Australian politics August 21

31 October, 2021

Scott Morrison to resist global coal ban pressure at G20

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would resist pressure at the G20 summit to phase out fossil fuels like coal.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has landed in Rome ahead of the G20 summit, saying it is a “pivotal time” for the world’s largest economies to be focussing on the road ahead.

Decarbonising the world is a similar challenge to creating vaccines to end the Covid pandemic, Scott Morrison says, and he wants to prioritise working with other countries to develop new low emissions technologies to find solutions.

Speaking after touching down in Rome, the Prime Minister said Australia’s net zero plan was “crystal clear”, and that he would resist pressure at this weekend’s G20 talks and the Glasgow climate summit to phase out fossil fuels including coal. “Our policy is very clear - we’re not engaged in those sorts of mandates and bans,“ he said.

Mr Morrison also spoke about his call with French President Emmanuel Macron, saying his counterpart expressed “obvious disappointment which we respect and understand” about Australia’s cancellation of its $90bn submarine contract. “We’ve started the way back and I think that’s a positive thing,” he said.

Mr Morrison landed in Rome on Friday night ahead of the G20, during which he will also hold one-on-one talks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo to settle any concerns about Australia’s new plan to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Key issues on the G20 agenda include locking in a new global minimum corporate tax rate, as well as emissions reduction ahead of next week’s Glasgow climate change summit.

The leaders will also discuss the economic and health recovery from Covid, with Mr Morrison pushing for enhanced disease surveillance and greater transparency to prevent a repeat of the Covid pandemic.

“When there are common accountabilities and obligations that run across multiple jurisdictions, we will see digital platform companies truly invest in making the online world safer,” Mr Morrison said.

The G20 talks, held amid tight security in the Italian capital, mark the first in-person meeting between the leaders since the pandemic began, although Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend.

Mr Morrison will continue to advocate for open trade and reforms to the World Trade Organisation, as Australia tackles China’s ongoing campaign of economic coercion.

US President Joe Biden also landed in Rome on Friday and was expected to hold his first face-to-face meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron since the AUKUS defence pact was unveiled and Australia ripped up its $90bn French submarines contract.

Mr Macron and Mr Morrison broke the ice on Thursday, with the French President saying Australia’s decision “broke the relationship of trust between our two countries”.

Italy wants a specific commitment to reduce methane emissions, but Mr Morrison has already rejected that to protect Australian farmers.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/world/pm-push-for-global-rules-on-social-media-at-g20/news-story/7e590fbaa3be1dddd09cfbadfbe48871

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More Greenie obstructionism

They'll always find something to wail about. They get off on it

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has grilled South Australian government officials over a rocket-launching development "bang in the middle" of an environmentally sensitive site.

The senator, speaking at a Senate estimates hearing yesterday, said she was not in support of the controversial rocket launching development at Whalers Way, south of Port Lincoln, becoming a permanent fixture.

"I'm very concerned that this is right in the middle of a hotspot of some of our endangered little creatures in South Australia," she said. "It is an environmentally sensitive location.

"Why on earth would we have it right bang in the middle of what is already considered a heritage area under state protection?"

Southern Launch, which recently constructed a launchpad complex at the popular tourist site, has approval to test two launches by the end of the year and hopes to make the site a permanent launch complex early next year.

In September, the company made several attempts to test Taiwanese company TiSPACE's 10.2 metre Hapith-I rocket, which were unsuccessful as the rocket caught alight and disintegrated.

Senator Hanson-Young said she was concerned about the impact future rocket launches would have on vulnerable species.

"We've got the emu wren, that is already endangered, we have sea lions not far away on the coastal areas there that is threatened and endangered and, in fact, still waiting on a proper protection plan from the federal government," she said

A government official confirmed in the estimates hearing that 54 public comments had been received about the company's project, most of which focused on social and economic reasons against the development.

Senator Hanson-Young said she shared concerns with some locals who contacted her office about potential bushfire risks. "Our climate is drying, bushfire risk is getting more and more intense," she said.

"This poses a bushfire risk — a rocket launch in this area — for that reason the minister should rule that this is inappropriate."

Southern Launch CEO LLoyd Damp said the company had dedicated the past three years to developing a comprehensive 3,200-page environmental impact statement in consultation with a range of industry experts.

"Southern Launch has very comprehensive environmental and emergency plans — we try and cover off any and every eventuality," he said.

Mr Damp said during the last attempt a small shrub was singed, as was some nearby grass.

He said that the company was planning to set up its own first-responder team to cover any fire, medical or other emergencies in the event that the site was approved for permanent use.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-26/greens-raise-rocket-development-in-senate-estimates/100569524

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'World's greenest residential building' reduced to 20 storeys after Brisbane City Council questions size

A planned 32-storey apartment tower touted as the "world's greenest residential building" has been significantly scaled back after Brisbane City Council expressed concerns about its size.

Lodged in July last year, Aria Property Group's Urban Forest development originally proposed a 32-storey, 382-unit apartment tower on Glenelg Street in South Brisbane.

Designed by Koichi Takada Architects, the application received international attention for its promise to be a tower covered in greenery including trees and shrubs, hiding much of the building structure under plants.

The tower was designed to have nearly 300 per cent green coverage and aims to secure a 5-star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia on the back of its subtropical design.

The original assessment report lodged with the council for the tower last year said the design's "unprecedented level of landscaping" would create a striking building on the city skyline.

However, the plan generated concern from locals who feared the tower was oversized and would permanently change the inner-city suburb's character.

Concerns about its impact on a neighbouring heritage-listed church, a local school, and the number of apartments were also raised in submissions.

More than a year later, the application is still being assessed by Brisbane City Council.

Earlier this year, at the council's request, Aria reduced the size of the tower to 24 storeys, but the council was not satisfied.

In August a council planner requested further reduction of its size to fit the neighbourhood plan.

"The overall proposed building height and number of storeys is required to be reduced in response to ... the South Brisbane riverside neighbourhood plan code," the officer wrote.

The planning code covering that area of South Brisbane has a height limit of 12 storeys, which many residents in submissions on the development insist should be heeded.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-27/urban-forest-building-downsizes-south-brisbane/100571768

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Police officer Mark Follington jailed over assault of trannie in Liverpool pub

Bigotry against trannies highly likely to have been involved. Cops do it hard in jail so big efforts will be made to get him off

A NSW police officer who violently assaulted a woman and then falsified evidence related to the event will spend at least 18 months behind bars.

Senior Constable Mark Follington unlawfully arrested Anya Bradford at a pub in Liverpool in Sydney's west in May 2019 while he and another officer were checking IDs as part of an anti-drug crackdown.

Ms Bradford, who was sitting in the gaming room, declined to show her identification and attempted to leave the premises.

CCTV footage played in court showed Follington grabbing Ms Bradford's arm and slamming her head into an ATM, before following her into the lobby of a parole office and continuing to attack her.

Another officer, Constable Mark Brown, used a pepper spray and taser on her.

Later that day, Follington lied in a police report, claiming that Ms Bradford had assaulted him. The CCTV footage contradicted his story.

He pleaded not guilty to two charges of common assault, one count of tampering with evidence with intent to mislead a judicial tribunal, acting with intent to pervert the course of justice and modifying restricted data, but was found guilty in May this year.

At the sentencing hearing at Sydney's Downing Centre on Wednesday, Magistrate Michael Crompton sentenced Follington to 30 months behind bars with a non-parole period of 18 months.

He said the crime of falsifying information "struck at the very heart of the criminal justice system" and warranted a sentence that would significantly deter others.

He described the assaults as "quite violent" and "in the mid-to-high range of objective seriousness for assault of that kind".

He said the crime was aggravated by Follington abusing his position of trust and authority and noted his not guilty pleas. "On the evidence before me there is no evidence of remorse," he said.

Ms Bradford was not present in court but In a victim impact statement said the assaults had left her mentally and emotionally scarred. "I spent a night in pain in a jail cell," the statement said, adding that she regularly experienced traumatic flashbacks and no longer trusted police.

His lawyer argued that Follington, who had been suspended from his role without pay, was likely to have a more arduous time behind bars than an ordinary citizen.

"Once a police officer goes into the four walls of any institution… history has shown that police officers, because of their position, are the subject of assaults, serious assaults", he said.

Follington's legal team confirmed he will appeal against the verdict

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-27/police-officer-mark-follington-jailed-over-pub-assault-of-woman/100572320

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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29 October, 2021

University professor avoids jail after admitting sending threatening letters and underwear to HERSELF

Fake hate speech. It happens in America too

A former university dean has been spared jail time over her 'bizarre' fake letter campaign and will serve her custodial sentence within the community.

Judge Ian Bourke sentenced Diane Jolley on Friday in the District Court to serve an intensive corrections order of two years and six months for committing her 'somewhat bizarre offences,' he said.

The judge said he was unable to arrive at a clear conclusion as to why the academic had gone 'to such extreme measures' as cutting up her own clothes and sending herself her own underwear.

He could not find she had shown genuine remorse given she proclaimed to have only sent herself one of the fake letters, despite a recorded phone call of her admitting to being 'naughty twice'.

'At first blush' her scam seemingly arose from some sort of psychological impairment, however her maintenance of a very senior position at the university meant it was implausible for her to be so affected by a mental impairment, the judge said.

It was submitted that Jolley had suffered significant extra curial punishment by way of 'literally hundreds' of online media articles, damaging her reputation and preventing future employment opportunities.

'I am satisfied that it was the offender's own actions that brought these adverse consequences upon her,' Judge Bourke said.

However, the judge ultimately found she did not pose a genuine risk to the community and her rehabilitation would be better served outside of a custodial setting.

The former University of Technology Sydney professor was found guilty in July of 10 charges of conveying information likely to make a person fear for their safety, knowing that it was misleading.

The 51-year-old academic was also found guilty on one charge of causing financial disadvantage by deception to her work after UTS spent more than $127,000 in security measures protecting her.

For months Jolley pretended to find alarming notes, one reading: 'Goodbye, cya and good luck,' with her photograph and a red line drawn through her face. Another read: 'Chop our future we chop yours'.

The elaborate ploy between May and November 2019 included shredding nearly $2000 worth of her own clothing, and sending herself underwear.

Her employer racked up an expensive bill providing CCTV cameras installed in her home and office, monitoring alarms, private security chaperoning her around the university, and hire cars driving between home and work.

She gave evidence she had deliberately been caught writing the final letter so that UTS would dismiss her, saving her a three-month notice period if she resigned.

But she denied sending all the other threats, telling the court at one point she had been left 'horrified and then I was concerned for my (family's) safety'.

The crown case was she orchestrated the scheme to garner sympathy from the science faculty as she tried to close down the university's traditional Chinese medicine course.

The prosecutor said she was pushing for a performance-based reward of $40,000, on top of her $320,000 yearly salary, by having one of the most financially unviable courses in the faculty shut down.

However the judge did not agree this was the case given there was no evidence the bonus would be linked to the shutting down of the TCM course, nor did she have a history of being overly motivated by financial gain.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10143087/Dianne-Jolley-Former-University-Technology-Sydney-UTS-professor-AVOIDS-jail.html

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Must not approve of conservative policies on the ABC

ABC TV political reporter Jane Norman is once again in the firing line of social media critics for 'gushing' coverage of Scott Morrison's net zero climate plan.

On Tuesday, Ms Norman said the plan was 'practically achievable' while covering the announcement of Mr Morrison's plan to net zero emissions by 2050.

'There are a few heroic assumptions or statements made in this new plan,' she told the audience.

'The fact that Scott Morrison got a deal on climate, the fact he's still the prime minister, is a significant achievement given Australia's long and tortuous history with climate policy.'

Social media critics were quick to jump on Ms Norman's characterisation of the plan, focusing on use of the word 'heroic'.

'For the ABC to use the term "heroic" re the nonplan, it must have been in the [Prime Minister's Offce] media instructions,' one commenter on Twitter wrote.

'Jane Norman's relentless cheerleading for Scott Morrison is just embarrassing,' wrote another.

Twitter account @medianalystoz said Ms Norman had 'gushed' about the plan. 'LNP spin from the ABC,' it concluded.

Others noted, however, that an 'heroic' assumption in the sense in which Ms Norman used it generally means there is doubt about the accuracy of that assumption.

Contacted by Daily Mail Australia, Ms Norman said she had no comment to make on the backlash but that trolling of her on social media was 'nothing new'.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10134839/ABC-reporter-Jane-Norman-cops-barrage-abuse-coverage-Scott-Morrisons-climate-plan.html

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Big reaction in Australia to defiant South African cricketer

Waleed Aly has jumped to the defence of one of the world's best cricketers who refused to take a knee for the Black Lives Matter movement.

South African wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock made headlines around the world on Tuesday when he refused to take a knee at the T20 World Cup.

His refusal to participate in the anti-racism gesture sparked an explosive reaction in Australia, where indigenous ABC Breakfast presenter Tony Armstrong 'saw red' and blasted the South African's actions as 'racist' live on air.

De Kock, who comes from a mixed race family, issued an apology and explained his actions by saying he felt his rights were 'taken away' after players were instructed just hours before the game to take a knee.

The Project co-host, who is of Egyptian background and is Muslim, leapt to de Kock's defence and said he understood the cricketer's reluctance.

'Especially when it came out that he was just told on the way to the ground and all of that sort of stuff,' Aly told the program on Thursday night.

'I think that there's a thing that sport has to think about here, which is, it's one thing for sport to take a stand...

'It's another thing when you compel every player to take the same stand, especially when you compel them a couple of hours before a game.'

Aly said it was unfair of Cricket South Africa to spring the directive on players and that though he himself would have complied by taking the knee, he understands why de Koch took a defiant stand.

Indigenous ABC Breakfast presenter Tony Armstrong 'saw red' and blasted the South African's actions as 'racist' live on air

He has backed down from his fiery rant and described de Koch's apology as 'incredible'.

'Full credit it to him for coming out with such a strong statement, really explaining what it was all about,' he said.

Earlier in the segment, Armstrong, a former AFL star, explained why he 'saw red' and reacted so strongly to the controversy a day earlier.

'I felt so visceral about the fact that this player was not going to take a knee in support of the Black Lives Matter movement,' he said,

Armstrong accepted de Kock's explanation and admitted he made a mistake by assuming the cricketer was racist for not taking a knee.

'I'm so glad that he's come out and said what he said. Because I think what he might not have realised in the moment was - just what it means to so many people,' he said.

All players and staff were directed to take a knee before the T20 World Cup match between South Africa and the West Indies on Tuesday night.

De Kock refused and instead pulled out of the match altogether for 'personal reasons'.

He has since apologised to his teammates and fans, saying it was never meant to be a 'Quinton' thing.

'I felt like my rights were taken away when I was told what we had to do in the way that we were told,' he said, adding he thinks other players were also uncomfortable with the order,' he said.

'I did not, in any way, mean to disrespect anyone by not playing against West Indies, especially the West Indian team themselves.

De Kock´s refusal to play because of the Black Lives Matter gesture sparked fierce reaction at home in South Africa, where issues of race and racism are constantly in the headlines because of the country´s history of forced segregation under the apartheid regime, which ended in 1994.

At the toss, South African captain Temba Bavuma said de Kock had withdrawn for 'personal reasons', but, after his side defeated the West Indies, Bavuma said he had been 'surprised and taken aback' by the development.

He said it had been 'one of my toughest days to deal with as a captain', but added: 'Quinton is an adult. You have to respect his decision, whether you agree with it or not. I can't force others to see things the way I do, and neither can they force me.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10140213/Waleed-Aly-defends-Quinton-Kock-not-taking-Black-Lives-Matter-knee-T20-World-Cup.html

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Sequestration is a win for farmers

As COP26 in Glasgow fast approaches we see an increased media focus on achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and what can be achieved by 2030.

While net-zero by 2050 might be a legitimate goal much of the debate has tended to use it as a slogan in what is really a political campaign.

The debate is also focused on only one side of the net-zero equation, reducing emissions. Yet in Australia we have a huge opportunity to drive outcomes on the other side of the equation, capturing carbon which is why the Govt’s recent decision to include soil carbon sequestration as a key element in its net zero 2050 plan is a very positive move.

The solution is right under our feet – soil and soil carbon sequestration – Australia has an abundance of soil and soil that has been depleted of carbon over the past two centuries. At the Mulloon Institute we have a strategy to not only address this issue but in doing so help deliver potentially substantial financial returns for Australian agriculture and Australian farmers.

Since 2018 significant parts of Australia have experienced what Dorothea Mackellar described in her poem “My Country” as a land of “droughts and flooding rains” and “flood and fire and famine”.

When “My Country” was first published in 1908 Mackellar wasn’t focused on CO2 emissions and its ramifications on climate. She was simply recording what she experienced. We now have similar experiences albeit arguably more intensive. But Mackellar also wrote “green tangle of the brushes, where lithe lianas coil, and orchids deck the treetops and ferns the warm dark soil”.

With those words she was experiencing soils rich in carbon and that is certainly something we now have much less of. Scientists estimate we have lost between 40 per cent and 60 per cent of our soil carbon over the past 200 years. Herein lies the opportunity with a net-zero goal. Unfortunately, much of our farming sector has been spooked into thinking that working toward net-zero will be detrimental to their livelihood. The opposite is the case.

With so much soil carbon lost over the past couple of hundred years, the opportunity is now there to transfer it from the atmosphere and put it back where it belongs, in the soil. Carbon sequestration means healthier soils and more nutrient dense food. Increasing soil carbon is one of the substantial strategies required to reach net zero. Globally, soils contain more carbon than plants and the atmosphere combined. By regenerating our soils, we can sequester more carbon underground and slow climate warming. And our farmers can earn income by doing that through the selling of carbon credits.

Key to carbon sequestration is water. A hydrated landscape will speed up carbon sequestration. The recent IPCC Report particularly highlighted a future with less rain overall but more intensive events risking flooding and erosion. Therefore, the better utilisation of what rain does is crucial. Currently in Australia 50% of all rain that falls is lost through rapid run-off or evaporation due to poor ground coverage. Rectifying this can be straightforward and not necessarily expensive.

The Mulloon Institute (TMI) is demonstrating the potential in this approach in the Mulloon Creek catchment comprising 23,000ha with the support of more than 20 landholders. It is also one of just five global projects selected by the UN to assist in the development of guidelines for sustainable, profitable and productive farming.

TMI’s work has expanded to catchments in many parts of NSW, in North Queensland, WA, NT and soon Victoria. Demonstrating this work on the ground in partnership with communities helps farmers to understand the opportunity that landscape rehydration in conjunction with regenerative farming practices provides. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) soils, if managed sustainably, can sequester up to 0.56 petagrams of carbon (or 2.05 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent) per year, having the potential to offset yearly as much as 34% of agricultural global greenhouse gas emissions.

In Australia agriculture comprises 13% of our total emissions, so with our landmass, our farmers can contribute significantly to its reduction and at the current price of carbon of around $20 per tonne, but rising very quickly, that is not just a goal or a slogan, it is a great opportunity for our agricultural sector to get on board for net-zero.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/sequestration-is-a-win-for-farmers/news-story/b7928ce7613ca021f6f1df8528af8e50

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Exclusive boys’ school dodges mask rule

A prestigious Sydney boys’ school has avoided health guidelines requiring high school students to wear masks indoors.

The NSW Education and NSW guidelines apply to both public and Catholic schools and also “strongly recommend” primary school students wear face masks as well.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the majority of independent schools have also decided to follow the guidelines, but King’s School in Parramatta has chosen not to mandate masks for its students.

A letter from headmaster Tony George said the NSW public health orders don’t require students to wear face coverings, and that the school would give students the choice of whether or not they wear masks indoors.

“It is important to note that the NSW Education Department guidelines are primarily intended for NSW public schools,” the letter read, according to the publication.

“The King’s School seriously considers all the advice and guidelines provided by all relevant authorities … it is the Public Health Orders that provide the express direction to independent schools.”

NSW Education’s guidelines also say singing is not permitted in schools, but King’s has said ti will allow singing if it is consistent with their educational programs.

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/australia-covid-news-live-restrictions-roadmaps-cases-and-vaccinations/news-story/116b3ab4a0a6625da8250bec69559884

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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28 October, 2021

Farmers are hailing an increase to dam capacity allowances, but conservationists aren't convinced the move holds water

The idea that farmers cannot use all the rain falling on their land seems exraordinarily totalitarian to me but I guess Greenies are the main influence behind it

Coastal farmers in New South Wales will soon be able to capture 30 per cent of the rain that falls on their properties, in what the state government is calling a "historic step" towards preparing landholders for future drought and bushfires.

Minister for Water Melinda Pavey said coastal farmers and landholders were previously allowed to store just 10 per cent of the water on their farms.

"There was a unilateral change in 1999 that said that farmers could only take 10 per cent of the water on their farms across the state," she said.

"That was unfair to farmers on the coast as they have three times the rainfall than inland regions."

Ms Pavey said being able to harvest more water will ensure eligible farmers are more prepared for dry spells and bushfires.

"We saw with the bushfires we had lots of dams that were empty that we couldn't even put helicopters in to take out water to put out the fires," she said.

"This is a common-sense policy that will allow farmers and communities along the eastern seaboard to see themselves through inevitable dry periods."

