been properly validated. He was supported on this by a senior forensic scientist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine. The Victorian Attorney-General is now calling on all of her counterparts around Australia to support a national review of the issues.

Any review might well consider the problems exposed by the royal commissions into the cases of Edward Splatt and Lindy Chamberlain in the 1980s. Each of the two murder prosecutions had used more than 20 experts at the trials. In each case, all the experts made errors in the evidence submitted to the courts. Curiously, all the errors favoured the prosecution's case.

That is a 100 per cent failure rate in two of the most high-profile cases of their day. It is clear the experts had not colluded as many of them had not met. But they did know which side to support — and the future benefits which might flow from their assistance. The Splatt commission recommended the establishment of a National Institute of Forensic Medicine to operate independently of police. When this was subsequently established, every state and federal police commissioner was appointed to its board.

The national review might also consider that in South Australia the state provided sworn evidence in civil proceedings in the mid-1970s involving the chief forensic pathologist there. It was to the effect he was not qualified to certify cause of death nor to give expert evidence in court. Yet the state continued to use him for the next 20 years to conduct more than 10,000 autopsies and to help secure more than 400 criminal convictions.

The current position of the South Australian Attorney-General is we do not need an inquiry. She says the problem cases can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis "as they arise". There is, of course, no proper process by which the "arising" can take place.

Perhaps the national review might consider how to get cases like those of Eastman and Keogh back to the courts after the deficiencies have been discovered. Eastman was fortunate that his case occurred in the ACT, which is one of only two jurisdictions-(including NSW) that have a special procedure allowing for an inquiry to review his claim to be wrongfully convicted.

He only obtained his review after struggling for years through 11 previously unsuccessful attempts. Keogh was fortunate that, after 13 years of procedural wrangling, we were able to persuade the Human Rights Commission and the parliament of South Australia that the existing appeal procedures in all states and territories were in breach of international human rights obligations.

This failed to protect the right to a fair trial and the right to an effective appeal. That led to a new right of appeal (subsequently adopted in Tasmania) which led to Keogh's case ultimately finding its way back to the courts.

There is no doubt that if either the Eastman or Keogh cases had occurred in jurisdictions other than those mentioned there would have been very little chance of getting them reviewed. That would have likely meant the rest of their lives spent in prison. The head sentence for murder is life imprisonment.

A non-parole period is merely a recommendation by the trial judge which may be considered upon its expiry. If, at that stage, the convicted person refuses to acknowledge guilt, they maybe deemed to be recalcitrant, and unwilling to accept responsibility. In those circumstances parole will most likely be denied.

In South Australia, Derek Bromley is now 13 years past the expiry of his non-parole period because he maintains he is innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.

The UK has had a review com-mission which has overturned more than 400 criminal convictions during the time Eastman and Keogh spent in jail. In Australia, the states spent many millions of dollars trying to prevent those cases from being reviewed. Surely that money would have been better spent trying to prevent such wrongful convictions in the first place — and to ensuring we have proper review mechanisms to deal with those that do occur?

From "The Australian" 18/10/2019






A sort of revenge: Eastman was innocent but prosecuting him cost the government a vast sum

I have followed the case from the outset and it always seemed to me that he was convicted on speculation only. The evidence to convict him was just not there. He was undoubtedly a bit weird but so are many others

Former public servant David Eastman left court this week "relieved" and "very happy" after a judge awarded him more than $7 million in compensation.

The 74-year-old Canberran spent most of his mid-life in prison for murdering the ACT's top police officer, Colin Winchester — a crime of which he was eventually found not guilty.

When the ACT Government announced this week it would not appeal against Mr Eastman's payout, it closed a case that spanned three decades and churned through countless millions of dollars.

Indeed, the Eastman saga is older than the territory government itself, which did not exist when Mr Winchester, an assistant federal police commissioner, was shot dead in 1989.

But the payment has not ended the arguments over why this case was stretched out for so long, how it was conducted and how much it ultimately cost taxpayers.

ACT budget papers show that, before this month's compensation case, the Government had spent about $26 million on Mr Eastman over the past seven years.

That included funding an independent judicial inquiry into his flawed 1995 conviction and prosecutors' decision to go ahead with a retrial, against the inquiry's explicit advice.

But it excludes the costs of Mr Eastman's initial trial, two High Court challenges, his many other legal battles, his 19 years in jail — including in some of NSW's most violent prisons — and what was widely reported at the time as Australia's biggest-ever police investigation.

That investigation involved four police forces: Winchester's community policing colleagues, the federal police, and New South Wales and Victorian detectives, who explored the possibility that Calabrian mafia had ordered the police officer's assassination.

A lack of records, and the number of jurisdictions involved, makes estimating the financial costs of all these related matters impossible.

However, it hardly stretches credulity to suggest that pursuing, prosecuting, imprisoning and defending Mr Eastman (via legal aid) over three decades cost twice or three times the expenses of the latest inquiry and retrial — taking the amount beyond $60 million or even $100 million.

Brian Martin, the judge who oversaw the 2014 inquiry that set aside David Eastman's initial conviction, warned that a retrial would be neither feasible nor fair. But then director of public prosecutions Jon White went ahead anyway.

His decision split Canberra's legal fraternity and remains controversial. Bar Association president Steve Whybrow said many were still critical of the DPP. "It was very hard to reconcile the public interest in a second trial for somebody who had done nearly 20 years in custody where there was such strong recommendations by the reviewing judge about the degree of impropriety in that trial," he said.

But Gary Humphries, who was the ACT's attorney-general at the time of the first trial, believed it was the only appropriate response. "We're dealing with the assassination of the most senior public official in Australia that's occurred, and we couldn't leave that question unanswered," he said.

"The only way of dealing with that question at the time that the court overturned the original conviction was to proceed to a second trial, there simply wasn't any other way of dealing with it."

But Mr Humphries agreed with the government's decision to abandon any future appeals. "The law is quite clear, a person in that position is entitled to compensation," he said. "$7 million is probably an appropriately couched amount for somebody who spent nearly 20 years in jail for what is officially a crime they did not commit."

SOURCE  






Federal Labor has continued its push for Australia to declare a climate emergency

Declaring a climate emergency would be an opportunity for Australia's parliament to "change course" on how it grapples with climate change, federal Labor argues.

Labor climate change spokesman Mark Butler has launched a fresh bid to have a climate emergency declared, by introducing a motion to the lower house.

The motion comes after more than 370,000 Australians signed an e-petition calling for federal parliament to make such a declaration. The attempt comes after a similar Labor motion fell short in the Senate last week.

Mr Butler said reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change make it clear the window is closing for the world to cap global warming at two degrees, or ideally 1.5C.

That's the target laid out in the Paris Agreement, which Australia has signed up to and which the Morrison government says it will meet.

"We're frankly just not on track to meet those," Mr Butler told the lower house on Monday. "We are failing our children. We are failing our grandchildren, and generations beyond that."

The MP said declaring a climate emergency would be an opportunity to move in a different direction. "This motion is a chance for the parliament to change course," he said. "It is an attempt to have the parliament recognise the gravity of this challenge."

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the government was getting on with the job of cutting emissions. "It's about taking real action, not hollow symbolism and empty gestures," Mr Taylor told Sky News. "It's not about words and motions, it's about actions, and so that's what we're doing.

Nationals MP Pat Conaghan dismissed the motion as "redundant".  He said the coalition has made clear its plan for tackling climate change, including its "climate solutions" fund which supports emissions-lowering projects.

Labor MP Ged Kearney said it's clear climate change is not a priority for everyone in parliament. "If this government had a plan, a real plan, Australia could be leading the way to mitigate this climate emergency," she said.

Labor had moved an identical motion in the Senate last week, which failed with a tied vote.

The day before, the Morrison government killed off a Greens motion to declare a climate emergency in the lower house.

Debate on Labor's latest motion has been adjourned.

SOURCE  






The culprit behind East Australia's big dry

It's not global warming after all. It's the Indian Ocean Dipole

When leading climate scientist Matthew England began work at a lab in Hobart in the mid-1980s, visitors were greeted by a huge graphic depicting a tight correlation between El Ninos and Australia's farm yields.

Any government minister would leave understanding that "we’ve got a tremendous amount of economic wealth" dependent on Pacific climate influences, making El Nino research "iconic", England says.

It turns out more attention should have been paid to the Indian Ocean.

As we have seen this year, conditions that drive El Ninos - relative sea-surface temperature differences between the western and eastern Pacific - have been neutral. But the counterpart ratio in the Indian Ocean has gone haywire. Known as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), the gauge last week hit record levels.

In its so-called positive phase, tropical waters off Australia's north-west are relatively cool  - compared with those near Africa - strengthening easterly winds and reducing the potential convection that typically supplies much of south-eastern Australia's critical winter and spring rains. A negative IOD has the opposite effect.

“They used to think the Indian Ocean was a slave to the Pacific," says Cai Wenju, a senior climate researcher at the CSIRO, adding this year's IOD figures are "gigantic".

“The biggest clue" that the Indian Ocean could influence Australia independently came in 2007 and 2008 when the Pacific was in its La Nina phase, which should have raised the odds for good rains, Dr Cai said. Instead, the Millenium Drought was still playing out, and there were positive-phase IODs three years in a row.

"Sometimes, the El-Nino Southern Oscillation has copped a bad rap when it should have been the IOD," Andrew Watkins, head of long-range forecasting at the Bureau of Meteorology, says.

Australian researchers from the 1980s had started examining how relative warm or cool waters off Western Australia could affect rainfall over the continent. However, it took two papers published in Nature in 1999 by Japanese and North American scientists - including Australian Peter Webster - to tease out the potential of an independent IOD.

Scientists including England and Cai will gather in China next month to mark that 20th anniversary, with the IOD now a key component of Australia's and global weather and climate predictions.

Scientists caution that reliable observation data only goes back a couple of decades but it is clear this year's positive-IOD is already one of the strongest of record. So-called "reanalysis" using a combination of observations and modelling suggests the event is also notable over the past 150 years.

Nerilie Abram, an associate professor at the Australian National University, published work in 2009 that used coral cores among other data to push IOD estimates back to the mid-1800s. Research awaiting publication will look back 1000 years. While the current event is significant, her study suggests “perhaps the instrumental record doesn’t tell us the full range what’s actually possible in the Indian Ocean”.

The magnitude of an IOD appears to matter more for rainfall over south-eastern Australia than the El Nino-La Nina flux, the Bureau of Meteorology's Watkins said: "The stronger the IOD, the stronger the impacts ... for Australia, and maybe for Africa."

Another difference is that Indian Ocean conditions are more regulated by the seasonal cycle than the Pacific. Positive or negative IODs typically take form by May or June, peak around September and October, and break down in November to December as the monsoon shifts south, disrupting the easterly winds.

Poor winter and spring rains from positive IODs are not just bad for farmers. Those rains also supply much of the run-off that let our rivers run and fill the dams. Heatwaves are more severe and prolonged as soils dry out, removing the cooling function from evaporation, and setting up a busy bushfire season.

England says that while IODs can act independently of the Pacific, the connections remain important. For instance, the so-called Indonesian Throughflow - where warm water from the Pacific funnels its way to the Indian Ocean - could change.

"The predictions are for that to weaken," he says. "If it does, that would be a double whammy of more El Ninos plus more positive-IODs."

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





21 October, 2019

Labor, Greens all at sea on asylum claim fast-tracking

The Left wants to slow down the processing of illegals so that they can spend years in Australia.  Then the Left get in and give them all a big welcome

Some folks just never learn, no matter the human turmoil or cost to taxpayers. Kristina Keneally is "completely off the reservation", Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said in a radio interview on Thursday, adding the Labor senator "is dragging even Anthony Albanese to the left on border protection matters".

Labor and the Greens reached a deal to try to scrap fast-track processing of illegal maritime arrivals. As Geoff Chambers reported on Thursday, the new deal could see up to 4000 asylum-seekers who arrived by boat remain in the country for more than 500 days.

Greens senator Nick McKim is leading a disallowance motion to limit the people who can be considered fOr fast-tracking; the Morrison government has delayed debate on the motion and it is now up to the Senate crossbench to decide its fate, most likely next week.

The Immigration Assessment Authority was established as an office within the Administrative Appeals Tribunal's migration and refugee division; it is independent of the minister and the Department of Home Affairs, and it began operations in October 2015. The authority conducts reviews of fast-track decisions that refuse to grant a protection visa to applicants.

The system is for unauthorised maritime arrivals who entered the country between August 2012 and December 2013 and who were not taken to an offshore processing country. The authority must provide a mechanism of limited review that is efficient, quick, free of bias and consistent with the Migration Act.

Labor maintains the fast-track process is neither fast nor fair. As of February last year, the average prOcessing time from lodgement to a primary decision under the current program was 415 days for temporary protection visas and 316 days for safe haven enterprise visas.

Yet in his statutory review of the AAT, former High Court tjdge Ian Callina said the authority was an "effective and fair decision-maker in the cases with which it deals".

Immigration. Minister David Coleman argues fast-tracking is a key border security policy. According to the government, the Labor-Greens disallowance motion would result in appliCation assessments blowing out from 23 days on average, as of June this year, to 504 days. It also would place further stress on the AAT, which is heaving under an immense caseload due to a flood of appeals in the wake of a record number of visa refusals, creating a backlog of almost 62,500 people waiting for determinations.

As Rosie Lewis reported last month, there was a 257 per cent increase between July 2016 and August this year, driven by greater numbers of permanent and temporary visa refusals. The authority's fast-track system is 95 per cent faster than the standard AAT process.

A separate Labor-Greens move would block the privatisation of visa applications: Home Affairs has warned that preventing almost 1000 visa-processing staff, employed by the government, from processing visas would trigger a blowout in decision times, cripple Australia's visa system and devastate key export industries and the inflow of skilled workers.

The government also has raised concerns the medivac bill in its current form could lead to weakened borders due to the "limited nature of the security and character grounds" on which Mr Dutton can refuse a transfer.

In parliament on Wednesday, the Home Affairs Minister detailed his decision to stop the "violent father" of an Iranian asylum-seeker from accompanying her to Australia to receive medical treatment. The father's ban is the first time Mr Dutton has exercised his medivac discretion to refuse a transfer. Labor argues the medivac laws were working and did not need to be repealed by the government.

But the laws are flawed. As Mr Dutton told 2GB on Thursday, Labor had pulled off a con job and had completely lost the plot on border policy. "We know that there are people here now who've come for medical attention, are refusing medical attention, there's no one in hospital," he said, suggesting this would aid the people-smugglers' model.

When Labor weakened border controls in 2008 it led to 50,000 people arriving on 800 boats; 8000 children were placed in detention and 1200 people died at sea. The government estimates the cost to taxpayers has topped $17bn.

Mr Morrison went to the May election pledging to ditch the medivac laws; in July, the Coalition's repeal bill passed the house and was sent to a Senate committee.  On Friday the Senate's report will be handed down, but the upper house won't vote on the repeal legislation until it sits again in November. Tasmanian Jacqui Lainbie is likely to cast the deciding-vote.

For the sake of stronger borders and to avoid more deaths at sea, crossbench senators should back the Coalition's medivac repeal.

For its part, after a crushing defeat in May, Labor should return to the sensible centre, far away from the soapbox antics of Senator Keneally and the siren song of the clueless, ever-posturing Greens. Soft on borders, weak on national security may suit the ambitious Senator Keneally's "woke" personal brand, but it is not a winning formula for Mr Albanese.

From "The Australian" 18/10/2019






Unions at odds with the ALP over free-trade agreements

The old fear of foreigners taking their jobs.  If they were better workers they wouldn't be so worried.  As it is they are often better at striking than working

CFMEU leader Michael O'Connor has lashed out at Labor for backing three free-trade deals, warning that it will cause ongoing "conflict" between the ALP and the union movement, and the "parliamentary party will have to wear the fallout".

Mr O'Connor is the second leading union figure to criticise Labor after ACTU president Michele O'Neil accused the party of abandoning its platform by siding with the government on the Indonesian, Hong Kong and Peru agreements.

Mr O'Connor said the caucus decision sent a "very bad signal" to unions and workers, and guaranteed there would be rank-and-file opposition at upcoming ALP state conferences and the next national conference. "This argument is not over by the decision," Mr O'Connor told The Australian.

"This is going to be an ongoing issue of conflict between sections of the trade union movement and the parliamentary party going forward. "This issue is an iconic issue for many unions, and I think it's going to be a very problematic relationship going forward as a consequence of this. How that manifests itself I am not too sure but certainly this is not a good start to this political cyde by them making this decision. The parliamentary party will have to wear the fallout"

A special meeting of the Labor caucus signed off on the free-trade deals on Thursday. The Australian understands two Labor MPs voted against the deals and 25 supported them at a meeting of the caucus international and legal affairs committee on Wednesday, amid concerns over exploitation in the temporary skilled migration system.

There are 1000 Indonesians in Australia on working holiday visas but under the FTA that number is expected to increase to about 4000 workers in the first year and 5000 after the sixth year. There were also concerns about the investor-state dispute settlement provisions that allow foreign investors in some circumstances to sue the federal govern-ment in international tribunals if they consider new Australian laws harm their interests.

Senior Labor sources said if the party voted against the deals, the ISDS provisions would be much worse under the existing bilateral investment treaty between Aus-tralia and Indonesia that was signed in 1992.

Mr O'Connor accused the ALP of being afraid of adverse media coverage and said the Opposition should have worked with senators to pursue changes to the agreements that would address concerns About job security. "There was probably a natural majority of people in the Senate who had concerns about free trade," he said. "They should have been able to build a coalition among the senators to ensure there were concessions to improve the job security of Australian workers. The fact they didn't have a crack at it is pretty disappointing.

"I think they are scared of your newspaper. They are afraid of getting towelled up by The Australian and Fin Review as anti-trade. "Everybody in the trade union movement supports trade. We just want to make sure that if there are to be trade agreements, that they are robust, fair and don't diminish the job opportunities of Australians. It's not much to ask from a party that claims to represent workers. You would have thought it would be a natural position for them to adopt"

Ms O'Neil said the ALP had "made a mistake that will not be forgotten by Australian workers". "The decision by the ALP to side with the government is an abandonment both of their own platform and of their responsibility to stand up for fair trade deals which deliver jobs for local workers, that protect Australia's public services, sovereignty and visa workers from exploitation and that ensure international labour standards in the countries we trade with," Ms O'Neil said.

Mr O'Connor — the national secretary of the Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union and brother of ALP front-bencher Brendan O'Connor, said the caucus decision appeared to be in breach of the party platform and was "certainly a breach of the clear understanding that our union and other unions thought they had with the parliamentary party".

"I think the position the party is taking on free trade is sending a very bad signal to Australian workers about where it stands on issues like job security," he said "It also sends a very bad signal to the trade union movement about trying to work together to have common positions that are about job security for people."

Asked whether he supported Anthony Albanese's leadership, Michael O'Connor said: "I am not talking about Anthony Albanese's leadership, I am talking about free-trade agreements. The party leadership has nothing to do with me. I don't elect people to leadership positions, other people do. But I support, and will always support, good public policy that advances. the interests  of our members and working people generally." He said he expected there would be opposition to the decision by unions and rank-and-file ALP members at party, conferences,

Electrical Trades union Victoria secretary Troy Gray, a close ally Of CFMEU Victorian leader John Setka, who is fighting moves by Mr Albanese to expel him  from the ALP, said millions of workers were "screaming put for politicians to stand up for them and their families".

"This is a moment where the Australian Labor Party needs competent, strong leadership," Mr Gray said. "Sadly, however, Albo has shown it's just too hard for him.

"This blatant disregard for the party's rules, democratic structures and platform is deeply insulting to the party's members, affiliated unions and supporters."

Opposition trade spokeswoman Madeleine King said Labor would back the FTAs but was concerned how the government would implement them, revealing a list of "firm commitments" to ensure Australian jobs were protected and market access for local businesses was maximised.  Labor has sought a guarantee that the FTAs protect Australian jobs; that holidaymakers are not exploited and are appropriately qualified for the work; and that the existing bilateral investment treaty with Indonesia is terminated.


UNION CONCERNS Why they object to the Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru FTAs:

• The Indonesia. and Peru agreements expand the number of temporary workers in Australia All three include investor-state dispute settlement provisions

• All three contain trade-in-services provisions that encourage privatisation

• Neither the Hong IQ nor Indonesian agreements contains enforceable labour rights

• The government should wait until events in Hong Kong are resolved

• There has been no independent assessment of the economic cost-benefit analysis

From "The Australian" 18/10/2019






From stopping kite flying to bans on running and singing: How a proliferation of absurd rules and political correctness is turning Victoria into the ultimate Nanny State

Victorians are accustomed to being told what they can and can't do by practically everyone.

During this year's footy season, they were told they couldn't even barrack for their team the way they had done so all for of their lives.

Now they're being told they're not smart enough to get 13 out of 15 questions right to get a jet ski endorsement on their boating licence.

As of now, VicRoads has stopped booking in licence tests altogether and are insisting if Victorians want to ride a Personal Water Craft - Kawasaki owns the word Jet Ski - they need to see an accredited trainer.

So people who have diligently studied the guide book to get their marine licence now have to fork out anywhere up to $130 to be trained 'properly'.

A trainer contacted by Daily Mail Australia didn't even know the laws had gone live. But he assured it was happening.

When the Department of Transport was asked for comment, it claimed it was business as usual - for now.  'VicRoads is still taking bookings for PWC endorsement. Applicants are still able to take the knowledge-based test at VicRoads offices or with an Accredited Training Provider,' it stated.

But they're not. 

It's hardly worth complaining about.

Besides, who would listen?

You'll be told these are dangerous machines. 

In 2016 Ivan Maqi was jailed for five years after hooning in a swimmers-only zone off Port Melbourne.

Months later a 16-year-old boy was arrested after crashing his jet ski into a boat at Portarlington.

So a few idiots have spoiled it for the rest of us.

Victorians are a reckless, selfish and dangerous lot.

But thankfully there are many out there who know how to save us from ourselves. 

Victorian legislation is littered with crazy laws.

It is an offence in Victoria to fly a kite to 'the annoyance of any person' in a public place?  Yep. Maximum penalty is a $777 fine.

Singing an obscene song or ballad in a public place can attract a maximum fine of $1554 or two months’ imprisonment. Mess up again and its a $2331 fine or three months in jail. Do it again and you can cop six months in jail.

It is still a crime to loot a shipwreck, use a harnessed goat to pull a vehicle in public or correspond or do business with pirates. 

A few years back Victoria Police reported an individual was caught practicing hypnotism under the age of 21.

It is an offence in Victoria to make unreasonable noise with a vacuum cleaner after 10pm or before 7am on weekdays, and 9am on weekends.

The noise will be considered unreasonable if it can be heard in a ‘habitable’ room in any other residential property, whether they have the door or window open or closed.

Police or the council can direct you to stop making the noise for 72 hours and a breach of their direction can carry a fine of up to $18,655, with an extra fine up to $4,663 a day for continuing noise violations.

In Queensland kids can still buy a 'gel blaster' and shoot each other in the head with soft gel bullets. Pull one out in Victoria and cops are likely to put a full metal jacket bullet into your chest.

But the fun police are everywhere down south.

There are no less than a dozen criminal offences that can be committed by visitors to the MCG, from damaging a plant to moving a boundary marker.

'Interfering with the enjoyment' of the grand prix is also a crime, as is 'attempting to distract' the driver of a Formula One race car.

Schools in Melbourne have outlawed ‘tiggy’ or ‘tag’, with one primary school banning high-fives and hugging. Other schools in Victoria have banned running, and any games involving leather footballs 'to avoid head injuries'.

Boo someone at the footy these days and you'll be compared to Hitler. Western Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge had it spot on when asked about the topic earlier this year. 'We've become a bit of a nanny state,' Beveridge said.

The introduction of 'behavioural awareness' staff at AFL matches this season was another sign of 'nanny state' mentality. A fan was actually kicked out for calling an umpire a 'bald-headed flog'.

Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett  went as far as to suggest the officers patrolling AFL crowds were ill-equipped because they appeared to be 'new arrivals'.

'I’m not being racist when I say this, but when I saw some of the footage, the people who are making judgments while they wear these authoritative coats, are not people who appear to have a great knowledge of our game,' he told 3AW's Neil Mitchell. 'And yet they make judgments about what’s correct and not correct.'

He doubled-down when asked by The Australian if he was sorry about what he had said to Neil. 'I’m worried I’m going to get thrown out of a match,' he said. 'I get very excited watching the Hawks. I love it. 'I don’t withdraw anything I’ve said whatsoever. I don’t make any apology for what I’ve said, because 99 per cent of the public would agree with what I’m saying.'

In a state where commentating footy can almost get you hanged - ask Eddie McGuire - you have to wonder what Hoges would make out of all of this?

The Paul Hogan Show just couldn't exist in Victoria today. It would be blocked faster than a pirating torrent site.

'The sketches were designed, not for you to perv on the girls, but to show what idiots we men can make of ourselves over an attractive woman,' Hoges told the ABC's Australian Story last month. 'So it is a bit sexist, and I apologise to the men.'

Can someone get Hoges on a plane?  Please? 

SOURCE  






Bosses going too far by gagging employees: Attorney-General

Devising a law that will give Christians freedom to live and express their faith without penalty is running into a lot of opposition

Attorney-General Christian Porter has rejected a key concern from big business over the Morrison government’s draft religious discrimination bill, declaring they had gone “a little bit too far” in telling employees what they can and can’t say outside work hours.

The business sector has lashed the so-called Folau clause in the draft bill, which prevents companies with annual turnovers of at least $50 million from sacking employees for sharing controversial religious views outside work unless they can prove it was necessary to avoid undesirable financial hardship.

The Australian Industry Group has previously said the provision was “unfair and unworkable” and would create significant confusion about which categories of out-of-hours conduct employers can legitimately address in order to manage their business.

As Mr Porter attempts to come up with a final bill that balances the needs and concerns of faith groups, the business sector and the LGBTI community, he said he found the business complaints “less persuasive” than other issues that had arisen in the consultation process.

“Most Australians perhaps think that businesses have gone, large businesses in particular, a little bit too far in telling them how to live their lives and what they can and can’t say in their spare time as part of their employment contract — and particularly for people who would otherwise be prevented from making what aren’t much more than statements of scripture or doctrine or belief on Facebook,” Mr Porter said.

“We think that if a big business thinks that’s absolutely necessary to protect their finances then they should be able to show that before they’re able to do that.”

Mr Porter flagged amendments to the draft bill that could ensure religious hospitals and aged care facilities were protected for acting in accordance with their faith.

Under clause 10 of the draft laws, religious bodies “may act in accordance with their faith” and do not discriminate against a person if their conduct may reasonably be regarded as being in accordance with their doctrines, tenets, beliefs or teachings.

A religious body that “engages solely or primarily in commercial activities”, such as a hospital or aged care home, is excluded, which has been a chief concern of religious groups.

“In our draft, it did not include hospitals and age care at first instance, because we wanted to learn more about how those organisations actually operate, and we have learnt a great deal during the consultations that I’ve conducted,” Mr Porter told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“There are going to have to be some refinements of the drafting in that area. But those exemptions can’t extend too far, clearly.”

In its submission on the draft bill, Ai Group said businesses needed to be able to impose reasonable requirements on employees with regard to social media and regular media activity to prevent their reputations, brands and other legitimate commercial interests being damaged.

“Businesses do not impose these requirements lightly. It is often in response to past circumstances where an employee’s conduct has created serious detriment to the business in some way,” its submission states.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





20 October, 2019

Labourers working on Victoria’s West Gate Tunnel raking in $110,000 for 36-hour weeks

Union rip-off that reduces what can be built

Labourers working on Melbourne’s West Gate Tunnel are earning up to $200,000 a year, the Master Builders Association of Victoria has claimed. According to the industry group, young, “entry-level” tradies working on the project are raking in $110,000 per year — in exchange for a 36-hour week.

But those with more experience who work the industry-standard 56-hour week are making a staggering $200,000 per annum.

“Site allowance” payments on the project have also soared to $9.25 per hour, which pushes up a labourer’s wage by more than $24,000 each year.