The new rules will only be allowed on first or second-order streams and will come into effect in early 2022 and will be monitored by the Natural Resources Access Regulator.

Farmers welcome the change

On-farm sustainability manager with Bega Cheese Melissa Balas says this is a significant increase for farmers on the south coast.

"It's good news, it's something we've desperately needed for a long time, and it will take a lot of pressure off farmers who struggled during the drought," she said.

Ms Balas said the increase would benefit farmers on the south coast, where dairy and beef farmers ran out of water back in 2019.

"A 200-acre property, under the 10 per cent you could potentially have a 6-megalitre dam."

"With a 30 per cent increase you could probably increase that to an 18-megalitre dam, and that would get a landholder through a two-year drought maintaining their stock water."

Director of lobby group Dairy Connect Terry Toohey also welcomes the increase but fears it may not be enough.

"It's one good step forward, it's still probably not considered enough to enable farmers to spend the money on more infrastructure to capture that water," he said.

"To put dams in, it's not a cheap exercise to do."

Mr Toohey said farms in high rainfall areas should be able to capture more water, particularly in wetter months.

"I understand we've got to work with the environment ... But ideally, 50 per cent would be more reasonable for high rainfall areas like the north coast," Mr Toohey said.

Conservation council concerned

Nature Conservation Council chief executive Chris Gambian said tripling coastal water harvesting rights puts coastal rivers, lakes and communities at risk.

"I think a 300 per cent increase in the amount [of water] that can be taken from rainfall, really needs to be backed up with some scientific analysis," he said.

"We need to know what the consequences of taking [that much] water from natural flows will be."

"My question [to the government] is how do you ensure that you're not over-extracting from coastal rivers to a point where people and farmers downstream are going to have a worse situation than they've currently got?"

Ms Pavey said landholders will have to consult their local councils and submit development applications to build more dams on their property.

"If we have any concerns about the impact that would have on water flowing to town water supplies that's where those conversations will take place," she said.

Ms Pavey said the state government will be undertaking detailed assessments of each individual coastal catchment over the next year to confirm the new limit is appropriate at a local level.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/farmers-are-hailing-an-increase-to-dam-capacity-allowances-but-conservationists-aren-t-convinced-the-move-holds-water/ar-AAQ2hx5

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Methane approach could 'isolate' Australia

Farts and burps from Australia's large beef herds emit lots of methane. So how do you stop that? Decimate the cattle herds??

Australia's stance on methane emissions is likely to see it isolated from other nations at the upcoming Glasgow climate summit, experts warn.

The federal government fears methane targets may require "culling herd sizes" of livestock.© Dan Peled/AAP PHOTOS The federal government fears methane targets may require "culling herd sizes" of livestock.

The federal government fears that cutting methane emissions 30 per cent by 2030 - in line with a new global target - would threaten the nation's gas and coal sectors, and require "culling herd sizes" of methane-belching livestock.

Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said technologies that have the potential to reduce methane emissions from agriculture "are still in the very early stages of development".

"We are investing in things like soil carbon and livestock feed technologies, and if farmers want to adopt them, we will support that," he said in a statement to AAP on Thursday.

More than 30 countries led by the European Union and US have signed the Global Methane Pledge to slash emissions of the greenhouse gas, which is some 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

University of Sydney decarbonisation expert Jun Huang said Australia's refusal to meet the 2030 target is "simply a bad decision".

"It leaves Australia isolated - more and more countries are going to join, and if we don't it sends a negative signal to our partners we are working with on hydrogen and renewables," he said.

Countries to sign the pledge so far include the UK, Canada, and Saudi Arabia.

"The EU-US initiative has been positively received around the world, and we look forward to working with Australia to further reduce methane emissions," an EU spokesperson told AAP.

Tony Wood, lead author of a Grattan Institute report on reducing agriculture emissions, warned that a failure to quickly reduce methane emissions could leave Australian farmers vulnerable to border tariffs and changing consumer trends about meat consumption.

"Angus Taylor is almost making it a badge of courage for Australians that we're going to eat more meat ... I'm not suggesting to close the meat industry, but we can't ignore from emissions from cattle," Mr Wood said.

The federal "net zero by 2050" plan to address methane emissions via low-emissions livestock feed to reduce cattle belching was challenging, as most Australian livestock grazed on open fields, he said.

About four per cent of Australia's cattle at any given moment are in feedlots where their diet can be easily controlled, according to the Australian Lot Feeders' Association.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said methane emission reduction targets were excluded from net zero by 2050 plans in order for the Nationals to back the federal government policy.

"The Nats were absolutely implicit that no deal would go forward that we would support unless it was absolutely categorically ruled out, and we got that," he said.

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham said the government would look to reduce methane emissions by 80 per cent with new technologies at a future point in time.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/methane-approach-could-isolate-australia/ar-AAQ2ajb

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PM Scott Morrison promises to protect coal mining jobs

Coal miners will not be legislated “out of a job” under the Coalition’s plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050 through “ultra low cost” solar and the rapid commercialisation of new technologies.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison formally commited Australia to the climate target on Tuesday, drawing a line under the intense debate and bitter disagreement within the federal government on net-zero.

“(The plan) will not shut down our coal and gas production or exports,” Mr Morrison said. “It will not increase electricity bills. It’s not a revolution, it’s a careful evolution.”

Mr Morrison said new modelling showed Australia was on track to reduce emissions by 30 to 35 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 – far above the government’s 26 to 28 per cent interim target.

The commitment also came with a guarantee every Australian would be $2000 better off in 2050 than they would have been if no climate action was taken, and the regions would gain an extra 62,000 jobs in the heavy industry and mining sectors.

Mr Morrison did not present the modelling behind the plan, instead saying it was to be released at a later date.

The $20bn technology roadmap to get to net zero emissions by 2050 relied on emerging technologies like hydrogen and carbon capture and storage becoming viable.

Regional NSW was central to the net-zero plan, with areas like the Hunter Valley identified as a site for “further indirect job opportunities” including manufacturing of wind turbines and hydrogen electrolysers.

The Hunter could also benefit from “value-adding manufacturing” like the production and export of green ammonia and hot briquette iron.

“The construction boom associated with new renewable energy generation to support hydrogen production could support up to 13,000 new, permanent jobs by 2050 across Australia, especially in regional NSW and Queensland,” the government’s report said.

The PM said investing in technology would also enable Australia to help other major polluters reduce emissions, which was critical to limiting global temperature increase.

“If you really want to deal with this problem, it’s not good enough to tax people in developed countries and think that fixes the problem,” Mr Morrison said. “China’s emissions will keep going up. If we want to solve the problem, then you need scale, afforable, low emissions technologies.”

Under the plan a “significant proportion of gas” would still be needed by 2050, while all energy technology options remained on the table, including small-scale nuclear reactors.

It is expected electric cars would reach cost-parity with petrol vehicles by 2025, with the gradual take up potentially delivering a 15 per cent emissions cut.

Exports of critical minerals could be worth $85bn in 2050, up from $12bn, helping offset a 35 per cent decline in fossil fuel production.

Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce told parliament regional jobs would not be destroyed by government laws. “I am making absolutely certain that we don’t legislate the coal miners out of a job,” he said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/mission-zero-scott-morrison-promises-to-protect-coal-mining-jobs/news-story/9df5e9c386201fc890fdbd05132fae54

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Pauline Hanson claims credit for Coalition’s controversial voter ID laws

One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has claimed credit for the Coalition’s voter integrity bill, saying she made voter identification a condition for her support on another electoral bill.

Hanson told Guardian Australia on Thursday she had “had a gutful” of the Morrison government taking credit for her ideas and the voter ID bill “wouldn’t be happening without me”.

The comments come as the Centre Alliance party offered the Coalition a pathway to pass the controversial laws, with Senator Stirling Griff saying he is “generally supportive” of an ID requirement.

Griff told Guardian Australia that although his party hasn’t decided its position, he “understands the need for ID” but may seek some accommodation for Indigenous Australians and other groups for whom the bill could impose a hurdle to voting.

The voter integrity bill, which passed the Coalition party room on Tuesday, was introduced in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

It prompted fury from Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, who unsuccessfully moved a suspension of standing orders for a motion accusing the government of seeking to “undermine our strong democracy and deny Australians their basic democratic rights”.

Scott Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Thursday voter ID was “not an earth-shattering proposal” and is “standard practice in liberal democracies” around the world.

He noted the electoral committee had recommended it after the 2013, 2016 and 2019 elections. Morrison claimed “not one vote will be lost” due to the ability to cast a declaration vote.

Voter ID laws have been on the Coalition wishlist for the last three terms of parliament, but the government did not introduce a bill to give effect to the recommendation from the joint standing committee on electoral matters (Jscem). Hanson said they had been “bloody lazy”.

The Australian electoral commissioner, Tom Rogers, has said the evidence of multiple voting is “vanishingly small”.

After defeating a Labor motion to delay debate until 2023, the government will have two weeks to pass the proposal in the November sitting period before an election is expected to be called in early 2022.

Labor and the Greens have accused the Coalition of seeking to import US-style voter suppression.

Under the proposed voter integrity bill, a voter unable to produce ID can still vote if their identity can be verified by another voter, or by casting a declaration vote, which requires further details such as date of birth and a signature.

Given One Nation’s support for the laws, the government will need one vote out of the remaining crossbench senators – Griff, Rex Patrick and Jacqui Lambie – to pass the bill.

Griff told Guardian Australia his party had received the bill but is yet to be briefed by Morton or decide its position. “I’m generally supportive of having ID … I understand the need for ID,” he said.

Griff noted Rogers evidence about the rarity of multiple voting but said one “has to wonder” if the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is detecting all instances of electoral fraud.

Griff cited his personal knowledge of one elderly person with dementia who “voted five times in a row” and received a “please explain” letter but no further action was taken.

He acknowledged that disfranchisement of Indigenous people was a “key issue” for those expressing concern about the bill, suggesting that there “might be issues we need to deal with for certain groups” to ensure a “positive solution for everyone”.

On Tuesday evening the finance minister, Simon Birmingham, defended the government’s proposal as a means to “further enhance integrity” and public confidence.

Birmingham told Senate estimates the bill would help eliminate “actual areas of risk and perceived areas of risk” such as multiple voting or fraudulent voting in the name of deceased people.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/pauline-hanson-claims-credit-for-coalition-s-controversial-voter-id-laws/ar-AAQ1JOB

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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27 October, 2021

Perth's October rainfall record broken after storm moves over west coast, bringing hail

Why is this of note? Because leading Warmist <a href="https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/flannery-washed-out-in-perth/news-story/dce43bec13c5610492502d78c226c50e">Tim Flannery</a> predicted in 2004 that Perth would cease to exist because of prolonged drought. Another Greenie false prophecy. Perth is in fact thriving

Perth has recorded its wettest October since records began, after a low-pressure system delivered heavy downpours and hail to the south-west corner of the state last night.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), which takes its official records from its Mt Lawley site, the previous record for the month was 96.4 millimetres, set in 1999.

The Perth site officially surpassed that figure during the night, with total rainfall for the month currently at 119 millimetres, and there is more to come.

BOM forecaster Pete Klegg said it was the wettest October in more than 50 years if taking previous measuring stations into consideration.

"It's the wettest October, if we're looking back at previous sites, since 1965," he said. "So if we're going back that far, then it's obviously quite an unusual situation to get that much rain in the month," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-27/perth-record-rainfall-october-2021-wettest-weather/100571192

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Scott Morrison ‘rejects’ Attenborough, CNN, Atlassian climate criticism

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has rejected criticism from famed environmentalist David Attenborough, CNN and Atlassian over Australia’s climate change policy.

Speaking on Sunrise, Mr Morrison was asked if he was “embarrassed” by Attenborough’s comments that accused the Federal Government of being more worried about saving money than saving the planet.

“I’m not embarrassed at all when it comes to doing what is right by Australia,” Mr Morrison said on Sunrise. “Everyone else who doesn’t understand Australia, alchemy and the challenges we have. “We are getting results,” Morrison said. “We are getting it done. Our emissions are down.

Michael Cannon-Brookes, the Australian tech billionaire and co-founder of software giant Atlassian, also weighed in, describing it as “inaction” and “misdirection”.

But Morrison said he “rejects” the criticism. “We have already achieved more than 20 per cent emissions reductions and grown alchemy by 45 per cent”. “So we’re getting this done. They might like how we’re doing it but we are getting results,” Mr Morrison said.

“Australia’s actions and results speak more than the words of others and we are getting it done, Australians wanted done but they don’t want to throw their livelihoods away.”

The British prime minister tweeted that he looked forward to welcoming Mr Morrison to Glasgow next week.

“Great to see Australia commit to reach net zero by 2050. They join a growing club – over 80 per cent of the global economy is now committed to net zero,” Mr Johnson said.

Meanwhile, the EU Commissioner’s Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis called Australia’s net zero commitment a “positive signal”.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/david-attenborough-slams-australians-for-saving-money-instead-of-saving-the-planet/news-story/94a136342de7ae9fafc8ea0598d8be98

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COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to be available in supermarkets from November

The tests, which can deliver a result in around 15 minutes, will be available in-store and for delivery from November 1.

In a statement, Woolworths said the kits could already be pre-ordered and would sell for between $10 and $15 per test.

"Rapid antigen testing is helping protect our distribution centre team members across Australia from COVID-19," a Woolworths spokesperson said.

"We're now looking to stock at-home self-test kits, which have been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, in selected stores from early November."

A Coles spokesperson said the tests would initially be stocked in all states except South Australia and Western Australia.

Rapid antigen tests are already used widely in Europe and the United States. They are cheaper but less reliable than the PCR tests which are currently used.

The TGA has already approved 33 rapid antigen tests for use under the supervision of health professionals. They are already being used by some businesses.

In September, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said home testing would be available in Australia from November 1.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-27/supermarkets-to-stock-covid-rapid-testing-kits-from-november/100571370

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Australian regulator wants Facebook to censor a political party

Australia’s medical regulator has written to Google and Facebook to ask for the removal of “seriously misleading” posts from Clive Palmer’s political party.

In a letter, the boss of the Therapeutic Goods Administration asked the digital giants to remove the content from the United Australia Party, citing their selective use of the regulator’s data on adverse vaccine events.

“As you may be aware, the TGA has expressed concern about material promoted on social media, including YouTube by the United Australia Party which we believe provides a seriously misleading picture of the safety of Covid-19 vaccines and could discourage individuals and their families from becoming vaccinated,” Adjunct Professor John Skerritt wrote.

“Extracts of information have been selectively taken … and have been presented in such a way on social media that many could conclude that the vaccines have been responsible for several hundred deaths in Australia.

“Over the last couple of years the TGA has worked successfully with YouTube to remove advertising that allegedly was in breach of the Therapeutic Goods Act and Code, such as promotion of fraudulent products that claimed to treat Covid-19.

“While for the reasons described above, the communications from the UAP do not fit into the category of advertising, I would ask you to consider removing such communications as they undermine Australia‘s vaccination campaign and are not in the public interest.”

Professor Skerritt tabled the letters during a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday.

The TGA’s request is yet another escalation in the ongoing back and forth between the regulator and the UAP.

Just last month the TGA launched legal action against UAP leader Craig Kelly for unsolicited text messages containing similar misleading information.

“It is alleged that extracts were selectively taken from the Database of Adverse Event Notifications on the TGA website by the United Australia Party and used by the United Australia Party in text messages to members of the public,” the statement said.

In a tweet, Mr Kelly taunted the TGA to “bring it on fellas”.

Mr Kelly’s Facebook page was removed from April for repeated breaches of the social media giant’s misinformation policy.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/breaking-news/tga-asks-youtube-fb-to-take-down-misleading-palmer-ads/news-story/3df495dac33f005f525d09215efebd92

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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26 October, 2021

Net zero by 2050 plan ‘uniquely Australian’: Morrison

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has launched the federal government’s plan to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by lauding the country’s achievements so far, saying Australia is on track to achieve a cut of up to 35 per cent by 2030.

“Australia has already met and beaten our ... 2020 targets and indeed Australia will beat and meet our 2030 targets as well,” Mr Morrison said on Tuesday.

The government’s policy is a cut of 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030.

“We believe we will be able to achieve a 35 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030: that is something we actually think we are going to achieve,” he said.

The government’s plan to achieve net zero by 2050 stresses industries, regions and jobs will not be put at risk. The target of net zero by 2050 will not be legislated.

Mr Morrison was accompanied by Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor, but Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce was not present.

Nationals MPs backed the goal in a tense meeting on Sunday that cleared the way for Tuesday’s launch of the plan to tackle climate change, which includes $19 billion in investments for low emissions technologies including solar and clean hydrogen by 2030.

Mr Morrison said it was “uniquely Australian”.

“Australians want action on climate change. They’re taking action on climate change but they also want to protect their jobs and their livelihoods. They also want to keep the costs of living down,” he said. “And I also want to protect the Australian way of life, especially in rural and regional areas. The Australian way of life is unique.”

Mr Morrison will fly to Rome on Thursday to attend the G20 summit before spending two days in Glasgow for the United Nations climate talks.

The Prime Minister said the plan to cut emissions was not a plan “at any cost”. “There’s no blank cheques here,” he said.

The PM has revealed details of his government's climate plan that'll cut emissions in Australia to net zero by 2050, trying to allay fears it'll cut jobs and increase the cost of living.

He promised the target would not spell the end of coal or gas production or exports and would not increase energy bills.

“It will not impact households businesses or the broader economy with new costs or taxes imposed by the initiatives that we are undertaking,” he said. “It will not cost jobs, not in farming, mining or gas. Because what we’re doing in these plans is positive things, enabling things.

It also would not be a “set and forget” program, with five-yearly reviews from the Productivity Commission. The first review is set for 2023 and will look at the socio-economic impact of the plan.

Mr Taylor said the plan to achieve net zero by the middle of the century was achievable, thanks in part to the country’s performance to date on reducing emissions.

“Australia versus even developed countries has performed extremely well, with a reduction of almost 21 per cent since 2005,” he said.

Mr Taylor said carbon offset would be an important part of the plan, noting that Australia had 90 million hectares of productive agricultural land. Another focus would be reducing the costs of low emissions technologies.

“We’re looking at the customer and technology trends, shaping those trends to our advantage; and on the back of that, ensuring we have a portfolio of technologies that can deliver the outcome we want to deliver which is head zero by 2050,” he said.

‘Actions speak louder than words’

Mr Morrison predicted Australia’s plan to cut emissions would be strongly welcomed at the UN climate summit. He had been under increasing international pressure to increase the nation’s climate targets ahead of the conference, which starts on November 1.

“The actions of Australia, speak louder than the words of others. There’ll be lots of words in Glasgow, but I’ll be able to point to the actions of Australia and the achievements of Australia, and I think that’s very important,” he said.

The plan has already been welcomed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who overnight hailed the pledge to cut emissions as “heroic”.

Mr Morrison said the modelling that backed the plan would be released in due course.

When asked what the entire cost was, excluding funding previously announced, he said the plan drew together many earlier budget announcements including $464 million for green hydrogen and $1.4 billion in the Building Better Regions Fund.

“The budget is about achieving this plan and particularly on this plan there is $20 billion – pretty much all of which gets spent in rural and regional areas to achieve the lower emissions energy targets.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/net-zero-by-2050-plan-uniquely-australian-morrison-20211026-p5937b.html

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Why is the coal industry making more money than ever before?

A shipment of thermal coal leaving the Port of Newcastle in New South Wales this month was worth roughly five times what it was about a year ago.

It means coal companies in Australia are making huge amounts of money – more than ever before – at a time when many predicted the coal price might never bounce back.

How high is it?

The international "Newcastle price" had sunk below $US50 ($67) a tonne last September, making the industry unprofitable.

But the price has continually soared since, sitting at $US230 ($307) a tonne after reaching an unprecedented US$269 ($360) a few weeks ago.

Prices have never been this high, having peaked previously at just over $US200 ($267) a tonne during the mining boom in 2008.

"We're looking at not just new record prices, but they're significantly higher than they've been in the past," Wood Mackenzie coal analyst Rory Simington said.

"It's beyond anyone's expectations a year ago."

Why so high?

There are several contributing factors, but the primary cause is China's rapid growth, insatiable demand for energy and shortage of coal supply.

China's thermal coal production grew just six per cent this year, while its demand for thermal energy grew by about 14 per cent.

China's 3.4 billion tonne thermal coal market is more than three times the size of all seaborne coal exports.

"If you look at the increase in coal-fired power demand for the year to August, it's equivalent to 190 million tonnes of coal burnt," Mr Simington said.

"So just to keep up with growth in demand China really needs to add an entire Hunter Valley, which kind of outlines the scale of what's happened in China."

The price of coal in China has now hit a staggering US$350 ($468) a tonne for a less quality product than Australian coal.

Meanwhile, China's ban on Australian coal has not helped its situation — nor has the gas crisis in Europe, which has increased the reliance on coal.

Usually, when prices soar due to increased demand, we would see new investment in production capacity, such as new thermal coal mines, that would boost supply, and prices would fall.

But that is not what analysts are seeing.

"The problem at the moment is that a lot of coal producers have the long-term picture in mind, and a lot have adopted business strategies to prioritise investment in areas other than thermal coal," Mr Simington said.

"So the long-term uncertainty is driving a lack of will to invest."

There has been a reduction in new coal capacity every year for the last five years as financial markets divest themselves of fossil fuels.

With supply remaining low, high coal prices could persist and probably will for a while. But much is dependent on a volatile Chinese market, where growth is slowing, and there is a potential property sector crisis looming.

Tim Buckley of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, a pro-renewables think tank, says we are in "absolutely bizarre uncharted territory".

"The key message, I would say, is that we are in unprecedented volatility in fossil fuel prices," he said. "Financial markets hate volatility, and consumers hate volatility."

Is it good for coal long term?

Instead of being a sign of the coal industry's vitality, both Mr Buckley and Mr Simington said high coal prices could actually speed up its decline.

The more expensive coal becomes, the more economic sense it will make to switch to cheaper renewable solutions.

"Now that [coal] is five times more expensive than it was a year ago, solar looks even more ridiculously cheap by comparison," Mr Buckley said.

"So countries like India and China will accelerate the deployment of lower-cost renewable alternatives at a speed that is unprecedented."

He said the situation should be viewed as an unexpected "windfall" for Australia — it's "really good news", but not a reason to build more coal mines.

"If we don't build new mines, our capacity is going to shrink over time, progressively, and the workforce will shrink progressively — that's an orderly transition," Mr Buckley said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-26/coal-price-spike-may-not-be-good-for-industry-long-term/100559810

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Rockhampton mayor Margaret Strelow ‘driven’ from office by OIA

The relentless pursuit of one of regional Queensland’s most popular mayors by a controversial council watchdog left the respected leader with “no choice but to resign”.

Margaret Strelow yesterday accused the Office of the Independent Assessor of creating a “climate of fear” among Queensland councillors.

The veteran Rockhampton mayor, who was in office for over 16 years, quit in late 2020 following a misconduct trial after failing to update her register of interests following a trip to India to meet with Adani.

She stepped down on “principle” after a Councillor Conduct Tribunal finding – prompted by an OIA investigation – found she engaged in misconduct.

Ms Strelow said yesterday the OIA should be reviewed, declaring common sense “has gone out the window”.

Her comments followed The Courier-Mail’s revelation the OIA was investigating Barcaldine Mayor Sean Dillon after he questioned the ability of health authorities to vaccinate his electorate.

It is understood Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister Steven Miles is meeting with the Local Government Association of Queensland on Monday to discuss its concerns about the OIA.

Neither Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk nor Mr Miles would comment yesterday.

Ms Strelow said the OIA had advised her it was investigating a complaint in January 2019 – eight months after she had already told the Local Government Department, which had received a similar complaint against her, she had declared the necessary trip details as “official hospitality”.

The OIA referred the matter to the CCT which found Ms Strelow was guilty of misconduct late last year. The CCT asked her to apologise to her council, however Ms Strelow refused and instead quit.

“I’m not going to apologise and say something that I genuinely did not believe to be true, and can I say there should not be a place in democracy where we require a forced confession,” she said.

“I no longer felt safe, I no longer felt as though I could continue to do my job for my community when I felt so distrustful of the state government’s processes.”

Ms Strelow said she chose to appeal the decision because at the time, official hospitality was not required to go on the register of interests, while she also claimed the CCT had included inaccurate information regarding the trip in its findings.

This information was Adani had paid for her and other mayors to fly to Mumbai where they attended a dinner with Adani’s board.

Speaking about calls this week for the OIA to be reviewed, Ms Strelow said: “It’s a climate of fear, you’ve got to understand what the OIA have created in local government. “Common sense has gone out the window.

“Councillors and mayors have less rights than anybody else and it’s just incredibly difficult.”

The OIA said councillors must abide by local government laws and it was required to assess complaints about councillors’ conduct according to those laws.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/rockhampton-mayor-margaret-strelow-driven-from-office-by-oia/news-story/dc18b04978acbc850f9fa2fb09fc0e1d

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Scientists scour Australian rivers in canoes looking for new varities of taro, a Pacific staple root crop

Some varieties of taro are weeds in Queensland

A team of Queensland scientists have traded their lab coats for paddles and canoes, as they scour the Brisbane River in search of varieties of taro

They're hunting for new varieties of taro – a starchy vegetable crop – that could help improve food security in the Pacific.

University of Queensland plant physiologist Millicent Smith said domesticated varieties of taro – a staple food in many Pacific countries – were under threat from climate change.

"Our nearest neighbours in the Pacific are very vulnerable, particularly in the coastal regions where rising sea levels and lowering water tables lead to saline soils," Dr Smith said.

"Salinity really reduces the growth of [taro] plants – it stops plants from being able to basically function in their normal way." Dr Smith said in some cases, soil salinity could kill the crop entirely.

On the hunt for new varieties

Researchers are trying to find new types of taro – Colocasia esculenta – and related plants that are resistant to salt.

"Particularly around Brisbane and Moreton Bay you see taro relatives and also sort of a weedy taro growing in areas where there's a lot of salt, so around the bay, in close to waterways and wetlands," Dr Smith said.

"We think that these taro wild relatives might have characteristics that allow it to be much better adapted to salinity than the varieties that are found within the Pacific."

Hunting for taro in the rivers and bushlands around Brisbane has become a fun weekend activity for the team.

"We have gone out on canoes on the weekends to try and find taro. We're going bushwalking and looking for it whenever we can," Dr Smith said.

The researchers have been collaborating with the region's largest scientific body, The Pacific Community, to analyse the DNA of hundreds of taro crops collected from around the world.

UQ molecular geneticist Bradley Campbell said the project was important for food security in the region and around the globe.

"Whether it's caused by climate change, or whether it's caused by just the normal vagaries of agriculture, it's good to have that diversity there," Dr Campbell said.

Ensuring the future of a Pacific staple

The decimation of taro crops could be devastating for Pacific countries, which rely on the plant as a source of food and income.

Samoan taro farmer Tusani Luasamotu Tusani Nu'usa remembers when a fungus known as 'leaf blight' nearly wiped out the country's taro industry in the 1990s. "I was in the middle of kind of going commercial with farming with taro … it was so very hard at the time," Tusani said.

To combat the disease, agricultural scientists used a similar strategy to the UQ researchers — finding varieties of taro that were resistant to leaf blight.

Tusani, who now exports taro to New Zealand and the US, said the intervention saved her livelihood and the industry.

Taro also has cultural significance for some Pacific islands. In Hawaiian folklore, it is said to have grown from the burial place of a stillborn child belonging to the sky god, W?kea. Some Samoan myths refer to taro as being brought to earth from the heavens.

"Taro is something that we eat every day," Tusani said. "Even if we don't have fish or meat, as long as we have taro on the table with coconut cream [we] will still survive with that."

Dr Smith said analysing taro plants was important for protecting food security as well as culture in the Pacific.

People in the community can also get involved in the project by documenting taro plants they come across. "We're using an app called iNaturalist, which is a publicly available app. It's really helpful and it actually identifies everything for you," Dr Smith said.

"You take a photo of it, it will suggest what the species might be … then it will automatically be added to our project so we can see where you found it."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/scientists-scour-australian-rivers-in-canoes-looking-for-new-varities-of-taro-the-food-of-the-gods-thats-threatened-by-climate-change/ar-AAPSjjR

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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25 October, 2021

Barnaby Joyce tells colleagues he doesn’t support net-zero 2050 climate plan as deal with PM revealed

Barnaby Joyce has told colleagues he doesn’t support net zero by 2050 despite reaching a new agreement with Prime Minister Scott Morrison overnight to deliver the plan – if the Nationals get an extra seat in cabinet.

Multiple MPs have told news.com.au that the Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce told the Nationals party room that while he didn’t support net zero, he was happy to accept the will of the majority of his colleagues.

Overnight, Mr Joyce and Deputy Nationals leader David Littleproud went to dinner at the Lodge to discuss the deal, which is believed to include an extra seat in cabinet for the Nationals that’s likely to go to Keith Pitt, another net zero sceptic.

Mr Littleproud refused to say if Mr Joyce personally supported net zero by 2050 when quizzed on ABC television. “I’m not going to get into individuals,’’ Mr Littleproud said.

Host Michael Rowland shot back, “You’re his deputy. You should know.”

“I do, but I won’t tell you because what happens in our party room stays in the sanctity of that party room,’’ he said.

That prompted former prime minister Kevin Rudd to accuse the Nationals of accepting “30 pieces of silver” – the price Judas Iscariot accepted to betray Jesus.

“They are a bunch of political opportunists ready to be bought at any price. The real debate is 2030 targets. Otherwise 2050 carbon neutral is bullsh*t.”

But a split has already emerged in the ranks, with Nationals Senator Matt Canavan and NT Senator Sam McMahon raising concerns about the net-zero plan.

Asked if Mr Joyce supported net zero, Senator McMahon told news.com.au that she didn’t think he did. “I think he said enough on the public record that I don’t think he’s a massive fan of it,’’ she said.

“I don’t believe it’s going to have any effect on overall global temperatures. But, but, you know if it’s what the majority of the public want, then we have an obligation to deliver that for them.

“My view is that I don’t support it from the point of view that whatever we do in Australia is going to have absolutely no impact on global emissions, and global temperature changes.

“I’ve been on the public record numerous times saying that I, I support the adaptation of nuclear energy.”

Speaking after the meeting, Senator Canavan confirmed that he still believed it was a “bad deal”. On social media, he has been posting images suggesting Australians will only be able to eat “14 grams of meat” under net zero. “To reach the Liberals’ net zero plan, the UN says we can only eat 14g of meat a day. Don’t eat it all at once!,’’ he said.

Senator Canavan said he wouldn’t be supporting the plan. “Net zero will be a bad deal for Australia because it will send jobs and industry to China just as we face greater risks of conflict.

“I don’t agree with the decision. I let the room know yesterday that I will – as I say, I’ll continue to fight for the blue-collar workers of this country.

Mr Morrison said he welcomed what he described as the Nationals’ in-principle support for the commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

“We recognise this has been a challenging issue for the Nationals. I thank the DPM for his leadership and his colleagues for their considered support. I greatly respect the process they have undertaken in reaching this decision,’’ he said.

“Only the Coalition can be trusted to deliver a plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 that will protect and promote rural and regional Australia.

“Ensuring regional Australia continues to grow and prosper is a core objective of any Coalition Government, and this will be central to our plan.

“Australia will continue to reduce emissions while keeping our economy growing, maintaining affordable, reliable energy and ensuring our regions remain strong.”

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/barnaby-joyce-tells-colleagues-he-doesnt-support-netzero-2050-climate-plan-as-deal-with-pm-revealed/news-story/dbc9ba127c0e7e4ed4bffcb6e47098a3

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Covid modelling proves why climate science should also be questioned

Peta Credlin

Why is it that Melbourne’s liberation last Friday came on a day with almost 2200 Covid cases; yet its initial incarceration eleven weeks earlier had been prompted by just eight cases?

Ok, vaccination rates had risen from 20 to 70 per cent in the interim.

It’s still worth posing the question: how could eight cases be a catastrophe, yet 2200 cases be a cause for celebration; other than in a topsy-turvy world where “following the science” just means following the leader? Never has adhering to expert advice meant so many contradictory anomalies, and so much hardship for so many people.

Even on “Freedom Day” (thank you government for giving back what was never yours to take away) people from NSW could enter Victoria and go anywhere while Melbournians were still banned from regional areas; and people were once again allowed inside each other’s homes but not inside a “non-essential” retail shop?

It’s been clear for many months now, that while Covid posed a grave risk to people who were very old or very sick, once the vulnerable had been vaccinated, we could start to treat Covid like most other diseases because vaccinations cut the risk of hospitalisation and death by about 90 per cent.

But this settled science on Covid hasn’t stopped different approaches in different states as well as clearly absurd applications of the “science”: such as the Queensland rule that briefly required mask wearing while driving a car alone; the Victorian rules that allowed coffee drinking in parks but not beer or wine, with kids’ playgrounds deemed dangerous and shut down but not the heroin injecting room; and those absurd curfew rules, with no scientific basis at all!

In other words, not only did the same science produce very different policy responses, but supposedly “following the science” included numerous measures that were, frankly, grandstanding by premiers who’ve used and abused “health science” to score political points. But if the settled science of Covid can be exploited like this, what about the science of climate change?

Let’s accept that the climate is changing, and that mankind’s carbon dioxide emissions are the cause. Why does it automatically follow that the fossil fuel industry must be closed down in the next couple of decades, regardless of the cost; and more importantly, regardless of the fact that most of the world’s biggest emitters won’t follow suit, so that countries like ours end up massively disadvantaged with the planet hardly better off?

If it’s finally become acceptable to count the costs of endless lockdowns to prevent Covid; why can’t we also question the costs of measures to prevent climate change and ask ourselves: can it be done differently and better?

If there’s one thing the pandemic should have taught us, it’s that modelling is only as good as the modellers’ assumptions.

Initially, the expert modellers said that 150,000 plus Australians would die of Covid. To date, only Victoria has breached the 1000 deaths threshold. Even during the current outbreak, predictions of thousands of hospital admissions with intensive care units overwhelmed have been massively overblown. Either modelling exists to make astrology look good or the modellers have a catastrophe bias.

As our government prepares to commit us to net zero emissions by 2050 on the basis of modelling that the planet otherwise faces environmental disaster; yet that net zero can be achieved without any significant economic pain, it’s worth asking why the climate modelling can be trusted when the epidemiological modelling clearly couldn’t; and why the climate “experts” are both unanimous and infallible while the health experts clearly weren’t.

Before the last election, the Prime Minister used Liberal Party modelling showing that a 45 per cent cut to emissions by 2030 would cumulatively cost 336,000 jobs, cut wages by $9000 and slash nearly half a trillion dollars from GDP in order to label Labor’s policy as “reckless”.

Now, he says that an even bigger cut will actually make us richer, but hasn’t released the modelling nor adequately dealt with the fact, as confirmed by the International Energy Agency, that much of the so-called technology to get to net zero is either unproven or hasn’t even been invented yet.

Right now, fossil fuels provide 83 per cent of the world’s total primary energy. That’s just four percentage points down over the past 30 years, despite all the billions in subsidies for renewables. Yet if the PM is to be believed, Australia can keep increasing our coal and gas exports at the same time as the world reduces its fossil fuel dependence to just 20 per cent; and it will all be done by “technology not taxes” even though the British Treasury has estimated that achieving net zero will require a carbon price of $295 a tonne by 2050 (compared to Julia Gillard’s carbon tax of just $23 a tonne). And that’s even with Britain using zero-emissions nuclear power which we still ban here (even though it’s our exported uranium that drives it).

On current technology, net zero means no cement, no steel, no aluminium, no air travel, no petrol or diesel vehicles and no eating beef or dairy. Yet this is supposed to be a painless transition that will make us richer, not poorer.

Perhaps the experts could next model the likelihood that pigs might fly.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/peta-credlin-covid-modelling-proves-why-climate-science-should-also-be-questioned/news-story/6432da0dec33656fba88ebc9a4b9819a

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Submission calls for Crime and Corruption Commission boss Alan MacSporran’s sacking

Predator MacSporran must go

State Parliament could consider sacking Crime and Corruption Commission boss Alan MacSporran for presiding over a deteriorating “pack culture” and breaches of impartiality within the powerful corruption watchdog, a committee inquiry has heard.

Bombshell closing submissions at an inquiry into the CCC’s conduct alleged Mr MacSporran failed to ensure the organisation acted impartially and fairly when investigating and subsequently charging seven Logan councillors and the mayor with fraud in 2019.

The charges were later dropped.

In a submission to the inquiry Jonathan Horton, Counsel Assisting, alleged the CCC had “overstepped the mark” by laying charges against councillors in an attempt to assist the reinstatement of Logan City Council CEO Sharon Kelsey, and allowed a deterioration of the culture within the organisation.

“You’ve seen a problem of culture in the CCC exposed and problems of culture are necessary problems of management,” Dr Horton told the parliamentary committee.

“That failing is serious and reflects poorly on his standing as the chair of the CCC.

“The resistance to scrutiny and to accept error is a problem of leadership and you may not, as a committee, have the confidence that the chair can ensure the organisation’s continued impartiality.”

Dr Horton said the committee could consider recommending to the Queensland parliament Mr MacSporran’s tenure be terminated.

The bombshell recommendation came after Dr Horton claimed the treatment of Logan City Council administrator Tamara O’Shae by the CCC was “disgraceful”, and cited an internal email that raised “serious allegations” against her including that she had acted dishonestly.

“A pack or runaway culture is evident in the police officers with respect to their allegations against Ms O’Shae – they were entirely unfounded,” Dr Horton said.

“Fortunately, more senior managers stepped in and prevented them from becoming anything more than internal communications.”

Dr Horton also pointed to a phone conversation between Mr MacSporran and Ms O’Shae about the reappointment of Ms Kelsey as CEO as part of wider evidence “of the CCC’s desire to assist in the reinstatement of Ms Kelsey”.

Mr MacSporran, who has previously denied he was on a “crusade” to reinstate her as CEO, declined to speak to media after Thursday’s committee hearing.

Peter Dunning, for the CCC, said there was “a lot of consideration” given to charging the Logan councillors and denied the watchdog chief had acted improperly.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/bombshell-submission-calls-for-ccc-boss-alan-macsporrans-sacking/news-story/3b13fd1ba3b6b1f65bd560cb841d417c

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Cartoonist Michael Leunig axed from prime spot at The Age over ‘offensive’ vaccine toon

Newspaper cartoonist Michael Leunig has been axed from his prized position in The Age over an image comparing resistance to mandatory vaccination to the fight for democracy in Tiananmen Square.

In an image posted to his Instagram account, Leunig — whose career has spanned five decades — drew a lone protester standing in front of a loaded syringe, mimicking the iconic “tank man” image of protest in China. An inset of the 1989 photo also appears in Leunig’s drawing.

The image was posted at the end of September and never made it to print in The Age, and speculation about Leunig’s job at the newspaper began after a cryptic 39-word statement on its letters page last Monday. The statement said the Melbourne newspaper was “trialling new cartoonists” on the page.

Now, Leunig has confirmed to The Australian columnist Nick Tabakoff he has been taken off the newspaper’s prized Monday editorial page position — not long after his Tiananmen Square cartoon emerged and stoked outrage from Daniel Andrews fans.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10126303/Cartoonist-Leunig-AXED-cartoon-comparing-Dan-Andrews-vaccine-mandates-Tiananmen-Square.html

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24 October, 2021

More on Pru Goward

Her <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/don-t-underestimate-the-underclass-20211018-p5910c">essay</a> on the "underclass" has been widely condemned so I thought I might reproduce exactly what she said:

"As a shopkeeper’s daughter, I understood poor people; they obeyed the law, worked hard, sent their kids to the same primary schools I attended and were equally ambitious for their children. But the underclass, small as it then was, behaved differently"

So she was clearly NOT talking about the poor in general, only the dysfunctional segment of the poor. But all commentators that I have seen write as if the had condemned poor people in general, which she carefully said she did NOT do. But the Left chracteristically see only what they want to see so we should not be surprised by the response to Goward

She has not formally replied to her critics but <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/oct/20/pru-goward-afr-column-on-underclass-condemned-as-disturbing-and-abusive">The Guardian</a> records a brief comment from her:

"Goward told Guardian Australia she was “deeply disappointed” that her column had been “so badly misunderstood”. But, she said, opinion pieces are “meant to provoke and I hope it’s helped the readers of the AFR think differently about those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder”.

“I have applied a Marxist analysis which some might say is old fashioned but which explains to me why people judge others as unworthy,” she said.

Goward said Shoebridge was ignoring “all the wonderful things we did for vulnerable children” when she was a minister."

She is perfectly right. Marxists do define everything in terms of class and that is perfectly respectable among sociogists. There is a large literature on the "proletariat" or "underclass" so she is being perfectly routine in referring to that much-studied population segment. Her description was perfectly mainstream sociology. Coming from a Marxist it would pass without notice

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Family of Aboriginal woman shot dead by WA police officer speak out after acquittal

Mentally ill people can be very troublesome, very dangerous to themselves and others

The family of a Geraldton woman shot dead by a Western Australian police officer has said there is “no equality” and “no justice” for Aboriginal people after the constable was acquitted of her murder on Friday.

“In terms of Aboriginal people, we don’t get no fairness, there’s no equality and this is evidence with what’s happened here,” Bernadette Clarke, the sister of the victim, known as JC for cultural reasons, said on the steps outside Perth’s district court.

The 29-year-old Yamatji woman JC was fatally shot by a WA police first-class constable in a suburban Geraldton street in 2019. The constable, the first police officer to be charged with murder in WA for nearly a century, and who is still a serving officer, cannot be named for legal reasons.

JC was shot and killed after police responded to a welfare call from JC’s sister, who had told them she was concerned JC was walking down a street holding a knife and pair of scissors.

JC had experienced significant mental health and drug problems and recently been released from prison.

The defence lawyer, Linda Black SC, told the court JC had ignored repeated requests to drop the knife from the officers at the scene.

The jury was shown CCTV footage, taken from a home about 65 metres away, of JC being shot while surrounded by police vehicles.