Master Builders Association CEO Rebecca Casson told news.com.au out-of-control wages hurt everyday Australians.

“Big projects paying unsustainably high wages come at a painfully serious cost that’s often unclear to taxpayers, who foot the bill,” she said.

“That infrastructure is critical for Victoria, but a sustainable wage framework means we can also afford to build schools, aged care facilities and hospitals that make a huge difference in the lives of Victorians.”

She also told The Age workers on the project were getting paid more than many professional employees. “An entry-level labourer, working no overtime, on a six-figure salary is probably getting paid more than a teacher or other workers,” Ms Casson told the publication.

“It’s these incredibly high site allowances that really push wages up; these are payable regardless of any of the environmental factors on site.”

The organisation claimed the incredibly high wages were the result of a deal struck by the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) — and that taxpayers were paying the price.

“ … eventually the cost is actually borne by the people of Victoria because the costs are passed on,” she told The Age.

“The economic health of Victoria depends on the building industry … and we would like to remind people of how many projects that improve lives, like child care or aged care facilities, could be built if we had a sustainable wage framework in place.”

According to the most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures, the average weekly ordinary time earnings for full-time adults in Australia in May 2019 was $1634, or $1608 for Victorians specifically.

That means even the most junior labourers on the site are earning well above the average Australian’s salary, while some are earning more than double.

Australians have reacted to the out-of-control wages with shock and outrage, with many taking to social media to voice their frustrations.

“This is madness,” one Twitter user posted, while another said it was an example of “typical government contract overspending and lack of oversight”.

However, others argued there was nothing wrong with being rewarded for hard work. “Sweet gig if you can get it …” a Twitter user posted, while another said: “Good on them it’s none of your business what someone else earns.”

But despite the backlash, Minister for Transport Infrastructure Jacinta Allan argued transport building jobs were helping the Victorian economy.

“Projects like the West Gate Tunnel, Metro Tunnel and level crossing removal are essential transport projects that contribute to Victoria’s economic growth,” Ms Allen told The Age.

The West Gate Tunnel is a 5km toll road being constructed in Melbourne, which will link the West Gate Freeway at Yarraville with the Port of Melbourne and CityLink at Docklands via twin tunnels beneath Yarraville.

It is expected to open in 2022, and the construction site of the $6.7 billion project is one of the biggest in the country at the moment.

It is being constructed by a consortium of John Holland and CPB Contractors.

SOURCE  






ALP turns up central beating

LABOR'S last-minute move to declare a "climate emergency" has sparked anger and accusations from within of virtue-signalling and blowing up its chances in central Queensland.

Despite not having an emissions policy, federal Labor yesterday revealed it would attempt to declare a climate emergency in Parliament on Monday. It left Labor vulnerable, with the Prime Minister Scott Morrison immediately saying it meant "the full shutdown of all coal mining".

One Labor MP said that it was "motherhood stuff", which left them open to attack from the Government. Another prominent Labor politician said that declaring a climate emergency would "go down like a lead balloon" in central Queensland.  If it wasn't already hard enough to win seats in Queensland, this will put more lead in our saddle bags," the source said. "If we spend our time virtue-signalling like this, my fear is we'll continue not to win seats in the state."

Labor has been battling to reconnect with central and north Queensland after its electoral wipeout in May, partially brought on by its rhetoric on the Adani mine and the coal industry.

Queensland's Labor Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk stood by her comments from last week when she said she would not declare a climate emergency, citing instead her government's ambitious 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.

Mackay State Labor MP Julieanne Gilbert said it wasn't necessary to declare a climate emergency "because we've done so much work to work towards having the right balance of industry and having the right balance also in the power that we produce for Queenslanders", she said.

Labor's motion to declare a climate emergency does not define the emergency or what action needs to be taken, other than meeting existing Paris targets.

'Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese yesterday was unable to say what Labor's climate change or emissions policy was, only saying one would be developed. Senator Matt Canavan said it shows the ALP has learnt nothing from the federal election, in which there were huge swings against Labor in central and north Queensland.

Mr Morrison said that Labor was engaged in a "climate fight club" over what its policy should be.
   
From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" 16/10/2019






BHP holds out against activist push

BHP chief Andrew Mackeniie has held firm over the mining giant's membership of mining industry associations in the face of pressure from activist share-holders to quit groups seen as opposing action on climate change. Speaking at of BHP's annual shareholder meeting in London on Thursday night, Mr Mackenzie defended BHP's membership of groups such as the Minerals Council of Australia as the BHP board faced down shareholder resolutions aimed at pressuring the company to quit the group and associated bodies such as Australia's Coal21.

In early October the share-holder push — lead by the Australasian  Centre for Corporate Responsibility and backed by the Church of England Pensions Board — attracted the support of one of BHP's biggest share-holders, Aberdeen Standard Investments. Aberdeen holds about 32 per cent of BHP stock and took the unusual step of speaking out ahead of London shareholder meeting on a resolution calling on BHP to withdraw from groups that lobby for policies inconsistent with global climate change limitation goals — a resolution opposed by the BHP board — saying its research suggested industry lobby groups were a major obstacle to political action on climate change.

But Mr Mackenzie used his address to shareholders to defend BHP's membership of industry groups, saying the company's participation helps it "contribute to the more global solutions also required for a more progressive world".

"For example, I lead a task force across the mining industry, and its supply chains, to make our vehicles greener and safer. "This typifies the vast bulk of the work of all the trade associations we join and we work tirelessly to make sure this kind of work is their major and predominant role," he said

"Mining trade associations, especially, deserve our full engagement "The move to renewables demands a multi-fold increase in the prduction of metals in the dcades ahead, which makes mining one of the most vital components of our low-carbon future."

BHP has said it is again reviewing its membership of industry associations, and has made it clear that its membership of Coal 21— a group originally set up to back research into carbon capture technology but which bankrolled pro-coal advertising campaigns — would end if the body does not focus on its original remit.

The comments come as BHP board set a deadline for the approval of its giant Canadian potash project, a key growth project, as the mining giant's operations had a soft start to the financial year.

BHP said on Thursday its board would make a decision on the $US5.7bn Jansen potash project by February 2021, authorising another $US344m in development capital to prepare the deep underground mine ahead of a final investment decision.

While BHP boss Andrew Mackenzie has consistently pointed to the giant fertiliser mine as a key growth plank for the mining giant, positioning the company to counter slowing growth in its other commodities, the value of the project has divided analysts and investors over its cost and whether BHP risks building the massive mine into an oversupplied market.

BHP declared the decision date as its existing operations put in a slightly softer quarter's performance in the September period, which the company attributed largely to planned maintenance across its major operations.

The comments came as new production figures showed total output from BHP's Pilbara iron ore operations fell 3 per cent from the June quarter to 69 million tonnes as it carried out maintenance at its Port Hedland port operations.

Queensland metallurgical coal output fell dramatically compared to the June quarter, down 21 per cent to 16 million tonnes, due to planned major plant shut-downs at its Goonyella, Peak Downs and Caval Ridge — operated in a joint venture with Japan's Mitsubishi.

Thermal coal output also fell as BHP high-grades its Mt Arthur mine in NSW, down 34 per cent quarter-on-quarter to 4 million tonnes. On a quarter-on-quarter basis only BHP's Escondida copper mine and Caton thermal coal mine lifted production for the period, with total production down 3 per cent for the period on a copper-equivalent basis.

BHP shares closed Wednesday at $36.04. Meanwhile Mr Mackenzie said the global economy was being pressured by trade tensions which were "weighing on consumer confidence and have the potential to impact demand" for BHP's key commodities.

"Longer term our view remains positive. Industrialisation and urbanisation, along with decarbonisation and electrification, will generate demand for energy, metals, and fertilisers for decades to come," Mr Mackenzie said.

From "The Australian" 18/10/2019



    

Emu oil makes a comeback

Old-fashioned Australians have been using it to alleviate sking and joint problems for years.  I had some myself years ago

Australia's emu farmers are ramping up production of oil, with demand increasing as more people become aware of the product's medicinal qualities.

Veteran emu farmer Wayne Piltz said the market has grown significantly in recent years, but production has not risen with it.

Mr Piltz, now the only emu farmer in South Australia, currently has about 1,000 chicks at his Moorook farm in the state's Riverland region.

"It's just got to the stage where there's a lot of it being exported, a lot of it's going into local products, into cosmetics and therapeutic goods," Mr Piltz said. "We're basically short of oil throughout Australia.

"I know the other suppliers over in Victoria, they're struggling to have enough oil, so it's in pretty good demand … which keeps the price very attractive for us."

Although Mr Piltz breeds the birds, he does not process the oil himself, instead sending his stock to a facility in north-west Victoria.

He expects to send up to 400 birds to the interstate facility in coming weeks. "It's an added expense to get birds over there for slaughter, but it's certainly worthwhile," he said. "Because the slaughterhouse at Wycheproof has also got a rendering and refinery facility to do the oil."

The benefits of using emu oil

Postdoctoral medical researcher through the University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Mashtoub said medical trials have showed promising results for the reparative qualities of emu oil.

"It's been most effective in terms of wound-healing and repair of the intestinal lining," she said.

"Emu oil has been used for thousands of years by Indigenous Australian people, and they used it topically for wound-healing and for treatment of inflamed joints and burns."

Dr Mashtoub said the oil has high levels of omega-9, which is an anti-inflammatory fatty acid.

"Initially, it was thought that [the oil] was predominantly used for it's anti-inflammatory properties, but we also discovered that it has antioxidant properties," she said.

"There is evidence that's been published that emu oil is efficacious in psoriasis and eczema."

Research into the medicinal qualities of emu oil are ongoing, and this year will see a world-first clinical trial on humans take place in South Australia.

Dr Mashtoub will lead the study at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, and said the patients in the trial will be children with ulcerative colitis, a type of inflammatory bowel disease.

She said once these trials are complete, doctors can begin prescribing doses of emu oil for medication.

"At this stage we don't make any recommendations in terms of a dose that [patients] can take," Dr Mashtoub said.

"We simply say we have very promising results from our pre-clinical studies and we are hoping that will translate into the clinical setting in humans."

Talyala Emu Oil director Mia Murphy agreed, and said her customers use the oil to help manage skin conditions and dryness.  "Most of our customers use emu oil to help with inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and joint pain," Ms Murphy said.

Despite demand increasing and awareness for the product growing, Ms Murphy said there is still room for the market to develop further. "Where we see those surges in demand are when there's a bit of publicity," she said.

Mr Piltz agreed, and said producers can also help tell the public about the oil's health benefits.

"It's one of the only natural oils that will not clog the pores of the skin, it's got very good dermal penetration, so it goes into the deep layers of skin where it's beneficial," Mr Piltz said. "[The oil] has very good therapeutic and skin repair properties, medicinal properties."

Mr Piltz hopes to increase his emu production to keep up with the demand for oil. "We've got facilities here that we can breed up to, well 600 or 700 birds or maybe more a year," he said. "We're not up to that stage yet, but it wouldn't take long.

"We like to hopefully average between 8.5 and say 9 or 10 kilos of fat per bird...if we can average over 8 [kilograms], we're happy."

Ms Murphy said she hopes more producers will be encouraged to enter the industry for sustainability reasons. "As farming goes, emus are actually a really sustainable crop, they don't take a lot of resources," she said.

Despite this, the drought has had some impact on emu numbers in recent years. "It depends on the drought conditions … this year, 2019, there was a very, very small harvest of emu oil just because we didn't have that many birds," Ms Murphy said.

"Only a minimal amount of birds were hatched because we couldn't get the grain for feeding."

But she said it is looking promising for the years to come. "[A Victorian producer] is really, really increasing the amount of of chicks he will hatch out for next spring," Ms Murphy said.  "Producers in Victoria are absolutely anticipating that the industry is going to continue to grow.

"We would love to see some of those farmers who are struggling with their current crops, look at their land and go, 'right, yeah, we could run emus here'."

Mr Piltz also had high hopes for his farming future. "I hope [the industry] continues to build, and I can't see why it won't, because you're utilising a native ingredient from Australia," he said. "Our biggest native bird has produced some very good products for cosmetics and therapeutics and eating."

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here







18 October, 2019
         
UNSW media release: Year 12 creates too much stress and ATAR scoring ‘unfair'

I have long seen how poor is ideologically motivated research and it is well known that the Left dislike formal examinations so I expected immediately that the research underlying the claims below would be suspect.  It was more than suspect.  It was moronic.  I used to teach research methods and statistics at the Uni of NSW and I would have failed any student who presented anything like that to me as a research proposal.

It is just dishonest.  The answers they wanted were transparent and the respondents duly gave the researchers what was expected.  There were just 3 questions in the survey and all were worded in a way hostile to the existing arrangements.  There was not the slightest attempt at balance or to ask more subtly worded questions.  There were no questions expressing approval of the existing arrangements

In my research career  I had a lot published on the desirability of balanced wording -- wording designed to avoid acquiescent response bias.  And I repeatedly found that many people would agree with both a statement and its opposite.  They tended, in other words, to say Yes to anything in answering a survey.  But you cannot detect that unless you have from the beginning in your survey oppositely worded questions.  The present survey did not.  It is moron stuff that should be ignored.

 I could very easily design another survey with different questions that would come to the opposite conclusions.


On the first day of the 2019 Higher School Certificate exams, UNSW Sydney’s Gonski Institute for Education is releasing new survey findings that show most people want student ability and talents outside of end-of-school exam results to be factors used in determining their university entry ranking.

And two thirds feel the reliance on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) for university entry creates unnecessary pressure on Year 12 students.

These results from a new national survey undertaken by UNSW Sydney’s Gonski Institute for Education come as high school students in most states are about to sit their final exams.

Institute Director, Professor Adrian Piccoli, a former NSW Education Minister, said the UNSW survey results support academic research that suggests relying on an end-of-school series of exams as the primary means to gain entry to a university is not the best predictor of a student’s overall ability, nor are they the most equitable.

Professor Piccoli said: “There is a growing body of work that shows one off exams, which are supposedly meant to measure a student’s whole of school experience, often do not accurately measure their skills, potential or overall ability”.

“Like NAPLAN, the HSC scores are used to measure a very narrow range of student abilities which, under the current ATAR system, creates an enormous amount of pressure for all those involved.”

A total of 80 per cent of all respondents to the Gonski Institute survey agreed university requirements should also consider a student’s ability and talents outside the classroom.

While over 57 per cent say ATAR scores create unnecessary pressure on Year 12 students, that number rises to 75 per cent for people who finished high school but did not do any tertiary study.

Professor Piccoli said: “Schools are also under pressure to ensure their students achieve high ATAR scores. School ranking tables created from Year 12 exam results effect a school’s reputation and this measure doesn’t necessarily reflect the quality of education available at schools but rather how their students performed in various tests.”

There are strong connections between achievement in the ATAR and the socioeconomic background of the high school, with higher achievement generally being associated with a higher socioeconomic status (SES).

Professor Eileen Baldry, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Equity Diversity and Inclusion UNSW says: “This inequity associated with ATAR scores and disadvantaged schools poses significant problems for universities in offering places to the most talented students across the country if we just use the ATAR results.

Those with high capability but who come from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly low SES, Indigenous and regional, rural and remote students, are less likely to achieve high ATARs, not because they are not talented but because the ATAR is not a fair measure of their talent and capacity to success at university.

UNSW, like other universities, already has and is working towards further alternative pathways into university that take into account a range of student talent and capability outside of ATAR.”

The release last month of another academic report, ‘Beyond ATAR: a proposal for change’, published by the Australian Learning Lecture supports the Gonski Institute’s findings and urged tertiary education providers to design entry pathways that better align candidates’ interests, capabilities and aspirations with the educational opportunities on offer, and better reflect evidence about the progress and potential of learners.

Press release. Media contact:  Stuart Snell, UNSW External Communications, 0416 650 906 s.snell@unsw.edu.au






Frenzy of shark activity

LIFESAVERS blame a surge of shark sightings and beach closures in north Queensland on the ill-fated decision to remove baited drum lines. Local identities fear the latest spike in shark activity poses a threat to human safety and the tourism industry.

"They need to put those drumlines back in right now," Cairns councillor Brett Olds, a volunteer lifesaver, said. "It's not panic, it's common sense. "Why dice with death?" Eight patrolled beaches have been closed because of sharks at Port Douglas, Cairns, Townsville and Magnetic Island since the removal of drum lines just over 20 days ago. It compares with a total of 15 closures last year in Great Barrier Reef Marine Park waters between Hervey Bay and Port Douglas.

There were a total of 56 beach closures due to shark sightings along the length of the Queens-land coast in 2018. On Sunday, a giant hammerhead shark swam about 10m off the beach through a patrolled area at Yorkeys Knob. About 28 swimmers, most of them. children, had to be called from the water and the beach shut for an hour.

The same day, an almost 3m-long shark was caught by fishers off Palm Cove jetty. Palm Cove Surf Life Saving Club vice-president Rob Pattinson said there was heightened anxiety about the looming shark threat. "We didn't expect to see this increase in shark numbers so quickly," Mr Pattinson said. "We've rarely had to close beaches up here before because of sharks.

"Now we've got big signs up on the lifeguard huts warning of stingers, crocodiles and sharks. Soon, no one will go in the water. "Why not continue with a shark control program that has worked for more than 60 years?"

Last month, a greens group won a court order to stop the lethal shark-control program in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

State Government workers were not trained to deal with live sharks, so the drum lines were pulled. Since baited drum lines were introduced in 1962, there's been only one fatal shark attack at a protected Queensland beach. Before that, there were 36 recorded cases of shark attack, and 19 deaths, dating back to 1912.

A Surf Life Saving Queensland spokeswoman said they had no evidence of a direct link between drum line removal and shark sightings.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" 16/10/2019






Unions fear renewable jobs will be low in pay

MILITANT left-wing unions have rubbished "gestures" of transitioning workers from the coal industry and warned of significant exploitation and poor pay in renewable energy jobs.

In separate submissions to an inquiry into future jobs in regional areas, the CFMEU, AMWU and MUA have highlighted a "largely unplanned and unjust" attempt to transition workers out of high-polluting industries.

While citing "widespread acceptance" of the need for a "just transition" to a low-carbon economy, the unions raised doubts the renewable sector could deliver on job promises.

CFMEU national president Tony Maher said dramatically declining domestic coal power generation was "inescapable", but there were few jobs in renewables beyond the construction phase and they tended to "pay worse" and have cases of "significant exploitation".

"The problem that we have with most of the gestures of recent times about alternative futures for coal-power workers and communities (and beyond that for the much larger communities of the coal export industry) is that they are little more than traditional Band-Aid structural adjustment packages, with a shiny 'just transition' marketing label that continues to leave those people far worse off," he said.

The AMWU called for a national energy policy that offered "certainty, support and stability" to ensure manufacturers had access to cheap and reliable energy. "We are an energy-rich resource nation, whether it be natural gas, coal, wind, hydro or solar," the union says. "We cannot afford to squander this advantage and hobble our manufacturing sector with inflated energy costs." 

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" 16/10/2019






Why is Australia the target of climate eco-cult?

If you are confused about Extinction Rebellion, fret not. The green dreamers take orders from a higher authority. It is hard for we mere earthlings to understand the transcendent thinking that comes from a direct line to the divine. By divine, I mean the universal consciousness of folk so fried by psychedelic drugs they’re convinced flower power reigns and we’re all going to die if carbon emissions aren’t net zero by 2025.

Birkenstocks and bare feet, white-boy dreadlocks and riverside raves — Extinction Rebellion is protesting like it’s 1999. They’re high on the illusion of their own importance (among other things), but XR is just the latest in a wave of protests with a short shelf life. The movement is limited by its members’ refusal to reckon with reality. Speaking to the BBC, XR co-founder Gail Bradbrook explained how it all began while she was using psychedelic drugs. She took time off after a series of failed protests and got high. Or, as Bradbrook puts it: “I went on a retreat and prayed in a deep way with some psychedelic medicines.”

The last time psychedelic drugs were this political, it was the 1960s. Timothy Leary’s tribe of hippies took advice to “Turn on, tune in and drop out” by staging bed-ins and love-ins. They tried to elevate a fondness for getting high, having sex and napping into a movement. Only the children of the wealthy and the welfare state can get away with such a thin excuse for sloth. When the welfare money ran out, the movement ran aground.

Like drug-addled hippies, XR-ers believe in fantasies of collective consciousness, pacifism and a pre-political state where mother nature is pregnant with an eternal harvest. It’s like a David Attenborough documentary without the kill scene. Set against this utopia is an equally illusory but sinister version of reality where evil white men are killing the Earth with CO2. XR believes it is engaged in a battle between life and death.

Climate activists have spent the past week protesting in low-emission nations of the West while ignoring the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Australia’s XR fanboys are yet to explain why they are protesting here when our nation contributes only 1.3 per cent of global emissions. Why don’t they protest against China for producing 27.2 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions? Perhaps they could try locking themselves to the nearest United Nations office for refusing to hold China to account.

XR wants action on climate change and climbing on planes, stopping trains and lying under cars is the road to redemption, ­apparently. The green-left media is lionising XR activists and partial truth is indispensable to the act. Consider the global headlines about the man who mounted a plane in Britain to protest climate change. He was commonly ­described as a Paralympian — a hero of sorts. The fuller truth is that XR’s heroic Paralympian was banned for a doping violation in 2016.

Like all doomsday cults, XR ­believers frame martyrdom as a high calling. Speaking to The Australian, Melbourne Extinction ­Rebellion spokesman Kegan Daly predicted arrests would “100 per cent” rise during the week of protests. While not being pleased about the prospect, Daly praised those “willing to sacrifice their freedom for this cause”.

The development of a will to martyrdom is rarely a good sign, but it is especially problematic among members of groups who share the belief in a doomsday scenario. If XR activists think the world will enter a death spiral after 2025, they have nothing to lose. Already, some appear to be suffering the effects of mass hysteria. Footage from protests has shown activists breaking down, weeping and wailing after chaining or gluing themselves to things. Others have spoken about their despair and despondency about the world coming to an end. As the collective’s emotional state deteriorates, its members seem less willing to consider counterintuitive facts. NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance elucidated the problem by questioning why climate activists planned to target the state’s transport system if the rail network is 100 per cent offset.

The widening gulf between XR theory and reality is a reason the public has begun to turn against the group. Despite professing regret for political stunts that hold up traffic and drain emergency services, climate activists continue to stage them. They are not truly sorry for blocking streets, occupying parks and holding people hostage to hard-left demands because they cannot get what they want by democratic means.

In successive elections, Australians have voted in favour of the Coalition government’s climate change agenda that balances the need for economic prosperity with climate mitigation strategies. They voted in favour of the Paris climate change commitment to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. Voters rejected Labor’s proposal to ­increase the target to 45 per cent because of the potential hit to GDP, estimated at about $472bn. XR’s target of net zero emissions by 2025 would fail at the ballot box.

Without a democratic mandate or a rational plan for conservation, XR activists can only shout and stamp their feet. They use resistance tactics to bypass democracy because they have no hope of implementing their policies by democratic means. Over time, they are becoming more militant and people are tiring of the soap opera. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk upset some Labor colleagues last week by proposing laws to ensure people can go about their lives without protesters preventing their freedom of movement. She wants to stop the use of locking devices. Employment Minister Michaelia Cash suggested the suspension of welfare payments for the activists.

The green doomsters are not sorry for bypassing democracy to get what they want. They are not sorry for putting themselves first and forcing others to clean up their mess. They are unrepentant because they are determined to remake the world in their own image, whatever the cost to the rest of us.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





17 October, 2019

Dutton to deny asylum seeker's dad entry

The home affairs minister is refusing to allow the father of an asylum seeker to accompany her to Australia from Nauru for medical treatment.

The woman will travel to Australia for psychological assessment.

Peter Dutton will table documents in parliament detailing his decision on Wednesday regarding the father, whom he alleges would expose the Australian community to a serious risk of criminal conduct.

Under medical evacuation laws, doctors can recommend asylum seekers held offshore be brought to Australia for treatment.

They can generally be accompanied by family members. However, the minister can reject transfers on national security grounds.

Mr Dutton has approved the Iranian woman to travel, along with her brother.

However, the minister has received intelligence the father had a history of violence and was allegedly involved in drug importation and prostitution.

Mr Dutton will tell parliament the man has a history of violent and manipulative behaviour, including allegations of physical assault against his children.

Labor home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said his decision proves the so-called medevac laws were working as they should.  "Why did Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton claim people of bad character could be transferred to Australia under medevac when it's clear they have the powers to deny such transfers?" she asked.

"Peter Dutton is so desperate to distract from the 95,000 aeroplane people who have arrived on his watch, he's boasting about using a power Labor ensured was in place to keep security threats out of the country."

The Morrison government is looking to scrap the refugee medical evacuation laws, and is lobbying Senate crossbencher Jacqui Lambie for her support. Senator Lambie has said the deteriorating situation in Syria may see her support the repeal.

SOURCE  





Things hotting up at Bureau of Meteorology

Why is the Australian Bureau of Meteorology a protected species? How many warnings does the government need before it conducts a parliamentary inquiry and independent audit.

Surely, for $1m a day, taxpayers are at least entitled to reliable data. Yet what we get are homogenised records achieved by mixing, matching and even deleting temperature data, often from unreliable or geographically unrelated sites and almost always with a warming bias.

In 2015 minister for the environment Greg Hunt saw off a golden opportunity when he batted away then prime minister Tony Abbott’s wish to have an audit. Hunt found the bureau’s “hard science, hard data and literally millions of points of information through satellite and local monitoring” convincing.

Hunt’s successor, Josh Frydenberg, similarly refused to have an audit. Both turned a blind eye to the BoM’s unscientific obsession to report record heat.

When satellite data conflicted with its “hottest-ever summer” hype, they ignored it. And they listened to colleagues and BoM supporters who were consumed by climate-change politics.

The bureau’s focus on politics rather than science was revealed a decade ago in the leaked “Climategate” emails which exposed unscientific practices and appalling quality control.

Professor Phil Jones, former director at the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, referred to Australians “inventing the December 1995 monthly value” and wanting to see “the section on variability and extreme events beefed up”.

A frustrated CRU climatologist/programmer, Ian (Harry) Harris, wrote: “Getting seriously fed up with the state of the Australian data. So many new stations have been introduced, so many false references … so many changes that aren’t documented.”

The bureau’s supervisor of climate analysis, Dr David Jones, dismisses sceptics as “scientifically incompetent. We have a policy of providing any complainer with every single station observation when they question our data (this usually snows them)”.

Former chief executive Rob Vertessy confirms this thinking, saying: “People … running interference on the national weather agency are unproductive and, it’s actually dangerous.”

This patronising fortress mentality does little to dispel concerns about integrity.

The BoM’s casual approach to Celsius conversion with its warming bias sticks in the memory. So too the spectacle of Rutherglen, where a 0.35C cooling became a 1.73C warming. When hot and dry Hillston, 300km away in southern New South Wales, is included in the “homogenisation” process, no wonder.

There’s also the mystery of Goulburn Airport, in NSW southern tablelands, where the lowest ever July temperature was -9.1C, recorded in 1988. In 2017 that was broken when the temperature dropped to -10.4C. The bureau recorded -10C. A similar under-recording occurred at Thredbo Top Station.

After an inquiry from Frydenberg, the BoM responded there were issues with those automatic weather stations but, out of 695 sites, they were the only ones where temperature records had been affected. How reassuring that the ever-alert Dr Jennifer Marohasy, who raised the alarm, had found the offending two.

Respected climate writer Joanne Nova recently reported another example of the bureau’s reluctance to record cooler temperatures. Although Friday, April 19, was the coldest April day in Albany, Western Australia, the bureau somehow “lost” the crucial Albany Airport data set.

So, while temperatures for hundreds of kilometres around registered similar maximums to the airport’s 10.4C, the official airport maximum for April 19 remains blank, while the city of Albany records the day before’s temperature of 25.1C.

The bureau’s warming bias is shameless. It couldn’t wait to announce January 7 last year as the Sydney Basin’s hottest-ever day. But it was required to quickly retract this and acknowledge 1939 was hotter — but not before the captive media had sensationalised the headlines.