The director of public prosecutions, Amanda Forrester SC, argued the footage showed JC did not move towards the officers.

Black said her client had acted correctly by drawing his gun, rather than a Taser, when confronting a person armed with a knife.

She said the officer had never fired his gun while on duty and had less than a second to decide whether to pull the trigger given his proximity to JC.

“He was not some trigger-happy constable ... he was a brave and careful officer who took pride in his job,” Black said.

“[JC] was never, ever going to drop the weapons. She needed to be taken down; she was never going to surrender.”

After a three-week trial in the Perth district court, a jury deliberated for just over three hours on Friday before returning not guilty verdicts to both murder and manslaughter charges.

The acquitted officer – cleared of all criminal wrongdoing – remains a serving member of the WA police force, but was stood down after the shooting. A decision has not yet been made on his future.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/23/it-hurts-and-its-wrong-family-of-aboriginal-woman-shot-dead-by-wa-police-officer-speak-out-after-acquittal

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Supermodel Elle Macpherson raises eyebrows after deleting 'Aborigine' ancestry remarks in Vogue makeup tutorial

She obviously thinks she has some very remote Aboriginal ancestry but that is a very touchy topic

Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson has raised eyebrows for making a surprising remark about her ancestry.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, the 57-year-old stated in a new beauty video tutorial for Vogue: 'My eyes are almost black, that’s the Aborigine in me.' 'Being seven generations Australian they don’t reflect light the same way blue eyes do,' she reportedly said in the clip.

According to the publication, the video was edited to remove those remarks when Macpherson was asked to clarify whether she was claiming to be Indigenous, or regretted using the term 'Aborigine'.

Born in Australia, Elle is the daughter of entrepreneur and sound engineer Peter Gow, and nurse Frances Gow. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old. Elle later adopted her stepfather's last name, Macpherson.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10124141/Elle-Macpherson-raises-eyebrows-deleting-Aborigine-ancestry-remarks-Vogue-makeup-tutorial.html

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Voluntary Asisted Dying law in Queensland

Applegarth is Labor’s golden-haired boy right now after successfully steering the assisted suicide laws into the Parliament via his role as the Chair of the Queensland Law Reform Commission.

However, I will not forgive nor forget how the architects of the VAD Bill avoided using the word “suicide” because of the stigma associated with it. And Applegarth and others who framed the laws ludicrously pretend that suicide is not suicide at all.

“The Bill provides that a person who dies as a result of self-administration or administration of a voluntary assisted dying substance does not die by suicide and is taken to have died from the disease, illness or medical condition from which they suffered,” says an explanatory note given to MPs.

To my mind that is intellectual dishonesty.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/opinion-labors-goldenhaired-boy-unsuitable-to-be-chief-justice/news-story/d4e71aceb243c7c0768f4c6e0e856329

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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22 October, 2021

Huge backlash to essay by Pru Goward suggesting some poor people lack discipline and are 'appalling' housekeepers

She has been condemned for something she didn't say. She said SOME poor were like that, not all. And that is simple realism

A former Liberal MP and the mother of model Tziporah Malkah [Kate Fischer] has been blasted in Parliament for suggesting poor people lack discipline and housekeeping skills.

Pru Goward, who until 2019 was the NSW minister for community services and social housing under former premier Gladys Berejiklian, has been widely condemned for an opinion piece in The Australian Financial Review about social divides.

The 69-year-old former ABC journalist and federal sex discrimination commissioner said she 'understood poor people' growing up as the daughter of a shopkeeper.

But Ms Goward recalled there was an underclass among the poor who 'behaved differently' and in her mother's words were 'not very nice', especially to social workers. 'Of course, they are always seen as a deficit,' she said.

What Pru Goward said:

'Social workers, traditionally good young men and women who thought it would be nice to be kind for a living, despair of their appalling housework, neglect of their children and, notably, their sharp and unrepentant manner when told to lift their game by the patronising do-gooder'

'Their children languish in the growing number of behavioural support classes in general high schools where they learn little and teachers itch to send them to the local TAFE to do some form of home-schooling and get them off their books'

Premier Dominic Perrottet condemned his former cabinet colleague. 'I completely disagree with it. I thought the entire premise of it was terrible,' he said on Thursday.

One Nation's New South Wales leader Mark Latham said Ms Goward's column was a 'slurring of all the children' from families that live in outer south-west Sydney.

'It's disgraceful that Pru Goward would write this generalisation, writing off a whole generation, not knowing these success stories,' he told the Legislative Council on Thursday. 'So out of touch, so arrogant, so condescending, so elitist.'

Mr Latham, who lives in south-west Sydney near where he grew up, likened Ms Goward to a Jane Austen novel from the early 19th century. 'You've written an article that is sort of out of Pride and Prejudice, sitting there like someone in a Victorian-era parlour room sneering at the poor,' he said.

In August 2019, Western Sydney University appointed Ms Goward as Professor of Social Interventions and Policy, which Mr Latham said should be reviewed. 'She shouldn't be at that university and she should actually be removed from that position,' he said in Parliament.

Ms Goward's column saw Mr Latham heap some rare praise on his old Labor Party, which he led from December 2003 to January 2005 when he was the federal member for Werriwa.

He gave a special mention to former state Labor housing minister Craig Knowles, who held the overlapping electorate of Macquarie Fields for more than a decade and oversaw the successful redevelopment of public housing at Minto.

'It's a great tribute to that former Labor government and the member Craig Knowles - the Minto project showed the way forward,' he said.

'Because of the renewal of the public housing estate and uplifting of the school, Minto Public, which parents had avoided, now had out-of-area enrolments.'

Mr Latham, who used to campaign against Labor's left faction at party state conferences, found common ground with left-wing state Labor upper house MP Rose Jackson, who had campaigned to have him expelled from the ALP.

'"They are damaged, lacking in trust and discipline, and highly self-interested." No, former NSW Govt Minister Pru Goward isn’t talking about politicians, it turns out this is what Liberals really think about poor people,' Ms Jackson said.

Ms Goward's daughter Tziporah Malkah was previously a model known as Kate Fischer and was the product of her first marriage to Adelaide-based economics lecturer Alastair Fischer. The mother and daughter have had a strained relationship.

Her second husband David Barnett was a press secretary to former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10114277/Former-NSW-community-services-minister-Pru-Goward-condemned-column-mocking-poor.html

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So Australia wants to welcome migrants again? Good luck with that

Suddenly everybody’s talking about immigration. As Australia opens up and emerges from almost two years of global isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg warns our record low population growth – due to closed borders – will act as a handbrake on the economy in coming decades. The Australian Chamber of Commerce is calling for a big injection of skilled migrants. And Premier Dominic Perrottet wants a “big NSW”. Bring back the migrants, reignite the economy!

Well, good luck with that, Australia.

Already there is evidence that people overseas looking to migrate are considering countries such as Canada and the United States over Australia. The US, Canada and Britain were already in stiff competition with Australia to attract the best and brightest, but this competition is only set to increase.

I fear the damage done during COVID through the lack of goodwill shown to temporary migrants, a critical source of skills in the Australian workforce, will undermine any renewed efforts to welcome much-needed people from overseas. Prime Minister Scott Morrison told non-citizens living in Australia to “go home” and the government denied financial assistance to temporary migrants, forcing many to rely on donations.

Australia has lost its sheen.

COVID-19 has been a natural experiment of sorts, proving the importance of immigration and the valuable contributions of migrants for the nation. A lack of labour in the horticultural sector has resulted in produce being left to rot rather than being picked and sold in national and international markets. Amid the crushing economic pressures of the global pandemic and industries being frozen by public health measures to keep the nation safe, our local skills and workforce have been insufficient to meet demands.

Additionally, the COVID-19 population experiment has demonstrated that migrants are not inflating housing costs, do not steal local jobs and nor do they suppress local wages. Net overseas migration is expected to be minus-77,400 this year and yet house prices, say Westpac economists, will surge 22 per cent. Meanwhile, we’ve had lower-than-expected unemployment and low wage growth, all while the borders have been shut. With this arsenal of evidence, you’d be forgiven for thinking immigration could recommence without public opposition and return to pre-pandemic levels without delay.

Recent commentary about a bigger Australia has prompted discussion about a migration-led population boom to kickstart the national economy. The federal Treasurer and minister responsible for immigration have both signalled the importance of immigration and the need to get the borders open. The Labor opposition is seemingly taking a more cautious approach to immigration and has been busy talking about reincarnating local industries with roots in the 1950s, such as car-making, to secure local jobs. But both major parties know the socio-economic importance of immigration.

I would like to see immigration feature in a post-pandemic recovery. I’m all for immigration that compliments the local demographic needs. And Australia needs more working-age people to get the country going again.

Huge migrant shortfall prompts warning surge in temporary workers could dent wages

But Australia will struggle to meet the demand for immigration and necessary skills in the short-term. Australia’s diplomatic tensions with China and COVID pressures in India will constrain the flow of migrants from the two largest source countries. Canada is the No.1 preferred destination for international students, followed by the US and Britain. Australia takes out fourth place.

If the projections of the federal government’s 2021 Intergenerational Report are anything to go by, Australia’s population growth and migration intake are going to be slower and lower, and neither will fully recover to pre-COVID levels. This is the short and medium outlook.

Australia needs to reset after the devastating economic and demographic impacts of COVID. Call it our post-pandemic rebuild, and it will be a watershed. Immigration will necessarily feature. But I don’t anticipate immigration increases will occur in the near future, not for want of trying on Australia’s part but because it has lost its sparkle.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/so-australia-wants-to-welcome-migrants-again-good-luck-with-that-20211021-p591te.html

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Black American Police officer who fatally shot Justine Damond sentenced to less than 5 years in jail

Minneapolis: A Minneapolis police officer who fatally shot unarmed Australian woman Justine Ruszczyk Damond has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison – the maximum allowed for manslaughter -- after his murder conviction was overturned.

Mohamed Noor was initially convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Damond, a 40-year-old dual US-Australian citizen and yoga teacher who was engaged to be married.

Damond had called police to report a possible rape happening behind her home in the US in the 2017 incident that led to her death.

The Minnesota Supreme Court tossed out Noor’s murder conviction and 12½-year sentence last month, saying the third-degree murder statute didn’t fit the case because it can only apply when a defendant shows a “generalised indifference to human life,” not when the conduct is directed at a particular person, as it was with Damond.

On Friday (AEDT) Judge Kathryn Quaintance, who also presided at Noor’s trial, granted prosecutors’ request to impose the maximum sentence called for by state sentencing guidelines on Noor’s manslaughter conviction, 57 months. In doing so, she brushed aside the defence’s request for 41 months, which is the low end of the range. With good behaviour, Noor could be freed on supervised release by the middle of next year.

“Mr Noor, I am not surprised that you have been a model prisoner,” Quaintance said. “However, I do not know any authority that would make that grounds for reducing your sentence.” She cited Noor “shooting across the nose of your partner” and endangering others the night of the shooting to hand down the stiffest sentence she could.

Noor, who was fired after he was charged, has already served more than 29 months. In Minnesota, inmates who behave well typically serve two-thirds of their prison sentences and the remainder on supervised release.

Noor testified at his 2019 trial that he and his partner were driving slowly in an alley when a loud bang on their police SUV made him fear for their lives. He said he saw a woman appear at the partner’s driver’s side window and raise her right arm before he fired a shot from the passenger seat to stop what he thought was a threat.

He was sentenced to 12½ years on the murder count and had been serving most of his time at an out-of-state facility.

Noor’s appeal of his murder conviction was watched closely for implications in the case of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer convicted of the same charge in George Floyd’s death. After the state Supreme Court overturned Noor’s third-degree murder conviction, experts said they expected the same eventual result for Chauvin but that it would likely have little impact because Chauvin was also convicted of a more serious second-degree murder charge in Floyd’s death. Chauvin was sentenced to 22½ years.

Noor’s attorneys, Tom Plunkett and Peter Wold, sought 41 months at the resentencing, citing Noor’s good behaviour behind bars and harsh conditions he faced during many months in solitary, away from the general prison population.

Plunkett said on Thursday that much attention had been given to the victim as a kind and giving person – “all true,” he said. But Plunkett said there is “similar goodness” in Noor. He said Noor had always sought to help people around him, and recapped Noor’s good behaviour while in prison.

Assistant Hennepin County Attorney Amy Sweasy, meanwhile, asked Quaintance to give Noor the longest possible sentence. She said the case “is worse than typical” because of who Noor is. “The most serious sentence this court can impose is required,” she said.

Damond’s parents, John Ruszczyk and Maryan Heffernan, also asked the judge to impose the longest sentence. In a statement read by prosecutors, they called Damond’s death “utterly gratuitous” and said that the Minnesota Supreme Court’s overturning of a “poorly written law” didn’t change the jury’s belief that Noor committed murder.

“Our sorrow is forever, our lives will always endure an emptiness,” they said.

The victim’s fiance, Don Damond, gave his statement via Zoom. He started by praising prosecutors for their “sound application of the law” and criticising the state Supreme Court for its reversal, which he said “does not diminish the truth that was uncovered during the trial”.

“The truth is Justine should be alive. No amount of justification, embellishment, cover-up, dishonesty or politics will ever change that truth,” he said.

But Don Damond also spoke directly to Noor, saying he forgave him and had no doubt Justine also would have forgiven him “for your inability in managing your emotions that night”.

Noor, wearing a suit and tie and donning a face mask, appeared impassive as the victim’s loved ones’ statements were read. He later addressed the court briefly, saying, “I’m deeply grateful for Mr Damond’s forgiveness. I will take his advice and be a unifier. Thank you.”

Damond’s death angered citizens in the US and Australia, and led to the resignation of Minneapolis’ police chief. It also led the department to change its policy on body cameras; Noor and his partner didn’t have theirs activated when they were investigating Damond’s 911 call.

Noor, who is Somali American, was believed to be the first Minnesota officer convicted of murder for an on-duty shooting. Activists who had long called for officers to be held accountable for the deadly use of force applauded the murder conviction but lamented that it came in a case in which the officer is Black and his victim was white. Some questioned whether the case was treated the same as police shootings involving black victims.

Days after Noor’s conviction, Minneapolis agreed to pay $US20 million ($26.7 million) to Damond’s family, believed at the time to be the largest settlement stemming from police violence in Minnesota. It was surpassed earlier this year when Minneapolis agreed to a $US27 million settlement in Floyd’s death just as Chauvin was going on trial.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/police-officer-who-fatally-shot-justine-damond-sentenced-to-less-than-5-years-in-jail-20211022-p59268.html

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China, Islam threats to democracy force changes to Australian history classes

School kids will be taught that Australia is the “greatest country on earth‘’, in a new cutback curriculum with a focus on phonics and times tables.

Year 2 students will no longer be asked to identify “racist statues’’, federal Education Minister Alan Tudge will declare on Friday when he reveals that the draft national curriculum has been more than halved from 3281 to 1443 pages.

Warning against the rise of Communist China and fundamentalist Islam, Mr Tudge said Australian children should be taught more about the importance of democracy, freedom and patriotism.

“We should expect our young people leaving school to have an understanding of our liberal democracy and how it is that we are one of the wealthiest, most free, most tolerant and most egalitarian countries in all of human history, which millions have immigrated to,” he will tell the Centre for Independent Studies.

“If they don’t learn this, they won’t defend it as previous generations did. “We must do more to impress upon young Australians how extraordinarily lucky we are.’’

Mr Tudge said a “negative view of our country, our history and our future” was harming children’s mental health.

“Ultimately, students should leave school with a love of country and a sense of optimism and hope that we live in the greatest country on earth and that the future is bright,’’ he said.

“If they are constantly fed a negative view of our country, our history and our people, then we will exacerbate existing problems. “Let us be positive about our country.’’

Mr Tudge will reveal that the draft curriculum has been changed so that seven-year-old students will no longer be expected to “assess the morality of historical statues”. “How that ever got into the draft (in April), I do not know,’’ he says in his speech.

The revised curriculum will teach students that “our democracy is based on our Christian and Western origins, with a reference to the importance of the values of patriotism and freedom’’.

“The influence of authoritarianism and communism is growing in the world, particularly with the rise of an assertive China,” Mr Tudge said.

“Fundamentalist Islam remains a dominant force in any countries, as we are seeing in Afghanistan.

“There has not been a more important time to teach children the origins, values and singular greatness of liberal democracy since the 1940s.”

Mr Tudge said the curriculum was still too “long and deeply bureaucratic’’ compared to New Zealand’s school curriculum which has just 120 pages, and the UK’s 306-page document.

The original draft, released in April, would have forced teachers to wait until Year 4 to teach the times tables, but the new document reinstates the maths rote learning to Year 3.

It will also put more focus on teaching children to read and write using phonics – learning the sounds of letter combinations.

Mr Tudge said the revisions meant the curriculum had “gone from an F to perhaps a C, but Australian students deserve an A+.’’ “With education standards in decline in Australia over the last twenty years … it must aim higher,’’ he said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/national/china-islam-threats-to-democracy-force-changes-to-australian-history-classes/news-story/1cd5d04ab37a7d4b5447434b90de4519

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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21 October, 2021

Is "renewable" electricity now economical?

If you ignore the capital costs it probably is. But the capital costs are mostly subsidized from taxes so that is free money, right? Wind turbines in particular are hugely expensive. They could never pay off their costs or even deliver a market return on capital invested

Thanks to a storm of innovation and competition, business and industry has made renewable power more ubiquitous and affordable than even its greatest proponents dared to hope.

“It’s just staggering,” former chief scientist and now special Adviser to the government on low emissions technology Dr Alan Finkel said.

“If you went back to 2010 and looked at all the predictions of battery price for 2050 and now pick up a catalogue, you will see we’ve achieved those 2050 predictions already,” Dr Finkel said.

“We’re seeing the same with solar. Nobody back in 2000 or 2010 predicted solar and wind would be as cheap as they are today. Ninety per cent reduction in the cost of solar electricity per unit in a 10 year period or 11 year period from 2010 to now.”

In other words even just a decade ago it wasn’t even predicted — let alone known — that renewables would be so competitive and cheap.

And so when it comes to power bills, for example, there is no longer a question of any hip pocket pain for environmental gain. Instead it is a clear win-win.

Likewise when it comes to jobs and industry there is now an economic argument for net zero every bit as powerful as the environmental one.

That is why even green groups like the Australian Conservation Foundation are now pressing the industrial case for things like renewable-powered hydrogen, aluminium and steel.

“A target for Australia to reach net zero by 2050 is meaningless without a credible plan with policies and targets to drive down emissions this decade,” CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said.

“The solutions I’ve outlined are part of that credible plan because they address the reason the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister have so often used to not take greater action: the economic cost.

“These solutions will create wealth and wellbeing, replacing the jobs and industries lost as the world moves away from fossil fuels. Harnessing these solutions is good for our climate, our economy, our jobs and our communities.”

And of course there is also the obvious fact that there is a growing global consensus in the lead up to the Glasgow summit that means that whatever the politics or ideology, Australia needs to act simply to preserve its international trading partners.

Plus there is clear political momentum within the Coalition government and geopolitical pressure from our closest allies in the US and UK.

All of this and more has led to a moment where after years of torturous inaction which Labor, the Liberals and the Greens all brought upon themselves there is now an unprecedented alignment of environmental benefit, economic prosperity and political will.

A moment that might finally bring an end to Australia’s climate wars.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change-renewable-energy-costs-have-dropped-faster-than-predicted/news-story/003a16bd981c5631a3be62b09c6b32ef

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Why Australia is foolish to embrace net zero emissions

Senator Matt Canavan

Australia is lagging the rest of the world. Just as we are set to sign up to a net zero emissions target, everyone is in a desperate rush to get more coal, oil and gas.

In the UK, they have reopened coal power stations because there has been a wind drought, and Vladimir Putin is not sending them as much gas as he used to.

The US has asked Middle Eastern countries to increase oil production because the woke Wall Street bankers are no longer financing fracking in Texas.

In China, Premier Li said this month that “coal supply is crucial to people’s lives” and that he would review China’s emissions targets in light of their recent energy crisis. He stressed that energy security was China’s priority.

India has demanded that all coal power stations use at least 10 per cent imported coal so they can boost their fuel security.

This is all happening because of Europe’s ill-fated attempt to reach net zero. The failure of Europe to develop their own fossil fuel resources has led to a cascading effect through world energy markets. The price of coal and gas are at record highs, which is good for Australia given we are the world’s largest exporter of both of these things.

But we are set to look this gift horse in the mouth by signing up to a net zero emissions target. A “net” zero emissions target means that any new coal mine or gas field in Australia would need to “net” off its emissions by purchasing carbon credits. These credits cost money and will, in effect, tax the creation of working class Australian jobs.

Over 1 million Australians work in the mining industry alone but these requirements will also impact agriculture, manufacturing and construction jobs too. A net zero target will be the first time that an Australian Government has adopted a policy to make us poorer.

How much will these carbon credits cost? UK Government modelling shows that the carbon price will have to be A$295 per tonne to reach net zero. Julia Gillard’s $20 carbon tax increased electricity prices by 10 per cent. Electricity bills are already skyrocketing in the UK under their net zero plans, and they have a lot higher to go.

But there will be some winners. The banks are happy with this outcome because they will trade the carbon credits. Banks are some of the biggest supporters of net zero emissions. My rule of thumb is that if something is good for the banks, it is probably bad for me.

Turning our back on our domestic supplies of coal and gas will also mean that we will become reliant on China for our energy needs, as that is where our wind turbines and solar panels are made. All of this just as we learn that China has invented a hypersonic, nuclear capable missile that can land anywhere on earth and avoid existing missile defence systems.

China now has space nukes but they can’t match us on plans to reach net zero.

At the last election, Scott Morrison rightly warned of the dangers of cutting our emissions by too much. He called Labor’s proposed 45 per cent reduction in emissions a “wrecking ball through the Australian economy.”

The working men and women of Australia agreed, and rewarded the Liberal and National parties with an unexpected victory. If we turn our backs on their jobs, the Quiet Australians will become loud and angry.

These Australians don’t care what world leaders think of them. They just want their government to create jobs, keep living costs down and make Australia stronger.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/matt-canavan-why-australia-is-foolish-to-embrace-net-zero-emissions/news-story/68bbdfe74836698b9b72b1f4a5178e40

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Pressure to disband OIA as more petty investigations come to light

The Office of the Independent Assessor has been accused of threatening the free speech of local councillors following the revelation it was probing Barcaldine Mayor Sean Dillon after he questioned the Covid vaccine rollout in a public council meeting.

But while Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk conceded the probe was “ridiculous” and a “storm in a teacup”, her Government has washed its hands of the situation, with Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister Steven Miles resisting calls to launch a review into the watchdog.

Instead, Mr Miles said concerns should be raised with the Queensland Ombudsman.

Community leaders rallied around Cr Dillon following revelations in The Courier-Mail that he had been accused of potential misconduct by the OIA after he questioned the Central West Hospital and Health Service’s planned vaccine rollout.

LNP senator James McGrath called for the OIA to be reined in with tighter legislation or “ideally” be abolished.

“The OIA, the Gestapo of local government in Queensland, is alleging that (Cr Sean Dillon) made comments that could be considered detrimental to public confidence in our health service provider,” he said.

“The last time I checked, one of the primary roles of local government councils is to raise concerns on behalf of their local community.”

The OIA received 1074 complaints from across the state during 2020-21, which was a 4 per cent increase on the previous year, however it noted this was not unexpected because it was the first full year all 77 councils had come under its remit. It completed 187 misconduct investigations during 2020-21.

Former premier Campbell Newman labelled Cr Dillon’s matter as an “extremely sinister development” in Queensland’s democratic system. “I think this office should be shut down and we should go back to local government legislation that was tried and tested and worked well for generations of this state,” he said.

Ms Palaszczuk said it was “a bit of a storm in a teacup”. “I don’t think what he (Cr Dillon) said was unusual, I think it’s a bit ridiculous, but that’s a matter for the independent assessor,” she said.

“But those comments I think were made earlier this year and they’ve had great vaccination rates out there, and the mayor Sean, I know him, he’s done a great job.”

Deputy Premier and Local Government Minister Steven Miles said the Palaszczuk government supported the right of councillors to speak freely, but he resisted calls for a review.

“The Office of the Independent Assessor is an independent statutory body,” he said. “If anyone has concerns about the actions of the OIA, they should raise those concerns with the Queensland Ombudsman.”

It is alleged Cr Dillon made comments about the CWHHS on February 17 “that could be considered detrimental to public confidence in a health service provider and lead agency in the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination program in the region”. It came after he raised concerns at a public council meeting, including that his community couldn’t be vaccinated in the days allocated and that he had “no confidence in them”.

An OIA spokesperson said it did not comment on specific case, but that the following applied to matters involving a councillor’s implied right of political expression: “Local government councillors have the same right to implied freedom of political expression as all members of the community, however this right is not absolute for anyone and may be limited by legislation such as anti-discrimination and anti-racism laws or by a code of conduct.

“When taking office councillors declare they will uphold the code of conduct and the local government principles set out in the Local Government Act, and the OIA is legally required to assess all complaints against these legislated standards.”

LGAQ chief Greg Hallam said the body staunchly supported Cr Dillon’s “right to speak publicly” while calling on the OIA to withdraw its action.

Cr Dillon said he had been “almost overwhelmed” by the amount of support he has received from politicians and members of the community. “Everyone has expressed their solidarity but also been checking in to make sure that I am doing OK,” he said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/pressure-to-disband-oia-as-more-petty-investigations-come-to-light/news-story/72dc9acf972fb555b678870cb84fa7ed

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We must fix a few problems before we can increase immigration

Abul Rizvi

In the past week we have seen NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry advocate for much higher levels of immigration.

State bureaucrats have pushed Perrottet to lobby for an increase in Australia’s net migration to an unprecedented 400,000 a year for five years. The ACCI is calling for the government to issue 200,000 skilled migrant visas annually. And Frydenberg says Australia needs to rethink its migration targets after losing almost 100,000 people last financial year.

Only once in our history has net migration been a little more than 300,000 and that was just before the global financial crisis. I am not suggesting immigration had anything to do with that crisis, but net migration fluctuates with economic conditions, particularly the labour market. While the labour market is weak right now, there are predictions it will bounce back next year.

When John Howard was prime minister, I was responsible for firstly managing Australia’s immigration intake down, and then increasing it again from about 2001. Oddly enough, I found increasing numbers was more difficult than cutting them.

One of the challenges was that while the smaller states and regional Australia wanted more immigration, the NSW government insisted Sydney was full and any increase in the intake had to be directed away from Sydney. Presumably, Perrottet does not have the same concerns.

Leaving aside “trivial” questions of whether our infrastructure and services such as health, education, housing and transport can be ramped up quickly enough to accommodate the proposed unprecedented increase in immigration, the immediate question is how the increase would be designed and delivered.

The crucial means by which we increased immigration from 2001 was through an increase in overseas students, with clear pathways to permanent residence. These pathways became far more opaque from about 2008-09, but overseas students still represented more than 44 per cent of net migration in 2018-19.

The decision to make the pathways to permanent residency less clear has left hundreds of thousands of overseas students and graduates who have moved on to temporary visas to develop their skills in immigration limbo.

Despite huge numbers of students completing accounting degrees and accounting firms saying they can’t find qualified accountants, these students are struggling to secure jobs using their qualifications, which makes it harder for them to stay in Australia.

This is the status quo in many occupations. The business sector and education providers must address this problem before we again boost student numbers. Education providers need to encourage students to enrol in courses that meet long-term demand in Australia. And they must ensure they are teaching content and skills employers need. Employers too must be prepared to give students the chance to develop their skills without exploiting them.

Even if these problems are addressed, returning to pre-pandemic international student levels will not be simple given our tensions with China – our largest student source country – and the fact the student visa policy was tightened in 2019 for students from India, Nepal and other major source countries.

Some increase in immigration could be achieved by fixing the problems Peter Dutton created as immigration minister, when he made employer-sponsored visas more expensive, more complex and more restricted, leading to a significant decline in their use. But this will not be nearly enough to deliver the numbers NSW and ACCI want.

To reach these figures, the federal government will need to make it easier for older people and people with more limited English and/or lower skill levels to migrate to Australia. This risks large numbers of new migrants finding it even harder to secure a job using their qualifications, and with no access to social support for four years, many would have to accept very low paying and highly exploitative jobs to avoid becoming destitute.

As a country, we need to ask ourselves if that is a consequence we are willing to accept.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-must-fix-a-few-problems-before-we-can-increase-immigration-20211020-p591qf.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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20 October, 2021

NAB targeted by Indigenous group over stake in Canadian pipeline

National Australia Bank has been targeted by Indigenous activists over its stake in a controversial Canadian gas pipeline, ahead of the release of the major bank’s revamped policy on oil and gas investing and increased scrutiny on traditional owner land rights in Australia.

The coalition of more than 100 activist groups, including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Market Forces and BankTrack, have signed a letter to NAB and other global investors of Coastal GasLink – a 670-kilometre gas pipeline project with approval from the Canadian government.

Coastal GasLink has provincial approval to build a 670-kilometre pipeline, but the chiefs say they won’t allow anyone on the First Nation’s traditional territory without their consent.

Coastal GasLink has provincial approval to build a 670-kilometre pipeline, but the chiefs say they won’t allow anyone on the First Nation’s traditional territory without their consent.CREDIT:MIKE SUDOMA

The letter has been organised by leaders of Canada’s Wet’suwet’en nation, an Indigenous group who have fiercely opposed the pipeline for years. The group made global headlines last year for instigating a number of blockades against construction, which triggered protests around Canada.

Now, the activist group is calling on NAB and other investors to divest all holdings in the project, claiming it violates the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People that states, “Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories”.

“We are responsible for decisions regarding our land, and the decision of TC Energy [parent company] to construct the Coastal GasLink pipeline without our consent is an infringement of our title and rights,” the letter states.

“While we are currently in negotiations with federal and provincial government ministers to have our land rights and title [recognised] and upheld, this does not mean there is agreement with respect to Coastal GasLink ... We remain unequivocally opposed to oil and gas pipelines on our territories and are determined to continue to protect our lands, air, and water.”

The letter claims the project will destroy cultural heritage and argues traditional owners have not provided consent for land use, despite a number of other Indigenous groups agreeing to the project.

“It is becoming inarguably clear that projects lacking free, prior and, informed consent from Indigenous communities should not and cannot be built,” the letter states. “We call on you to divest and withdraw investment in the Coastal GasLink pipeline immediately ... In no way is Coastal GasLink a responsible, profitable, secure, or morally sound investment.”

The federal inquiry investigating Rio Tinto’s destruction of 46,000-year-old caves this week called for national laws to protect Indigenous heritage and new powers for traditional owners to refuse projects threatening significant sites on their lands. The Juukan gorge explosion threw the mining giant into turmoil and refocused the debate for reform to give traditional owners greater rights.

The activist group also claims the Canadian project is likely to become a stranded asset, as the global clean energy transition moves away from oil and gas and comes as NAB is re-evaluating its position on the sector.

The Age and Sydney Morning Herald reported in June that NAB chief executive Ross McEwan had pledged to consider the International Energy Agency report released this year, that claimed no new fossil fuel projects could be funded if net zero emissions by 2050 is to be achieved, in an email to the Australian Conservation Foundation.

NAB’s senior leadership was due to review the bank’s oil and gas policy in September, with an updated statement to be released by the end of the year. NAB has already pledged to fully exit thermal coal investments by 2030, following investor pressure and rising risks attached to the sector.

A NAB spokeswoman said the bank was unable to comment on holdings in Coastal GasLink or whether any new climate policies would cause it to divest.

One senior source within NAB, who could not be named because they were not authorised to speak publicly, said the new policy was not likely to include blanket bans against the sector but rather an increasingly detailed focus on heavy emitters’ plans to decarbonise. “I think the theme will be, we’re not denying finance, we need to align with our heavy emitters, hold them to account, have tough conversations,” the source said. “Most importantly we will be actively working with our emitting clients to make sure they are on the right pathway.”

https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/nab-targeted-by-indigenous-group-over-stake-in-canadian-pipeline-20211019-p5917r.html

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Greenhouse gas dispute

On Sunday, the Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reductions Angus Taylor presented the Nationals with the government’s plan to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide which contribute to global warming and help trigger climate change.

Under the Paris Agreement, signed in 2015, Australia promised to reduce emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030.

There were two main components to the government’s plan on Sunday – bringing emissions to net zero by 2050, and increasing our 2030 target.

While there were hopes the Sunday meeting would complete negotiations, after four hours this proved not to be the case, with the Nationals presenting a host of objections.

On Tuesday the Prime Minister told parliament Australia would not be updating its 2030 emissions goal.

He has also said the 2050 net zero goal will become a decision for national cabinet, rather than the Coalition party room.

The Nationals expressed a range of objections, chiefly about the impact of net zero policies on the regions and wanting increased support for existing high-emitting fossil fuel industries such as coal and gas.

A number of Nationals also want the government to explore the possibility of Australia developing nuclear power.

There is also an historical element to the Nationals’ discontent. When John Howard signed the Kyoto Protocol (the forerunner to the Paris Agreement) in 1997, it prompted state and territory governments to ban land clearing.

This measure is regarded as the primary factor that’s enabled Australia to reduce its emissions by around 20 per cent already, as the uncleared land effectively retains carbon in vegetation, which would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.

But many farmers say clearing bans have prevented them from making a decent profit from their land, so there is a sentiment that people in the regions should not be further burdened by further emissions cuts.

There are huge divisions. Some MPs, such as former leader Michael McCormack and Darren Chester, now cautiously support net zero as a global economic and environmental necessity (Mr McCormack was previously opposed).

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud sees himself as something of a centrist on the issue, telling reporters this week that “zealots from both sides need to bugger off”.

Queensland Senator Matt Canavan is perhaps the most hard line opponent, and has threatened to cross the floor if any net zero legislation is to come before parliament.

He has also raised concerns about the lack of detail in the government’s modelling and called for it to be made public. “We’re getting very little details about this and I’m in a position of being asked to marry a girl I haven’t met. That’s not how the Nationals party room works,” he said this week.

Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has himself been a fierce critic of net zero in the past but has cast himself as a broker. On Tuesday he said he would be seeking further input from Nationals MPs over coming days, and he would communicate them to the Prime Minister.

The latest quarterly figures from the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory show Australia has reduced its emissions by just over 20 per cent on 2005 levels.

Mr Taylor has said on current projections, Australia could actually end up cutting emissions by around 32-35 per cent by 2030.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/nats-and-net-zero-why-its-so-complicated/news-story/c72b2c2d3bdbebbfbfbc92e930017d5f

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Cairns Hospital wait time extends beyond 30 hours for man in emergency department

A GORDONVALE man left waiting over 30 hours for a wound clean and stitches in the Cairns Hospital Emergency Department says he feels “sorry” for staff.

Sunpreet Johal, 24, was driven to the ED by friends, arriving about 1am Sunday following a motorcycle incident which left him with a painful, but non-serious cut to his leg.

Upon arriving he was told he’d have to wait three to four hours because the department was already dealing with a high number of cases.

“I expected three or four hours because it wasn’t serious but a doctor didn’t see me until 6.15am (Monday),” Mr Johal said.

That doctor advised he received an X-ray and then he waited another three hours before seeing an orthopaedic surgeon who advised him his wound would need to be cleaned in an operating theatre before it was patched up.

“He said there was another one or two cases in front and that mine would happen that afternoon. “But then they were dealing with another surgery that took hours. At 4.30pm they said there was an 80-90 per cent chance I would be in (on Monday).”

Mr Johal said he accepted his injury was not serious but was “not thinking I’d be here 24 hours later let alone almost 36.”

He said staff had been as attentive as possible and he was more “annoyed at the situation they were in.”

“The surgeon actually took time to see me a couple of times and explained he was really sorry. He basically said they had been really busy and just didn’t have the manpower.

“He said a few times, if I was anywhere else like Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, I would’ve been out in three or four hours with this injury.”

Mr Johal’s procedure was completed about 11am Monday and he was discharged later that afternoon.

Together Union Queensland’s senior vice president Dr Sandy Donald said Mr Johal’s case highlighted the importance of the organisation’s recently launched “Health Needs Urgent Care” campaign.

Dr Donald said that meant funding to increase hospital beds as well as community services. “The capacity of the hospital has not grown to meet the increase in demand,” he said.

“When the ED is having long delays most of the problems are around bed numbers. It can mean there are patients there who really should be in a ward, but the ward doesn’t have enough beds.

“We commonly see patients taking up a hospital bed because a nursing home doesn’t have the appropriate staffing mix.

“But increasing community support services will keep some patients out of hospital and allow others to get home sooner (and free up beds).”

CHHHS acting executive director Cairns services Marie Kelly said there were 242 presentations to the ED on October 17, compared to the average this year for a Sunday being 235. “He was seen within seven minutes, compared to the average waiting time in the ED of 16 minutes.

“Mr Johal’s surgery was delayed because of a high number of urgent trauma surgeries that required urgent action on Sunday. Despite our hopes that Mr Johal would be operated on quickly, we can never predict types of trauma that may arrive at emergency departments at the same time.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/cairns-hospital-wait-time-extends-beyond-30-hours-for-man-in-emergency-department/news-story/ab2e672d636ddafa65c25565b6ab8f25

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Mike Cannon-Brookes launches world’s largest solar farm in NT

A power cable from Darwin to Singapore sounds very vulnerable to attacks and accidents

Take 125 square kilometres of solar panels, a battery that’s 150 times bigger than the biggest in the country, three billion people and a giant extension cord. Then call it “Sun Cable”.

It sounds like a sci-fi scheme cooked up by a Bond villain. In fact it is Mike Cannon-Brookes’ plan to power Asia with energy from the Australian sun and it is fast becoming real.

The Atlassian co-founder and tech guru is an investor in the world’s biggest solar farm in the middle of the Northern Territory and what is literally a giant power cable from the Simpson Desert to Singapore.

Once complete the project will give the 5.5 million-strong island metropolis up to 15 per cent of its total power needs but for Cannon-Brookes that is only the first step.

He says the AAPowerLink project will just be the first of many. He predicts that soon there will be power lines from Australia to all over Asia, selling them our cheap and abundant solar energy.

“Think about it as a giant extension cable that runs from our sunny deserts up to Asia,” Cannon-Brookes said. “There are two or three billion consumers that want cheap energy and want a lot of that energy and we have it and can provide it. “I’m hopeful it’s the first of many, many, many cables that we string across to neighbouring countries.”

If the scale of the ambition seems staggering, that’s because it is. But everything about the Sun Cable project is on a staggering scale.

The initial stage of the project alone involves 5,000 kilometres of power lines stretching from the middle of the NT to Darwin and then 4,200km underwater past the full length of Indonesia to Singapore.

This alone will be the world’s longest High Voltage Direct Current cable system.

There it will provide up to 15 per cent of the island city-state’s electricity needs – all clean, all green and all from a single power plant in Australia.

As well as being the world’s largest solar plant, it will also feature the world’s largest battery, capable of storing 36 to 42 gigawatt hours. By contrast Australia’s so-called “Big Battery” in South Australia is just 129 megawatt hours, currently being expanded by 64.5 MWh.

In other words, when Cannon-Brookes says his is 150 times bigger he is actually underestimating it.

The whole project is expected to cost upwards of $30 billion, with construction to start in 2024. Sun Cable says it will be providing power to Darwin just two years later in 2026 and to Singapore the year after that, with the whole project to be completed by 2028.

If true that would be an astonishingly fast build.

Approximately 2,000 direct jobs are expected to be created in the development, construction and operation alone and over $8 billion of investment is expected to be ploughed directly into Australia.

Once complete the project is expected to generate up to $2 billion in energy exports for Australia per year.

As well as being a cheap energy source for the giant Asian market, it will also flood the Australian market with cheap energy, starting with far cheaper rates in the NT.

“Australia should have the cheapest power on the planet,” Cannon-Brookes said. “We have so many resources opportunities in our sun and wind. We are the lucky country in terms of where we sit geographically in the world and our natural resources when it comes to renewables. “We can turn that into by far the cheapest energy anywhere in the world – which we should have, by rights.”

And when it comes to exports, Cannon-Brookes said Australia had all the ingredients needed to be an energy superpower.

“We have, as I mentioned, these two to three billion consumers to the north of us who are rapidly coming up the economic curve and what happens when a country gets wealthier is its average salary goes up and its energy consumption also goes up, and energy consumption goes up faster than salary,” he said.

“And so that is the market for it. Think about us creating this energy and then we have that market right up close to us.

“That is just a beautiful position to be in, and we should take advantage of that. I would say it’s the biggest economic opportunity than Australia has ever seen. It’s such an amazingly large opportunity.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/mike-cannonbrookes-launches-worlds-largest-solar-farm-in-nt/news-story/0c816b482bb1499a0869723eb2ebfcd3

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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19 October, 2021

JobKeeper payments made to school linked to ‘extremist cult’

The Left have hated the Brethren ever since they advertised in favour of John Howard in 2004. EVERY other religion at that time advocated for the Labor party. Howard won that election in a landslide.

The Brethren are very Bible-based. Their talk about being separate from "the world" is straight from the words of Jesus Christ. e.g. John 15: 18,19. Jesus would be called a cultist by some if he were alive today. The Sanhedrin certainly saw him that way

A private school linked to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, a group once described as an “extremist cult” by former prime minister Kevin Rudd, has received an estimated $9 million in JobKeeper payments.

In addition, the OneSchool Global network, which provides education for the children of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church members from the ages of eight to 18 years, also received $34 million in federal and state government grants last year, or about $16,000 per student.

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church was established in the early 19th century in southern England and is now led by multi-millionaire Sydney businessman Bruce D. Hales, who is known by his congregation as the Elect Vessel, or the Man of God. It follows a strict doctrine, known as “separation”, under which church members are discouraged, on pain of excommunication, from eating, drinking, forming friendships or communicating with outsiders, except to do business with them.

They aim to live a life apart from worldly pleasures and associations, refer to themselves as the “saints” and to outsiders as “worldlies”.