Suspicions of BoM neglect and carelessness are being confirmed by diligent volunteer auditors. A number of weather stations have been found on or near asphalt, busy highways, beside galvanised iron fences and metal sheds, atop tin roofs or adjacent airconditioning units. Even when these sites are not included in the official ACORN set, they are still used to adjust temperatures within it.

Now, Nova reveals, volunteers have discovered changes at the Port Hedland site have over the years corrupted its data. It is one of only 112 certified locations and its temperatures are used in the “best practice” official set which forms part of the global record. How many more non-compliant, certified sites are there? And why is it only volunteers can find them?

And why, to quote Nova: “After all the headlines, after it was measured on supposedly modern first-class equipment, even data just 18 months old is being re-fiddled?”

So when satellites suggest 1991 was our hottest summer, and the bureau says 2019, who should we believe?

The BoM is a large and expensive agency, employing almost 1700 people. It requires $400m a year to run. The importance of its database and the reliability of its forecasts go well beyond daily bulletins. Many industries depend on them. Yet, despite the bureau’s boasts of scientific integrity, government cannot ignore the continual release of conflicting evidence nor the BoM’s repeated failure to predict catastrophic weather events such as floods and droughts.

Moreover, despite the bureau’s protests of “best practice”, evidence is being produced which questions the bureau’s compliance with World Meteorological Organisation standards.

The bureau rejects this but then this question may fall into the “unproductive” and “actually dangerous” category.

If the bureau was a public company ASIC would have long since investigated it. What makes government so frightened to act?

SOURCE  






CFMMEU Bullying Targets Small Business    
         
The latest case of CFMMEU bullying reinforces the need for Parliament to pass the ‘Ensuring Integrity’ laws

"This is the fifth judgment handed down in the last four weeks where the CFMMEU has bullied small businesses to either sign union deals, or to force workers to join the union.  - resulting in almost $600,000 in penalties for what the Court has now called a "war" by the CFMMEU against the rights of workers and small business" said Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia said.

“The 'Ensuring Integrity' laws will mean that the CFMMEU will have to learn to play by the rules while giving desperately needed extra protections for small business people, workers and apprentices,” she said.

“This decision is the latest to highlight that the CFMMEU’s Construction and General Division has an entrenched culture of bullying and that John Setka is merely the most infamous of its officials when it comes to repeatedly showing his contempt for the law,” Denita Wawn said.

The Federal Court has imposed fines of almost $70,000 against the CFMMEU and an official for conducting what it observed to be a "war" against the right of workers to be free to decide whether or not to join a union.

This latest judgment - Australian Building and Construction Commissioner v Pattinson [2019] FCA 1654 – found that the CFMMEU and its official unlawfully stopped an apprentice and an electrician from working on a Frankston construction site because they weren’t union members.

The Court found the union had broken the Freedom of Association provisions within the Fair Work Act, when the official told the apprentice and the electrician that they weren't allowed to come on site because they didn’t have a union membership card.

In making the findings, the Court ordered the highest available penalty given the long list of similar recent contraventions, combined with a failure to show contrition or take steps to stop further contraventions, with His Honor Justice Snaden noting:

"…The Union is a ’serial offender” that has, over a long period, exhibited a willingness to contravene workplace laws in the service of its industrial objectives; and one that appears to treat the imposition of financial penalties in respect of these contraventions as little more than the cost of its preferred business model.

 …I regard the Union’s Agreed Contraventions – viewing them, as I do, against the backdrop of its sorry record of statutory contravention – as very much of the gravest, most serious kind. It is bad enough that it should so casually intrude upon rights of free association so valued by societies of conscience; much worse that it should do so, yet again, in deliberate defiance of the law that it has been told time and time again that it must obey.

…it appears to be wholly unmoved by the prospect that it might be forced yet again to dig into its members “big pots of gold” in the name of “fight[ing] the good fight”…"

The Court decided to use the description of "war" with reference to the official involved, causing His Honour to say:

"…given his long-held position and rank within the Union, it is patently absurd to conclude anything other than that he did what he did out of fealty to his Union’s policy of enforcing a “no ticket, no start” regime at the construction sites over which it wields influence. Mr Pattinson is merely the latest foot soldier in what seems to be the Union’s war against free association on Australian building sites."

“Since the start of 2017, have accounted for 88% of the total breaches of the Fair Work laws that deal with Freedom of Association, Right of Entry and Coercion - which is 44 times higher than the breaches of all other unions combined,” Denita Wawn said.

"Today’s judgment hammers home the message that workers and small business deserve better than the CFMMEU. Bullying and thuggish behaviour have no place on building sites or in any workplace, Denita Wawn said.

Via email. For more information contact: Ben Carter, National Director, Media & Public Affairs, 0447 775 507






Golden skirts! It’s the social engineering ball

Affirmative action programs for women are not merely offensive and patronising but are badly targeted

In the course of one week, we had the rare good fortune to be given three penetrating insights into a single truth: namely that many, probably most, affirmative action programs for women are not merely offensive and patronising but are badly targeted.

These programs produce results the opposite of those intended, and are possibly unlawful, if not also immoral. Many are simply disguised devices to heap more privilege on already privileged women at great cost to other women, shareholders, consumers and ordinary Australians.

The first insight came last Friday when The Australian Financial Review’s Boss Magazine published its list of the 10 most powerful company directors in Australia, measured by adding the market capitalisation of the Australian Securities Exchange-listed companies on whose boards the director sits. Lo and behold, the long-predicted consequences of quotas for female directors became clear: seven of the top 10 directo­rs are women.

That 70 per cent of Australia’s busiest company directors are women does not mean the numbers of female company director­s on ASX-listed companies overall has moved much — that figure remains stuck at about 30 per cent.

Nor does it mean that women are becoming chief executives of listed companies in greater number­s as a prelude to a career as a non-executive director.

While women fill 70 per cent of the top 10 directors list, men still fill upwards of 90 per cent of chief executive positions­ at ASX 100 companies. That is some anomaly. With some honourable exceptions, such as Catherine Livingstone, the female board members in the top 10 directo­rs list are not the corporate titans one might expect or like to see there.

These stark numbers reveal that the “golden skirts” phenomenon, first observed in Norway after gender quotas were mandated, has taken hold in Australia. The golden skirts spectacle happens­ when quotas meet shortages of qualified women. A few qualified women get swamped with offers of board seats. The combination of shortages and quotas drives up the economic value of the scarce resource.

So next time you read about lobby groups such as Chief Executive Women (whose members don’t have to be chief executives) or the Australian Institute of Compan­y Directors lobbying for female quotas for company directorships, understand that this is a naked demand for those women who are already on the lucrative company board roundabout to be given more gigs. It is a demand for more privilege for the already privileged.

Steps that would make a real difference to women in the workforce, such as getting more women into chief executive or C-suite roles, take too long and are too difficult for the quota cheer squad because they require women to have serious­ long-term business careers and build skills and experience across decades. As men do.

Even worse for the golden skirts, delivering a healthy pipeline of qualified women with chief executive or C-suite CVs would alleviate the scarcity that drives up the golden skirts’ market value. More women in the market would strip a few women of their artificially inflated market value.

The second insight came on Monday, when Australian Super repeated its threats to use its voting­ power to coerce boards of ASX-listed companies to have at least two female directors. Politic­ally activist industry super funds such as Australian Super provide the heft and oxygen to grow and enforce these programs for the privileged.

Note Australian Super adds no rider that female appointments be made only where they are the best-qualified — in other words, that appointments are made in the best interests of the company.

No, this is an unqualified, unconditional­ demand to appoint more women, or else Australian Super will vote against existing direct­ors. It is saying, in effect, that the circumstances of the particular company and the interests of its shareholders are irrelevant to them. The interests of individual shareholders will be sacrificed, if necessary, on the altar of Australian Super’s social engineering program.

And, of course, weak boards surrender to them by instructing search firms not to bother even considering male candidates. If the Don Bradman of company directors volunteered for a board being targeted by Australian Super, he would be ignored in favour of a woman. How can a gendered outcome that consciously ignores a sizeable part of the talent pool, including possibly the most talented, be a proper exercise of director’s duties? The short answer is that it is not.

By the way, shouldn’t our regulators be checking that Australian Super is meeting its “best interests” duties under superannuation legislation? Is anyone home at the Australian Securities & Investments Commission and the Aust­ralian Prudential Regulation Authority? Or are “woke” causes now beyond the reach of the law?

The third illustration of the power of special pleading for the already privileged came with a whinge released on Friday by the Law Council of Australia, headed by Arthur Moses SC. The Law Council’s report complains that the “pay gap” between male and female barristers is widening.

Apparently, women conducted 25 per cent of court cases last year but received only 17 per cent of the fee pool. At least when The Australian reported this it quoted Sydney­ barrister Sophie York, who acknowledged that the results­ are more complex than a simplistic whine about a “pay gap”. For example, York acknowledged that “different life choices” may be at play here.

Let’s include more nuance from the real world. It takes a long time to deliver social change and the report­ simply reflects a fee pool dominated by, and heavily skewed to, present leaders of the profes­sion. In other words, by men who went to law school 40 years ago when the university intake was mainly male. In 40 years from now the division of the fee pool will ­presumably reflect the fact today’s university law school intak­e is mainly female.

But, for now, using affirmative action directives to favour women simply privileges an already privil­eged group of female barristers above the entitlement their numbers­, skills and experience deserv­e.

This does not appear to trouble the Law Council. Its “equitable briefing” policy demands affirmative action outcomes now, or at least by next year. It wants women briefed in 30 per cent of all matters and paid 30 per cent of all fees by then, irrespective of how many women are at the bar, how long they have been there or what their skills and experience may be.

Its briefing policy requires that when a client requests their solic­itor to prepare “a list of barristers who might be engaged, women barristers should be included in that list”.

Can you imagine choosing your neurosurgeon this way? You go to your GP and ask for a list of neurosurgeons for your life-threatening operation and your GP gives you a list chosen, at least in part, by gender. Would you be grateful to be told that your sur­gical needs should give way to sociall­y progressive outcomes?

Similarly, how can a briefing policy that subordinates the best interests of the client in that ­client’s individual circumstances to desired gender outcomes be a proper exercise of a solicitor’s fiduc­iary duty of care? How can the Law Council and its constit­uent law societies tolerate this?

Maybe woke causes are indeed above the law.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






16 October, 2019

Fed-up farmers fight back against Extinction Rebellion protesters and activists who have threatened to drive their industry to the brink of collapse

Farmers have launched a multi-million dollar campaign to fight back against climate change and animal rights activists.

Extinction Rebellion activists caused chaos in Australian cities last week with a series of disruptive protests in an attempt to raise awareness for what they claim is a climate change 'emergency'.

The ER activists have links and overlap to vegan groups who had regularly targeted Australian farms with incursions and protests and promote an anti-meat and anti-grazier agenda.

In response, the National Farmers Federation has launched a $10million campaign to promote the benefits of farming to Australians.

National Farmers Federation president Fiona Simson said she was worried that Australians were becoming more opposed to farming as a result of protests by left-wing 'minority groups'.

'We are one of the most trusted professions. But they do have some questions about looking after animals, our environmental practices, and how we look after land,' Ms Simson told The Australian.

'We farmers have allowed them to control the space. That is the story that they are putting out there, and we have been remiss in not telling our own stories.'

The campaign, Telling Our Story, was launched on Monday and aims to promote the farming industry to Australians.

The NFF is also encouraging teachers to educate students about agriculture.

Extinction Rebellion protesters swarmed major Australian cities on Friday.

Activists buried their heads in the sand at Sydney's Manly Beach, while Brisbane's William Jolly Bridge was flooded with marchers.

In Melbourne, more than 100 activists blocked cars and trams in both directions causing major disruptions.

A large number of activists were arrested.

SOURCE  






Disabled man said he was heckled and abused by Extinction Rebellion protesters

A revealing testimony to the low character of Warmists.  You can see how "caring" they really are

A disabled man claims he was heckled and abused by Extinction Rebellion protesters who blocked his way as he was trying to cross the street.

Matthew Zammit said he was disrupted by the protests while in Melbourne and tried to raise his concerns with activists, but was met with abuse and was called offensive names.

Climate change protesters descended on major cities across Australia last week with a week of demonstrations around the country.

Dozens showed up in Melbourne to occupy the steps of Parliament while hundreds more marched through the CBD while others camped in Melbourne's Carlton Gardens.

In a question submitted to the ABC program Q&A, Mr Zammit said it was particularly difficult for him to go about his day in Melbourne due to his disability. 

'I've been heavily disrupted by the protests last week. Many people have. But as somebody with a few disabilities it hits people like me harder,' he said.

He said he tried to raise his concerns with protesters when his bus was blocked as there were people chained to the tram tracks.

'I already had to walk with my crutch much more than usual that morning, when I attempted to speak with them on one side of the street I was jeered at and called offensive names,' Mr Zammit said. 'I struggled to the other side of the street and had fruitless arguments with protesters there.'

While Mr Zammit acknowledged that climate change was a serious issue, he asked the panel about the balance between the rights of people with disabilities and the right to protest.

Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson said Mr Zammit had also contacted him about his experience with the protesters. 'He's been deliberately instructed and put in extreme hardship as a consequence of their behaviour and they completely disregarded that,' Mr Wilson said in regards to the protesters.

Mr Wilson said that the protesters go about their own detriment which frustrates people trying to live their life. 'They have a right to have their voice heard and express their opinion and a right to associate and come together and protest that but if they have a right to shut down everybody's life in the process is going too far,' he said.

Labor MP Tim Watts said protesters should be listening to Mr Zammit's concerns and believes they need to accommodate for people with disabilities.

SOURCE  






Resist CSR activism

News that the eco-socialist network, Market Forces, intends to step up its campaign to choke investment in fossil fuel industries came as no surprise to those who have watched with concern the increasing activist pressure on the corporate world.

There is a burgeoning ‘social responsibility’ industry — managers and consultants employed in HR, people and culture and corporate affairs divisions, and in the major professional services firms — that is pushing companies to adopt more and more so-called socially responsible strategies and initiatives.

We are seeing pressure on businesses over a range of matters, from the use of traditional language — such as ‘she’ and ‘he’ — through to manufacturing practices, procurement and areas of investment. Even distribution can be a target, with Lego forced to stop distributing toys through service stations.

There is a legitimate business case for some CSR activities, particularly those related to core business activities and interests.

In today’s more complex business environment and questioning society, well-managed companies should use good commercial judgement to consider their activities’ social and environmental impact on relevant stakeholders in the community; thus helping protect the financial interests of shareholders.

But the notion that to earn an abstract ‘social license to operate’, companies must promote the non-shareholder interests of wider groups of stakeholders in the community, is a way of legitimising the idea that companies should take stances on social and political issues unrelated to their business activities.

This threatens to transform the business of business into politics. The approach being pushed by the CSR industry will inherently, inevitably, and inappropriately, politicise company brands and reputations.

Corporate leaders who might wish to limit CSR to appropriate business parameters are currently unable to be guided by any alternative set of principles, practices or institutional framework to counter the metastasising CSR doctrines and structures.

Inserting a ‘Community Pluralism Principle’ into company constitutions, or into ASX’s corporate governance guidelines, would remind directors and senior managers of the importance of ensuring CSR activities do not distract from the company’s core business purposes and negatively affect its brand by acquiring a reputation for being political.

This would also remind corporate decision-makers that public companies, given their special legal rights and privileges, should aspire to be pluralistic institutions that serve, respect and reflect the views and values of the whole community.

SOURCE  






Government pushing ahead with medevac repeal, despite Senate opposition

The government is pushing ahead with plans to unwind legislation that allows the transfer of sick asylum seekers to Australia, despite the prospect of a Senate veto.

On Tuesday, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg maintained repealing the so-called "medevac bill" was a priority for the Coalition. "Let me just make it very clear, it is our policy to reverse that legislation," Mr Frydenberg told reporters.

If the medevac repeal is scuttled, the government may be forced to keep the Christmas Island detention centre open, which could blow a hole in the federal budget.

But Mr Frydenberg insisted there is enough money in the budget to keep the centre running if the new Senate blocks the repeal. "We have made allocations in the budget for the maintenance of Christmas Island," he said.

"We can only reverse the legislation if it passes both houses of parliament. So let's work that through when the parliament resumes."

The medevac bill was passed by Labor and the independents against the Morrison government's wishes. It gives doctors more power to recommend the transfer of sick asylum seekers on Manus Island and Nauru for medical treatment.

The current Senate supports the medevac bill so the government has to wait until the new Senate starts in July to move forward with its planned repeal.

But it appears the Centre Alliance will wield significant power in the new Senate and on Monday, the two Centre Alliance senators indicated they will not support unwinding the bill.

"Centre Alliance supported the medevac bill in the last parliament and so we will not support it being repealed in the current one," Senator Stirling Griff said.

Labor and Greens have also indicated they will not support repeal, meaning the government would struggle to get it through the new upper house.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





15 October, 2019

The ABCs of race relations

ABC Chairwoman Ita Buttrose laments that the Australian media landscape is “too white” and not representative of our multicultural society. She even suggests we may need quotas.

Quotas assume employers are biased because, whether they know it or not, they might be favouring one race over another.

Using quotas to ensure representation of racial groups on the telly, or the boardroom is a move in the wrong direction and could lead to more social division as merit gives way to affirmative action.

It used to be progressive to be colour-blind –  to focus on character over skin colour. But we have flipped this over: now we see race in everything.

If Buttrose wants to “better reflect the culture of Australia” she should focus on who we are — and not what colour we are.

We are a nation of larrikins who, regardless of where we were born, or our level of income, believe this is the best country on Earth.

This was a finding of the Australian Talks National Survey that Buttrose was spruiking while complaining about our pale media.

If we want a more egalitarian, liberal society we should resist blunt instruments such as quotas.

Australia has developed a harmonious, multicultural society by accepting our differences — and sometimes even making fun of them.

Historically, this has been the argument against the introduction of federal ‘hate speech’ laws. Dividing Australians by race would threaten social cohesion.

Racism is not accepted in Australia.  On the rare occasion a politician or commentator says something even remotely racist, they are swiftly mobbed and sometimes sacked. These are not the responses of a deeply racist country. They are the responses of a nation that has long been driven by a determination to move beyond racial differences.

Buttrose needs to do the same.

SOURCE  






Climate protesters have set taxpayers back MILLIONS - and businesses have lost even more money

Climate change protesters have cost Australia's police forces millions of dollars and staff had to be diverted from road safety and domestic violence complaints to patrol last week's chaos.

Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen said 16,000 patrol hours had been spent policing the Extinction Rebellion protests, which blocked traffic in Melbourne's CBD causing widespread disruption. 

'It's had a huge impact on our resourcing out in the regions and out in the suburbs,' Commander Hansen told reporters on Sunday.

The cost is thought to be at least $3million, the Herald Sun reported, although Victoria Police say the exact cost is still being determined.

'What I can say is the overtime budget is in the hundreds of thousands already,' Commander Hansen said.

Victoria Police will not try to make protesters pay for the cost of policing, however, as Commander Hansen said it was a community protest in a public space.

'The first gateway in considering whether user pays is applicable is there needs to be a level of commerciality,' he said.

Police had to be re-tasked from suburban patrol duties and from specialist units to cope with the mass disruption during which 111 people were arrested.

'Because of the need to resource this protest, we've had to take some resources away from those programs,' Commander Hansen said.

'Sustained and unplanned protest activity has seen a dilution of these policing programs.'

Queensland police said on Friday that more than 150 officers had to be deployed each day, arresting a total of 125 protesters during the week including several who glued themselves to the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane's CBD on Friday. 

'More than 150 general and specialist police have worked each day this week to deal with the unlawful behaviour undertaken by Extinction Rebellion protesters,' Acting Chief Superintendent Fleming said in a release on Friday.

Daily Mail Australia understands this figure does not include police at the watch house, or the cost of administrative staff needed to process those arrested.

The disruptions also cost Queensland businesses thousands in lost productivity the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland said.

'On any given day, data from Tom Toms shows that $2.4 million is lost in productivity due to traffic and congestion – with protests of this magnitude, it swells to a loss of $3.5 million,' spokesman Dan Petrie told the Courier Mail.

Extinction Rebellion Southeast Queensland responded by saying the large police presence was not necessary because their protests were non-violent.

'We are seeing unprecedented bushfires and droughts due to climate change,' an Extinction Rebellion spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia via email. 'These disasters are already destroying businesses. Disruption is necessary to demand urgent climate action. XR is a non-violent movement, and the large police presence was unnecessary.'

SOURCE  






They finally got the despicable Punchard

His fellow cops tried to protect him but justice has prevailed in the end

A Queensland police officer who leaked a woman's address to her violent ex-partner has pleaded guilty to computer hacking.

Senior Constable Neil Glen Punchard is being sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to nine counts of using a restricted computer in Brisbane Magistrates Court.

He disclosed personal information about the woman and her partner to her former partner, a long-time friend of Punchard's, over a one-year period from 2013.

Crown prosecutor Angus Edwards said it was a "complete breach of trust" by Punchard, who had done the "exact opposite" of the role of a police officer - to protect.

"(He) put at risk somebody who was involved in an acrimonious separation," Mr Edwards said.

Punchard was charged in late 2018 after a series of "erroneous" decisions by police not to prosecute, Mr Edwards told the court.

Two police investigations cleared him before the Crime and Corruption Commission overturned those decisions.

Last month, Punchard failed in a bid to have the charges thrown out on a technicality.

He argued the criminal investigation against him was tainted by the use of an interview he was forced to give during internal disciplinary proceedings, in which he made admissions.

SOURCE  






Regretful ‘detransitioners’ on rise

Regretful “detransitioners” ignored by the upbeat narrative of gender change are entitled to medical help and research into what they went through, says Jacky Hewitt, a leading expert on trans youth health.

Dr Hewitt, a paediatric endocrinologist and sex researcher, is the first within Australia’s small circle of specialist gender clinicians to take a public stand at odds with the trans lobby tendency to dismiss detransitioners.

There has been a global spike in teenagers, chiefly girls, given hormone treatment and surgery to cure their “gender dysphoria” or distress about their biological sex, with some deciding as young adults it was a mistake.

Canadian psychologist Ken Zucker, a world authority on dysphoria, said it was an “urgent clinical issue” to find out whether today’s surge of teenagers were like previous patients.

In past studies, about 60-80 per cent of children diagnosed with dysphoria as young as three or four grew out of it, without need of medical treatment that can make them infertile and permanently dependent on doctors.

Now, Dr Zucker said, there were more patients arriving at gender clinics with the de facto treatment of “social transition” — new names and pronouns, living as the opposite sex — already under way.

“Parents certainly should be informed that if you go down this pathway (of early social transition) … the odds are much higher your kid is going to require biomedical treatment, whether it’s hormonal or surgery,” he said.

Australia’s biggest “child-led affirmation” gender clinic at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne promotes medical intervention as sometimes vital to reduce suicide risk, claims children as young as two or three are experts on their trans identity, and insists less than 1 per cent of those who change gender regret it. RCH ignored a request for comment.

Dr Hewitt, a Monash University academic and lead author of a 2012 study on 39 children and adolescents given hormone treatment at RCH between 2003-11, said: “There is a need for both research and medical services for people who previously had gender dysphoria and hormonal/surgical intervention, who are now detransitioning.

“This (need) is regardless of whether they represent a tiny minority, or a larger group than previously thought.”

She declined to elaborate on her comments, tweeted in reply to a report of London’s Tavistock youth gender clinic being urged to take seriously the issue of detransitioners.

Dr Hewitt’s 2012 study is cited in the trans health policy of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, which has quietly removed from its reliance on the RCH’s controversial 2018 treatment standards.

The Hewitt-led study says: “Current evidence suggests that when a strict assessment and clinical protocol is followed, hormone treatment to suspend the development of puberty is associated with a good outcome and a low rate of regret.

“(But) concerns exist regarding the long-term outcome following hormone treatment ... Evidence from larger international cohorts suggests behavioural problems and depression improve in the period following pubertal suppression, but anxiety, anger, and gender dysphoria may remain unchanged.

“The long-term psychological and health outcomes of cross-sex hormone treatment are unknown, as is the rate of ‘regret’ with reversal of gender identity.”

Sceptics of the confident affirmation model say previous studies of regret define it narrowly, do not capture the recent group of “rapid onset” teenagers, and fail to account for the fact that detransitioners often have no desire to report back to the gender clinics that encouraged their mistaken belief they could change sex.

A rise in detransitioners has been predicted, as more young adults emerge with medical compli­cations and untreated psychological issues. Many reportedly presented at gender clinics with pre-existing mental health problems, autism spectrum disorder, ­awkward same-sex attraction, sexual abuse or family trauma.

A reddit detrans forum has 5,600 members; it is believed about 40 per cent are detransitioners.

In a recent letter to the Medical Journal of Australia, RCH clinic director Michelle Telfer and her team dismissed media reports of detransitioners, claiming most were not “true” cases and blaming “outside pressures” from family and religion.

The 2018 RCH guidelines do not mention the detransitioner phenomenon.

University of Newcastle psychologist Rachel Heath, co-author of a new book that promises a “state-of-the-art” guide to transgender health, said she put the share of detransitioners at “no more than 1 per cent.

“And certainly no one from the best-run clinic in the world at Royal Melbourne Children’s Hospital. These (detransitioner) campaigns by ignorant people are designed to eliminate all trans people.”

SOURCE
 
 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





14 October, 2019

Hanson's milk ultimatum

As I understand it, there is a worldwide glut of cow's milk so processors can offer low prices and still get raw milk a-plenty

PAULINE Hanson has threatened to abstain from voting on "non-critical" legislation unless the Morrison Government acts to save dairy farmers at breaking point.

In a new flashpoint for Scott Morrison, the fiery One Nation Leader also blasted the Government-- for wasting the Senate's time -- for failing to have enough Bills to debate in the Senate, "because they never expected to win".

Despite meeting with the PM after the election in what is understood to have been a frank - but ending amicably - conversation about the lead-up to the last election, Senator Hanson is today demanding the Government re-regulate the industry to ensure a fair price for milk at the farm gate.

She has warned a generation of kids would be forced to drink powdered milk instead of fresh milk if farmers were driven to the wall and farmers could sell out to Chinese firms, transferring more land out of Australian hands.

Senator Hanson plans to introduce a Bill within the next sitting fortnight. Draft legislation exclusively obtained by The Sunday Mail reveals a new or existing commission would determine the base milk price. It would have to consider the cost of collecting milk and processing milk and the commercial viability of dairy farms, including small farms.

"I'm just absolutely dis-gusted with Scott Morrison. He's not listening," Senator Hanson said. "Politicians go cap in hand at the election begging voters so they can keep their jobs. "Farmers are asking for help but they are turning their backs on them."

The drought, the supermarket milk wars and energy prices were driving farmers to the wall, circumstances outside farmers' control, she said.

Agriculture Minister Bridget McKenzie said there was no doubt that some dairy farmers were "doing it very tough due to a combination of drought, high input costs and an imbalance in power in negotiating milk sales".

"It's not Australian Dairy Farmers, Australia's national dairy farming organisation, policy to re-regulate the industry, and it's not what I'm hearing from dairy farmers I talk to across the country," Senator McKenzie said

"Our Government is committed to supporting all farmers in times of hardship and many dairy farm-ers have accessed that help in recent years with about 1200 dairy farmers receiving Farm Household Allowance.

"We're also helping with high input costs, like $10 million in grants available soon to help pay for energy efficient equipment to reduce the electricity costs that are unavoidable for dairy where perishable product needs to be kept cold."

She said state governments could do more to drive power prices down. "We're also working on a code of conduct with industry to help farmers level the playing field when it comes to contracting." It is due to be in place by the middle of next year.

From the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" of 13 October, 2019






ABC Chairwoman Ita Buttrose laments that the Australian media landscape is “too white” and not representative of our multicultural society. She even suggests we may need quotas

Leftist racism never stops

Quotas assume employers are biased because, whether they know it or not, they might be favouring one race over another.

Using quotas to ensure representation of racial groups on the telly, or the boardroom is a move in the wrong direction and could lead to more social division as affirmative action gives way to merit.