However, under another doctrine called “spoiling the Egyptians”, the church is also assiduous about seeking as much public funding as is legally available. In 2004, Mr Hales told his global flock: “You charge the highest possible price to the worldly people. That’s the way to get ahead, I mean, materially, you’ve got to spoil the Egyptians. It doesn’t belong to them anyhow, so we’ve just got to relieve them of it!”

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have retrieved the accounts of the OneSchool Global network that operates 31 schools across six states, and has 2413 students. Children under the age of eight attend government schools.

In the year to December 31, 2020, OneSchool Global declared a total of $13.3 million in “other revenue, JobKeeper and cash-flow boosts”. It’s estimated that almost $9 million of that is stimulus payments, such as JobKeeper.

A OneSchool Global spokesman said 70 per cent of the schools’ operation costs were staff wages. “The COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the schools’ revenue base,” the spokesman said. “The schools were eligible for, and complied with, all the obligations set out by the government in relation to the JobKeeper program.”

The Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, which was once known as the Exclusive Brethren, has been the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy over the past two decades because of its alleged treatment of former members, and also accusations that some of its members have been involved in campaigns against political parties, even though its members are not allowed to vote.

They grew close to former prime minister John Howard, and visited him in his office before the 2007 election, while Mr Rudd criticised the group as an “extremist cult” that “breaks up families”. Some church members who have left the group have also referred to it as a cult.

Members of the church have donated to the Liberal Party, and some members became involved in anti-Green and anti-gay advertising. When Helen Clark was New Zealand’s prime minister, she said members of the group ran a smear campaign against her.

On its website, the church states it has never made political donations nor instructed any of its 15,000 Australian members to be politically active. The church has about 50,000 members worldwide.

However, NSW Liberal Party records seized by the Independent Commission Against Corruption show that in December 2010, dozens of PBCC members donated individual payments of less than the disclosure threshold, which together made up $67,000. The Liberal Party operatives who accepted the donations labelled the sheet recording the payments as having come from “friends”.

OneSchool was one of 700 private schools that were eligible for the federal government’s $89 billion JobKeeper program, which has been controversial. On Monday, the federal Treasury disclosed that $27 billion of JobKeeper payments were to recipients that didn’t experience the requisite 30 per cent decline in turnover.

But in that calculation, the Treasury excluded not-for-profits, new businesses or those too small to submit a quarterly activity statement to the tax office, and subsidiaries of larger businesses. This means the actual payment to businesses that didn’t meet the requirements to be eligible for JobKeeper could have been as much as $40 billion.

According to Australian Tax Office data, 700 private schools received $750 million in JobKeeper payments. Among the many non-government schools that received stimulus payments, including JobKeeper, were Melbourne’s Wesley College which received $18.2 million, and Sydney’s Moriah College, which qualified for $6.8 million.

When students graduate from OneSchool Global, they can enrol at university but only through distance education because they are not permitted to attend campuses in person. Many complete certificate-level courses in office studies and accountancy at school, then typically go to work in businesses run by members of the church.

Businesses run by its members operate in sectors as varied as building, manufacturing and aged care, and according to the church’s website, generate a combined turnover of $22 billion. The church is also linked to a charity, the Rapid Relief Team, which has provided assistance in regional areas in recent years to drought-affected farmers and families affected by bushfires.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown has accused the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church of having a contrived and cruel religious dogma.

The church came to greater public attention during Mr Howard’s prime ministership, after its members spent $370,000 on anti-Greens campaigns at the 2004 election. They also met with then Greens leader Bob Brown after he unsuccessfully called for an inquiry into the group.

In his book Optimism, Mr Brown dedicated a chapter to the PBCC, a group which he wrote had a contrived and cruel religious dogma. He quoted Mr Hales as telling his members: “You come in touch with worldly people, you’ll have some sense of defilement … and you’re in control, you’re superior, I mean morally.”

Mr Brown also wrote of how Mr Hales advised church members to scorn, disdain and hate the principles of the outside world.

In that chapter Mr Brown also told of how he had met several former members who reported harrowing stories of excommunication from the church, including from their spouses, children, siblings, parents and grandparents.

The church has said it follows up on members who decide to leave the congregation.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/jobkeeper-payments-made-to-school-linked-to-extremist-cult-20211014-p59014.html

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Education ministers must act on our woke national curriculum

In a matter of weeks, Australia’s nine education ministers will decide the fate of the revised national curriculum released earlier this year for public consultation. The document was roundly condemned for prioritising Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and spirituality to the detriment of learning about Western culture and Judeo-Christianity.

The history framework, in particular, was criticised for presenting a black armband view of Australia’s origins and development as a nation, with European settlement described as an invasion leading to genocide and society and its institutions as inherently racist.

There is no question about the importance of studying Indigenous history and culture. Of all the lessons to be learned from Australia’s oldest settlers, top of the list must surely be a profound respect for passing on the knowledge and wisdom of the elders. The Indigenous tradition of oral history epitomises the sense of belonging and purpose that humans gain from understanding the past, particularly as they deal with the present and make decisions about the future.

Such is the significance of these links across the ages that Australia’s national curriculum includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures as one of three cross-curricular priorities that all teachers must emphasise in the classroom.

All teachers are instructed to provide “opportunities for all students to deepen their knowledge of Australia by engaging with the world’s oldest continuous living cultures” and learning about “the significant contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ histories and cultures on a local, national and global scale”. These opportunities are reinforced in every learning area (English, Mathematics, Science, History and so on) across the curriculum.

Where the revised curriculum is flawed and open to attack is its failure to provide a similar sustained focus on the nation’s Western heritage. There is no equivalent cross-curricular priority requiring primary and secondary teachers to ‘engage’ with the evolution of Western culture since ancient times, ensuring that all students develop a shared, objective understanding of the origins of Australia’s liberal democratic values and practices.

On the contrary, the lack of curricular alignment and intellectual cohesion of the key elements of the curriculum that reflect Western civilisation – English, History, Civics and Citizenship, the Arts and others – is striking. In addition, while students are asked to study Indigenous spirituality in detail, the curriculum ignores the enduring significance of Judeo-Christian traditions, especially where these have uniquely and powerfully informed our modern concepts of equality, tolerance, justice and the rule of law, and individual freedom.

One of the key documents guiding the current review states the Australian Curriculum “must ensure young people have a good understanding of the nature of Australian society within which they will be living and working as adults. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and perspectives are an important part of the development of our nation, as are the traditions and values of what is often referred to as ‘Western society’.”

Not only does the phrase “what is often referred to as Western society’” signal a qualified and uncertain view of what constitutes the West’s culture and way of life, it also reduces thousands of years of extraordinary philosophical, creative, scientific, religious, economic and other developments to a minor event in history. It is difficult to see how the proposed curriculum can fulfil the goal of producing ‘active and informed’ citizens.

The move to de-colonise the curriculum and cancel what Woke activists describe as ‘Eurocentrism’ and ‘whiteness’ partly explains why the curriculum is so jaundiced and politically correct. Also influential is the ever increasing emphasis on 21st Century learning given the increasing rate of technological, medical, scientific and societal change.

The panel responsible for investigating Australia’s senior school (Years 11 and 12) curriculum and pathways has produced a report titled Looking to the Future. The Chair, Dr Peter Shergold, says “the panel’s view is that we have to design our education system to prepare young people for their future rather than for our past”.

To justify the argument that studying the past is of declining value, those responsible for the report quote American educationalist John Dewey’s assertion that “The world is moving at a tremendous rate; going no one knows where. We must prepare our children, not for the world of the past, not for our world, but for their world – the world of the future”.

The OECD’s Education 2030 Program, to which Australia’s national curriculum body ACARA contributes, puts a similar case about cancelling the past and prioritising the future. The world is “rapidly changing” and we now live in a world characterised by “a new explosion of scientific knowledge” and “complex societal problems”.

The globalist groupthink pushed by the Paris-based bureaucrats purports to prepare students “for jobs that have not yet been created, for technologies that have not yet been invented, to solve problems that have not yet been anticipated”.

Associated with this futurist perspective is the argument that knowledge acquisition is secondary to developing 21st century skills and competencies such as critical thinking, working in teams and embracing diversity and difference. Students are encouraged to see themselves as global citizens dedicated to “transforming society and shaping the future”.

This worldview is strongly represented in the draft Australian Curriculum. It holds that all students should take on responsibility for solving problems in an unprecedentedly uncertain and volatile global environment.

The net effect is that nation-building is no longer emphasised, a concept diminished by a curriculum that fails to give students a clear idea of what it means to be an Australian citizen and what is most valued about our institutions and way of life.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2021/10/education-ministers-must-act-on-our-woke-national-curriculum/

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No climate duty for Ley, court told

Extremist judge Mordecai Bromberg strikes again. He was the judge who convicted Andrew Bolt for saying that white "Aborigines" were in it for the money and perks. Not much respect for free speech from Mordy. This time his biased judgment was overturned

Environment Minister Sussan Ley is appealing a Federal Court declaration that she has a duty of care to protect children from future personal injury caused by climate change.

At the outset of the three-day appeal hearing, Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue QC argued the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is not predominantly about the interests of humans or the environment generally.

The EPBC Act is really only concerned with environmental issues that enliven commonwealth powers, he argued, and should not be co-opted to serve the "collateral purpose" of establishing a duty of care.

Eight children took action against Ms Ley in 2020, challenging an expansion to the Vickery coal mine project in NSW.

Justice Mordecai Bromberg ruled that Ms Ley owed a duty to all Australian children when exercising her legislative decision-making powers regarding the mine.

One of the children who brought the case, 17-year-old Anjali Sharma, said on Monday the federal government continues to deflect responsibility for worsening climate change risks.

"We will proudly defend the historic ruling that all Australian children are owed a 'duty of care' by our government, and fight to protect my generation from the increasing risks of climate change," she said in a statement.

The Vickery project was approved previously by NSW's Independent Planning Commission and would result in 100 million additional tonnes of carbon emissions.

But Mr Donaghue said the issue of greenhouse gas emissions was not relevant to the EPBC Act, noting the mine did not require approval under the act when it first opened.

He also said the duty of care established by Justice Bromberg's ruling did not give sufficient weight to constitutional issues and was based on an incorrect conclusion.

Argument in the appeal before Chief Justice James Allsop, Justice Jonathan Beach and Justice Michael Wheelahan is expected to continue for two more days.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/no-climate-duty-for-ley-court-told/ar-AAPEcPp

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Extinction Rebellion protest against Environmental Minister Susan Ley with fake ‘corpses’

Extinction Rebellion protesters dressed in black and carried fake ‘corpses’ through Brisbane’s CBD on Tuesday morning in a ‘duty of care’ protest against Environmental Minister Susan Ley.

Four protesters were arrested for public nuisance after glueing their hands to the ground. Police used syringes filled with acetate to un-glue all four of the protesters from Queen Street Mall. They were then taken from the scene in police vans.

The demonstrators claim the corpses represent 10,000 premature lives to draw attention to Environment Minister Susan Ley’s appeal of a Federal Court’s declaration that she has a duty of care to protect children from future personal injury caused by climate change.

Ms Pestorius said that doctors and health physicians were amongst those who gathered on Tuesday morning. “They are concerned over the amount of Co2 going into the atmosphere and the impact on people’s health.”

She said that the emissions from the three extra mines recently approved by the Federal Government will cause anywhere been 130,000-170,000 premature deaths.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/extinction-rebellion-protest-against-environmental-minister-susan-ley-with-fake-corpses/news-story/bb7bc6049e19721af14c15103e013cc7

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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18 October, 2021

‘I’m just busting to come back to school’: Sydney’s youngest students back in classrooms

Before kindergarten student Maddy Wong had even left her mum’s car and said goodbye this morning, she was making announcements to her head of school through the car window. “I’m just busting to come back to school!” she yelled out to him.

Daniel Sandral, head of the junior school at MLC School in Burwood, rushed forward to open the door and say welcome back. “I’m busting to come to school,” Maddy repeated, as she put her backpack on. “Because my teacher is coming back and I miss my teacher.”

Mr Sandral and deputy head Joanne Sharke were dressed in unicorn onesies and waiting at the school entrance from 8am on Monday, to greet each kindergarten and year 1 student individually as they were dropped off in the school car park.

“We thought nothing could be more magical for a little girl than turning up to school to see a unicorn,” Mr Sandral said. “I have been longing for this moment.”

Elsewhere in Sydney, balloons, posters and smiling teachers welcomed thousands of students through the gates, as kindergarten and year 1 students became the first primary school children to attend school full-time since the end of June.

Some clung to their mothers and there were a few tears, but others were running onto campus before their parents had a chance to wave them off.

MLC mother Rebecca Lim said her daughter Charlotte was “so excited to see her friends again”. “She’s been missing everybody,” she said.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet was among the parents resuming the school drop-off routine. He took his son William and said he saw “massive queues” and “excited parents”.

“We know that for many kids, they’ll be anxious with the first day of school... [But there] is a lot of excitement,” he said. “Many of our children have gone through a very difficult time, not being able to interact and play with their friends.”

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said there were “lots of happy smiling faces across Sydney” as she thanked teachers for all their work over lockdown, preparing for a safe return and getting vaccinated.

She said the public school staff vaccination rate was at about 90 per cent on Monday, ahead of the November 8 deadline.

“The learning from home that they [teachers] have done over the last term has just been extraordinary. The way that they’ve adapted, been flexible and really made sure that they had the strong delivery of education,” she said.

“I think that everybody across the state knows that we owe our teachers a lot of gratitude for everything that they’ve done. But now, obviously we’re back and it’s exciting to be back in the classroom and having students return.”

At MLC, Mr Sandral and Ms Sharke said this first week back would entail additional numeracy and literacy lessons to check student progress, but their welfare was the ultimate concern. “At the end of the day I think the biggest challenge has been not being with their peers and the socialisation,” Mr Sandral said.

Ms Sharke has designed a wellbeing program for the rest of the year, so that each day starts with time for students to re-connect with their friends and teachers; they will spend time playing get to know you games and reacquainting themselves with the school site.

“We’ve got lots of different activities, circle time where they can talk about their experiences and feelings. We don’t really know what life’s been like for them... we are very conscious the girls have been away for a long time,” she said.

“I think it’s important we take the time to understand their feelings around coming back - school has been the ‘unsafe place to be’ all this time’ so it’s making sure they’re comfortable.”

Year 12 students also had the option of returning to school full-time on Monday ahead of their HSC, while the rest of students will return full-time from next Monday, October 25.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-m-just-busting-to-come-back-to-school-sydney-s-youngest-students-back-in-classrooms-20211018-p590w2.html

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Appeal to overturn Narrabri gas project approval dismissed

A NSW court has dismissed a legal challenge seeking to stop energy giant Santos from developing a $3.6 billion coal-seam gas project at Narrabri in the state’s north.

An opponent, the Mullaley Gas and Pipeline Accord, which represents about 100 residents and businesses, launched an appeal against the Independent Planning Commission’s decision last year to grant approval for the controversial proposal to build up to 850 gas wells across 95,000 hectares in the area.

The IPC gave the project “phased approval” in September last year provided a slew of what it described as 134 “stringent conditions” were met. At the time, the IPC said following detailed deliberations, which included 23,000 submissions, most of which opposed the gas field, the commissioners concluded the project was in the public interest and that negative impacts could be mitigated with strict conditions.

The accord argued in the NSW Land and Environment Court that the independent umpire should have been forced to consider not only emissions caused by drilling wells, but also the emissions generated from the end use of the Narrabri gas by Santos’ customers, known as Scope 3 emissions.

It also wanted further consideration of the environmental impacts of building an external pipeline to deliver gas from the site to the east coast markets.

In his findings, environment court Chief Judge Brian Preston dismissed the appeal, saying: “MGPA has not established any of the grounds of review of the IPC’s decision to grant development consent to the project.”

Santos on Monday said it welcomed the court’s decision to uphold the project’s approval, and looked forward to “getting on with our work in regional NSW” to create jobs, drive investment and deliver long-term energy security.

Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher said: “We are seeing play out in real time around the world what happens if you do not have domestic energy security.??

Around the world, prices for oil, gas and coal are skyrocketing, as supplies fail to keep pace with rising demand from economies recovering from the COVID-19 downturn, threatening the ability of countries including China and India to keep the lights on.

“On the east coast of Australia, regulators continue to warn about an increasingly tight market in the future,” Mr Gallagher said. “A shortage of supply means only one thing and that is higher prices for NSW households and businesses.??

Santos said Narrabri gas could supply up to half of NSW’s gas needs, and has committed to reserving 100 per cent of Narrabri gas for the domestic market.

The legal challenge in the Land and Environment Court caused a 12-month blow-out to Santos’ targeted timeframe for giving Narrabri the financial go-ahead. Santos will still need to carry out 12 to 18 months of appraisal drilling before the phased development can proceed.

Justice Preston said he would not order MGPA to pay Santos’ legal fees unless the company requested the group to do so.

Santos is expected to seek costs.

Narrabri has been at the front line in a years-long struggle between the gas sector and residents worried about the impact of gas drilling on the environment and the climate. The Santos project has faced years of delays and thousands of objections over feared impacts to groundwater, damage to the Pilliga state forest and its contribution to global warming.

‘Transition’ fuel

Supporters of gas promote it as the necessary “transition” fuel required to smooth the path from coal-fired power to more intermittent wind and solar energy sources, as well as a critical raw material in a range of manufacturing and industrial processes. Climate advocates say it remains a significant source of emissions that must be phased out, not expanded, to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

MGPA spokesperson and Mullaley beef farmer Margaret Fleck said the group was disappointed with the result.

Their lawyers, Environmental Defenders Office, will review the judgment in the coming days.

“If the project goes ahead, the impacts of its greenhouse gas emissions on the global climate, and the people and environment of NSW, will be substantial,” said EDO managing lawyer of safe climate corporate and gas Brendan Dobbie. “At a time when the world is preparing to meet in Glasgow to discuss action to reduce emissions to avoid further catastrophic climate change, it is disheartening that those impacts are now one step closer to fruition.”

Lock the Gate Alliance NSW spokesperson Georgina Woods said despite the decision, the group would continue to oppose the project.

“Farmers and communities in north-west NSW are already suffering the destructive impacts of the climate crisis, and this project will make it worse,” she said. “The Narrabri CSG project would also have a severe impact on the underground water farmers surrounding Narrabri rely on for their businesses, and it would wreak havoc on the Pilliga forest, which is held sacred by Gomeroi people.

“Today’s ruling is devastating, but it’s not the end of the battle. Santos will never build its gasfield at Narrabri. The community does not support it and it has no social licence to proceed.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/appeal-to-overturn-narrabri-gas-project-approval-dismissed-20211018-p590ug.html

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George Christensen slams net zero as putting coal jobs at risk

George Christensen says he will fight hard against his party’s net-zero emissions target to save what he claims is more than 653,000 jobs at risk.

The Dawson MP’s renegade stance comes despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison stating members would “come together” to reach the ambitious goal by 2050 while keeping coal mines in operation.

Mr Christensen, who will not contest the next federal election for the LNP in Dawson, said the Institute of Public Affairs report showed net zero would destroy livelihoods, particularly in the heavily coal-reliant Mackay.

“Overall, 653,000-plus jobs would be put at risk for the Dawson electorate and Capricornia electorates, which both encompass the Mackay region,” he said, adding a forced transition to renewables would drive up energy prices for consumers.

Mr Christensen said with renewable energy technologies currently intermittent and unreliable, he would prefer a government strategy that funded research and development into all alternative energies, particularly fusion and thorium power.

“Why does it take the government to get involved to do these (net zero) measures if technology is increasing all the time?” he said. “If you could crack that (fusion) nut, not only could you reduce emissions but you could make power cheaper.”

He said Andrew Forrest’s decision to build a $1bn hydrogen electrolyser plant in Gladstone proved businesses did not need an “artificial net zero emissions police” to invest in alternative energy.

Mr Christensen also slammed the rhetoric on climate change saying Australia was “hamstringing” itself while China built more coal-fired power plants.

“I don’t believe in 50 years time that the planet is going to be on fire or the reef is going to be destroyed or that it’s going to be too hot to live,” he said.

“I think too much of that doomsday material has been pumped into people. “There’s claims out there all the time that there’s going to be some disastrous impact from climate change but we’re yet to see it.”

Mr Christensen said he also disapproved of the “scuttlebutt” between the National Party and the Liberals in trying to reach a net zero deal.

He said Resource Minister Keith Pitt’s suggestion of a $250bn loan package for the thermal coal sector should be considered in par with the sell-out and “disastrous” Telstra sale.

“I just think there’s a lesson to be learnt with that,” Mr Christensen said. “You don’t give in on something you know is going to be disastrous to regional economies on a wish and a prayer that there may be some package that’s going to last the length of time or fix things.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mackay/george-christensen-slams-net-zero-as-putting-coal-jobs-at-risk/news-story/0a0fde056096213c865d226b7ab42dc4

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US-style taxpayer bill of rights could help Australians fighting the ATO over alleged debts

Helen Petaia once owned a thriving IT company. In 2012, she was winning government grants and big contracts with sporting bodies.

She had her sights set on going global, but late that year everything changed. She was accused by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) of owing it money.

This "fabricated tax debt", she says, cost her everything. "It was six years of my life, effectively fighting the tax office.