It used to be progressive to be colour-blind –  to focus on character over skin colour. But we have flipped this over: now we see race in everything.

If Buttrose wants to “better reflect the culture of Australia” she should focus on who we are — and not what colour we are.

We are a nation of larrikins who, regardless of where we were born, or our level of income, believe this is the best country on Earth.

This was a finding of the Australian Talks National Survey that Buttrose was spruiking while complaining about our pale media.

If we want a more egalitarian, liberal society we should resist blunt instruments such as quotas.

Australia has developed a harmonious, multicultural society by accepting our differences — and sometimes even making fun of them.

Historically, this has been the argument against the introduction of federal ‘hate speech’ laws. Dividing Australians by race would threaten social cohesion.

Racism is not accepted in Australia.  On the rare occasion a politician or commentator says something even remotely racist, they are swiftly mobbed and sometimes sacked. These are not the responses of a deeply racist country. They are the responses of a nation that has long been driven by a determination to move beyond racial differences.

Buttrose needs to do the same.

SOURCE  







China issues furious response to Peter Dutton’s comments

There is little doubt there is a factual basis for Dutton's comments but it is equally clear that criticizing China can do no good. Australia rides on China's back so for Australia's sake, one hopes there will be no more such comments

China has issued a fiery response to Peter Dutton’s critical comments, saying his accusations harm the relationship between the two countries.

A statement released late on Friday by the Chinese embassy in Canberra condemned the Home Affairs minister’s suggestions of hacking and intellectual property theft as “malicious” and “irrational,” and said the comments had harmed Australia’s relationship with China.

“We categorically reject Mr. Dutton’s irrational accusations against China, which are shocking and baseless,” the statement read.  “We strongly condemn his malicious slur on the Communist Party of China, which constitutes an outright provocation to the Chinese people,” it continued. “Such ridiculous rhetoric severely harms the mutual trust between China and Australia and betrays the common interests of the two peoples.”

Earlier on Friday, Mr Dutton told reporters in Canberra that Australia has the right to call out people or nations who are operating outside the law.

He had no beef with the “amazing Chinese diaspora” living in Australia. “My issue is with the Communist Party of China and their policies to the extent that they’re inconsistent with our own values,” he said.

“We have a very important trading relationship with China, incredibly important, but we’re not going to allow university students to be unduly influenced, we’re not going to allow theft of intellectual property and we’re not going to allow our government bodies or non-government bodies to be hacked into.”

After mentioning cyberattacks by state and non-state actors and China’s expansionist activities in the Indo-Pacific region, Mr Dutton said a frank conversation was the right one.

“The Australian government has a very important relationship with China but we are going to call out … and attribute where we find in our national interest to do so, the people that have been behind these activities,” he said.

The strong comments come as Australia’s relationship with China is in the deep freeze. Foreign policy experts say it’s hard to see what the Australian government could do to get things back on track.

Immigration Minister David Coleman, who assists Mr Dutton’s portfolio, agreed “in many cases” with the assessment that China’s Communist Party’s values were inconsistent with Australian ones, but declined to say whether he also agreed they were responsible for hacking and intellectual property theft.

“We obviously had our own democratic values and we won’t always agree on different matters,” he said.

And Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said it was abundantly clear China and Australia had very different political systems.

SOURCE  






Australia and US looking to challenge China's hold on the rare earths market

Because China could undercut any supplier at any time, a government guaranteed price may be needed to get the go-ahead for new mines

Australia and the US have been in discussions to form a rare earths joint action plan to open up what has become a concentrated market that's dominated by China.

Rare earths are metals and alloys that are used in many modern-day devices such as rechargeable batteries, mobile phones and catalytic converters.

Australian Resources Minister Matt Canavan says there is no doubt Chinese producers are seeking to protect their market position "as dominant suppliers do from time to time".

He told Sky News on Sunday that China has also in the past couple of years made various statements that would potentially restrict the supply of rare earths.

Australia has 14 of the 35 rare earths deemed critical to the US.  "We are very lucky in Australia to have a great mineral industry, so we will do our best to establish these markets," Senator Canavan said. "These are very important to the modern economy."

However, the concentration of these markets do make it very difficult for the private sector to develop rare earths and there are concerns commercial operators could struggle to maintain their position over time.

"The concentration of all these markets could cause a risk to the security and affordability of the the supply of these critical minerals," he said.

The government has supported projects in the past through the likes of the Export Finance Insurance Corporation, providing concessional finance, he said.

The senator said he has also spoken to Australia's counterparts in Japan and Korea on the issue. "I think there is a good case for worldwide co-operation here to diversify the supply of these minerals," he said.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





13 October, 2019

‘You are nothing’: Reality of life on $40 a day

I guess there really are some people who have problems budgeting for that amount so maybe I should let them in on the secret.  I have been on the dole twice in my life and always added to my savings during those times.

There are 3 big items you need money for: Rent, utilities and food. The easiest one to save on is undoubtedly food.  We all eat to much and too extravagantly.  But there are some foods that you can make good and healthy but very cheap meals with. 

The 10 absolute bargains in groceries are milk, eggs, baked beans,  porridge-oats, day-old bread, plum-jam, sugar, pasta, rice and noodles.  A big jar of Vegemite goes a long way too. And if you have an old-fashioned taste in coffee, (which  I do) a bottle of Bushell's coffee and chicory essence goes a long way too.

You could in fact live on milk alone.  I have done so. And if you can't enjoy a breakfast of sugared porridge followed by scrambled eggs you are hard to please. 

Sticking to those items plus any other low cost bargains that come your way, you can eat well and will definitely save enough to pay your way across the board. You might even be able to pay for the occasional beer.


The Morrison government has defended the Newstart allowance amid criticism it’s too low. But those forced to live on it tell a different story.Source:AAP

People on the dole are made to feel like they’re nothing, senators examining Newstart payments have heard.

Mark, who was only identified by his first name, told the committee on Friday the welfare system operated “to deter or to destroy but certainly not help”.

Mark said his background as an award-winning journalist was not recognised when he went on Newstart five years ago.

“Once you get caught up in the system … you’re reminded very, very quickly how much your own background and professional history mean nothing,” he said.

Mark said he was pushed onto welfare after a traumatic break-up.

“I counted the days waiting (for payment) and that’s what you do on Newstart,” Mark said. There has been widespread pressure for a raise to the $40-a-day dole, which has barely budged in real terms for a quarter of a century.

The Australian Council of Social Service told the committee a boost to the payment would see a boost to the economy.

Chief executive Cassandra Goldie said she knew the politicians on the committee had come to parliament to do good things, and raising welfare payments would be one of the effective ways to fix national poverty rates.

“This is the best good thing you could do,” Dr Goldie said.

Foodbank Australia said people in cashless welfare card trial sites were having difficulty accessing food in an “affordable and routine way”.

Professional services giant KPMG has called for Newstart to rise from $277.85 per week for a single person to $370 per week, which would move it up to half the national minimum wage. “It’s a balance between making sure that you’ve got a level which satisfies material wellbeing and psychological wellbeing, and ensuring that you don’t have a disincentive to work,” KPMG’s Grant Wardell-Johnson told the committee.

He said an inadequate welfare safety net enhanced people’s fear about innovation, technology and their jobs.

KPMG has favoured increasing Newstart since 2016.

Mr Wardell-Johnson said he had been shocked to learn that about half the people on Newstart are aged over 45. A friend of his was made redundant at the age of 55 after a long career in industry training.

“She went to more than 100 interviews before she got a job,” he told senators.

“That’s quite different from the image of the lazy 30-year-old or so, which I think is very much a misunderstanding of people on Newstart.”

The Morrison government has rejected calls to raise Newstart, with a multi- agency submission to the hearing saying the government’s focus was on strengthening the budget.

SOURCE  







Provocative chief executive Matt Barrie says Australia’s education system is a “basket case” and is the main contributor to the country’s “completely cactus” economy

There is much truth in the comments below but how do we turn the system around?  Getting into the professions will always be aspired to so courses leading to that will always be sought out.  And the other high-paid sector -- IT -- requires high levels of mental ability that only a small minority can rise to. In computer programming you have to be able to think like a machine.

That leaves the trades -- which can also be highly paid.  So the provision of trade courses plus heavy information campaigns about their earning potential would seem to be the only practical way forward

The tech entrepreneur and multi-millionaire blames the deterioration of Australian manufacturing output on what he calls an ancient education system where overachieving students are pushed into medicine and law while participation in electrical engineering and computer science dwindles.

“That’s why there’s no productivity because we’re producing people to serve cups of coffee and serve avocado on toast to each other,” Mr Barrie said.

Gross domestic product grew by just 0.5 per cent in the June quarter, dragging year-on-year growth to 1.4 per cent as Australians struggle with stagnant wage growth and a crippling debt-to-income ratio.

Mr Barrie, boss of ASX-listed freelancing marketplace Freelancer.com, says the fastest way to turn this around is to encourage youngsters to be leaders in more practical, high-skilled industries.

“If you get enough people into the right jobs, then four years later they go into the workforce, they get high-paying jobs, they start companies, they create income tax, and benefits flow from that,” he told news.com.au at a Yahoo Finance conference recently.

“Plus they also increase the skills level because when they start these companies, they train all the employees they hire.”

The entrepreneur said year 10 students needed access to pathways to jobs with a greater ability to stimulate the economy.

“We’ve created this insane leaderboard in the HSC, which is basically medicine and law; they’re the best subjects.

“Everything else doesn’t really matter and every parent, every teacher and then every kid thinks, ‘I’ve got to do medicine or law’.

“We don’t need any more lawyers in the world. There are plenty of other jobs that are far more important to the economy right now.

“We’ve got to fix the secondary school system, which is an 18th century relic training people for jobs that don’t exist.”

Mr Barrie told news.com.au a more productive population would bump-up wage growth.

“If you’re going to have high wages you need to be high value producing in the value chain. You can’t be serving people a couple of cups of coffee and expect high wages.

“You’ve got to be doing advanced manufacturing like robotics or sophisticated products and services with a high margin.

“And that’s what we’ve let fall apart. We need to have very sophisticated trade schools in the country so people can learn advanced skills, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering in order to produce these products and services and infrastructure.

“We don’t do that. It’s basically you’re a doctor or you’re a lawyer, otherwise you’re a failure and that’s pretty much it.”

Shadow minister for innovation, technology and the future of work, Clare O’Neil, agreed improving the education sector was the best way to correcting Australia’s anaemic economy.

She told the same finance conference that federal funding wasn’t translating to better results.

“We haven’t had a really good conversation in Canberra about why, even though we’re spending more money on schools all the time. Our performance is pretty static or in some instances declining,” Ms O’Neil said.

“Wherever I go around Australia there’s a big disconnect between that pointy end of the education system and the needs of business.

“And it just amazes me that after knowing that’s been a problem, for probably 40 years, we haven’t found a solution.”

Mr Barrie said Australian skills had fallen behind because of the inaction of politicians and uninspired workers within the sector.

“It’s a complete basket case because education is the remit of state governments and you’ve got a lot of teachers who are frightened of technology because their job is threatened,” the entrepreneur said.

“It’s the teachers that are holding things back, and because it’s all controlled by the state governments you have all this duplication, bureaucracy, glacial movement of the system and all these entrenched people in positions that you just need to reinvent it.”

He said this had created fiscal issues for a country too reliant on commodity exports and a bloated housing market.

“The Australian economy is completely cactus,” Mr Barrie told news.com.au.

“We’ve let manufacturing completely fall apart and we’re just deluding ourselves thinking we’re a wealthy country just because we’ve got inflated house prices and because we’ve got an immigration program to prop up tax receipts and prop up the housing market.

“It’s going to end in tears — households are already at capacity in terms of their ability to pay rent and buy houses.”

SOURCE  






The SIX-figure jobs in Australia that no local wants where more than two-thirds of positions are unfilled

Jobs with six-figure salaries are struggling to attract enough applicants - with more than two-thirds of positions in some sectors remaining unfilled.

From vets to optometrists, auto electricians and dentists on $180,000 a year, employers are failing to find the right candidate despite offering generous remuneration packages.

The situation is so dire the Department of Employment and Skills has compiled a list of occupations with serious shortages.

These highly-paid jobs also come with salaries that are more than double Australia's median wage of $55,400, data from jobs site Seek shows.

Vets

Just 29 per cent of veterinary positions are filled, a government survey found.

For every vet job, there were just two applicants for each vacancy, despite common salaries of $103,000.

'Employers continue to experience difficulty filling advertised veterinarian roles, with shortages now apparent for the third consecutive year,' the Department of Employment said.

'This is despite completions in veterinary courses being at record highs and employment outcomes for recent graduates remaining strong.'

Vets can command high salaries, with an advertised position on Seek for a principal veterinary officer specialising in pigs offering a $161,000 salary.

Despite the generous pay, almost a quarter or 23 per cent of employers had no one apply for their advertised positions.

Optometrists

Only a third of advertised positions for optometrists are filled even though this occupation helping customers with prescription glasses offers commonly advertised salaries of $110,000.

Employers only had three applicants on average for every advertised position, the department said.

The situation is so bad locum optometrists have to fill in.

A third of employers had no applicants for their vacancies and while one in five of them received suitable applicants but were still unable to fill their positions.

'Reasons that suitable applicants did not fill vacancies included being unable to agree on remuneration or working hours, and applicants being unwilling to relocate,' the department said.

Less than a quarter or 24 per cent of positions are filled for automotive electricians. In Queensland, only 15 per cent of jobs are being filled    +4
Less than a quarter or 24 per cent of positions are filled for automotive electricians. In Queensland, only 15 per cent of jobs are being filled

Automotive electricians

Less than a quarter or 24 per cent of positions are filled for automotive electricians. In Queensland, only 15 per cent of jobs are being filled.

This occupation has commonly advertised salaries of $110,000, data from jobs site Seek found.

Despite that, the shortage has continued to worsen for a job that only requires a trade qualification.

Each advertised position also attracts just three applicants, or just one candidate who was suitable.

Dentists

Less than half, or 47 per cent, of dentistry positions are unfilled despite this profession commanding salaries of $180,000.

For every position, eight people applied with only three of them suitable for the job.

'Employers across Australia, with the exception of New South Wales, experienced difficulty recruiting dentists with more than half of those surveyed unable to fill their advertised vacancies,' the department said.

'A number of vacancies remained unfilled when the employer and suitable applicants did not reach an agreement on the conditions of employment.'

Employers in regional areas found it particularly hard to draw applicants away from the big cities.

SOURCE  






Now vegans have banned MOUSE TRAPS: Store is ordered to stop selling rodent-killing devices because they are 'inhumane'

A discount store has been ordered to stop selling glue mouse traps because they are 'inhumane'.

Cheap as Chips stores in the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia have taken the product off their shelves.

The ban comes after a customer contacted animal rights organisation PETA, which urged the business to stop selling the item.

PETA spokeswoman Emily Rice told Daily Mail Australia businesses often stock the items not because they're cruel but 'because they don't know any better'.

The company confirmed to PETA that they had officially stopped selling the traps. 

'A concerned shopper initially reached out to us after seeing the glue traps in an Adelaide store, proving that if you see something and say something, you can save lives!' Ms Rice said.

'We commend Cheap as Chips for its compassionate and swift action to help animals.'

PETA said the glue traps can cause birds and small mammals to 'endure immense and prolonged suffering as they struggle to escape'.

As a result, animals can suffer from exhaustion, injury, shock, dehydration, or blood loss. The organisation has also warned the animals could suffocate and resort to chewing through their own legs to break free. 

Cheap as Chips is among other retailers, including Bunnings Warehouse, Mitre 10, Big W and Target, which have stopped selling glue traps.   

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





11 October, 2019

Sickie insurance: push for the boss to cover worker healthcare

Employers would be given tax ­exemptions to pay the private health insurance of workers under a $1.2bn, five-year plan ­developed by health funds to stem the exodus of young people from the private system and limit premium rises.

The funds have also urged the government to restore the private health insurance rebate to 30 per cent of premiums for those aged under 40, amid concerns that low-income earners are facing steeper premium increases than the wealthy.

The proposals are contained in a confidential policy blueprint sent to the government by Private Healthcare Australia. It was developed after extensive surveys with members aimed at identifying why young people were abandoning health insurance.

“The overwhelming perception that people have under the age of 40 is that while they do value their private health insurance … the real issue is it is becoming very expensive given the other costs of living that they have,” said Private Healthcare Australia chief executive ­Rachel David.

Health funds are facing twin pressures of rising payouts as baby boomers increasingly claim on their cover and young people cancel their policies. This is threatening the viability of the community rating system, which ensures that those most dependent on the health system do not face the largest premiums.

“It is very challenging to maintain that system in terms of what we’re facing now, which is record demand for elective surgery in people aged 50 and over, to an ­extent cross-subsidised by younger people,” Dr David said.

“So young people have a sense that they’re paying more for their private health insurance and getting less in return.”

The number of people aged ­between 20 and 39 and holding hospital cover has plunged 6 per cent in the past five years.

PHA wants the government to publicise better its reforms that provide discounts to young people for each year a person is aged under 30 when they first buy hospital insurance.

Health funds say the introduction of a fringe benefits tax exemption for employers purchasing health insurance for their workers would cost the government $585m over five years and could boost young people’s participation by 1.5 per cent.

They calculate that ­restoring the health insurance ­rebate to 30 per cent of premiums for those under 40 would boost the participation rate by 3 per cent, at a total cost to the government of $279m over five years.

The total cost of the industry’s suite of suggested reforms would be $1.2bn. That includes additional items including the awareness campaign, a larger rebate for new members, and the loss of Medicare levy surcharge income for those taking up insurance for the first time. The industry claims savings to the budget from reduced ­pressures on the public hospital system as a result of the reforms would be $308m.

But there are few financial ­incentives for many young people to take up cover. The vast majority of people aged between 30 and 34 earn less than $90,000, and so pay zero Medicare levy surcharge if they choose not to have private cover. They would face a lifetime health cover loading of 2 per cent on top of their premium for every year they are aged over 30 if they do decide to take out hospital cover later in life. But given the rising cost of premiums, many young people are making the calculation that they’d be better off putting money in the bank than paying for health insurance.

The industry has flagged that it will struggle to keep premiums rises to less than 3 per cent next year, as demanded by the federal government.

“To deliver a sub-three premium increase will be challenging, and that’s why we’ve put this proposal to government now, as well as at the same time, another set of proposals around managing costs,” Dr David said.

Health funds have fought to rein in costs by cracking down on what they claim is a record of overcharging by state governments on the bills of privately insured ­patients who are treated in the public hospital system. They have also addressed “overuse and overpayment” of medical devices on the prostheses list.

“We’ve really reached the end of what we can do on our own without strong co-operation from government to assist us in reducing costs and to rebalance the carrots and sticks for younger people to promote diversity in the system,” Dr David said.

The federal government has introduced recent ­reforms to private health insurance aimed at making the system simpler and more affordable. It has simplified the levels of cover, introduced discounts for those aged 18 to 29, introduced higher excesses in ­exchange for lower premiums, and removed unproven natural remedies from the list of items insurers can pay.

A representative for Health Minister Greg Hunt said: “These reforms have helped to deliver the lowest private health insurance premium changes in 18 years in an environment where the cost of health services is increasing.”

Mr Hunt said he would consider the reforms suggested by the industry and pledged to take steps to restore the private health ­insurance rebate to 30 per cent “once the government had a healthy budget surplus”.

Australian Private Hospitals Association chief executive Michael Roff said the 30 per cent ­rebate should be restored for those on low incomes, including young people, without delay. The rebate has dropped to about 25 per cent for many individuals because ­rebates are adjusted annually by an amount that has in recent years been lower than the rate of premium increase.

“We’ve now got this bizarre situation where the people on the lowest incomes actually face a bigger premium increase than people on high incomes,” Mr Roff said.

Opposition Health spokesman Chris Bowen said on Friday that Mr Hunt should call for an independent review of the system. “First the Minister claimed ‘job done’ on private health insurance reform, then he claimed he had a plan to fix it,’’ Mr Bowen said in a statement. “It’s hard to know what the Minister’s claim is this week.

“But what we do know is that under this government out of pocket health costs and wait times for health care are at record highs.

“This is while private health insurance is being abandoned at an alarming rate, leading to increasingly unaffordable costs.  “This government has been sitting on its hands while health costs across the board have been soaring.

“Greg Hunt has the opportunity to do a serious review of the private health system to take real action on pressures facing the system and consumers, and he should do so immediately.’’

SOURCE  






Climate protesters thumbing noses at taxpayers

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has lashed climate change protesters who brought chaos to cities across the nation this week as anarchists and fringe-dwellers “thumbing their noses” at the taxpayer.

In an interview with 2GB on Thursday, Mr Dutton said the protesters had become a “major issue” and called on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to tighten laws by introducing minimum mandatory sentencing for protesters.

Mr Dutton said the protesters “didn’t believe in democracy” and would continue to disrupt the community if kept being “given a slap on the wrist or words of encouragement from the magistrate.”

The Home Affairs minister said Queensland police had more important issues to worry about such as domestic violence and encouraged officers to recoup the financial cost they had incurred by trying to keep the protests at bay.

“The police need to take civil action against these individuals, they need to recover the full cost of the police response to these individuals, and they need to enforce this by the courts,” Mr Dutton said.

He said the protesters did not believe in democracy and doubled-down on his calls to scrap their welfare payments.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash opened the door to cancelling government payments after an activist described herself as a “full-time protester”. Senator Cash told 2GB “taxpayers should not be expected to subsidise the protests of others.”

“Protesting is not, and never will be, an exemption from a welfare recipients obligation to look for a job,” Senator Cash said. “If they’re on welfare and they’re choosing to protest, as opposed to attending a job interview, the answer is yes the system can identify them.”

Liberal senator Eric Abetz also weighed in on the protest action telling Sky News Extinction Rebellion should be renamed “Extreme Rebel” as they had behaved in a way that was detrimental to their cause.

“The behavior is in a manner that I think that turns off the vast bulk of Australians, what they are doing is an injustice to their own cause,” Senator Abetz said. “Demonstrate by all means, but do so without inconveniencing your fellow citizens.”

When asked whether there were similarities between the climate protest and that of Israel Folau, as both instances had seen the defence of a cause “disrupt” work places, Senator Abetz defended the rugby star.

“I believe that people ought to have the capacity to have freedom of expression, such as Izzy Folau should have,” he said. “Similarly, those that want to believe in Extinction Rebellion, they similarly can put forward their point of view, but you don’t do that by disallowing people from going about their normal commute”.

SOURCE  






Labor at war over climate change deal

Labor is at war over how best to deal with climate change with a call by Hunter Valley MP Joel Fitzgibbon to adopt the Morrison government’s emissions targets being slapped down as a breach of the Paris Agreement by climate change spokesman, Mark Butler.

Mr Butler — a key ally of Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese — issued a blunt rebuff to Mr Fitzgibbon who said Labor should match the higher end of Scott Morrison’s target to reduce carbon emissions by 26-28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.

Mr Fitzgibbon is also shadow resources minister and his seat of Hunter was one of many in NSW and Queensland where workers in the coal industry have deserted the ALP.

But in a sign of the divisions within Labor, Mr Butler told The Australian that the Paris Agreements were a bedrock position for the ALP, even with the review into the year’s electoral wipeout still underway.

Mr Butler said Labor should not make any major decisions on its climate change policies while its internal review is underway and that any future policy changes must remain consistent with the Paris targets.

“We know that the government’s targets were not formed on the basis of advice but were dreamed up by Tony Abbott and if they were adopted around the world they would increase global warming by 3 degrees,” Mr Butler told The Australian. “That’s why Labor has been consistently opposed to the target that is fundamentally inconsistent with the Paris agreement.”

Asked if the Fitzgibbon plan breached the Paris protocols, Mr Butler simply said: “Yes.”

“While Labor is reviewing all of our policies, we remain committed to the principles of the Paris Agreement,” he said. “That means taking action to get global climate increases below 2 degrees and towards 1.5 degrees and having long term and medium targets that are consistent with that goal.”

The Fitzgibbon plan has won scant support within the party but senior MPs told The Australian that Mr Fitzgibbon was right that Labor needed to reconnect with traditional blue-collar voters in regions that had historically been reliant on coal.

However, one MP said that the policy review did not mean policy “fundamentals” were up for grabs. “We are not going to walk away from Paris in the same way we are not going to walk away from fair workplace laws or Medicare,” one figure said.

SOURCE  






Shareholder citizens are in need of a new champion

Margaret Thatcher conceived and implemented “shareholder demo­cracy” in the 1970s to cure a stifling socialism that was killing Britain’s future.

Adapting that Thatcherite tradition, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating, John Howard and Peter Costello each contributed to building a similar force in Australia. From the early 1990s, a shareholder citizenry emerged when millions of Australians ­invested directly in the sharemarket.

Along with creating wealth and savings for their old age, they ­became genuinely ­invested in sensible economic policies for the country. These are the same quiet Australians championed by Scott Morrison.

Today, new forces are coalescing to undermine Australia’s shareholder citi­zenry. From the rise of industry superannuation funds and the flood of money into private equity and unlisted investments, and the rigid rules killing entrepreneurship on the stock exchange, to laws that turn directors into insurers of last resort, our tradition of having a thriving shareholder community is under threat.

We are witnessing the emergence of a powerful new shareholder class, among them a bolshie subclass with motives more often social and political rather than in the best interests of the company.

These forces should concern government, regulators and stock exchange leaders. Instead, there is only silence while the shifting tectonic plates of wealth creation and savings opportunities create a chasm between small shareholders in listed companies and this booming new class.

The single biggest shift is the flood of investment into unlisted equity, be it short-term private ­equity or longer-term institutional investments such as infrastructure assets. Small investors have no ­direct access to this bonanza.

Analysis by the Business Council of Australia, seen by The Australian, reveals that between the 1990s’ recession and the end of the mining boom, the value of unlisted equity had soared to 250 per cent of GDP while listed equities ­remained unchanged, at about 100 per cent of GDP.

Twenty years ago, private ­equity investments would eventually be sold as a listed business, shares available to all investors, big and small. Today, more and more private equity firms are selling businesses to each other, again ­diminishing the role of listed equities as a source of wealth creation.

Yet Morrison’s quiet Australians — who don’t have direct access to unlisted equity — rely on a broad suite of ASX-listed companies for dividends and capital growth. If the ASX is reduced to a rump, it will necessarily shrink our shareholder citizenry.

Are we awake to the fact when the opportunities for wealth creation shift to an exclusive group of unlisted equity investors, our once deep and wide-ranging shareholder citizenry will shrink?

A diminution in the ASX’s size and relevance ought to at least focus the minds of those running it on how to better attract companies to the bourse. Instead, the ASX is driving business away with layers of tick-a-box rules and endless ­social engineering pursuits that strip control from business owners, stifling entrepreneur­ship and governance innovation.

This makes unlisted investments an entirely rational decision, not only for investors but also for those wanting to run a business, with a plethora of other ill-conceived laws further explaining the exodus to unlisted equity, again at the expense of a thriving shareholder citizenry. Add to that the Australian Securities & Investments Commission’s obsession with securing high-profile scalps on the stock ­exchange, as if there is no bad ­behaviour in unlisted companies.

ASIC’s report on corporate governance, released last week, ­inadvertently points to another existential threat to wealth creation for mum-and-dad shareholders — the continuing focus on “culture” and the growing difficulty for directors of listed companies to be seen, with the benefit of hindsight, to have discharged their duties. The language prescribing what directors must do is so vague, general and aspirational that the standard they are held to now seems to be perfection rather than reasonable care and skill.

In listed companies, directors are becoming the insurer of last ­resort for all the company’s losses. The upshot is that, in practice, ­directors have strict liability where a company becomes insolvent or is found to have breached some law. Realising this, director and ­officer liability insurers are vacating this field or ramping up premiums for lesser insurance coverage, making D&O insurance uncommercial.

This, in turn, will drive good ­directors out of listed companies, leaving second-rate ones to ­become de facto insurers for a company’s solvency, success and compliance. Sure, don’t shed a tear for well-paid directors, but ­remember, when directors can’t do their job, it hits shareholders.

Politicians used to take pride in nurturing this country’s shareholding public. Today, there is ­complacency or cluelessness in Canberra about what is at stake. Does the Prime Minister or Josh Frydenberg understand they might be presiding over the slow and lingering death of our shareholder citizenry? Or have they judged that the political pain of ­defending it against the daily siege of a thousand small but steadily destructive attacks is not worth the long-term benefit to society? Wrong, gentleman. It is worth it. And your legacy here is being ­decided today.

The other force in this perfect storm is the rise of industry super funds. While privatising big government businesses such as the Commonwealth Bank drove Australia’s first tranche of shareholder citizens, Keating planted an improvised explosive device in the system with compulsory superannuation. As union membership dwindles, union-controlled industry funds gather and invest money from workers, amassing huge political and financial power. These undermine the system in two ways. There is an industry-wide shift to invest in private ­equity and other unlisted entities, another ­entirely rational decision in a low-return environment. But the move from direct to indirect investment will ultimately produce a less ­engaged shareholder citizenry.

Industry super funds are also using listed investments as playgrounds for political battles, which does nothing to alter the low-­return environment facing shareholders. Unhappy with govern­ment policy, the social engineers on the boards of industry funds are using members’ money to drive change via the ASX, joining groups such as Climate Action 100+ to dictate decisions at 13 of our biggest listed companies­, ­including BHP, Rio Tinto, AGL, Qantas, South32 and Wesfarmers.

The Morrison government ought to be protecting members’ money. After all, those activists running industry super funds are sidelining shareholders’ interests for their preferred causes such as climate change policies. And why not turn a legislative blowtorch on other equally brazen ­activists masquerading as tax-­exempt charities? While Liberals quiver over GetUp, groups such as the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australasian Centre of Corporate Responsibility run openly political campaigns against listed companies, undermining shareholder returns. The ACCR holds a small portfolio of shares in a range of ASX-listed companies to campaign for resolutions at annual meetings that have nothing to do with profits, job ­creation or economic prosperity. These social engineers understand that ASX-listed companies are the next frontier for activism, and they are playing a long game.

But where is the Morrison government? Just as Hawke and Keating took risks in the 1980s, as Howard and Costello did the following decade, the test for Morrison and Frydenberg is whether they will correct the course of our shareholder citizenry or allow it to slide further into decline.

Quiet Australians won’t thank them for turning their backs on Thatcher’s proven path to wealth and empowerment.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here







10 October, 2019

Protesters to be sent straight to JAIL under new laws after reports of Extinction Rebellion activists using 'booby traps'

Protesters could be jailed for two years under new laws after Extinction Rebellion activists were accused of booby-trapping devices with wire, metal and glass.

The controversial environmental group was condemned by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk today after weeks of disruptive demonstrations besieged Brisbane.

On Tuesday, 29 protesters were charged after blocking roads, chaining themselves to fences and attaching themselves to devices such as drums filled with cement.

Among the protesters was Paul Jukes, 49, who suspended himself in a hammock from Brisbane's Story Bridge, demanding Ms Palaszczuk declare a climate emergency.

Ms Palaszczuk said the new laws would be fast-tracked as activists continued to put their own lives at risk and drain valuable police and emergency services resources.

'Enough is enough ... Someone is going to get hurt,' she told The Courier Mail. 'I say to protesters, what if it was your mother or grandmother that was held up from getting to hospital because of your actions, blocking streets?

'It's time to get these laws passed. We will bypass the normal submissions period and get them promulgated within days.'

But human rights advocates said the regulations could erode the public's right to peaceful protest. 

The Human Rights Law Centre says the government has a legitimate interest in ensuring peaceful protests but that this law goes too far.

'Ms Palaszczuk has reportedly refused to produce evidence to support her claims that people have deliberately created lock-on devices that could harm police and emergency services attempting to remove them,' lawyer Alice Drury said.

'This proposed law could impose harsh prison sentences for their use in very broad circumstances, even if it's just blocking a footpath.

'We are seeing a clear and worrying wave of laws from governments across Australia that restrict people's ability to stand together and speak out on issues they care deeply about.'

But state Police Minister Mark Ryan said there was plenty of anecdotal evidence that protesters were 'booby-trapping' devices with wire, metal and glass.

'We've received advice from police that they have found evidence of materials in these devices that could cause harm,' he told ABC radio.

'What we're seeing is an escalation in some activities and of course the laws have to be nimble to respond to these escalating tactics.'

The protests are part of a week of action across Australia by activists trying to force the federal and state governments to declare a 'climate emergency' and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero within five years.

Many of them will appear in court.

SOURCE  





Kerri-Anne Kennerley says climate change protesters should be used as SPEED BUMPS – as she blasts demonstrators for causing disruption to major cities

Kerri-Anne Kennerley has launched a blistering rant at climate change protesters as a week of demonstrations paralyses the country. The Studio 10 pundit said that protesters causing disruption should be used as speed bumps or starved in jail.

The panel was discussing the Queensland government's plan to allow tougher sentences for protesters breaking the law.

Kennerley said she supported the move, adding: 'Personally, I would leave them all super glued to wherever they do it.'

Referring to a protester who attached a hammock to a bridge in Brisbane, she said: 'The guy hanging from the Story Bridge. Why send emergency services to look after or get a moron down? 'Leave him there until he gets himself out.

'No emergency services should help them, nobody should do anything, and you just put little witches hats around them, or use them as a speedbump.'

Kennerley's co-host Sarah Harris put her head in her hands and said: 'Kerri-Anne, god, you're going to get us into trouble.'

Kennerley remained defiant and asked: 'Is that wrong?'

Harris then said she supports big fines but asked 'jail time is a bit out there isn't it?'

Kennerley replied: 'No put them in jail and forget to feed them'.

As the discussion continued, Kennerley offered a message to the protesters: 'Here's an idea. Why don't all you extremists go to china or Saudi Arabia and do it?'

'If we all pedalled to work, if we stop doing anything that harms the environment in Australia, it makes no difference. 'Do it where it is going to count which is China, India and America. Go and do it over there.'

Kennerley then asked Harris: 'Was that a bit extreme do you think?'

Harris replied: 'No, no' before ending the section.

Extinction Rebellion spokesman James Norman said: 'We are a peaceful, nonviolent organisation at the centre of all our tactics and messaging.

'Kerri-Anne Kennerley really should think very carefully before making such statements about the impacts they could have.

He added: 'Respect for other people is at the centre of our ethos and principles, and I would hope other people, especially public commentators, would approach us with the same level of respect for common decency.'

Thousands of climate change protesters have descended on Australia's capital cities for a week of disruptive protests which include 'sit ins' on busy roads, flash mobs and singalongs.

In Brisbane protesters have promised a 'Water Birth For A Better Earth' event at Southbank River Quay.

'Swarming Flash Mobs' will also roam Queens Gardens throughout the week.

A 'swarm for survival' is planned for Wednesday, an 'extinction rave' for Friday night and a 'nudie parade' for Saturday.

In Sydney protesters have insisted they will not disrupt Sydney's rail network as they continue their week-long action to highlight climate change.

More than 40 activists have been arrested in the city so far, with some saying they are willing to risk their liberty in order to bring climate issues to the fore.

NSW police said on Tuesday they were aware of plans for Extinction Rebellion demonstrators to target the Sydney rail network on Wednesday, and urged the group to not disrupt travellers and commuters.

Mick Willing, NSW Police assistant commissioner, said: 'The rail network is an integral part of the integrity of the city so I would ask that protesters not disrupt people going about their day-to-day rail travel, and to ensure that they are safe.'

An Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman said the group's actions would not be disruptive, but instead would involve activists simply boarding trains and speaking to commuters about climate issues.

A group met at Central Station on Wednesday morning.

In Melbourne at least 100 protesters are expected to camp each night in Carlton Gardens.

A planned tram strike has been called off in Melbourne because of safety concerns around ongoing climate protests in the city.

Tram drivers had planned to walk off the job between 10am and 2pm on Thursday but the Rail, Tram and Bus Union agreed to postpone the action because of Extinction Rebellion actions.

'In a show of good faith, the RTBU have chosen to withdraw their notice to take industrial action this week,' Yarra Tram chief executive Nicolas Gindt said in a statement. 'At the end of the day, safety is top priority for everybody at Yarra Trams.'

There were concerns around safety and drivers would also have been trapped on their trams if they were locked-in.

In South Australia, activists will disrupt Adelaide's CBD, with similar events planned in Sydney during the week.

On Tuesday, 29 Extinction Rebellion protesters - including Paul Jukes, who suspended himself in a hammock from Brisbane's Story Bridge - were arrested and charged after blocking roads, chaining themselves to fences and attaching themselves to devices such as drums filled with cement.

The wave of recent protests has prompted state governments to draft new laws to punish protesters.

SOURCE  






Phonics focus of teacher training

Education Minister Dan Tehan will push universities to overhaul their teacher training courses to ensure that graduates learn how to teach children to read and write using the phonics method, amid damning evidence that many new teachers are ill-prepared for the classroom.

Mr Tehan is due to meet with the heads of university teaching faculties this week and said he was confident he would be able to sec­ure their co-operation to deliver on one of his key election promises.

“I have raised this with the education deans and they are looking forward to working with the government on this,” he said on Sunday.

“Every indication they’ve given to me is they are looking forward to making sure phonics is a key component of what teachers are taught when they are doing their degrees.”

The push to embed phonics, which explicitly and systematically teaches the correspondence between letters and sounds, into initial teacher education comes amid widespread concern about declining literacy rates among Australian children.

Mr Tehan signalled his entry into one of the most hotly debated areas of education ahead of the May election when he announced the Coalition would roll out a voluntary “phonics health check” for Year 1 students and would “ensure that teaching students learn how to teach phonics for use in the classroom to improve the literacy of their students”.

Doing so, however, will likely come up against significant opposition, with a recent research report by high-profile literacy advocate Jennifer Buckingham revealing that most teaching courses preferenced the balanced literacy approach to reading instruction, which promotes whole-word recognition and encourages children to guess at unfamiliar words, despite repeated scientific studies finding systematic phonics instruction to be the most ­effective way to teach children how to read.

According to the report, which analysed more than 60 teacher education courses, just 5 per cent of units appeared to have a specific focus on teaching beginning readers to read. And just 6 per cent of units referenced the recognised essential elements of evidence-based reading instruction: phonics awareness, phonics, ­fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.

Australian Council of Deans of Education president Tania Asp­land said the deans did not claim to be literacy experts but faculties were keen to work with the government and other stakeholders to ensure all education courses were providing graduates with evidence-based strategies for teaching children to read.

SOURCE  






Two trade agreements to help bolster global trading system

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties has today tabled a report on Australia’s proposed free trade agreements with Indonesia and Hong Kong.

Committee Chair Mr Dave Sharma MP stated that at this time of growing global economic uncertainty and mounting trade tensions, countries like Australia needed to stand up for the principle of free trade and shore up the foundations of the global trading system.

“While dealing with different issues and contexts, these free trade agreements will create new opportunities for Australian-owned businesses in the region, and help bolster the global trading system at a time of growing uncertainty,” Mr Sharma said.

Indonesia has a population of 270 million people, a solidly growing economy, and is on track to become one of the world’s most significant economies in the years ahead.

The agreement with Indonesia has the potential to transform our economic relationship, and lift it to a level that better reflects the strategic importance of our countries to one another.

Australian grain and citrus growers, cattle producers, mining equipment providers and vocational education suppliers all stand to benefit from improved access to the Indonesian market which the agreement provides.

But beyond this, and as the name implies, the Indonesia Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement goes on to lay the foundations for a comprehensive economic partnership with our largest northern neighbour.

It will support Indonesia’s own economic growth, by supporting Indonesian capacity in key areas, and position Australia as a partner of choice. It will improve the business and investment environment. It will provide a vehicle to tackle emerging issues in trade such as non-tariff and regulatory barriers, the digital economy, competition policy, transparency and telecommunications cables.

Indonesia is one of Australia’s highest priority relationships, and this agreement will help grow our ties in a part of the relationship that has been historically underdone.

Our economic and trading relationship with Hong Kong, one of Asia’s most open economies, is already well-established and advanced. In 2018, Hong Kong was Australia’s twelfth largest trading partner overall, with total two-way trade in goods and services worth $17.8 billion.

The Australia Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement largely codifies existing trade and market access arrangements, providing certainty into the future.

It also modernises the treatment regime for foreign investors, making investor state dispute settlement mechanisms more transparent and more constrained, and improving safeguards for governments wishing to adopt legitimate public policy measures in areas such as tobacco control.

In considering this agreement, JSCOT heard from witnesses about the ongoing civil disturbances and political instability in Hong Kong. The Committee supports a peaceful resolution of these issues, within the “one country, two systems” framework and Hong Kong’s institutions.

The Committee recognises that the preservation of Hong Kong’s unique status under the Basic Law, under which it enjoys a high measure of autonomy, is in Australia’s national interest, and views ratification of the agreement as a means of supporting this unique status.

The Committee has recommended ratification of both treaties.

Committee Secretariat: jsct@aph.gov.au






A small step in right direction

LABOR was mentally measuring up the curtains for the Lodge long before the election defeat that brought it crashing down. So certain was the ALP of victory, it switched off the campaign a day early, with leader Bill Shorten's morning jog on polling day viewed by supporters as the start of a victory lap that would end. with Labor romping into power.

Australians, and particularly Queenslanders, had other ideas, returning Scott Morrison to power. Politics must be the most public and most brutal job interview going: It's long years and endless hours, polishing performances, coming up with ideas, cutting deals, pitching for votes, before finally, hopefully, getting into government. On May Labor thought Mr Shorten was  there. He wasnt.

Today, he owns that defeat It is an important moment for Labor,  the first step towards reconnecting with Australian voters. But while Mr Shorten makes important concessions that franking credits were too great a "risk" for voters to 'stomach, Labor has stopped far short of admitting the depth of its rejection by voters. Their policies were a threat to our economy' and their campaign one 'that tried to pit Australians against one another in a series of nasty' calls to class warfare by stealth.

While purporting to have plans to raise up the lot of the weakest, they were instead pitching policies to tear down frugal and hard-working Australians. Their franking credits plan and their negative gearing scheme — stopping investors from buying exsting houses and claiming tax deductions -- were attacks on families working to improve their lives. When Australians wanted security and a government to get the economy moving, Labor offered a shift-the-goal-posts, tax-and-spend agenda driven by an  arrogant certainty they were right and destined to govern.

Yesterday's admission and shadow treasurer Jim Chalmers 'Light on the hill' address last week calling for Labor to win the "middle ground are steps in the right direction. But Mr Shorten's personal mea culpa is not enough. Labor, too needs to admit it was wrong. It needs to come up with policies that are economically sound, give us the jobs we need, the security we crave as well as the fairness and equality we value. And it needs to resist the idiotic urgings of social media and the sanctimonious clap trap of the extreme Left.  Twitter is not the real world. Rising household bills, static incomes and property concerns are. Labor needs a plan that builds the economy, builds confidence and sits close to the centre — exactly where reasonable voters live every day.

The above is an editorial from the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" of 6 Oct., 2019

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






9 October, 2019

Journalists won't face facts over false claims of abuse in divorce proceedings

CHRIS KENNY

Astounding as it might seem, fact can sometimes be portrayed as fiction because politicians and journalists are more interested in their own positioning than realistically dealing with the proposition at hand.

Afteryears of campaigning for reform of the Family Court system, Pauline Hanson last month welcomed the government's decision to grant her wish of a parliamentary inquiry, complete with her place as deputy chair.

In one of her first interviews Hanson told Radio National Breakfast's Hamish McDonald that women sometimes used false domestic violence claims so as to win sole custody of their children. "I'm hearing of too many cases where children, or parents I should say, are using domestic violence to stop the other parent from seeing their children. Perjury is in our system, but they're not charged with perjury," said the One Nation Senator.

McDonald, rightly, pressed Hanson for evidence to support her claim, and she, rightly, relayed cases forwarded to her, including one involving her son, as anecdotal evidence while arguing this was one of the issues the inquiry should examine in order to establish verifiable information. Hanson went on to make similar comments on Nine Media and elsewhere, dubbing some women "liars".

Cue outrage. "One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has caused outrage after making a series of comments on ABC Radio this morning, implying women who report domestic violence are often lying," reported News.com.au. "Pauline Hanson sparks fury with claim domestic violence victims are lying to family court," screamed The Guardian Australia. "Pauline Hanson slammed," opened The Project while host Carrie Bickmore said Hanson "sparked outrage taking aim at domestic violence victims" — which seemed to draw a long and inflammatory bow.

In the Sydney Morning Herald, journalist David Leser wrote Hanson "has already demonstrated her lack of fitness for the job by accusing women of fabricating domestic violence claims in order to get custody of their children". The Guardian Australia's political reporter, Katharine Murphy, opined: "Hanson has kicked off with inflammation, ventilating the old chestnut that women are making up domestic violence claims in custody battles."

In Nine Media newspapers Jacqueline Maley and Bianca Hall quoted former Family Court chief justice Elizabeth Evatt: "The first-ever chief justice of the Family Court says Senator Pauline Hanson's claim that women fabricate family violence complaints is 'appalling' and 'not true."

With such outrage afoot the safest place for politicians (especially men) to be was anywhere but agreeing with Hanson. While Labor and the Greens lined up to attack her, even Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton pushed back. "Pauline Hanson is passionate about a lot of issues and she was wrong in relation to some of the comments she made during the course of the week," he said.

Surely for journalists there was one crucial question that had to be addressed — and it wasn't whether or not you agreed with Hanson's language, supported her priorities, or whether you thought false claims were the biggest problem when it came to the Family Court and domestic violence. The question was simply whether she was right.

The ABC ran a story on the second day of this controversy saying domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty had "called out" Hanson's comments, yet in the next paragraph quoted Batty saying there are "some women who abuse the system".

The Project, The Guardian Australia and others went to journalist Jess Hill, whose book on domestic violence cited, among other things, a study showing men made false claims at three times the rate of women. Hill was keen to condemn Hanson but did she disprove her claims? On The Project, Bickmore asked Hill: "Jess, what do you make of Pauline's comments? Are false abuse claims a big problem in our Family Courts?"

The response was emphatic and fascinating. "No," said Hill, "we actually have data for a really long time telling us about the average number of false claims, or deliberately false allegations — they're at about 10 per cent"

On RN Breakfast the day after his initial Hanson interview, McDonald followed up by interviewing domestic violence expert Dr Jane Wangmann from University of Technology Sydney. Asked whether or not false claims happened, her initial response mentioned that this was "a very powerful narrative that has come from men's rights groups" and she went on to say "there is no evidence to support her (Hanson's) allegations".

Yet, live to air, Wangmann cited studies in Canada and Australia tracing false claims involv-ing child abuse and family court matters. "They have found allegations that are false are very, very small, ranging between 4 and 12 per cent," she said. Wangmann clarified that the 12 per cent figure related to the Australian study but insisted: "There is no evidence to support this is a widespread concern in which we might need to have an inquiry."

So here we had RN Breakfast and The Project persisting in their outrage that Hanson was perpetrating a falsehood about women making false claims, at the same time their chosen experts confirmed false allegation rates of 10 and 12 per cent. In neither case did the interviews note that false claim rates of 10 per cent or more only under-scored Hanson's point.

Instead the media angle was to remain aligned with their guests — that is, opposed to Hanson. This is a dear case of the media maintaining their ideological position despite the facts, journalism siding with political style over factual substance.

Judging whether someone is right or wrong is not a matter of making hierarchical comparisons with other issues. Hanson did not say false claims are a bigger issue than the number of women being killed in domestic violence attacks, or that this was easy or that it was the only issue. Hanson said there was a problem with false claims and that it might be a factor in the high rates of male suicide. And while politicians rushed to distance themselves, so did the media.

But even in their efforts to de-bunk Hanson they revealed figures suggesting one in every 10 claims put before the system is false. It seems we have cultivated such a superficial public debate that participants fear conceding any point to Hanson might see them identified with her agenda. So, figures that proved Hanson
had a point were used to pretend she was wrong.

Child psychologist Clare Rowe deals in such matters daily. "People might not like Hanson's politics, or priorities, or how she speaks about these issues, but the reality is false claims are a problem," Rowe told me. "This topic should not be taboo because, while we know the court must err on the side of caution, these cases do occur, and it means hundreds of children are being denied a parent under false pre-tences."

That sounds like an issue worthy of media examination. But it requires a bit more time and effort compared to the usual Hanson backlash angle.

Story from the Brisbane "courier Mail" of 7 October, 2019





Governments created this Murray-Darling water crisis

The Murray-Darling is the only major region where irrigation plays a prominent role. Water availability there has the urgent attention of politicians because locals, unhappy at measures that have deprived farmers of water, have helped displace Nationals representatives in favour of those from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party.

Drought Minister David Littleproud is to meet farming representatives on Tuesday to discuss a fivefold increase in prices of Murray-Darling water. The minister attributes this to speculator hoarding together with another villain, climate change, which he says “is leading to hotter days, meaning droughts”.

Neither of these factors are the cause of the farmers’ discontent.

Although the Murray-Darling, like much of Australia, is in serious drought, this is not unusual. Other areas are seeing record rainfall; for Australia as a whole, rainfall has increased during the past century.

As for the minister’s attack on speculators, he targets an ever-convenient and populist scapegoat.

Independent ownership of water was facilitated when the ­rivers’ water was formally made tradeable in 2014 (before which trades were informal and ostensibly water could be owned only by the landowner).

Unless they are monopolists — and the sheer number of water owners makes this impossible — speculators simply respond to market opportunities. In this way, speculators perform a useful function in ironing out supply and demand imbalances and selling scarce supplies to those whose willingness to pay shows they need them most.

The real reasons behind the distress of irrigated agriculture are government policies that have ­reduced water availability.

Across the course of the 20th century, irrigation had transformed the Murray-Darling Basin from an arid region to one that produced more than 40 per cent of the nation’s agricultural output. The basin’s irrigators have long seen rival claims to the water from those at the Murray mouth, where allocated flows have created artificial permanent freshwater lakes.

But alternative uses were claimed in the 1990s by activists, calling themselves the Wentworth Group, whose members ­included Tim Flannery, David ­Karoly and Mike Young, the ­author of a column last week in this newspaper (“Drought of good ideas has drained water policy”). In addition to claims that irrigation was depriving natural vegetation of water, the Wentworth Group sought to wind back irrigation use on the basis of salinity with bloodcurdling claims such as “Salt destroying our rivers and land like a cancer”.

The fact is the Murray-Darling has become a working river. It experiences highly irregular annual flows of between 7000 and 118,000 gigalitres within an average 34,000GL. By 1997, dams along the system had ­allowed about 12,000GL a year to be granted to irrigators under levels of accessibility that vary with each year’s water availability. This not only brought the region’s agricultural bounty but converted a ­highly irregular river into ­placid waterway for tourists.

Wentworth Group activists ­recruited the ABC and other media as supporters in its agenda to reallocate the water flows from agriculture. In response, the Howard government bought up water from farmers for environmental purposes and, in doing so, set in place bureaucratic machinery that could readily expand the reallocation. This was tailor-made for the election of the Rudd government when climate change psychosis became the catalyst for further reducing irrigation water.

The 2008 Garnaut report, which was written by Steven Kennedy, who recently was appointed Treasury secretary, claimed that climate change meant the Murray-Darling area would be faced with permanent drought.

The ­report argued that we should start now to reduce water use generally in preparation for the period under which no irrigation would be possible.

Under Rudd’s radical environmentalist water minister, Tony Burke, the stakes were raised and 2750GL were to be bought from irrigators or created (by water-saving expenditures). At a cost of $13bn, this meant taking 20 per cent of a vital input into farming.

Inevitably, reduced output as well as higher prices have been caused by this government-induced scarcity. Ironically, the reduction in farmers’ water availability took place when the government was proclaiming a new dawn in demand for farm produce from the burgeoning Asian economies.

While making minor revisions, today’s federal government has accepted the thrust of the policy set up by its predecessor.

Blaming twin bogeymen of speculators and climate change is no solution to the problems ­governments have created. The Murray-Darling water policy has been a disaster for the region and the nation.

The solution is to ­accept the reality that the river system, before recent years’ ­reallocation of irrigation water, was in good condition. The more regular flows that the dams have allowed contributed to this as well as creating a thriving agricultural province. The only way of repairing the damage must start with the government selling back to irrigators the stocks of water that it now owns.

SOURCE  






Record number of asylum seekers arriving in Australia - but  they're not coming by boat

In just five years, 95,943 people seeking refugee status arrived lawfully by air, the government has revealed.

The number of asylum seekers arriving by air more than tripled from 8,652 in the 2014-15 financial year to 27,884 in 2017-18.

Labor's immigration spokeswoman Kristina Keneally, who asked a parliamentary question on notice on August 20, said a 'staggering' 80 asylum seekers a day were arriving by plane.

At the present rate, she predicted a 'record-breaking' 29,470 were likely to arrive by air 'which would be the highest number of asylum claims in any year ever'.

Between July 1 and August 19 this year, 4,037 asylum seekers arrived by plane.

Senator Keneally, Labor's American-born deputy leader in the Senate, suggested asylum seekers arriving by plane had been exploited by unscrupulous employers.

'There's nothing wrong with claiming asylum – it's an important right,' she said in a statement on Monday.

'However, in 90 per cent of these particular cases, the individuals are not legitimate refugees and are often being trafficked to Australia for the explicit purpose of being exploited.'

Immigration Minister David Coleman confirmed 84.2 per cent of those who applied for a protection visa were refused, which added up to 62,732 people.

When Labor was last in power,  50,000 asylum seekers arrived on 800 boats between 2007 and 2013.

This slowed to a trickle when the Coalition came to power, and stopped the former department of immigration and border protection from publishing media alerts every time an illegal boat arrived in Australian waters.

Senator Keneally pointed out the number of asylum seekers that had arrived by plane in five years was double the number that came by boat during Labor's six years in power.

The Coalition has argued that under Labor, 1,200 people died at sea, including 48 asylum seekers from Iran and Iraq who died in 2010 when their boat washed on to cliffs at Christmas Island.

Senator Keneally said Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton had overlooked the number of asylum seekers who arrived by plane only to be exploited.

'Peter Dutton boasts "no one dies on a plane" but the truth is we have no idea how many airplane people may have been critically injured or even died on his watch because of exploitation and slavery that is taking place under his nose,' she said.

SOURCE  






Jewish boys taunted in shocking cases of anti-Semitic bullying at Melbourne schools

A 12-year-old Jewish student was forced to kneel down and kiss the shoes of a Muslim classmate, while a five-year-old boy was allegedly called a "Jewish cockroach" and repeatedly hounded in the school toilets by his young classmates.

The two incidents this year – the first involving a year 7 boy at Cheltenham Secondary College and the second a prep student at Hawthorn West Primary School – have prompted the Anti-Defamation Commission to sound an alarm about what it says is a "rapidly spreading" crisis involving anti-Semitic bullying in Victorian state schools.

Both boys, whose parents have asked to remain anonymous, have since left the schools where the incidents occurred, with the five-year-old boy currently being home schooled.

The older boy’s act of kissing another student’s shoes, under threat of being swarmed by several other boys, was filmed, photographed and shared on social media.

No disciplinary action has been taken against the group of boys involved in the incident, which took place in a public park.

The mother said she was bitterly disappointed by the response of Cheltenham Secondary College and the Education Department.

The school and the department have denied having responsibility for the incident, because it did not take place on school grounds, the mother said.

"I took such offence with the Education Department, because there was nothing they did to protect my son at all, at any point in time – that’s what’s cut me up," she said.

The mother sought out the parents of the Muslim boy, who were horrified by their son’s actions.

"We sat down, his parents, the two boys and myself, around the table and explained the velocity of [the bullying] and what it meant to us as parents as far as building bridges between Jews and Muslims in society and not creating division like that photo does," she said.

One of the boys who watched on was later suspended for five days for assaulting the Jewish student in the school locker room.

The Jewish boy was punched in the face and left with a bruised back and had skin gouged out of his shoulder, his mother said.