"By that stage, the business was unable to sustain itself. We lost our investors. As a family, we pretty much financially had everything at risk."

In December 2018, Helen reached a confidential settlement with the ATO.

The drawn-out and complicated dispute process taught her how just how vulnerable some taxpayers are.

Under the law, taxpayers are guilty until they prove themselves innocent. That means the burden to prove you don't owe the ATO money rests with you, and there's no obligation on the tax office to give you reasons for its decision.

The ATO has made some improvements to the way it deals with small businesses after a joint Fairfax-Four Corners investigation exposed aggressive debt collection tactics. But the agency still has immense powers that put it at an advantage over ordinary Australians during tax disputes.

The ATO can legally raid your bank accounts and call you in for interrogations at short notice. This has raised questions, including before a parliamentary committee, about whether there's a need to reverse the onus of proof for some small businesses and individuals, and whether taxpayers need better legal protections.

In the United States, taxpayer rights are entrenched in the law, under what's called the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

It sets out various rights and responsibilities such as "the right to pay no more than the correct amount of tax", and "the right to a fair and just tax system".

In contrast, Australia's Taxpayer Charter is non-binding, like a code of conduct. There are no sanctions if the tax office doesn't abide by it.

And in cases where a person feels they've been wronged, compensation usually depends on the ATO itself determining whether a taxpayer is entitled to it.

Ms Petaia says had there been a US-style taxpayer bill of rights in Australia, it could have saved her the six-year ordeal. "I would immediately have been able to exercise my rights," she argues. "I would have been able to use the law to force the tax office to prove to me how they had been able to arrive at these assessments.

"I would have also been able to save my business. I wouldn't have sold our family home. "And I would have been able to access my rights under the law, not [be] at the mercy of tax officers within the ATO."

Call for Australia to legislate taxpayer rights

Tax ombudsman Karen Payne gets thousands of complaints annually from taxpayers in dispute with the ATO over a tax matter. Pre-COVID, she says the number was about 3,000 annually, but post-COVID that's dropped to about 1,800 a year, although she argues the cases are now far more complex.

"The key complaints that we received are taxpayers who don't understand why they've got a debt, or why they're not getting their refund, or why they're not eligible, for example, to receive JobKeeper," Ms Payne explains.

She has released a report calling for changes to improve the existing taxpayer charter, including to make sure that tax officials have an obligation to make taxpayers aware of those rights as well as get better training.

"When you have a very large taxation office that's well-resourced and educated around how the tax laws apply against a taxpayer who is less familiar with how the tax laws should apply, that in itself can produce a power imbalance," she says.

Her report calls for immediate fixes to the existing taxpayer charter. But, in the the long-term, she sees merit in the federal government legislating rights for taxpayers, saying it would make it "very unambiguous" to ATO officials that taxpayer rights must be complied with.

"You can attach sanctions for not observing taxpayer rights … they can be seen as a nudge."

Currently there are sanctions of up to two years in jail if a tax officer breaches taxpayer confidentiality.

Ms Payne says that is taken seriously within the ATO, and suggests that the same type of sanctions could apply for breaching taxpayer rights, or there could be other changes like reversing the onus of proof in certain cases.

Her point is that having sanctions would force a cultural shift within the ATO. "I think most people would acknowledge that the tax office has embedded within its culture and its organisation, [the premise] that taxpayer confidentiality is something that must be respected," she says.

"I think if you were to convert taxpayer rights … something that looked more akin to a statutory right, you would ensure that it receives the respect and the priority and the equivalent status of taxpayer confidentiality."

"It could be an outcome that changes or reverses an onus of proof, it could be something that means the tax office forfeits its right to take particular course of action."

Ms Payne also adds that in June last year, the Senate Economics Legislation Committee recommended to government that her office be granted greater powers to investigate taxpayer complaints.

The government is yet to respond, but some of the changes recommended include making sure that the tax ombudsman and her staff have full and unfettered access to all ATO records, and that if they put a recommendation to the tax office to make change, there is certainty that the ATO follows through and makes that change.

It's something that Helen Petaia is hoping will be soon implemented, in addition to a bill of rights. "That is something that would transform the entire ecosystem for taxpayers — knowing that they have an independent body that has unlimited access to the evidence," Ms Petaia says.

Call to reverse the onus of proof for some taxpayers

Federal MP Jason Falinski, who chairs a parliamentary committee that scrutinises the ATO, says there may be political appetite to not only give taxpayers legislated rights, but to reverse the onus of proof in some cases. "Australians need to be protected against what has become a very powerful tax office," Mr Falinski says.

He says the tax commissioner can make a finding that someone owes the tax office money, and from that point forward, that money is owed and payable. "And he can do all sorts of things, for example, take money out of your bank account, without you having a chance to go to court to defend yourself," Mr Falinski says, adding that a bill of rights could be legislated to ensure that no longer happens.

"What I'm referring to is a charter, or a bill of rights, that has the enforceability of law, and that taxpayers can rely on, and can use to defend themselves against tax office action that is adversely impacting them."

Mr Falinski says there are also people within the government open to the idea of reversing the onus of proof in some cases.

"Most Australians don't realise that the burden to prove that you don't owe that money was not with the tax office, but with yourself — that that is an extraordinary power that the ATO has long held," he says.

"I think there are a lot of people in government that want to have a very close look at this. "I don't know that it is something that would get reversed overall, for everything. But I think there are specific instances … that impact mum and dads, ordinary taxpayers, who get caught in this net of anti-tax avoidance laws that probably shouldn't apply to them.

"It should only apply to, Mr Big or Mrs Big — the big end of town, who are able to use very expensive tax barristers to avoid paying tax. It was never meant to capture people at the lower ends of the tax system."

Ms Payne agrees, noting that "the onus of proof is part of the the imbalance in the system". Changing that, she says, "might be something that changes the balance of power".

ATO says it seeks to act 'with integrity'

A spokeswoman for the ATO says changes in law are "a matter for government", but that "ATO employees must act ethically and with integrity" and that "the ATO seeks to work collaboratively with taxpayers to avoid issues escalating into disputes".

She adds that the agency also advises taxpayers of their relevant rights to review, complain and appeal and that "if a taxpayer has concerns about how we have managed their tax affairs or are dissatisfied with the decision process there are a number of escalation options available to them, including the complaint process".

She notes that in early stages during a dispute, taxpayers can decide whether or not to what's known as "Alternative Dispute Resolution". "This is a free service and involves a nationally accredited, independent ATO facilitator assisting participants to resolve their dispute," she explains.

The ATO also offers independent review, she notes, focussing on the early resolution of disputes where small business taxpayers disagree with the ATO's audit position.

"This [independent] review is conducted before any audit adjustments occur and is undertaken by a team independent of the audit team in a separate section of the ATO," she says.

She notes that taxpayers also have the option of raising concerns Ms Payne's office as well as the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman.

But Self-Employed Australia executive director of Ken Phillips says there's been numerous documented cases showing that the ATO does not always act fairly. He argues a US-style taxpayer bill of rights would ensure it does.

"The taxpayer charter is a taxation office policy — it's not law, it's not legislation, and the experience that we find is that the ATO breach their own policy on a very consistent basis," Mr Phillips says.

A bill of rights, he says, would also put the onus back on the tax office to prove the debt they've raised against a taxpayer is legitimate. "In the US, they can't collect a tax out of someone unless all dispute procedures have been completed, done, finalised — that's justice," Mr Philips says.

"What we're really talking about here is very, very practical, common-sense approaches to ensuring that the administration of tax and the collection of tax and the behaviour of the ATO conforms with natural principles of justice."

A bill of rights, he argues, is a win for both taxpayers and the ATO because it could minimise the number of tax disputes, and the time it takes to resolve them. "Here it's quite normal for a dispute with the taxation office to go on for five, six, seven – 10 years even," he says.

"That's just not fair. People have a right to know that their case is done, finish and dusted."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-18/taxpayer-bill-of-rights-ato-tax-debt-disputes-complaints-appeals/100537010

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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17 October, 2021

NSW plans an advertising campaign to recruit 3700 new teachers needed to plug school shortages

This is pissing into the wind. It's not more propaganda that's needed. It is reforms designed to make teaching less stressful. Teachers have to put up with constant bureaucracy and constant bad behaviour from students. So only a loser would normally now choose a job in teaching.

The key to improvement is to re-establish realistic discipline policies. Unruly students have to be prevented from making life hell for everyone around them

The NSW Department of Education will promote the joy of teaching, poach teachers from overseas and identify regional students suitable for the profession while they are still in high school as part of a multi-pronged plan to avert a looming teacher shortage.

Pay remains a point of contention, with the NSW Teachers Federation saying shortages will continue without higher salaries. But the department insists its new teacher supply strategy will attract 3700 extra teachers over 10 years without a significant wage rise.

Award negotiations have begun, and the department has offered teachers 2.5 per cent a year - the highest rise possible under the public sector wage cap imposed by this government. However, the federation rejected the offer and is standing by its claim of 5 to 7.5 per cent a year.

The looming teacher shortage, detailed in internal NSW Department of Education documents, is due to a declining number of people choosing it as a career, a significant proportion of the workforce heading to retirement, and growing enrolment numbers.

The department’s strategy, released this week, involves recruiting teachers from overseas and interstate, improving perceptions of teaching - including with an advertising campaign - and accelerating the careers of high-performing teachers.

The department will also encourage more teachers to train in high-needs areas by providing mid-career pathways in those areas; helping teachers’ assistants become fully qualified; and training teachers in high-demand skills such as maths.

It aims to get teachers to regional and rural schools with a new incentive scheme and scholarships.

The plan for the bush also includes a pilot scheme to identify high school students in regional areas who have the potential to become teachers, and offering them a year’s paid experience in a school before supporting them through university with scholarships.

“There’s a lot of elements to it, and that’s for a reason,” said Education Minister Sarah Mitchell. “There’s a number of issues and complexities in terms of how we manage staffing in our schools, and the challenges are nuanced.

“I’ve been having regular round tables with teachers from all over the state. What has come through is the joy - how much they enjoy their job, how much they feel connected and responsible for the students. They talk about students as if they are their own.”

The department said it used workforce modelling, analysis of teacher supply and demand, and tactics that worked elsewhere to develop the strategy, which it expects will deliver 3700 teachers over 10 years, including 1600 in the first five years.

However, past attempts to boost teacher pipelines show mixed results from strategies such as incentives, scholarships and mid-career pathways. Over 10 years, Victoria’s Teach for Australia program, which fast-tracks people from other professions into teaching, produced just 619 teachers.

Regional incentive schemes have existed for years, and have been tweaked many times, but teacher numbers in the bush are still dropping. There are teacher shortages overseas and interstate, which could also make poaching teachers difficult.

One internal department document also said it was unclear whether there was much demand for teaching assistants to become fully qualified.

The president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Angelo Gavrielatos, said the shortage was a direct result of non-competitive salaries and unsustainable workloads. “If we don’t pay teachers what they are worth, we won’t get the teachers we need,” he said.

However, Ms Mitchell said NSW teachers were paid well compared with those interstate and overseas. “There are opportunities for career progression, there are opportunities to teach in rural and regional schools, and it’s also about creating more opportunities,” she said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-joy-of-teaching-plan-to-find-3700-new-teachers-to-plug-school-shortage-20211014-p5902t.html

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Australian government buys 15k doses of Covid drug that cured Donald Trump

The drug used to treat former US President Donald Trump for Covid-19 will soon be available in Australia after the government inked a contract for 15,000 doses of the antibody-based treatment Ronapreve.

Ronapreve, one of two new treatments Australia has ordered, along with an antiviral drug still under development by Pfizer, has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death by up to 70 per cent in patients diagnosed with Covid-19.

The drug is made up of a combination of two antibodies which together block the SARS-CoV-2 virus from spreading. It can be given intravenously in a doctor’s surgery, and is expected to be mainly used to stop unvaccinated people becoming seriously ill.

The first doses will arrive before the end of October and added to the National Medical Stockpile.

The government has also reached an agreement with Pfizer for 500,000 doses of the company’s new antiviral drug, which is still in clinical trials. It is hoped the treatment, which is to be taken by mouth every 12 hours for five days, will stop people who have been exposed to the virus from becoming sick.

It works by blocking an enzyme the virus needs to grow.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/coronavirus/government-buys-15k-doses-of-covid-drug-that-cured-trump/news-story/0bc973f69e45c67d7788b709d7c105ff

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New Antarctic icebreaker RSV Nuyina docks in locked-down Hobart

image from https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/fe9b041b25c3b6dee0f4d856077b9791?impolicy=wcms_crop_resize&cropH=2809&cropW=4214&xPos=393&yPos=0&width=862&height=575

It was not quite the celebratory fanfare planned but Australia's new icebreaker RSV Nuyina has finally arrived in Hobart.

The state-of-the art ship slipped quietly into Hobart after celebrations to welcome it were put on ice because of a snap COVID-19 lockdown.

The $528 million ship has taken 10 years to design and build and is bigger, faster and capable of staying at sea longer than its predecessor, the Aurora Australis.

It paused briefly in the middle of the Derwent and showed off its 360 degree-turning capabilities, spinning several times and blasting its horn.

While residents with a view of the River Derwent were able to watch it arrive, people were no longer permitted to greet the ship on the river or on the docks.

The Nuyina began its 24,000-kilometre journey from the Netherlands to Australia six weeks ago.

Australian Antarctic Division chief scientist Nicole Webster said the ship had exciting capabilities for scientists. "We've been describing her as Disneyland for scientists," she told ABC Radio Hobart.

"She comes absolutely bristling with sensors that are really going to act like eyes and ears and they can collect mountains of data in real-time, so things like echo sounders that help us locate fish populations and krill swarms.

"It has hydrophones that can listen in on marine mammals and whales and seals it has underwater cameras that allow us to see into areas of the Southern Ocean that we've never been able to see before."

She said the ship will collect oceanographic and atmospheric data.

"It enables us to do things like artificial intelligence, we can track individual whales and then use some of those data streams to predict where those whale populations might be, so it's really going to transform our future science capabilities," Professor Webster said.

The AAD's Mark Horstman has been on board for the delivery voyage and said it had been a "very comfortable ride". "I think we've been on board nearly 50 days," Mr Horstman said. "We were all amazed at how well the ship handled and put it down to the anti-rolling ballast water system … the sea was heaving but people on board weren't heaving."

He was also excited by the scientific capabilities.

"I was pretty thrilled to see the moon pool, the fact that a ship can have a doorway straight down into the ocean so even if you're surrounded by sea ice you can put all kinds of equipment down," Mr Horstman said.

"We got to jump into it to celebrate crossing the equator."

The ship's name, pronounced noy-yee-nah, means southern lights in palawa kani, the language of Tasmanian Aboriginal people.

The name was suggested by school students after a national competition in 2017 and was given formal approval by Tasmania's Indigenous community.

The Nuyina will undertake two years of testing, including ice trials in Antarctica.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said it would be much more than a supply ship for Australia's Antarctic bases.

"She's got some pretty incredible laboratories and ability and capability so don't just think about this vessel as transporting our expeditioners south and bringing the gear there and back, she's a floating laboratory, 20 laboratories in fact," she said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-16/antarctic-icebreaker-rsv-nuyina-arrives-in-hobart/100541954

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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It's great to see Jordan Peterson back in form

His illness really knocked him around but he now at last seems as sharp as ever. The episode below was recorded on September 9th.

Psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson and John Anderson exchange ideas about individual freedom, lockdowns and mandatory vaccines in Australia. Dr. Jordan shares his experience with policies while Anderson discusses why Australians have accepted severe restrictions fairly willingly.

John Anderson is a sixth-generation farmer and grazier from New South Wales, who spent 19 years in the Australian Parliament, partly as a National Party deputy Prime Minister

Protest comes to Brisbane

See below: The Covid restrictions have long been very mild in Brisbane -- not remotely as severe as what the people of NSW and Victoria have had to suffer. So protests been muted so far. But, as Peterson and Anderson discuss in the video above, the instinct for freedom has not been suppressed among Australians. So it is heartening to see anti-lockdon protests rising up despite much official and Leftist opposition.

I have myself been vaccinated some time ago but I think compelled medical treatment of any sort stinks to high heaven. Governments have frequently got health policies wrong so they should never be allowed to enforce their ideas

A great example of that is the case of Jehovah's Witnesses who would not let their children have blood transfusions. So laws were passed to compel transfusions anong children. But a study of adult <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160229004354/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/transfusions-bring-experts-blood-to-boil/story-e6frg8y6-1111113758673">survival after heart surgery</a> showed that no Jehovah's Witness died of it but many others did. They have certainly had the last laugh -- and in consequence blood transfusions are now much more sparingly prescribed than they once were. Transfusions are themselves stressors to the body

Conflicting beliefs on the Covid vaccine have attracted thousands of people into Brisbane’s CBD as pro-vaccine protesters gathered near an anti-vaccine World Wide Freedom Day rally.

The pro-vaccine group stood at the front of Brisbane Botanical Gardens wearing masks and chanting “pro vax, pro health, anti fascist” and “anti vaxxers you can’t hide, you’ve got Nazis on your side”.

Anti-vaccine protesters stood behind a barricade of police officers. One anti-vaccine protester yelled back at the opposing side “the government is the real disease”.

Around 1500 showed up to the anti-vaccine rally along with a strong police presence.

T-shirt stalls were set up around the rally selling merchandise with slogans like “realise, real eyes, real lies”.

Anti-vaccine group The People’s Revolution ran the rally.

The group marched from QUT gardens about 1.30pm, down George St through the city to eventually loop back. Streets in the CBD were temporarily shut down by police for the march.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/coronavirus/covid19-vaccine-protesters-face-off-in-brisbane-cbd/news-story/a5c0a7bc71cb9e099c70dae9d19c36c2

15 October, 2021

How you could become mega-rich by investing in these companies

This is a classic mistake often made by amateur investors. Because something is popular or in big demand, the assumption is that shares in it with be a good buy. They rarely are.

The big peril is over-entry. Suppliers see a goldmine and rush in to supply the assumed demand. But the increased supply cuts the price and most of the new suppliers will go bust.

And there are other perils. China is already an efficient producer of lithium and could increase their supply to the market any time -- thus undercutting and bankrupting other suppliers.

Mining shares of any kind are risky and lithium is one of the riskiest. A cautious investor buys nothing unless it has a solid track record

Australian share market investors are perfectly positioned to benefit from the transition to net zero carbon emissions despite the nation being a major coal exporter to China.

The International Monetary Fund said the surging demand for renewable energy in the coming decades would be good for Australia because the nation has plentiful supplies of lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The minerals are particularly important for battery storage power that will underpin the success of solar and wind energy eventually replacing coal-fired power stations.

In a new report on the World Economic Outlook, the IMF singled out Australia for special mention along with Chile, and to a lesser extent Peru, Russia, Indonesia, and South Africa.

'Countries that stand out in production and reserves include Australia for lithium, cobalt, and nickel,' it said.

Bell Direct senior market analyst Jessica Amir said now was the time to consider investing in lithium miners before more governments around the world, including Australia, introduced more substantial electric vehicle subsidies.

'This is a huge investment opportunity and this will be the hot investment opportunity for the next decade,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'Thirty per cent of an EV car is the battery and there's a huge lack of supply of lithium and then you've got the world pivoting and pushing to being carbon neutral.

'Clean energy must have a place in investors' portfolios because we're going to see a huge amount of government stimulus going to it, we're going to see a huge uptick in consumer demand.

'You have to remember the basics of investing: a company is based on its future earnings potential, this means that companies that are in this area, they're going to see future earnings growth and share price growth.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10086555/How-Australia-perfectly-poised-benefit-net-zero-carbon-emissions-bonanza.html

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New generation leaving Sydney behind for the Sunshine State

Young families from NSW are turning their lifestyle dreams into reality and leading the mass migration to south-east Queensland in a never-before-seen trend that’s fuelling the state’s booming property market.

Once a magnet for retirees looking to live out their golden years in a golden climate, the sunshine state – and particularly the capital – is now a hotbed of millennials and Gen Z buyers from across the border seeking affordability, space and better quality of life in an age of remote working, according to the new Domain Queensland Spotlight Report, released on Thursday.

The report, which shines a light on the latest property trends across the state, also revealed buyers are now overwhelmingly seeking a four-bedroom house close to the beach with views and room for the fur baby. The areas of Noosa Hinterland, Noosa, Maroochy, Nambour, Buderim, Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Nerang, Broadbeach-Burleigh, Coolangatta and Mudgeeraba-Tallebudgera are claiming the most average views per listing.

“Queensland has been ready for growth for so long, and while it has always been the spot for people to move interstate from Sydney or Melbourne, the pandemic has created a new environment for people to re-imagine what their life is,” said Nicola Powell, Domain chief of research and economics.

“So, we’ve seen an increased volume of people moving from interstate in their prime working years, and while south-east Queensland has always been front of mind for retirees, that’s not the case anymore. Now it’s young families and they want a backyard and Queensland offers that. It offers affordability and so, for some, they’ve been able to put a lifestyle dream into reality.”

“Significant shifts in the population like this don’t occur often,” Dr Powell added.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/south-east-queensland-property-boom-led-by-young-families-from-nsw-1093161/

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Regulators investigate greenwashing climate change claims

Corporate Australia is on notice that glib promises to address climate change no longer cut it as so-called ‘greenwashing’ claims hit the courts.