The mother of the five-year-old boy at Hawthorn West Primary said her son was repeatedly taunted and laughed at over his circumcised penis, to the point where he began to wet himself in class rather than go to the toilet.

The taunts – which the education department said could not be corroborated because they were not overheard by teachers – led the school to temporarily provide a separate toilet for the boy as a "safety plan", although this plan failed on its second day.

The mother said one of the most disturbing aspects of the other children’s insults was the way they mirrored the anti-Semitic language of the Holocaust. "The words ‘you dirty Jew’ and ‘Jewish cockroach’, they are such cliches," she said.

"I grew up with Holocaust survivors, I used to go to synagogue with my uncle who was a Holocaust survivor and those were the words, literally, he was taunted with when he was five."

The department conceded last month in an apology letter to the parents that the boy had been laughed at in the toilets by other students on this day and said this was unacceptable.

"While school staff were not able to substantiate that any negative interactions were anti-Semitic in nature, on the basis of those investigations, school staff identified an incident that involved children laughing at [the boy]," department director Barbara Crowe said. "This was not acceptable and would have been an unpleasant experience for [the boy]. I am sorry that this occurred."

But the mother said the school had made an error of judgment by treating the incident as general bullying, not anti-Semitism. "Why not just say, this is anti-Semitism and talk about it? These are things that happen to different people and different religions," she said.

The parents have lost confidence in Hawthorn West Primary School’s ability to care for their son, and are home schooling him while looking for a new school.

Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission, said this was part of a disturbing trend of Jewish parents pulling their children out of government schools in Melbourne.

"There is mounting evidence that families are forced to take their children out of public schools and to enrol them in Jewish-day schools due to a growing sense of insecurity and fear that their kids will be harmed simply because of who they are," Dr Abramovich said.

Mr Abramovich has been helping the mother of the 12-year-old boy to find another school for her daughter, because she does not want to send her to Cheltenham Secondary College.

The Education Department has been contacted for commen

SOURCE
 
 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






8 October, 2019

Crippling drought ravaging Australia HAS been caused by climate change according to minister - after he stumbled when asked if he thought global warming was man-made

He's out of his depth.  There is no way that global warming could generate drought.  Global warming would cause the seas to evaporate off more which would come down as rain. Warming would cause MORE rain, not less

Drought Minister David Littleproud insists the federal government is acting on a major report into the prolonged dry spell in Australia which he accepts has been partly caused by man-made climate change.

The government has resisted calls to make Drought Coordinator Stephen Day's report public because it's headed to cabinet for consideration.

Senior ministers are yet to see it, with Mr Littleproud agreeing to wait until the National Farmers' Federation finalises its drought strategy before sending it to cabinet.

Mr Littleproud stumbled in September when asked if he thought climate change was man-made. 'I don't know if climate change is man-made,' he told the Guardian.

On Sunday, Mr Littleproud told the ABC's Insiders that 'there was nothing in Major-General Day's report that we are not already acting on'.

But Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said that claim should be tested by making the document public. 'He should let farmers be the judge of that by releasing the taxpayer-funded drought coordinator's report,' he said.

Mr Littleproud said he '100 per cent' believed the science around human contribution to climate change, which is playing a role in the drought.

'I live it. This drought in my electorate alone has been going for eight years,' he said. 'We can't run away from that. We simply have to get on with it and equip our farmers and communities with the tools to be able to adapt as best they can.'

He said Australia had a responsibility to reduce emissions and would do so through meeting international commitments.

Additional support for farmers appears to be edging closer after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg spent three days with Mr Littleproud in some of the worst-affected areas of NSW and Queensland last week.

'We understand this is going to cost more and the treasurer has been quite clear he accepts that,' the drought minister said.

NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall launched an extraordinary attack on Mr Littleproud after he toured through drought-ravaged Inverell last week.

The federal government has been calling on the states to look at payroll tax and council rates in drought-hit communities, but praised NSW for planning to fund dam-building.

The savage criticism left Mr Littleproud miffed. 'I was surprised by that. In fact, most of my comments have been that New South Wales has done the heavy lifting,' he said.

'It's sadly been Victoria and Queensland that haven't lifted a finger.'

Mr Littleproud also rebuffed suggestions the government lacked a long-term drought strategy, pointing to a future fund which will dole out $100 million a year for resilience and other projects from 2020.

SOURCE  






Single-sex schools get top marks

Stephanie Bennett

GIRLS' schools could be the key to closing the gender pay gap, with a Queensland study finding female students graduated more confident and more likely to hold leadership roles if they attend single-sex schools.

University of Queensland Business School gender equality expert Terrance Fitzsimmons' research into how subtle differences in raising boys and girls could set up a lifetime of inequality at work included surveying more than 10,000 boys and girls at 13 single-sex schools across Queensland.

With the gender pay gap at 14 per cent and the number of female CEOs at the top of ASX-listed companies falling, Dr Fitzsimmons said ensuring girls graduate school with as much self-confidence as boys could be a key component to tackling inequality.

"Studies in this area always show that overall, men are more confident than women and that starts changing in late childhood —up until about the age of eight, it's the same," he said.

But the research found when attending single-sex schools, boys and girls had equal levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy in their senior years. Dr Fitzsimmons said this was a crucial finding, given the development of self-confidence and the non-selection of STEM subjects by female high school students had both been found to be major contributors to workplace gender inequality.

"In single-sex schools, girls are surrounded by female role models in leadership positions, such as principals. Any stereotypes that boys are better at maths or science—which often can't help but play on some teachers' minds and may lead girls to dropping subjects simply don't exist."

Girls were also more likely to continue to play team sports into their senior years at single-sex schools. "There's definitely something in this whether we go the whole way, there's no doubt there's an effect and we should be looking at these things strategically," he said, adding that even single-sex classrooms could potentially prove beneficial.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School principal Jacinda Euler said "confidence isn't, nor should it be, gendered". "However, as a school that educates girls, we focus specifically on nurturing girls' self-confidence and independence in a supportive environment," she said.

The above is an article from the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" of 6 Oct., 2019







Climate change protesters’ bid to bring chaos to Melbourne starts out small

Climate change activists preparing for a week of protests in Melbourne were few and far between as the crowd expected to flood the CBD this morning was nowhere to be seen.

Activists were set to cause major disruptions this week, mimicking the immense scale of the Global Strike 4 Climate protests that took place across the country late last month.

Today only a small group of activists sitting on the steps outside of Parliament House for an all-day sit-in were patrolled by police.

The Extinction Rebellion movement is planning a “spring rebellion” across Melbourne from Monday until Sunday.

Spokeswoman Jane Morton said the protests were the only way to urge governments to listen to experts and act on climate change.

“There’s no alternative and we do apologise for the disruption because we believe it’s the only way we can get our message out,” she told 3AW on Monday. “It’s pressure and it’s the only way we know to save my kids, your kids if you’ve got any.”

Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen says police will step in if there’s significant disorder, violence or if people’s safety is being put at risk.

“We’ve been taking considered legal advice and human rights advice over the last fortnight, and we have a fairly clear tactical plan (of) how we’re going to respond this week,” he told 3AW on Monday.

He said the group had a right to peaceful protest, but members of the public have a right to freedom of movement. “Not only do you have human rights, you also have human rights responsibilities here,” Commander Hansen warned protesters.

Based out of Carlton Gardens, the Extinction Rebellion plans to occupy the CBD on Tuesday and are prepared for peaceful arrests.

A “swarm for survival” is planned for Wednesday, an “extinction rave” for Friday night and a “nudie parade” for Saturday.

Environment Victoria has extended its support to the group, saying their actions are understandable in such “desperate times” in which political leaders appear unwilling to act on climate change.

“These are ordinary people pushed to do extraordinary things in a moment of crisis,” chief executive Jono La Nauze said in a statement. “People from all walks of life are involved — builders, doctors, students, public servants and even former police officers.”

SOURCE  






Bring back knights and dames, says Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott has stood by his decision to appoint knights and dames into the Australian honours system and suggests they be reintroduced.

In his first long post-election interview to mark the Liberal Party’s 75th anniversary, Mr ­Abbott recognised there were things that caused him “a lot of grief” when he was PM between 2013-15, including his captain’s pick of appointing Prince Philip a Knight.

But Mr Abbott stood by his decision for knights and dames in the Australian honours system, and suggested they be back on the agenda and reinstated.

“If we are going to have an honours system (then) I think that at the apex of the system we should have knights and dames,” Mr Abbott said.

“If you are a tradition-minded leader of a centre-right party, that’s exactly the kind of thing that you should do. At the heart of our centre-right tradition, it is not so much reform but restoration.

“I should have found a way of doing in this country what they did in New Zealand when John Key brought it back (by) up­grading the ACs to AKs. And I shouldn’t have made it the prime minister’s personal pick, it should have been the Council of the Order of Australia which did it.”

In 2014, Mr Abbott announced that up to four knights or dames would be appointed in any year, saying the honour would be extended to Australians of “extraordinary and pre-eminent achievement and merit”. Mr Abbott then appointed Prince Philip a Knight on Australia Day, recognising him for his “contribution to Australia throughout the Queen’s reign.”

However, in 2015 Malcolm Turnbull dumped his predecessor’s system saying his “Cabinet recently considered the Order of Australia, in this its 40th anniversary year, and agreed that Knights and Dames are not appropriate in our modern honours system”.

Mr Turnbull said while knights and dames was “a long way from being the most important issue in Australia”, the decision reflected a modern Australia. “Knights and Dames are titles that are really anachronistic, out of date, [and] not appropriate in 2015 in Australia,” Mr Turnbull said.

In his exclusive interview, Mr Abbott conceded he made mistakes as prime minister but overwhelmingly blamed Mr Turnbull’s overweening ambition for his government’s demise four years ago.

Mr ­Abbott said he wished he had longer than two years as prime minister and did not rule out a ­return to parliament.

“It wasn’t that we had a divided government, it was more that there was one person who was ­determined to get to the top by hook or by crook,” Mr Abbott said. “Malcolm always thought it was his destiny to be prime minister and I happened to be the ­obstacle to that and so he dealt with me as best he could.”

While Mr Abbott said he had “mostly” forgiven those who had turned against him and had no “lasting enmities”, he would consider returning to parliament. “If the Liberal Party ever wanted me to do that, I would be more than happy to consider it, but I find it difficult to imagine the circumstances that they would want me,” he said. “I’m not ruling it out but I’m not expecting it to happen.”

With the Liberal Party having governed nationally for 48 of its 75 years, Mr Abbott said it could reasonably claim to be Australia’s natural party of government.

“No party can represent the country as wholeheartedly as we can,” he said. “First, because no particular section owns us the way the unions own the Labor Party. And, second, because we have not succumbed to the siren song of globalism to anything like the ­extent that the political left has.”

Mr Abbott said the Liberal Party was the custodian of three principal political traditions — liberalism, conservatism and patriotism — but the key to Scott Morrison’s election victory was being more pragmatic than ­ideological.

“There’s the liberal strand, there’s the conservative strand and, above all else, there’s the patriotic strand,” he said about the Liberal Party’s philosophy. “Yes, we are the freedom party, yes we are the tradition party but above all else we are the patriotic party.

“What we always need to do is to ask ourselves what are the ­issues that are troubling people at this time and come up with ­feasible, understandable ways ­forward. We certainly looked the more practical and the less ideological of the two parties at the last election, and that’s why we won.”

The former prime minister, who was a guest at the British Conservative Party conference in Manchester last week, praised US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for putting their nations first.

“There has been a much greater sense of the nation state and of good old-fashioned patriotism in the approach of Trump and Trump’s Republicans and in the approach of Johnson and Johnson’s Conservatives,” Mr Abbott said. “I also think that one of the reasons why we succeeded in 2013 was because we had a no-­nonsense approach to border protection which put Australia first.”

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






7 October, 2019

Adults 'fail by giving in to trans teenagers'

Adults fail in their duty to children if they just give in to the "instant gratification" demands of transgender teenagers who protest they cannot wait until 18 for irreversible sex-reassignment surgery, clinical psychologist Paul Stevenson says.

Mr Stevenson, well known for helping trauma victims after the Bali and Jakarta terror bombings of the 2000s, said psychologists should not "disenfranchise" parents of trans teens, nor "drive a wedge" between child and family. He was commenting on a submission by the Australian Psychological Society that doctors should be able to go ahead with under-16 trans surgery, with both parents opposed and no mandatory counselling for the adolescent, as long as the clinicians were "competent" in assessing the teen's capacity to make the decision.

The APS claims 24,000 members but Mr Stevenson said his breakaway body, the Australian Association of Psychologists Inc, had picked up 2000 new members in the past year, taking the total to 8000, partly because of discontent with the APS.

The AAPi appears to be the first health or medical pro-fessional body in Australia to go public with scepticism about the "child-led" affirmation approach to trans, which critics say discourages thorough investigation of a young patient's history and too readily puts them on a path to risky medical treatment, including puberty-blocker drugs, cross-sex hormones and surgery, such as mastectomy for trans boys.

Gender clinicians claim children are experts in their identity and going along with their transition is best for mental health. Mr Stevenson said the sudden decision of a teen to come out as trans brought grief and stress not just to parents but to the extended family, and for everyone's long-term interests the crucial relationship between teen and parent had to be supported.

 "Psycholo-gists are not in the business of splitting up families," he said. He said the teenage years brought rapid and confusing development, and conflict with parents. Some neuroscience studies suggested the decision-making brain might not fully mature until a person reached their 30s, making it unwise to allow teens under 18 to consent to irreversible medical treatment.

"We've got to help parents get their children through this period of time when the (teenager's) frontal lobe is 'out for renovations'," he said. "Parents are the best-placed people to get their kids through this, we shouldn't be driving wedges between them."

Some parents have reported a pattern of teenagers, typically girls, suddenly declaring trans status with scripted lines from social media about the immediate need for hormones to stop them committing suicide.

Mr Stevenson said suicidal ideas — like any other mental health issues —should be treated directly. Flinders University's Damien Riggs, co-author of the APS submission, claims it is "scientifically, incorrect" to suggest social media or peer pressure might influence a trans teenager's stated identity. He has argued that Medicare should fund a trans mastectomy just as it does for a healthy woman with a genetic risk of breast cancer.

Online forums suggest trans mastectomy costs about $10,000. Dr Riggs, who won a $694,514 federal grant to study "family diversity", is cited as an authority in the 2018 treatment standards for children and adolescents issued by the gender clinic at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne (which does no trans surgery).

Yesterday, the APS said the courts already allowed trans surgery for patients under 18. Where parents opposed it, "minors should have the right to access the opinion and guidance of suitably qualified medical professionals, including psychologists".

From "The Australian" of 4 Oct., 2019





Uni lifts standards pinpointed in CIS paper


Some of Australia’s most prestigious universities are starting to make sensible changes when it comes to international student recruitment. In recent weeks, the University of Melbourne has eliminated language on its website that seemed to encourage international students to take a casual approach to English language standards. This positive development comes in the wake of CIS research that highlighted potential problems with the recruitment practices of Australian universities’ English-language ‘foundation programs’.

The China Student Boom and the Risks It Poses to Australian Universities pulled together data from universities, state and federal agencies, foreign governments, international organisations, and press reports to present a full picture of the risks being taken by Australian universities in enrolling unprecedented numbers of Chinese students.

The University of Melbourne had previously explicitly pitched its foundation programs to students who “don’t meet entry requirements” and suggested they could take ‘equivalent’ tests or subjects as alternative pathways to admission. But now the university more responsibly encourages students to explore admissions options without suggesting that the alternatives are any less rigorous than the usual entry requirements.

It may not sound like much, but it’s a good start. Compare the improvements at Melbourne with marketing at the University of Sydney, which advertises that if a student is “unable to meet the minimum academic requirements for undergraduate study”, its foundation program “could be your ticket to study with us.” Other leading universities — such as ANU and Queensland — feature similarly enticing language. They seem to treat their foundation programs more as services for sale than as rigorous educational experiences requiring hard work and perseverance.

The University of Melbourne’s reforms are cosmetic, but important. Marketing may sound like a frivolous issue, but it sets expectations that stay with students throughout their studies. If other universities follow Melbourne’s lead, we can start a race to the top in international student recruitment. The higher we set our sights, the higher our students will set theirs.

SOURCE  







Warning of 'Fukushima-style' disaster as Labor pushes back against plans for nuclear power plants in Australia to reduce greenhouse gases

A chilling warning has been issued of a 'Fukushima-style' disaster in Australia as the LNP continue to push to explore nuclear power.

Nuclear power is currently a banned source of power in Australia despite the country having the world's biggest uranium reserves, but the Queensland Government is looking to open a nuclear power plant in Maryborough.

Bruce Saunders, the Labor member for Maryborough in Queensland's Legislative Assembly, has slammed Keith Pitt - the LNP member for the federal seat of Hinkler - for his push to open the 'Fukushima-style' nuclear plant.

'Mr Pitt - the man behind it all - owes it to our community to declare where he sits in the widening rift that is LNP energy policy,' Mr Saunders told The Chronicle.

In 2011, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was hit by the devastating tsunami in the region, causing a meltdown at the plant which necessitated the evacuation of all people in a 20-kilometre radius due to the release of large amounts of radiation.

It is considered the second worst nuclear accident in the history of nuclear power, behind the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor has called for a parliamentary inquiry into the viability of nuclear power to reduce greenhouse gases from reliance upon coal-fired power plants.

'Angus Taylor has said he's more than willing to consider nuclear, opening the door to a Fukushima-style disaster right here in Maryborough,' Mr Saunders continued.

Mr Pitt spoke out against the 'outrageous claims' and said he had the best interest of Queenslanders when it came to cheaper and reliable energy. 'I want cheaper power prices not cheap political point-scoring from Mr Saunders,' he told the publication. 

He stated that renewable energy sources are unreliable and don't meet the needs of stable energy supply. 'Renewables don't work 100 per cent of the time and there are businesses and industries that need reliability, so solar is just not suitable for them,' he told The Northern Star.

'I called for an inquiry into nuclear power to get the facts, to look at the new technology available and to have an adult conversation.

'I'm pleased Minister Taylor has asked the Environment and Energy Committee to consider the economic, environmental and safety implications of nuclear power.'

SOURCE  






Sea World boss slams TripAdvisor ticket ban in name of animal welfare as 'activism gone mad' and claims it jeopardises Gold Coast tourism

Sea World boss Bikash Randhawa has slammed TripAdvisor's ticket ban for the theme park as 'activism gone mad'.

TripAdvisor has announced it will ban the sale of tickets to theme parks who house dolphins and whales following pressure from animal rights activists.

Animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) praised TripAdvisor's decision to 'officially reject tourism to marine mammal prisons like Sea World'.

However, Mr Randhawa described the ban as a blow for the park, and claimed it  dismissed all the great work the parks and their staff have done in rescuing marine animals.

'This is activism gone mad. It's over the top. I think they are lost in the world of minorities who amplify their opinions on social media while the rest of the world is fully behind us,' Mr Randhawa said.

He went on to describe the ban as 'irresponsible' due to its strong potential in jeopardising tourism in the area.

'I believe what has happened here is that they have put themselves in an embarrassing and difficult spot by painting us with the same brush as Third World country operators who mistreat animals,' he said.

Mr Randhawa wrote to TripAdvisor in an attempt to persuade the popular booking site of the park's positive work with animals.

'It's disappointing that we were not engaged by you to understand our position, nor were we informed of this announcement by any representative from TripAdvisor, despite our long and successful working relationship,' he wrote in the letter. 

The ban was also strongly reprimanded by State Tourism Minister Kate Jones who claimed 'no one does more for the protection of marine animals on the Gold Coast than Sea World'.

It was previously revealed in a statement that Sea World contributes millions of dollars to animal research and rescue yearly.

'Throughout our history, we have conducted rescue operations on animals in need all over Australia, and while the goal with every rescue is to rehabilitate and release, this is not always the case and Sea World is a sanctuary for rescued animals,' the statement read.

The marine park has come under fire from protesters in the past, despite rescuing over 600 animals and not housing any whales.

But the global online website said the decision to ban the sale of tickets came after consultation with a number of experts.

Although TripAdvisor suggested some marine parks may be excluded from the ban, it seems Sea World is not part of the exception.

 SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here








6 October, 2019

Nets, drumlines protect beaches despite court ruling

Shark nets and lethal drumlines will continue to protect swimmers at southeast Queensland's Sunhine and Gold Coast beaches, Queensland's Fisheries Minister has insisted, despite a successful legal challenge by environmentalists over their use in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

Minister Mark Furrier on Thursday confirmed Queensland could consider a trial of netted swimming enclosures at some North Queensland beaches after the state removed 173 drumlines from 27 beaches in the marine park in the wake of the court case.

He said a new expert report proved that SMART drumlines, which were being tested in NSW and Western Australia and could alert authorities immediately to a shark caught on a hook, would not work in the Great Barrier Reef, as had been suggested for the the beaches of northern NSW and WA. Sharks could not be released in the open ocean in the Great Barrier Reef, he said, because there were islands in the way and many ocean users offshore.

 The Federal Court last month backed the Humane Society International's legal challenge to Queensland's Great Barrier Reef shark control program, finding drumlines did not reduce the risk of shark attack in the marine park. The court ruled that tiger, bull and White sharks caught on drumlines in the reef should be tagged and released alive off-shore, rather than routinely killed.

Shark control program director Donna Walsh said that was impossible to comply with safety, so the drumlines were removed. "It was catch, tag and release of three of the most dangerous sharks — tiger, bull and white ... we couldn't safely comply."

The Queensland government is now pressing federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley to introduce changes to federal law to allow the lethal drumline program to be reintroduced in the marine park.

Mayors on the Gold and Sunshine coasts have expressed concern the Humane Society's legal action could affect their drum-lines and nets, which have been in place for nearly 60 years.

Mr Furner said those beaches would remain protected by the current shark control program: "They're still protected." And the green group's chief executive, Erica Martin, wrote to coastal councils to reassure them that no further legal action was planned by the Humane Society.

The Australian on Thursday joined shark contractor Craig Newton on his boat as he and his crew, including deckhand Josh Pols, baited drumline hooks and checked nets, about 500m off-shore from the Gold Coast's popular Surfers Paradise and Main beaches. No sharks were caught on the hooks, or stuck in the nets on Thursday, but Mr Newton said about once a week he would find sharks caught, typically great white, tiger or bull sharks, which were then euthanised.

From "The Australian" of 4 Oct., 2019





Schools want 'hire and fire' freedom

The peak body representing more than 500 independent schools in NSW says the government has offered to "provide clarification" in the next iteration of its religious discrimination bill to make it clear they will be able to preference teachers on their faith.

Attorney-General Christian Porter declared, however, that the draft bill already protected the right of faith-based schools to choose staff on religious grounds and any suggestion otherwise was a misunderstanding.

The Association of Indepen-dent Schools of NSW warned in its submission on the draft legislation that the draft put in jeopardy a school's right to employ religious teachers and enrol religious students before others.

Mr Porter staunchly rejected that interpretation of the draft bill. "The reason why we have held nine long and separate face-to-face roundtable consultations with over 90 representatives from religious bodies, anti-discrimination groups, employer organisations and others is to minimise any misunderstanding about how the bill would operate, but clearly this is one of those misunderstandings," Mr Porter said.

"My office has spoken with the Association of Independent Schools of NSW today because, having read their submissions, it appears there is a mistake in their understanding of the operation of section 10, which specifically protects religious schools."

Under section 10, a religious body such as a school does not discriminate against a person by engaging in conduct that may "reasonably be regarded as being in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs or teachings of the religion in relation to which the religious body is conducted".

Geoff Newcombe, chief executive of AIS NSW, said Mr Porter's office had assured the organis-ation that faith-based schools were appropriately protected in relation to employing staff. "They understand our concerns and have said they will provide clarification in the next draft of the bill," Dr Newcombe said.

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching said while section 10 established a positive right rather than an exemption for religious bodies, some groups she had met had expressed concerns about how well defined that right was. "Labor has stated we consider this to be an issue above partisan politics and we look forward to receiving briefings from the Attorney-General, but we can only work with the government if they want to work with us," she said.

Liberal Eric Abetz said the association's submission raised a "fair concern that needs to be looked at in some detail" while his colleague Concetta Fierravanti-Wells said it was just one of a number of problems religious leaders, experts and stakeholders had canvassed.. "The (religious freedom re-forms) do not create a positive right to freedom of religion which religious leaders, experts and stakeholders have been calling for and which meet our international obligations," she said.

"It is clear from my ongoing consultations and engagement with them that the bills fall far short of properly and fully addressing their requirements for religious freedom protection."

AIS NSW said if there were two equally qualified candidates for the role of an English teacher but one was agnostic and the other shared the religious beliefs of the school, it could be seen as discriminatory to hire the latter under the draft bill. That was because there may be no "inherent requirement" as outlined in the bill to hire a religious teacher for an English teaching job.

From "The Australian" of 4 Oct., 2019






How workers can SUE climate change protesters if they make them late for work - as Extinction Rebellion greenies vow to bring Australia to a standstill for a WEEK from Monday

Workers could sue climate change protesters if they are late for work or suffer financially as a result of streets being blocked, legal experts say.

Extinction Rebellion radicals are vowing to bring Australia to a standstill for a week from Monday, using militant tactics to demand the banning of fossil fuels and 100 per cent renewable energy.

Left-wing activists in Brisbane have so far been the most extreme, with their followers gluing themselves to the city streets.

In a taste of what's to come, one protester earlier this week dangled herself from a giant bamboo tripod on the busy Victoria Bridge, stopping cars and buses during the morning peak-hour rush.

Employment lawyer Joydeep Hor said individual workers could 'theoretically' sue protesters for interrupting trade.

'They would have to establish there has been some kind of interference with contractual relations or something like that,' the founder and managing principal of People + Culture Strategies told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday.

'It's not unusual for employers to take action against unions and protesters when there are strikes.'

Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said individual workers and companies could sue specific protesters, provided they could quantify the loss and prove there were no ways to mitigate it.

'If someone causes a loss or a harm to somebody else, then they can be effectively sued for it,' Mr Potts, a criminal law firm founder, told Daily Mail Australia.

'In Queensland, we've had a number of people who have effectively caused significant delay and the question then is, "Can they be sued?" and the answer is yes in theory but in practice there are significant hurdles to overcome.

'You actually have to show and quantify the amount of loss or damage you have actually suffered.'

Environmental protesters face being sued too if they interfere with emergency services and put people's lives at risk.

'If harm is caused as a result of somebody's deliberate actions, then litigation becomes a possibility,' Mr Potts said.

'You have to show that that was in fact the specific cause of the injury.'

Australians are being warned to brace for a week of mayhem as Extinction Rebellion plans to disrupt major cities around the country.

The militant activist group are planning demonstrations in Melbourne and Brisbane to protest against existing climate change policies.

Queensland Police have prepared for mass arrests of Extinction Rebellion protesters seeking to disrupt Brisbane's city centre next week.

Acting Chief Superintendent Tony Fleming said police would use force if necessary. 'If that is what is necessary to open up the city then that is what we will do,' he told reporters on Friday.

Operation Romeo Arrowhead will be deployed to keep traffic flowing in the city during the protests.

Extinction Rebellion organisers have not sought police permission to march or asked for the roads to be closed. The protest group is running training workshops for activists to prepare for the mass week of protests starting on October 7.

More than 8,100 people have registered on Facebook as 'guests' of the 'International Rebellion Week'.

'Thousands of rebels will descend on the Queensland capital over the period to take part in major actions, occupations and disruptions - every day,' Extinction Rebellion said on social media.

On Friday, the protest group held workshops for experienced activists 'to learn how to take non-violent direct action effectively, safely and inclusively'.

The protests are part of a global week of action for 'international rebellion week' from October 7 to 11, aimed at bringing major world cities to a standstill.

Extinction Rebellion South East Queensland is planning to march from South Bank across the river into Brisbane's city centre on Monday morning.

Protests will be held in the city each morning from 7.30am to disrupt traffic and conclude on Friday morning with a sit-in occupation of William Jolly Bridge. 

On Monday this week, Extinction Rebellion blocked Brisbane's Victoria Bridge in the city during the busy morning rush-hour when an activist midwife, Sophie Thompson, climbed a ten-metre bamboo tripod.

She listed four demands: 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025, to preserve biodiversity, for the media to 'actually tell the truth' about climate change and to 'dismantle colonial systems of oppression'.

Extinction Rebellion is also planning mass protests across Melbourne next week.

They have vowed to occupy the city centre on Tuesday followed by an 'extinction rave' on the Friday night and a 'nudie parade' on Saturday.

Federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has threatened to suspend welfare payments to unemployed activists who are caught protesting instead of looking for jobs.

'Taxpayers should not be ­expected to subsidise the protests of others. Protesting is not, and never will be, an exemption from a welfare recipient's mutual obligation to look for a job,' Senator Cash told The Australian newspaper.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has this week also urged the community to push back against disruptive protesters by circulating their images on social media.

He also agreed with Sydney radio 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley's suggestion they should have their welfare cut off.

Extinction Rebellion is a militant green group with UK origins that was inspired by Swedish teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

SOURCE  






Scott Morrison takes aim at ‘coercive’ globalism, doubles down on China in 2019 Lowy Lecture

The prime minister has taken a thinly veiled swipe at the United Nations, in a bold foreign policy address in Sydney.

One striking word popped up repeatedly during Scott Morrison’s major foreign policy address last night. That word was “globalism”.

The Prime Minister was criticised during his recent trip to the United States for skipping a United Nations summit on climate change, which was being held in New York.

He alluded to that controversy in his speech at Sydney’s Town Hall on Thursday night, delivering a quiet but scathing critique of “international institutions” that seek to “impose” their views on sovereign nations.

“Pragmatic international engagement, based on the co-operation of sovereign nation states, is being challenged by a new variant of globalism that seeks to elevate global institutions above the authority of nation states to direct national policies,” said the Prime Minister.

He described it as “an era of insiders and outsiders”, in which “elite opinion and attitudes have often become disconnected from the mainstream of their societies”.

“Australia does and must always seek to have a responsible and participative international agency in addressing global issues. This is positive and practical globalism. Our interests are not served by isolationism and protectionism,” he said.

“But it also does not serve our national interests when international institutions demand conformity rather than independent co-operation on global issues.

“The world works best when the character and distinctiveness of independent nations is preserved within a framework of mutual respect. This includes respecting electoral mandates of their constituencies.

“We should avoid any reflex towards a negative globalism that coercively seeks to impose a mandate from an often ill-defined borderless global community. And worse still, an unaccountable internationalist bureaucracy.”

Those are defiant words, reminiscent of the rhetoric one might expect from Brexit advocates in the United Kingdom, or even from US President Donald Trump, who frequently throws around the term “globalist” as an insult.

In fact, Mr Trump is arguably responsible for popularising the use of “globalism”. Before his election win in 2016, you were far more likely to hear relatively neutral words like “multilateralism” and “internationalism”.

During his speech to the UN last month, Mr Trump claimed globalism had “exerted a religious pall” over some world leaders and caused them to “ignore their own national interests”.

“The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots,” he said.

Mr Morrison echoed that argument to an extent, but took care to distinguish between what he called “positive” and “negative” globalism.

“Globalism, in a positive light, it facilitates, aligns and engages, rather than directs and centralises,” he said.

“Only a national government, especially one accountable through the ballot box and the rule of law, can define its national interests. We can never answer to a higher authority than the people of Australia. And under my leadership, Australia’s international engagement will be squarely driven by Australia’s national interests.”

To punctuate his point, Mr Morrison drew inspiration from one of John Howard’s most memorable lines: “We will decide our interests and the circumstances in which we seek to pursue them.”

Mr Morrison was on stage to deliver the Lowy Lecture — the annual flagship event of the Lowy Institute, a foreign affairs think tank.

The audience before him included some of Australia’s brightest minds, dressed up for the prestigious occasion.

Listening intently among them was Mr Howard, who delivered the first ever Lowy Lecture back in 2005. Mr Morrison became the third Australian prime minister, after Mr Howard and Malcolm Turnbull, to headline the prestigious event.

Other prominent past speakers have included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former CIA director David Petraeus and News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch.

In a speech that largely focused on Australia’s place in the world, Mr Morrison also doubled down on his call for China to shoulder greater responsibility on the international stage, in line with its growing power as the world’s second largest economy.

He further detailed his argument, first made in Chicago last month, that China should no longer be considered a “developing” country under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.

“China is a global power making significant investments in military capability as a result of its extraordinary economic success,” Mr Morrison said.

“It is the major buyer of resources globally. It is having a profound impact on the regional balance of power. It’s now the world’s second largest economy, accounting for 16 per cent of world GDP in 2018. The world’s largest goods exporter since 2009, and the world’s largest trading nation since 2013. The world’s largest manufacturer. The world’s largest banking sector, the world’s second largest stock market and the world’s third largest bond market. Not bad for a developing country! And the world’s largest holder of foreign reserves.”

He acknowledged Australia had benefited from China’s economic rise — just as China had benefited from our reliable supply of energy, resources, agricultural goods and services.

“China has in many ways changed the world,” said the Prime Minister. “So we would expect the terms of its engagement to change too.

“That’s why when we look at negotiating rules of the future of the global economy, for example, we would expect China’s obligations to reflect its greater power status. This is a compliment, not a criticism. “And that is what I mean when describing China as a newly developed economy.

“The rules and institutions that support global co-operation must reflect the modern world. It can’t be set and forget.”

The Prime Minister revealed he had directed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to conduct a “comprehensive audit” of global institutions and rule-making processes, particularly those in which Australia has the greatest stake.

The WTO does not have a framework officially defining which countries are developing and which are already developed. Instead, nations are left to classify themselves as they see fit.

As a self-defined developing country, China receives a range of perks. For example, it gets more time to implement WTO commitments, benefits from procedural advantages in disputes, and gains access to subsidies in certain economic sectors.

This is a sore point for some other countries, particularly the United States. Mr Trump believes the size of the Chinese economy should disqualify it from such special treatment — and it seems he has an eager ally in Mr Morrison.

The Prime Minister solidified his already strong relationship with Mr Trump during a rare state visit to the United States late last month.

Mr Morrison was perhaps an appropriate choice for the Lowy Lecture, given how much of his early time as Prime Minister has been spent overseas.

Nevertheless, he told the audience at Sydney’s Town Hall that his true interests were domestic.

“Despite my activities of the past year, I am not one who naturally seeks out summits and international platforms. But as Prime Minister, you must always be directed by the demands of the national interest. So much of Australia’s future right now is being shaped by events and relationships well beyond our borders,” Mr Morrison said.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





4 October 2019

Teaching girls to fear boys

Bettina Arndt

I’ve long been contacted by parents and teachers concerned about anti-male bias in school curriculums – I’ve made a previous video  with an Australian teacher about this issue.

So, I was really delighted to be contacted by a South Australian teacher, Christopher Vogel, who told me he’d just finished his Masters thesis showing his state’s school curriculum is systematically teaching children that males are the abusers with females as their innocent victims.

Christopher analyzed Keeping Safe, the mandatory child protection curriculum taught in all public schools in SA from kindergarten to year 12.

He talks to me about his fascinating results in my new video.



I hope you will help me promote this important research. We need to expose this education department for teaching girls to fear boys.

His research reveals systemic bias against boys. The curriculum provides 84 examples of males being aggressive to females (including child rape and abuse) and only one instance of a female being aggressive to a male (looking in his room without permission). See examples in the graphic below.

The introduction to the curriculum reveals the clear bias against boys, quoting from feminist advocacy groups like White Ribbon which are known to distort violence statistics, presenting only males as aggressors. Here’s a breakdown of the proportion of male to female aggressors in the introduction.



The bias against boys increases with the older age groups, as you can see here.



It wasn’t so long ago that our society realised, to our shame, that we’d failed victims of sexual abuse by choosing not to hear their stories. But now we have an entire school curriculum which deliberately ignores male victims of abuse, denying their experiences and making them reluctant to seek help. In Australia we have recently had hundreds of victims of child sexual abuse paraded in the media, as part of the Royal Commission into institutional sexual abuse. It was startling how many of these were boys.

It’s just one example of the dangerous grip of feminist ideology on our institutions, including school curriculum. South Australia certainly isn’t the only state where this is happening. I hope this inspires parents and teachers to check out whether children in your schools are being fed similarly dangerous nonsense. I’ll post Christopher’s thesis on my website to give the detailed information you might need to ask tough questions. You’ll be pleased to hear Kit received an HD for his thesis and was asked to present his results to senior education bureaucrats. We need to be writing to education ministers across the country seeking more balanced treatment of our children.    

Here are some of the curriculum’s examples of male aggression:



Via email from Bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au






Academics spending big in search for racism

Leftists boost themselves up in a most childish way -- by running down other people.  That those they criticize are in fact innocent of any wrongdoing or even wrong thoughts does not seem to matter to them

And when it comes to academics the process is magnified.  Because of their great learning in one tiny field of knowledge, they feel that they are much wiser and superior to the average Joe. So, improbable though it is, the whole population can then be found to be at fault

Solid evidence that Australians are NOT systematically racist is the high rate of intermarriage between ordinary Anglo-Australians and East Asians.  I see young Asian ladies on the arm of Caucasian men all the time in my local shopping centre

These "anti-racists" live in a delusory little world of their own.  Their self-image as noble rescuers is what it is all about


If you were not already convinced that Australia’s humanities departments have truly lost their way, the latest research project from the faculty of arts and social sciences at the University of Sydney should get you over the line.

Resurgent Racism is the seventh “flagship” theme of FutureFix, a program devised by academics at the university to show taxpaying Australians their money is being put to good use. Resurgent Racism will “address the emergence of new forms of racism manifesting as national populism and far-right extremism”. Researchers will “seek to explain the logics of emboldened white rac­ism in Western liberal democracies”, which they predict “will be applicable to majoritarian racism elsewhere”. These self-appointed sages have looked into the crystal ball and have seen a future blighted by white supremacists.

But we can be pulled back from the brink of this dystopian nightmare if the team at the faculty of arts and sciences is permitted to spend taxpayers’ dollars, and the next few years, “mapping the changes of racism, including anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and white supremacism” in Australia.

That Islam is a religion, not a race, seems not to matter because a great many academics have shifted from focusing on what is real to what is not — in this case an imagined crisis of endemic racism. They are knee-deep in the quagmire of identity politics, that most dangerous and divisive of ideas that insists on distinguishing individuals by their differences rather than by their similarities.

Like so many in the humanities, they view the world through a Manichean lens, in which everything can be explained as a struggle between the forces of good (light) and evil (darkness). Everything they think about, write about and talk about in their capacity as historians, sociologists or political scientists must support the belief that Western civilisation is a white male patriarchy that wields power over, and oppresses, women and racial minorities.

Last year, Sydney University invited American professor, author and “renowned anti-racism educator” Robin DiAngelo so she could tell all the white people attending the launch of What Does It Mean to be White? Developing White Racial Literacy just how terribly, but perhaps not irredeemably, racist they were. According to DiAngelo, white people live in a racially insular bubble that renders them quivering wrecks when it comes to talking about race, a phenomenon she calls “White Fragility”. “Why does race seem to be the hardest word for white people?” she asked.

If she were to take a closer, impar­tial look at the Australian university sector, she would encounter many white people who have no problem at all with the word. Many academics are not only not afraid to talk about race but they talk about it so incessantly that if it weren’t for gender — the other great preoccupation of 21st-century academe — it would verge on monomania.

Of the 30-odd staff employed at the uni’s department of history, for example, 10 make a point of mentioning race or racism as a research interest. When Greg Sheridan criticised the Australian National University for rejecting the Ramsay Centre for Western Civilisation, one Sydney University professor, Dirk Moses, compared Sheridan to Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik.

Since 2002, the department has received almost $9m from the Australian Research Council to fund 18 historical studies research projects that focus on racism, in one form or another. These included The Construction of Race and Racial Identity at the Antip­odes of Empire, 1788-1840 (costing $231,000); Southern Racial Concepts: Comparative Histories and Contemporary Legacies ($2.4m); Immigration Restriction and the Racial state, c. 1880 to the Present ($359,000); Enterprising Women, Race, Gender and Power in the Revolutionary Atlantic, 1770-1820 (‘$323,000); and The Racial Century ($94,000).

The Resurgent Racism squad comprises, among others, former race discrimination commissioner Tim Soutphommasane, seen by some to have encouraged complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission following publication of a 2016 cartoon by Bill Leak in this newspaper. Last year Soutphommasane gave the keynote address at the university’s National Centre for Cultural Competence, launched in 2013 to the tune of $5.6m of taxpayers’ money. It claims its mission is to “roll out cultural com­pe­tence across the university and broader local national and international community”, but in real­ity it is a concerted effort to con­vince us Anglo-Celtic white culture is bad.

When vice-chancellor Michael Spence suggested questioning the existence of Chinese influence on his campus was akin to the White Australia policy, he was simply ensuring next year’s income. Last year the university pocketed $884m in international student fees, a generous portion from Chinese students.

The Resurgent Racism team is spending taxpayers’ money to tell Australians how racist we are. It is evidence the racism industry is flourishing on our university campuses, which are no longer in the business of producing objective and impartial scholarship that will edify, inspire and educate future generations of Australians.

SOURCE  






Peter Dutton opens door to cancelling welfare of climate protesters

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has lashed Queensland’s soft treatment of climate protesters, as he opens the door to cancelling their welfare payments.

Speaking on 2GB radio this morning Mr Dutton took aim at magistrates who impose “slap on the wrist” penalties for protesters, declaring the sunshine state should introduce mandatory sentences for those who regularly disrupt the community.

It comes as six people were charged with obstruction offences on Wednesday after a road-blocking protest by climate activist group Extinction Rebellion disrupted the Brisbane CBD during peak hour.

Two days earlier, four people involved in the same group were charged over a protest in which a woman climbed up a large tripod on a high-traffic CBD bridge at a similar time.

“The state government can pass laws that do reflect community standards and, at the moment, they don’t,” Mr Dutton told 2GB.

“It’s frustrating for everybody but particularly for those most affected in Brisbane at the moment, these people aren’t acting in the law,” Mr Dutton said of Wednesday’s protest.

“The community expectation is that these people are fined or jailed and they should be jailed until their behaviour changes because they’re diverting police and emergency service resources from tasks they should be undertaking otherwise,” Mr Dutton said.

“And yet they [the protesters] turn up week after week because they know the slap on the wrist is just not working.”

When asked whether three of the protesters who attached themselves to the Brisbane street who received government benefits should have their welfare payments removed, Mr Dutton agreed.

“Well I agree, Ray,” he said.

The Home Affairs Minister said the community needed to “push back” against the “unacceptable” behaviour seen in recent protests.

“You know raiding farms, climbing on to the roof of my electoral office and then getting told by the magistrate he would be proud of her if it had been his daughter,” Mr Dutton said.

“…While we’re annoyed about a lot of this, we let a lot go through to the keeper and we shouldn’t. We should push back because these people are a scourge. They are doing the wrong thing and it doesn’t meet community expectations.”

The call comes amid months of regular protest actions in Brisbane and across Queensland over climate change and the Adani coal mine.

The state Labor government has moved to outlaw items used by protesters which make it harder for them to be removed from roads and train tracks, such as steel cylinders or drums filled with concrete.

The new laws could see those who use such items face prison time and hefty fines.

However, the laws will not pass parliament before the start of International Rebellion Week on October 7, with more protests planned.

SOURCE  






Desperate farmers risk hiring illegal workers

Many Australian farm bosses are employing contract labourers who have a good chance of being exploited by “unscrupulous” labour hire companies, a government report has found.

But the peak agricultural lobby group says farmers are in many cases so desperate for labour that they knowingly allow migrants to work illegally and be exploited.

The report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences released Wednesday found family labour accounts for the majority of the workforce in traditional broadacre farms along with dairy operations.

But horticulture relied on foreign workers for approaching half its labour force.

The “Demand for Farm Workers: ABARES Farm Survey Results 2018” found backpackers dominate the overseas cohort.

Horticulture also employed a large proportion of workers as contract labour, rather than as casual or permanent workers.

Contractors accounted for 37 per cent of the workforce of vegetable growers and 56 per cent of the irrigated fruit and nut industry.

In many cases, ABARES said, their background was unknown to their employers.

“The use of contract workers by horticultural farms is widespread,” the ABARES report said.

“Around 10 per cent of horticulture workers were contract labour with an unknown background,” it said.

“Although a minority of farmers we surveyed didn’t know the background of some of their workers, it is possible someone else in their farm business would have known.

“Not knowing the background of contract labour puts farmers at risk of using undocumented workers from unscrupulous labour hire companies.”

National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said industry evidence showed farmers had great difficulties getting adequate labour, to a much greater extent than the ABARES report suggested.

A report this year commissioned by Vegetables WA and developed by Joanna Howe of the University of Adelaide found 40 per cent of vegetable growers had been unable to fill vacancies over a five-year period, and 22 per cent said they experienced difficulties attracting workers almost all of the time.

“Alarmingly, Dr Howe confirmed the stark reality that some growers feel they are forced to rely upon ‘undocumented’ migrants who work and remain in Australia, in breach of their visa conditions and to engage in practices which do not comply with Australian labour standards,” Mr Mahar said.

ABARES surveyed more than 2400 farms covering broadacre, dairy, vegetable and some irrigation industries.

“Family and other Australian workers make up the majority of the agricultural workforce,” ABARES acting executive director Peter Gooday said.

According to the ABARES report, farmers surveyed generally filled their vacancies, and recruitment difficulties were similar or less common than businesses across the rest of the economy.

However, Mr Gooday stressed: “Some farmers are having difficulty recruiting and farms in more remote areas had more difficulty recruiting.”

“These farms have a smaller pool of local labour to draw on and some backpackers may be less willing to travel to work,” he said.

He also pointed out that vegetable farms near cities had more difficultly recruiting workers.

“They may face greater competition for workers and they can’t offer work qualifying backpackers for a visa extension,” Mr Gooday said.

“Overall, farms had more difficulty recruiting higher skilled positions.”

“This issue is not unique to agriculture and highlights the importance of access to agricultural training and the need to offer competitive wages and conditions.”

The NFF said the ABARES report “doesn’t match farmers’ lived experience and fails to provide appropriate or current evidence that will help fix the much talked about problem of labour shortages.”

“The survey doesn’t align with what farmers are saying, did not cover many of the main fruit growing regions and instead focused on fruit growing in the Murray-Darling Basin,” Mr Mahar said.

SOURCE  

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






3 October, 2019

A Christian private school principal has blasted Greta Thunberg in a newsletter, labelling her a “little girl with mental problems”

Rodney Lynn, head of Coffs Harbour Christian Community School, wrote the letter to pupils and parents on September 26. In the letter, seen by news.com.au, he implored his students to put their faith in God and “not in the predictions of a little girl”.

He did not refer to Ms Thunberg by name, but he made reference to “a little girl from Scandinavia” who was promoting “doomsday waffle talk”.

“No one knows when the final wind up of the world will be,” he wrote. “Jesus said no one, only the Father God, knows about that day or hour.”

He said Ms Thunberg was a “little girl with self declared various emotional and mental problems that she thinks give her a special insight into a pending doom”.

“She says she is anxious. You too can be anxious. My life experience has taught me that the doomsday predictors are just attention getters,” he said in his September 26 newsletter.

The letter was published the same week the 16-year-old made an impassioned speech at the United Nations in New York — hitting out at world leaders for failing to take strong measures to combat climate change.

Galvanised by Ms Thunberg, young people around the world have taken to the streets to demand stronger action on climate change, but Mr Lynn questioned their actions in his letter.

“You can skip school. Hold up a piece of cardboard in the streets and call out for the government to ‘do something to stop it all happening’ … really???” he wrote.

“Do not be afraid. Your word’s future is in the hands of God, not in the predictions of a little girl and false prophets,” he wrote before signing off.

“God’s promises have never failed yet.”

Mr Lynn’s letter has been met with some local opposition, with the Coffs Coast Climate Action Group writing on Facebook that “we don’t like amplifying the toxic words of this Coffs Harbour principal”.

However, the statement went on to say “other more responsible church leaders are calling out his dangerous comments and talking about the need to protect our planet’s climate for younger generations”.

SOURCE  






Spare us the diversity divas and teaching gurus

James Allan

I want now to list for you just some of the more specific problems with Australian universities. I have already hinted at the astounding level of managerialism and bureaucratic overreach in just about all of them.

What you see are top heavy and noticeably overpaid university administrations — more than 60 per cent of employees at all Australian universities are administrators and bureaucrats, not researchers and teachers.

And yet there are basically no secretaries around to enter marks or file papers or put exams into alphabetical order after marking or anything that remotely corresponds with a basic understanding of comparative advantage.

No, a proliferation of administrators in Australian universities have jobs that fall largely into the category of what has been described as “bullshit jobs’’.

If they went on strike no one would notice; indeed, the organisation would probably run more effectively. They are not really needed, these “diversity divas’’ and “how to teach gurus’’.

And yet, in Australian universities, administrators significantly outnumber those in the class and those actually producing peer-reviewed research.

Moreover, these university bureaucrats love uniformity; they impose one-size-fits-all regimes on all parts of the university (because they simply cannot leave law schools or philosophy departments to decide for themselves what is best for law or philosophy, down to the nitpicking minutiae of how many assessments you absolutely must give, or whether you can opt to have an optional assessment in your course; no, you need some recently hired deputy vice-chancellor brought in from a former teachers’ college to issue uniform diktats for all parts of the university).

Uniformity is king in Australian universities. Or, given that this deputy vice-chancellor may well be in charge of “diversity’’, let us say that “uniformity is queen’’ and let us say it while cordoning off some computer lab that will be out of bounds for anyone who is not indigenous.

As an aside, notice, too, that in the bizarre world of “university diversity’’ that “diversity’’ boils down to struggling to impose a 1:1 correlation between two or three features you find in the world at large and what these social engineers want you to find in the same ratio among university academics and, to a lesser extent, within the student body — most obviously (a) the statistically “right’’ ratio of the type of reproductive organs on campus, or (b) the “right’’ ratio of skin pigmentation specimens, or (c) the “right’’ ratio of whether, plausibly or implausibly, students and professors can claim to be a descendant of a person who arrived here tens of thousands of years ago. You never, ever, ever see “diversity divas’’ trying to get a statistical match within the university and the wider Australian public as regards political and economic outlooks. Never.

Even though in general terms over time 50 per cent of Australians vote for right-of-centre parties it is nevertheless the case that right-of-centre conservatives in our universities are exceptionally rare.

As I said, I have run through this in a different publication, but let me here give readers a taste of the lack of conservatives in universities. In US Ivy League law schools, because donations to political parties are public information there, law professors who give to the left-of-centre Democratic Party outnumber Republican ones by more than 6:1, and it is worse at non-Ivy League law schools. (And that was before President Donald Trump was elected and the ratio probably got even worse.)

After 14 years working here in a top Australian law school, and being the editor of a peer review law journal, and hence with a pretty good knowledge of this country’s legal academics, I would say that the ratio is worse here in Australia. The ratio of conservative to progressive or non-conservative law professors is smaller in Australia than in the US.

Or read Jonathan Haidt on how many academics in psychology in the US identify as right-of-centre conservatives. It is less than 1 per cent. Haidt is himself “of the left’’ but says this sort of imbalance is a disaster for students and for universities. Do any readers want to bet that here in Australia in women’s studies departments or indigenous studies departments or, heck, even in most universities’ sociology and politics departments, the percentage of righties is any better than it is with psychologists in the US?

But let me return for a moment to the astounding level of top-heavy, top-down and overcooked managerialism in Australian universities. Now, someone might well say in reply to this charge of insanely too much managerialism and bureaucratic overreach that, in fact, you actually need this bureaucratic managerialism in our universities to make things better.

Collegiality in running tertiary education institutions was not working, goes this line of response.

In other words, or so goes this claim, you need to break a few eggs to make an omelette.

But this is precisely the sort of argument put forward by all one-size-fits-all centralists. There is no better answer to it than the one George Orwell mordantly threw back at the defenders of the Soviet system who relied on that sort of apologist’s claim.

Asked in response to this “need to break a few eggs’’ assertion, Orwell replied “OK, but where’s the omelette?’’

SOURCE  






Australia Foreign Minister says helping White House probe in national interest

Australia’s offer to help U.S. President Donald Trump investigate a report into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was in the national interest, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said on Wednesday.

The New York Times on Monday reported Trump had asked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for help investigating the origins of what became Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s efforts to aid Trump in the 2016 national elections.

A spokesperson for Morrison on Tuesday said the prime minister had agreed to help, drawing criticism from Australia’s opposition Labor party.

But Payne said cooperating with Australia’s closest ally was prudent. “We are working in Australia’s interests and we are working with our closest and most important ally,” Payne told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “We should assist them as we can, we should ensure that assistance is appropriate and that’s what we’re doing.”

Trump is under mounting pressure amid an impeachment investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives into reports that he sought to influence foreign governments to go after his political adversaries.

The Democratic-led House began the inquiry last week after a whistleblower raised concerns that Trump tried to leverage nearly $400 million in proposed aid for Ukraine in exchange for an investigation of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.

Biden is seeking the Democratic nomination to run against Trump in the 2020 election.

The Mueller report was triggered in part by former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer.

Downer was allegedly told in 2016 by George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign aide, that Russia had damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Downer reported the details of the conversation, which Papadopoulos denies, to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

SOURCE  






Australia eyes 'clear gaps' in US minerals supply amid China trade row

It would be Yuge if Australia replaced China as a supplier of "rare earths"

Australian rare earth miners could become major exporters to the United States as the Trump administration looks to lessen its reliance on China for the supply of valuable ingredients used in high-tech weapons, smart phones and electric vehicles.

In a new report released on Tuesday, the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (ATIC) has highlighted the potential for Australia to increase exports of a group of 17 obscure minerals that are used to manufacture high-technology products, as well as critical minerals such as cobalt, magnesium and lithium, which is used in batteries.

Its release comes as China's dominant position as the world's primary producer of rare earths and minerals triggers growing alarm in Washington following warnings that Beijing may move to restrict shipments due to its trade war with the US.

According to some estimates, China may hold up to 50 per cent of known global resources of rare earths elements and 80 per cent of their production, the report said.

Australian miner Lynas is the only significant rare earths producer outside of China and any move by Beijing to crimp supply would increase Lynas' importance. Lynas has recently secured a temporary increase in its licence to operate in Malaysia amid widespread opposition to the low level radioactive waste produced by the process.

Lynas is developing a processing plant in Texas in a partnership with Blue Line Corporation to separate and extract rare earths from ore.

"We have some of the world's richest stocks of critical minerals," Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said.

"This report shows there are huge export opportunities for Australian critical minerals producers in markets such as the US where there are clear gaps in the supply chain."

Australia is home to some of the world's largest recoverable deposits of critical minerals and the world's second-largest producer of rare-earth elements including neodymium and praseodymium, which are used to make permanent magnets, Resources Minister Matt Canavan said.

"Our political stability, strong environmental and safety regulations and existing expertise in the resources sector also adds to our appeal as a partner in the global supply chain of rare-earth elements," Mr Canavan said.

US President Donald Trump earlier this year moved to reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains for the US defence department, prohibiting the purchase of devices that contain magnets or tungsten from China, North Korea and Russia. And Mr Trump in July signed a memorandum authorising the defence department to direct funding to resources or technology.

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission said such moves had opened up a new opportunity for Australian companies to supply a growing US specialist manufacturing industry.

The Minerals Council of Australia, an industry group representing the nation's biggest miners, said there was "enormous potential" to grow Australia's trade and investment through the rare earth and critical minerals.

"Australia is well-positioned to extract and export the critical minerals the world needs for faster, smaller and more powerful technology," Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable said.

"Australia has pioneered new advances in extractive technologies and is ideally placed to lead the growth of critical minerals globally."

SOURCE  

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here






2 October, 2019

The pension should not be protecting mansions

Adam Creighton below must be young.  He is an economist and speaks good economic sense.  But he seems to know nothing about politics. The tax exempt family home is untouchable.  Any politician who proposed reform to it would get a barrage of opposition and abuse and would lose the next election. 

No matter how logically, you present your argument, what you present will be seen as dangerous and will easily be exaggerated by your political opponents. Note what happened to the Labor party at the last election when they proposed various economically reasonable tax reforms


It’s a bit pathetic the Coalition, far from the next election, is already ruling out options only days after announcing a broad review into the retirement income system.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg ruled out “ever” including the principal residence in the eligibility test for the pension.

If the age pension is going to be means tested, then the “family home’’ must be included.

How can people respect the social security system when a pensioner in a Toorak mansion, clearly with vastly greater resources, is treated the same as one in a fibro in Sydney’s Bankstown.

No one should ever be forced to move but if a pensioners’ total assets (housing and financial) exceed some high bar, say $2m, then surely any age pension payments should be deducted from the ultimate inheritance.

A $2m tax free inheritance might become, say, $1.9m. Oh the horror!

Ask any financial planner; retirees often use their superannuation to upsize their home or fund renovations, which ensures the wealth is shielded from the eligibility test. This induces yet more money to flow into housing than otherwise would.

Perhaps the most ridiculous argument against including the principal residence in the eligibility test along with other assets is that it isn’t retirees’ fault their home is now worth so much.

It’s true: the extraordinary tax-free capital gains (“unearned” in the old nomenclature, because no one really lifted a finger to generate them) enjoyed by many boomers probably will never be repeated.

Surely that’s all the more reason for some of these gains to be used to fund retirement, allowing taxes to be lower for the current generation of workers who face an ever higher personal income tax burden.

When the Fisher government introduced the old age pension in 1908 it was about alleviating poverty — most people died before they were eligible and even then only the genuinely needy received it. Indeed, the family home was included in the eligibility test until 1912.

Today the pension is as much about subsidising inheritances as alleviating poverty.

The Callaghan review is a good opportunity to bring this fact, and the extraordinary cost to the economy of lifting the compulsory saving rate to 12 per cent, to light.

Indeed, there are good arguments for scrapping distorting means-testing, giving the age pension to everyone, scrapping super concessions and using the net savings to dramatically cut income tax.

But based on comments by the Prime Minister and Treasurer in recent days it looks like more pusillanimous fiddling at the edges is all we can expect.

SOURCE  






Australia's export share to China hits record high 38pc

Any political tensions between Australia and China have not been borne out in trade – Australia's share in the value of exports to China reached a record 38 per cent or $117 billion – more than any other country – according to new analysis.

The rapid increase in Australia's share has been driven by higher iron ore prices. However, research by the Australian National University shows that this has not just been owing to a supply shock from Brazil's Vale dam disaster but also to China increasingly looking overseas to fulfil its thirst for commodities.

"We have had a trough in the political relationship with China in the last few years, yet the trade has continued to trade robustly," said ANU's head of the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research, Peter Drysdale. "So any intentions to interfere in trade restrictions has had very little effect on trade itself," he said.

Exports to China in the first seven months of the year have reached $84 billion. That works out to roughly $12 billion a month – 22 per cent higher than the monthly exports of about $9.8 billion in 2018.

Australian exports to China as a percentage of total exports now stand at 38 per cent, up from 34 per cent.

Japan is the second-biggest export destination but its share was just 16 per cent in 2018. It peaked at a share of more than 30 per cent of Australian merchandise exports in 1976.

Iron drives exports higher

Professor Drysdale said that while the supply shock to iron ore from the Brazil dam disaster had contributed to Australia's increased exports to China, Beijing had already been increasing its demand for foreign commodities.

"China has increased its external procurement for its steel industry from 81 per cent to over 90 per cent and that has led to increased demand for Australian exports independent of the Brazil effect," he said. "Australia's competitiveness in the Chinese market has been steadily rising."

The increase in Chinese incomes had also contributed to stronger and more diverse demand for Australian exports. "Incomes have risen so much in China and that has led to an increase in the demand and the range for Australian exports including everything from beef, wine and dairy to education," Professor Drysdale said.

It is worth noting that the United Kingdom peaked at a share of 60 per cent of Australian exports during World War I and held 38 per cent of Australian exports in 1954.

Goldman Sachs chief economist Andrew Boak has studied the China-Australia trade relationship and expects that any changes to the quantity and value of Australian exports to China would boil down to two key factors.

Downside risks

"The relative risk is likely a function of a combination of one, how easily China can substitute away from Australian goods and services, and two, how large of a share Chinese demand of a given Australian good or service is," Mr Boak said.

"The downside risks associated with Australia’s strong trade linkages to China have increased and bear close monitoring.

"However, our base case is that these linkages deliver an ongoing large positive income shock which will support Australia’s public finances and increase the prospect of scheduled income tax relief being brought forward to 2020."

SOURCE  







Australia’s temporary graduate visa attracts international students, but many find it hard to get work in their field

The number of international students who stay in Australia after graduating on the temporary graduate visa – often referred to as the 485 visa – is growing fast. There were nearly 92,000 temporary graduate visa holders in Australia as of June, 2019. That’s up from from around 71,000 in June 2018 – a 29% increase.

The 485 visa was introduced in 2008 and updated in 2013, taking on recommendations from the 2011 Knight Review, which recognised post-study work rights for international students as crucial for Australia to remain competitive in the education export market.

Under the visa, international recent graduates of a degree or qualification from an Australian institution can stay in Australia for two to four years, depending on the qualification. The government points to the visa as providing an opportunity for international students to remain in Australia for a limited period of time and gain international work experience.

In our recent study, we examined the effects of the 485 visa policy on international students in Australia and on the labour market.

Out of the visa holders we surveyed, 76% said access to the visa was an important factor in their decision to study in Australia. And the majority of past (89%) and current (79%) 485 visa holders in Australia participated in the labour force. (Past holders of the visa refer to either those who have returned to their country or remained in Australia but moved on to another visa).

But many graduates did not work full-time, and they did not necessarily work in their field of study. A considerable number of graduates were employed in retail, hospitality or as cleaners.

The numbers

We collected data through an online survey from 1,156 international graduates, some of whom are in Australia and others back in their home countries. We also conducted in-depth interviews with students and other key stakeholders such as employers.

Our analysis included that of government figures and policy.

The top five citizenship countries of 485 visa holders in Australia (India, China, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam) have also been the top five source countries of international enrolments in Masters by coursework (China, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Vietnam) programs since 2013.

Up to 56% of current visa holders either worked outside their field of study (35%) or were unemployed (21%), which puts these groups at risk of financial stress and vulnerability.


SOURCE  






Costs balloon in disability scheme

A huge slice of the disability money has gone to the bureaucacy, not disabled people

The National Disability Insurance Agency has overseen a three-fold spending increase on external contractors, recruiters and lawyers as it copes with a flood of new participants in the $22bn disability scheme.

To combat a "dramatic surge" in the number of National Disability Insurance Scheme participants — increasing from 30,281 to 298,816 in three years — the NDIA has been forced to rely on employment agencies for temporary and contract staff.

Analysis of individual contracts worth more than $100,000 reveals the ballooning cost burden for taxpayers, with the NDIA engaging private companies to provide staff, call centres,legal, media and writing skills advice, training and security. Spending for temporary staffing and recruitment support dramatically rose in the past financial year, constituting 49 per cent of the total spending on major contracts, with costs increasing for call centres and legal services.

NDIS spending data reveals 18 law firms and other legal consultants were engaged at a cost of almost $30m to support the NDIA in its response to three royal commissions and the introduction of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Applications and Decisions Division.

To avoid further clogging the AAT with NDIS-related cases, support has been provided to facilitate an early resolution model, encouraging participants and legal representatives to resolve matters earlier in the process. A list of individual contracts worth more than $100,000 shows Hays Specialist Recruitment was engaged to provide staff support at a total cost of almost $100m

Between July 1 last year and June 30 this year, the number of new participants entering the NDIS totalled ll7,307. According to the NDIA, growth in spending has risen from $1lbn in 2015-16 to $ll.9bn in 2018-19, but operating costs as a percentage of the total cost of the scheme fell 'from 14.2 per cent in 2017-18 to a projected 8.2 per cent in 2019-20. The Australian understands this saving has been achieved by reducing the use of consultants and transitioning roles 'from contract work to Australian public service positions.

Consultancy firms Ernst & Young, KPMG, McKinsey Pacific. Rim, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, PwC and Healthconsult were also engaged by the NDIA, netting contracts exceeding $40m. A one-year contract with Serco Citizen Services worth almost $70m for the "provision of call centre" — paid out $12.4m in the last financial year.

The move to an external call centre, currently averaging more than 90,000 calls a month, achieved cost savings of 23 per cent in 2018-19.

An NDIA spokeswoman said spending on contractors and consultants — as a percentage of total scheme costs — was decreasing from 2.6 per cent in 2017-18 to a projected 1.6 per cent in 2019-20.

The Australian understands a majority of major contracts with consultancy firms covering the period between 2016 and 2019 have been finalised and paid for and that a further reduction in contractor costs was likely to occur when the NDIS hits 500,000 expected participants.

From "Courier Mail" of 30/9/19

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here







1 October, 2019

False alarm: the great rainforest fire that wasn’t

A frightening image. Pristine rainforest that has not burned for millions of years is ablaze as bushfires of unprecedented intensity roar through the hinterland of southeast Queensland. It’s difficult to imagine a more graphic illustration of the consequences of ­climate change. That is what was widely portrayed during the ­region’s fire emergency earlier this month. The only problem is, it didn’t happen.

The destruction of ancient World Heritage-listed Gondwana subtropical and temperate rainforests by fire was reported unequivocally as fact. Guardian Australia proclaimed in a headline: “Like nothing we’ve seen: Queensland bushfires tear through rainforest.” The landscape of Lamington National Park surrounding the historic Binna Burra Lodge, which was destroyed in the fires, was “blackened remnants of what used to be lush rainforest”, reported the Australian Associated Press in a story carried by many news outlets.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is working on its sixth assessment report. Australian climate scientist Joelle Gergis, a lead author of the report, declared: “What I find particularly disturbing is that World Heritage rainforest is burning. It has been hard to watch news coverage of these exceptionally rare rainforests burning … the potential loss of these areas is something I never thought I would witness in my lifetime.”

Social media lit up with expressions of despair about the rainforest losses. Typical of the angst was a tweet insisting that any journalist interviewing the Prime Minister who failed to question the climate implications of Queensland rainforests burning “isn’t doing their f..king job”.

But the Gondwana rainforests, those priceless relics of times long gone, did not burn. No news coverage showed rainforest burning. The 20,600ha Lamington ­National Park in Queensland and the adjoining 31,700ha Border Ranges National Park in NSW ­encompass the largest expanse of subtropical rainforest in the world. As on countless occasions over the centuries, fire raging in surrounding eucalypt woodland did not ­destroy the rainforest.

To be sure, bushfires of such ­intensity in the region are unusual, especially in early spring; 16 homes were lost in southern Queensland. Unlike southeast Australia with its hot and dry summers, the subtropics are usually ­afforded a degree of protection by high humidity, an absence of prolonged periods of scorching temperatures, and generous rainfall which — as in much of the country — has been in short supply lately.

Binna Burra Lodge is not encircled by rainforest, as was claimed repeatedly. The lodge is surrounded on three sides by eucalypt woodland; it came close to being lost when a control burn 20 years ago got away. This time, ­explains Binna Burra chairman Steven ­Noakes: “The fire went tearing up a steep slope through eucalypt woodland and we’re perched on a ridge at the top. With those winds there was nothing we could do.”

A camping ground and teahouse that adjoin rainforest survived the inferno; flames did not extend beyond the lodge into rainforest. A few kilometres across Lamington National Park from Binna Burra, O’Reilly’s Rainforest ­Retreat was evacuated during the fire emergency. Unlike Binna Burra, O’Reilly’s is surrounded entirely by rainforest. O’Reilly’s manager, Shane O’Reilly, says there was no need for evacuation; the nearest fires were 15km away: “The rainforest here doesn’t burn. It was pretty much eucalypt country that burned … There’s a lot of emotion surrounding this.

“A story is being propagated that it’s more of an issue about rainforest than it is.”

O’Reilly adds that an international scientific symposium at the lodge in 2011 heard the rainforest had not burned for at least three million years.

Patrick Norman, a Griffith University PhD student and former Lamington park ranger, has analysed satellite data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite over burnt forest. The images indicate about 400ha of rainforest burned, but this was primarily dry rainforest at lower altitudes known as vine scrub. Burned areas also included wet sclerophyll, a forest type comprised of tall eucalypts with some rainforest plants.

“Drawing a line between rainforest and wet sclerophyll is a tricky task,’’ Norman says. “By and large, the rainforest that burned was on the drier end of the spectrum. I am quite confident no warm or cool temperate rainforest was burned.” The affected dry rainforest mostly burned lightly, with the ground layer impacted. Norman cautions that if the forests burn again in the foreseeable future there could be more serious impacts.

Kaye Healing, the Queensland Rural Fire Service acting southeast regional manager, played a central role in fighting the fires, which continue to smoulder. Healing says while fires “burn crazily” through eucalypt woodland, they tend to “walk through” vine scrub and wet sclerophyll forest. “When it gets to true rainforest, the fire self-extinguishes,’’ he says. “You’ve got a closed canopy in true rainforest and it holds moisture. The rainforest is not on fire. The fire is in dry eucalypt forest and woodland.”

Healing says similar conditions were experienced before, for ­instance in the early 1990s: “I’m not going to get into a climate-change conversation but climate varies between floods and drought in this country and historical records show that.”

Claims about Australian rainforest burning for the first time also circulated late last year when 121,000ha of land around Eungella National Park near Mackay were scorched. At the time, the ABC published a photograph of a fire-stricken area; the caption said it had been a “rich green subtropical rainforest”. Although it was pointed out that the area had been grassland and shrubs, the captioned photograph remains on ABC websites.

The ABC reported that Eungella rainforests were reduced to cinders and would take hundreds of years to recover. Rural Fire Service manager for the Mackay ­region Andrew Houley, a former forester, says rainforest that burned around Eungella was largely regrowth on cleared land. Recent images show tree ferns and some other rainforest plants regrowing. However, the heat was so intense that 10m-15m of the edge of pristine rainforest in places was destroyed before the fires stopped. Houley adds: “Headlines say the fires are once in a lifetime but these weather patterns affect us every 25 years or so.”

A crisis facing rainforest is under way not in Australia but in Southeast Asia, the Amazon Basin and central Africa. Huge tracts of forest are being intensively logged or bulldozed for livestock or crops. Extensively damaged rainforest remnants and felled trees are then burned. In some countries, such as Indonesia, sound environmental laws are in place but are largely unenforced or ignored. In others, such as Brazil, governments are unapologetically pursuing polices to develop rainforest. Australia is fortunate its World Heritage rainforests are standing tall.

SOURCE  






Revealed: The thousands of jobs young Australians don't want because of 'snobbery' as the government encourage school leavers to take up trades

An increasing number of young Australians are turning their nose up at thousands of well-paying blue collar jobs because of 'job snobbery'.

The federal government is encouraging students to drop out of school in year 10 and take up a trade instead of going to university.

Nearly 290,000 Australians started apprenticeships in 2008, but just a decade on only 156,000 people took up a trade in 2018.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash is encouraging students to leave school in year 10, and said they could be better off than those who opt to finish school and go to university.

Senator Cash said she wants any negative stigma around blue collar jobs to be eradicated and thinks apprentices should be proud of being a tradie. 

But Labor is encouraging students to stay in school. 'You've got a much better chance of getting a job if you finish school than if you don't finish school,' Shadow Education and Training Minister Tanya Plibersek told 7 News.

More than half of the government's list of the highest earning careers are jobs from vocational training and not university degrees.

Construction managers can earn as much as $3,500 per week ($182,000 a year).

SOURCE  





Same-sex unions divide what used to be the Methodist church

Uniting Church ministers who ­oppose same-sex marriage say they are being “pushed, harassed and bullied” out of the church by progressives at the helm of Australia’s third-largest denomination.

The Reverend Lu Senituli, minister of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations of the Uniting Church Sunnybank on Brisbane’s south side, said a fissure in the church was widening between large conservative congregations such as his mostly Tongan church, and inner-city churches and leadership “who want to drive us out to make way for the new church”.

Mr Senituli said the issue had come to a head since the “yes” vote in the national plebiscite on same-sex marriage. “They are using church procedures and withholding of funding and all sorts of tactics to get us to toe the line,” he said. “I have people sitting in my congregation taking notes so they can report on me to the church and have disciplinary measures enacted against me.”

However, the Uniting Church says ministers have freedom to refuse to conduct same-sex mar­riages and can continue to teach their belief that marriage may only be between a man and a woman.

Mr Senituli’s church is a member of a breakaway body in the Uniting Church established in 2004 called the Assembly of Confessing Congregations, set up for congregations that reject the progressive line on accepting gay ­clergy and same-sex marriage.

“The church now has two faith statements, or integrities on marriage,” Mr Senituli said. “One is that marriage is between a man and a woman, as according to holy scripture. But the second integrity is the covenant of love between two persons, regardless of sex.

“In practice it’s impossible to live our faith under these two integ­rities as they are contradictory. When a minister makes a statement to a presbytery to say we will not celebrate same-sex marriage, from that point the presbyteries, the regional body, begin to put the pressure on in every way.

“They start turning off the funding tap if you don’t toe the line. Life becomes extremely difficult. Regional bodies are working in collusion with liberals in congregations who find orthodox preaching offensive.

“I was removed from the nat­ional body on doctrine because my views didn’t represent the diversity of the Uniting Church. But I represent a thriving church with hundreds of members who hold traditional, scriptural views and my church has six services every Sunday.”

The president of the Uniting Church, Deirdre Palmer, was unavailable for comment, but a spokesman for the Uniting Church in Australia Assembly and the Synod of Queensland said ministers and celebrants authorised by the Uniting Church had the freedom to conduct or to refuse to conduct same-gender marriages.

“They can continue to teach their belief that marriage may only be between a man and a woman, and can continue to use a marriage liturgy that reflects that conviction,” the spokesman said.

“At the same time, we expect all our members to respectfully engage with those who may hold different biblical and theological views to their own, and to show respect to LGBTIQ Uniting Church members, who are full members, exercising a variety of ministries, both ordained and lay within and through the life of the Uniting Church.

“All parts of the church are accountable to our governance and regulations and when matters of concern arise in particular congregations, the Uniting Church has systems in place to manage those concerns.

“The matters raised with The Australian are known to the Uniting Church and are being addressed through appropriate processes, with ongoing consultation and support provided to the congregations. They are entirely un­related to the minister’s or the congregation’s Christian understanding of marriage.”

Mr Senituli’s church adopted its current name last month, changing its signage from Sunny­bank Uniting Church in defiance of church leadership to make clear its opposition to same-sex marriage and as a protest against allegedly being bullied on the issue.

The national chairman of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations, Hedley Fihaki, backed Mr Senituli’s claims, saying about 150 of the Uniting Church’s 800 congregations were ACC members.

He said ACC assemblies that had changed signs and logos to distinguish themselves from progressive congregations had received letters warning them they would no longer be under the protection of the church for issues such as insurance.

“The Uniting Church doesn’t see the dilemma we are in. The push to embrace diversity is an oxymoron, the two statements on marriage — you can’t have these two doctrines co-­existing together, in our opinion,” Dr Fihaki said.

“The Bible is very clear on this. Assembly doesn’t get why we can’t exist in this diversity framework. They are forcing us to accept it, but we can’t.”

SOURCE  






   
‘Lucky escape’: 39 vegan activists ordered to pay $100 to charity for protest which shut down CBD

A group of animal rights protesters who brought Melbourne’s CBD to a halt have escaped criminal conviction.

The 39 vegan protesters chained themselves to three vehicles to block the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets for four hours in April.

The group caused chaos, blocking Melbourne’s busiest tram corridor throughout the morning peak, at the same time as bus replacement services were running on several train lines.

The Vegan Rising activists appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this morning, pleading guilty to charges of obstruction.

They have each been ordered to pay $100 to an animal rescue sanctuary, Edgar’s Mission.

The group have also received three-month good behaviour bonds.

Seven News court reporter Sharnelle Vella said it was a light punishment. “They’ve had a lucky escape, that’s despite the Prime Minister at the time saying they should face the full force of the law,” she told 3AW’s Tom Elliott.

Outside court the protesters failed to apologise for disrupting the city.

Vegan Rising Campaign Director Kristen Leigh said the protest had the desired effect. “We are trying to get people to watch the documentary film Dominion, which exposes the reality of what millions of animals suffer in this country,” she told Tom Elliott. “We really wanted to draw attention to that film, and our actions did, thankfully. We had about 50,000+ people watch the film after that.”

The animal rights group refused to say if they had any future protests planned.

SOURCE 

 Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here





Postings from Brisbane, Australia by John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) -- former member of the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society, former anarcho-capitalist and former member of the British Conservative party.





Most academics are lockstep Leftists so readers do sometimes doubt that I have the qualifications mentioned above. Photocopies of my academic and military certificates are however all viewable here


For overseas readers: The "ALP" is the Australian Labor Party -- Australia's major Leftist party. The "Liberal" party is Australia's major conservative political party.


In most Australian States there are two conservative political parties, the city-based Liberal party and the rural-based National party. But in Queensland those two parties are amalgamated as the LNP.


Again for overseas readers: Like the USA, Germany and India, Australia has State governments as well as the Federal government. So it may be useful to know the usual abbreviations for the Australian States: QLD (Queensland), NSW (New South Wales), WA (Western Australia), VIC (Victoria), TAS (Tasmania), SA (South Australia).


For American readers: A "pensioner" is a retired person living on Social Security


"Digger" is an honorific term for an Australian soldier


Another lesson in Australian: When an Australian calls someone a "big-noter", he is saying that the person is a chronic and rather pathetic seeker of admiration -- as in someone who often pulls out "big notes" (e.g. $100.00 bills) to pay for things, thus endeavouring to create the impression that he is rich. The term describes the mentality rather than the actual behavior with money and it aptly describes many Leftists. When they purport to show "compassion" by advocating things that cost themselves nothing (e.g. advocating more taxes on "the rich" to help "the poor"), an Australian might say that the Leftist is "big-noting himself". There is an example of the usage here. The term conveys contempt. There is a wise description of Australians generally here


Another bit of Australian: Any bad writing or messy anything was once often described as being "like a pakapoo ticket". In origin this phrase refers to a ticket written with Chinese characters - and thus inscrutably confusing to Western eyes. These tickets were part of a Chinese gambling game called "pakapoo".


Two of my ancestors were convicts so my family has been in Australia for a long time. As well as that, all four of my grandparents were born in the State where I was born and still live: Queensland. And I am even a member of the world's second-most condemned minority: WASPs (the most condemned is of course the Jews -- which may be why I tend to like Jews). So I think I am as Australian as you can get. I certainly feel that way. I like all things that are iconically Australian: meat pies, Vegemite, Henry Lawson etc. I particularly pride myself on my familiarity with the great Australian slanguage. I draw the line at Iced Vo-Vos and betting on the neddies, however. So if I cannot comment insightfully on Australian affairs, who could?



My son Joe


On all my blogs, I express my view of what is important primarily by the readings that I select for posting. I do however on occasions add personal comments in italicized form at the beginning of an article.


I am rather pleased to report that I am a lifelong conservative. Out of intellectual curiosity, I did in my youth join organizations from right across the political spectrum so I am certainly not closed-minded and am very familiar with the full spectrum of political thinking. Nonetheless, I did not have to undergo the lurch from Left to Right that so many people undergo. At age 13 I used my pocket-money to subscribe to the "Reader's Digest" -- the main conservative organ available in small town Australia of the 1950s. I have learnt much since but am pleased and amused to note that history has since confirmed most of what I thought at that early age.

I imagine that the the RD is still sending mailouts to my 1950s address!


I am an army man. Although my service in the Australian army was chiefly noted for its un-notability, I DID join voluntarily in the Vietnam era, I DID reach the rank of Sergeant, and I DID volunteer for a posting in Vietnam. So I think I may be forgiven for saying something that most army men think but which most don't say because they think it is too obvious: The profession of arms is the noblest profession of all because it is the only profession where you offer to lay down your life in performing your duties. Our men fought so that people could say and think what they like but I myself always treat military men with great respect -- respect which in my view is simply their due.


The kneejerk response of the Green/Left to people who challenge them is to say that the challenger is in the pay of "Big Oil", "Big Business", "Big Pharma", "Exxon-Mobil", "The Pioneer Fund" or some other entity that they see, in their childish way, as a boogeyman. So I think it might be useful for me to point out that I have NEVER received one cent from anybody by way of support for what I write. As a retired person, I live entirely on my own investments. I do not work for anybody and I am not beholden to anybody. And I have NO investments in oil companies or mining companies


Although I have been an atheist for all my adult life, I have no hesitation in saying that the single book which has influenced me most is the New Testament. And my Scripture blog will show that I know whereof I speak.


The Rt. Rev. Phil Case (Moderator of the Presbyterian church in Queensland) is a Pharisee, a hypocrite, an abomination and a "whited sepulchre".


English-born Australian novellist, Patrick White was a great favourite in literary circles. He even won a Nobel prize. But I and many others I have spoken to find his novels very turgid and boring. Despite my interest in history, I could only get through about a third of his historical novel Voss before I gave up. So why has he been so popular in literary circles? Easy. He was a miserable old Leftist coot, and, incidentally, a homosexual. And literary people are mostly Leftists with similar levels of anger and alienation from mainstream society. They enjoy his jaundiced outlook, his dissatisfaction, rage and anger.


A delightful story about a great Australian conservative


Would you believe that there once was a politician whose nickname was "Honest"?

"Honest" Frank Nicklin M.M. was a war hero, a banana farmer and later the conservative Premier of my home State of Queensland in the '60s. He was even popular with the bureaucracy and gave the State a remarkably tranquil 10 years during his time in office. Sad that there are so few like him.


A great Australian wit exemplified



An Australian Mona Lisa (Nikki Gogan)


Bureaucracy: "One of the constant laments of doctors and nurses working with NSW Health is the incredible and increasing bureaucracy," she said. "It is completely obstructive to providing a service."


Revered Labour Party leader Gough Whitlam was a very erudite man so he cannot have been unaware of the similarities of his famous phrase “the Party, the platform, the people” with an earlier slogan: "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuehrer". It's basically the same slogan in reverse order.


Australia's original inhabitants were a race of pygmies, some of whom survived into modern times in the mountainous regions of the Atherton tableland in far North Queensland. See also here. Below is a picture of one of them taken in 2007, when she was 105 years old and 3'7" tall




Julia Gillard, a failed feminist flop. She was given the job of Prime Minister of Australia but her feminist preaching was so unpopular that she was booted out of the job by her own Leftist party. Her signature "achievements" were the carbon tax and the mining tax, both of which were repealed by the next government.


The "White Australia Policy: "The Immigration Restriction Act was not about white supremacy, racism, or the belief that whites were higher up the evolutionary tree than the coloured races. Rather, it was designed to STOP the racist exploitation of non-whites (all of whom would have been illiterate peasants practicing religions and cultures anathema to progressive democracy) being conscripted into a life of semi-slavery in a coolie-worked plantation economy for the benefit of the absolute monarchs, hereditary aristocracy and the super-wealthy companies and share-holders of the northern hemisphere.


A great little kid



In November 2007, a four-year-old boy was found playing in a croc-infested Territory creek after sneaking off pig hunting alone with four dogs and a puppy. The toddler was found five-and-a-half hours after he set off from his parents' house playing in a creek with the puppy. Amazingly, Daniel Woditj also swam two creeks known to be inhabited by crocs during his adventurous romp. Mr Knight said that after walking for several kilometres, Daniel came to a creek and swam across it. Four of his dogs "bailed up" at the creek but the youngster continued on undaunted with his puppy to a second creek. Mr Knight said Daniel swam the second croc-infested creek and walked on for several more kilometres. "Captain is a hard bushman and Daniel is following in his footsteps. They breed them tough out bush."


A great Australian: His eminence George Pell. Pictured in devout company before his elevation to Rome





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