Global regulators and major investors are joining shareholder activists in driving the nation’s corporate sector to deliver credible plans to hit net zero by 2050.

Plans rather than generic pledges are now required. They also need to include short and medium term targets and measurement methodologies.

Major emitters including AGL, BHP, Rio Tinto and Santo have all pledged to hit net zero by 2050 or before.

That has not stopped them from facing growing shareholder backlashes – and even legal challenges – amid criticism their emission reduction strategies will fail to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.

The nation’s regulators, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, have also made it clear they will be increasing their oversight of climate change reporting.

ASIC in July warned company directors they could face misleading and deceptive conduct charges should they overstate the environmental credentials of their operations.

It recently rapped outback gas explorer Tamboran Resources over the knuckles for its claim it would be a net zero emissions producer from first production.

The corporate cop is also reviewing whether superannuation funds which promote their investments as green, clean and ethical actually stack up.

Claims of greenwashing – overstating the environmental benefits of an organisation’s products or environmental footprint – are now hitting the courts.

Oil and gas producer Santos is being sued by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility for allegedly engaging in misleading or deceptive conduct by claiming gas provides “clean energy” and saying it has a “clear and credible” pathway to net zero by 2040.

ACCR climate and environment director Dan Gocher said while climate change had moved firmly onto the radar of major corporations, too many companies were still not being bold enough in their pledges.

“There is a lot of green washing around net zero,” Mr Gocher said.

“Companies come out and commit to net zero but they don’t provide a lot of substance or their 2025 or 2030 targets are fairly weak. That is a big problem because we know we need to take action now.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/asic-and-apra-investigate-greenwashing-climate-change-claims/news-story/b6d29ced89ecc86eee54ca6656e36362

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Inside the INFURIATING 'greenie' local council which debates nuclear weapons instead of fixing roads and collecting the bins

Wankers

Ratepayers in an iconic Aussie town are confused and annoyed that their local elected officials are wasting time having debates about 'nuclear disarmament' rather than focusing on issues closer to home.

In just the past year, Ballarat Local Council in regional Victoria, have debated two motions surrounding the complex geopolitical issue.

Greens Cr Belinda Coates put forward the items in an effort to support 'world peace', but her frustrated colleagues and constituents say the Council should stick to fixing the roads and collecting the bins - not trying to influence Kim Jong-un.

'Ballarat City Council shouldn't be wasting its time or the office's time or the councillors' time in dealing with items that are not relating to local government, ' Cr Ben Taylor told A Current Affair.

'And this is not what our ratepayers and residents want to talk about either. 'What is the influence local governments have in relation to this matter of nuclear weapons? We have no influence.

'We can't change North Korea's mind, we can't change Russia or America's mind in relation to nuclear weapons, so why is the local government and especially Ballarat dealing with these types of items?'

At the online Council meeting last month, where the motion was discussed for 30 minutes, Deputy Mayor of the City of Ballarat Amy Johnson said it was delusional for the town to be discussing the issue.

'North Korea, China and Russia, some of the countries that do have nuclear weapons, if you think they are going to listen to the little old Ballarat Council on whether they should have nuclear weapons or not then you need a bit of a reality check,' she said.

Verity Webb from the lobby group Ratepayers Victoria told the program she's not surprised by the bizarre motion. 'To make themselves feel important they pass lots of useless, factitious, bombastic policies,' she said.

'These are the types of things we are forever seeing councillors do, they try to look important, look like they are doing important things in the non-local area because they are actually useless in the local community.'

Out in the streets of the gold rush town, famous for its Victorian architecture, locals were baffled. 'I think they should focus on what the people need, I think nuclear weapons are probably going to be a bit far out for us,' one man said.

'I'd like to see them focus on local matters, before they look at nuclear stuff. When you look at the separation of government, it's not really in their portfolio,' another said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10087415/Inside-bombastic-green-council-Ballarat-Victoria-infuriating-ratepayers-nuclear-debate.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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14 October, 2021

Plan for two million migrant surge blasted as ‘crazy’ by Dick Smith and others

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says he “believes in a big NSW”, after a leaked proposal to bring in two million more migrants to rebuild Australia post-Covid was lashed as “crazy” by entrepreneur Dick Smith.

The Australian Financial Review on Tuesday revealed that top NSW bureaucrats had urged the incoming Premier to push for an “explosive” post-WWII-style immigration surge that could bring in two million people over five years.

The “top-secret, politically sensitive” advice was part of an incoming briefing document prepared by the Department of Premier and Cabinet, delivered to Mr Perrottet’s desk as he took up the top job last week, according to the newspaper.

In it, the bureaucrats urged Mr Perrottet to seize on the initiative to push for a “national dialogue on an aggressive resumption of immigration levels as a key means of economic recovery and post-pandemic growth”.

“An ambitious national immigration plan similar to Australia’s post-World War II approach would ensure Australia would benefit from skills, investment and population growth,” the document said.

The advice advocated for a “doubling” of pre-Covid immigration levels for the next five years. Net overseas migration reached 240,000 in 2018-19, before falling sharply to around 194,000 in 2019-20.

A doubling of pre-pandemic levels would see net migration surge to more than 400,000 a year, adding around two million people by 2026.

Peter Shergold, chancellor of Western Sydney University and the Commonwealth’s former top bureaucrat, supported the proposal.

“There is a need to return to higher levels of migration across the board, both in terms of skilled migration and being more generous to people coming in under specialist humanitarian visas and, indeed, international students returning on temporary visas,” he told the AFR.

“These things are very important to the economic future of NSW.”

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Mr Perrottet confirmed he wanted immigration increased to address labour shortages.

“There’s no doubt that with the closure of international borders, immigration has come to a halt,” he said.

“We are seeing one of the biggest challenges at the moment as we’re opening up our economy, labour shortages are coming to the fore.”

Mr Perrottet said he had already discussed immigration with federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg last year, and “obviously I think we’re going to have a real discussion around catching up some of those numbers that we’ve lost during the pandemic”.

“I think that’s important – I’m somebody who believes in a big NSW, I think that provides greater opportunity and prosperity for people right across the state,” he said.

“It provides important workers for businesses. So that is something that will become a significant challenge for our state and our country as we move forward, but it’s something I believe we will necessarily address, working with the federal government.

“It will need to be targeted in the short term in relation to where those labour shortages are. Obviously that will also differ across state borders.”

Mr Perrottet said the first priority was on bringing home stranded Australians “who are double vaccinated”. “That then paves the way (for) international students, which is crucial to the NSW economy, our largest service export supporting tens of thousands of jobs across our state,” he said.

“Our international education exports have been significantly hit during this pandemic and it’s crucial to our economy going forward and we need to reclaim the markets we had and also explore other markets in the future.

“What’s the next stage after returning Australians? You move to tourism and you move to labour, and immigration will be a key focus. I want to have those conversations with the federal government as quickly and as early as possible. The earlier we have those discussions the brighter our future will be.”

The advice marks a sharp change in tone from the NSW government prior to the pandemic.

In 2018, former Premier Gladys Berejiklian called for a halving of immigration to the state to keep up with infrastructure demands, saying NSW needed “a breather because rates have gone through the roof”.

Weeks later, Mr Perrottet, then NSW Treasurer, wrote an opinion piece for The Australian arguing against “extraordinarily high rates of immigration”, saying “merely adding more people isn’t a sustainable economic strategy”.

“We can’t pretend that high immigration comes without a cost, and we believe growth should not impose an unfair burden on those already here,” he wrote.

“Excessively rapid growth puts downward pressure on wages and upward pressure on housing prices, both of which have sorely stung workers and aspiring homeowners in Sydney and other parts of NSW for a decade.

“It also means more people on trains, more cars, more students in our schools and more patients at hospitals.

“Even if the NSW population stayed at today’s level, it would take time to complete the work so that our communities could be more liveable, our commute times more manageable, and our schools and hospitals more capable of offering exceptional care rather than just coping.

“Instead, extraordinarily high rates of immigration risk pushing those outcomes beyond our grasp.”

Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday night, Mr Smith, a long-time critic of high immigration policies, said it was “ridiculous”.

“Consider the long-term average immigration has been about 80,000 per year, and that’s given us the fantastic country we are now, to go to 400,000, it would take us to that 100 million population figure,” he said.

“No one wants 100 million, it’s an arid country, we’d be crazy to go to that size.”

Host Peta Credlin, who was chief of staff to former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, said that high immigration was “pushed constantly by the bureaucracy”. “I know from my time in Canberra, it was lazy growth,” she said.

“Just keep bringing the migrants in, the numbers will look good in an economic sense. But per capita it doesn’t work and people end up feeling worse off, they feel poorer, and they live with the consequences of infrastructure that’s not fit for purpose according to the population. “Why can’t we have a sensible population debate and plan?”

Mr Smith said it was “going to be very hard because the bureaucrats all go to the same universities” and only cared about headline economic growth.

“If it was growth per person it would be OK but it isn’t,” he said. “Per person we’ve actually got less growth. We’ve got to move to growth from efficiencies, from improving productivity, not having more and more people.”

Leith van Onselen, chief economist at MacroBusiness, said the plan was the “definition of insanity”.

“Every Australian knows that the pre-Covid 15-year immigration boom, whereby net overseas migration averaged 220,000 a year, was a disaster for living standards, as evidenced by things like declining housing affordability and quality, worsening commute times, and record low wage growth,” he said.

“The definition of insanity is to double the post-Covid immigration intake and to expect different results.”

Mr van Onselen questioned whether there would be “matching infrastructure, housing and improved labour and environmental laws to go along with the proposed immigration boom”. “We all know the answer to that,” he said.

“Policy-makers will juice headline GDP growth and business profits by flooding the nation with people, while ignoring the negative impacts on the community.”

Simon Kuestenmacher, co-founder and director of The Demographics Group, told 3AW on Tuesday the plan was “definitely not unrealistic”. “There’s no problem at all accommodating 400,000 new people per year, as long as we provide enough infrastructure, as long as we provide enough housing.”

Mr Kuestenmacher claimed that as most skilled migrants were young, single people who lived in small dwellings, “even a large migration intake wouldn’t even have a massive impact on the housing market in terms of the need for new dwellings”.

The big issue, he said, was infrastructure. “The good news is the federal budget really doubled down on infrastructure growth, so they’re willing to spend an awful lot of money on infrastructure,” he said.

“The problem is ... all industries complain about the lack of skilled workers. So we do actually need migration to actually build all the infrastructure things we are willing to pay for.”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/dominic-perrottet-says-he-believes-in-a-big-nsw-after-top-bureaucrats-call-for-two-million-migrant-surge/news-story/90a9b57daec72c8235bc078b32c5e731

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Extraordinary moment Andrew Bolt slams boss Rupert Murdoch for publishing '16 pages of propaganda' about climate change

News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt has used his Sky News show to slam his employer for its U-turn on global warming, calling it 'propaganda' and 'rubbish' and saying it will delight Scott Morrison.

The controversial commentator's intervention was prompted by the Murdoch Australian tabloids' new campaign backing action to do more to tackle climate change.

'Millions of Australian readers would have got a shock this morning when they picked up their Murdoch newspapers around the country,' an angry Bolt told his TV audience after the company's metropolitan dailies published lengthy newspaper wraparounds.

'Sixteen pages of News Corp's global warming propaganda, telling them why Australia should cut its emissions now to net-zero, telling them it will be good for us. And that is a shock,' he said.

Rupert Murdoch's Australian branch launched its new environmental project Mission Zero this week, saying it aims to 'inform Australians about the key environmental and climate issues of our time' in support of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The campaign is backed by business leaders and environmental campaigners but has come as a shock to many Australians - not least some of the company's in-house climate change sceptics.

Bolt said the Murdoch papers' seeming change of heart on the need to do something to curb global warming is hypocritical given how they had previously relentlessly attacked the Labor Party and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull for their stances on the issue.

He said Prime Minister Scott Morrison will 'actually be delighted because he can now have the Malcolm Turnbull-type policy that he wants - net-zero emissions - and take it to the next big global warming conference in Glasgow in November, knowing that he has the backing of the Murdoch media.'

Bolt - who seemed floored by News Corp's move - added that people 'should worry' when big business, big media and big government' all seem to agree with action on the climate.

He said the tabloids' coverage urged readers to 'forget all that stuff we used to say' and that they were now expected to prepare for government action on the issue.

Bolt said he discussed the issue with his News Corp editors and was assured the company still believes in debate. 'I am still free to say exactly what I think and that is the only reason I'm still here,' he said, adding that 'It's rubbish. I don't buy it.'

Not everyone was buying News Corp's supposed change of mind, though, with former prime minister Kevin Rudd tweeting 'Murdoch is today predicting an investment bonanza for agriculture under a decarbonised economy.

'I wonder what's changed since they joined with the Liberal (Party) to criticise climate action under Labor as a "lunchbox tax",' he wrote, going on to repeat his call for a Royal Commission into the power and influence of the Murdoch newspapers.

When News Corp initially flagged its intent to embrace action on climate change last month, Bolt said he had lost the battle over global warming.

'My whole company's against me. I know that against these huge players, all the big political parties, my own employer, all the media and big media outlets, what am I? Just someone on the sidelines. Someone just howling on the sidelines, but telling you the truth,' Bolt said.

Mr Turnbull said last year that News Corp's 'campaign on climate denial' had done 'enormous damage to the world' and had left a 'shocking legacy' of inaction.

Michael Miller, the executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, said commentators such as Bolt would not be 'muzzled' on the issue of global warming.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10086551/News-Corps-Andrew-Bolt-slams-Rupert-Murdoch-newspapers-climate-change-campaign.html

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Australia to back international definition of anti-Semitism

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised an international forum to stamp out anti-Semitism that the Australian government will formally endorse an international working definition of discrimination against Jews as a religious or racial group.

In a pre-recorded message from Canberra, Mr Morrison told the Malmö International Forum on Wednesday evening that his government would embrace the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition, joining more than 40 nations and hundreds of local governments, sporting organisations, institutions and universities around.

Mr Morrison said Australia would adopt the definition “as a people, and as a nation”.

“Anti-Semitism has no place in Australia,” Mr Morrison told the forum. “It has no place anywhere in the world. And we must work together, resolutely and as a global community to reject any word or any act that supports anti-Semitism towards individuals, towards communities or religious facilities.”

The IHRA - an intergovernmental body made up of 31 member countries - defines anti-Semitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities”.

The non-legally binding definition is also supported by 11 contemporary examples of anti-Semitism designed as a resource to help educate people as to what anti-Semitism is, and what is legitimate criticism of Israel.

Many police forces around the world use a version of the definition, which has been described as a useful tool which assists officers to identify what could constitute anti-Semitism.

But the definition has become increasingly contentious with human rights groups, university academics and lawyers, who have expressed concerns that it restricts freedom of speech by prohibiting legitimate criticism of Israeli government action in the Palestinian territories.

They argue the language is vague and open to interpretation and invites a conflation of the criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

Legal experts, including prominent human rights barrister Geoffrey Robertson, have raised concerns that the definition was being used to police speech.

The definition spells out that it is not anti-Semitic to criticise the government of Israel, but says it is anti-Semitic to draw comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis and also holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of Israel.

It also includes traditional stereotypes such as regarding Jews having inordinate power over media, financial systems or governments and or denying Jews the right to self-determination.

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge last month called on the government to adopt the definition amid a rise of violence and threats toward Australian Jews on university campuses and in the community. He said Jewish students had reported being prevented from joining some clubs, particularly progressive ones such as an LGBTI club because Zionism was said to be contrary to the club’s mission.

The British government was among the first to adopt the working definition in 2016 while the United States, Canada and Germany have also followed. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has publicly supported the definition as well as the European Union and the English Premier League.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese and foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong endorsed the definition on behalf of their party in discussions with Jewish community leaders last year.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said the government had reconfirmed its commitment to fighting anti-Semitism.

“Antisemitism is increasing around the world”, Mr Leibler said. “And the key to its reduction is education. The IHRA working definition provides the central plank to this educational endeavour. Antisemitism should have no place in our society. It should be defined, identified and rejected.”

Mr Leibler said its adoption should not be merely symbolic and while the government has led the way, universities, institutions and businesses across the country should also adopt the definition as part of their anti-discrimination policies.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-to-back-international-definition-of-anti-semitism-20211014-p58zxk.html

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Minister flags further free speech measures as sacked climate sceptic loses High Court case

Universities face the prospect of further rules to protect academics’ free speech after Education Minister Alan Tudge raised concerns about a High Court decision upholding the sacking of marine physicist and climate change sceptic Peter Ridd by James Cook University.

The decision ends Dr Ridd’s four-year legal battle with JCU after he was censured and ultimately sacked for challenging his colleagues’ views on climate change and the Great Barrier Reef, along with the university’s attempts to discipline him.

Mr Tudge said on Wednesday he was “concerned that, in some places, there is a culture of closing down perceived ‘unwelcome thoughts’ rather than debating them” and was seeking advice on the case’s implications.

“While I respect the decision of the High Court, I am concerned that employment conditions should never be allowed to have a chilling effect on free speech or academic freedom at our universities,” he said. “University staff and students must have the freedom to challenge and question orthodoxies without fear of losing their job or offending others.”

Dr Ridd, a long-serving professor at the university, was fired in 2018 after forming the view that the scientific consensus on climate change overstated the risk it posed to the reef and vigorously arguing that position.

In a unanimous decision on Wednesday, five justices of the High Court dismissed Dr Ridd’s appeal, finding his early criticism of climate research and the reef was protected by academic freedom but that he later went much further, justifying his termination.

The university welcomed the outcome as confirmation “that the termination of Dr Ridd’s employment had nothing to do with academic freedom”, saying in a statement it strongly supported the freedom of staff to engage in academic and intellectual freedom.

Dr Ridd took a parting shot at the university as he informed his supporters of the outcome on Facebook. The university’s actions, he said, “were technically legal” but it was “never right, proper, decent, moral or in line with public expectations of how a university should behave”.

Dr Ridd said one of the worst consequences of the decision was it allowed universities to demand disciplinary processes stay confidential, undermining government legislation designed to support intellectual freedom.

“I know a couple of really egregious cases happening right now where freedom of speech has been curtailed, and the university is sitting on confidentiality,” Dr Ridd told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. “I can’t even tell you who they are because they would lose their job.”

Dr Ridd, who says he is only sceptical about “cataclysmic climate change”, wants the government to legislate to provide further protections to free speech directly in academics’ employment contracts.

Mr Tudge has previously used the threat of legislation to force universities to adopt free speech protections, warning earlier this year he would act if they did not fully implement a model code on free speech. All 41 Australian universities now have policies aligned with the code, proposed by former High Court chief justice Robert French, and will report against it annually.

Dr Ridd, the Institute of Public Affairs and the National Tertiary Education Union had argued that whatever the merits of Dr Ridd’s views, he was protected by a right to academic freedom in the university’s collective pay agreement with staff.

The university argued Dr Ridd was not sacked for his views but instead breached its code of conduct, which required staff to act in a courteous and respectful way, and confidentiality requirements about the disciplinary process.

The High Court found intellectual, or academic, freedom as contained in the university’s pay deal “is not qualified by a requirement to afford respect and courtesy in the manner of its exercise” and as a result, an initial censure in 2016 against Dr Ridd was not justified.

The justices quoted 19th-century philosopher John Stuart Mill in their reasoning.

“Whilst a prohibition upon disrespectful and discourteous conduct in intellectual expression might be a ‘convenient plan for having peace in the intellectual world’,” the justices held, “the ‘price paid for this sort of intellectual pacification, is the sacrifice of the entire moral courage of the human mind’.”

The union hailed that aspect of the judgment as a win. But that did not result in a win because the court found Dr Ridd’s conduct extended well beyond the expression of opinion within his area of academic expertise.

Had his conduct related only to his area of expertise or criticism of the JCU decisions through prescribed processes, it would have been protected by intellectual freedom. Because his case was run on an all-or-nothing basis, that meant Dr Ridd lost.

“This litigation concerned conduct by Dr Ridd far beyond that of the 2016 censure, almost none of which was protected by the intellectual freedom. That conduct culminated in the termination decision, a decision which itself was justified by 18 grounds of serious misconduct, none of which involved the exercise of intellectual freedom,” the judges found.

The Institute of Public Affairs, which had helped Dr Ridd run his case via crowdfunding and public relations support, said the decision showed Australia’s universities were mired in a crisis of censorship.

“Our institutions increasingly want to control what Australians are allowed to say and what they can read and hear,” executive director John Roskam said in a statement that also announced Dr Ridd would be joining the institute as an unpaid research fellow to work on “real science”.

The federal government in March legislated a definition of academic freedom into university funding laws – a push led by former education minister Dan Tehan, who said last year he’d received legal advice that Dr Ridd would not have been sacked had the definition been in place at the time.

The definition, which was also based on wording recommended by Mr French in his government-commissioned review of free speech at Australian universities, includes “the freedom of academic staff to teach, discuss, and research and to disseminate and publish the results of their research” and “to contribute to public debate, in relation to their subjects of study and research”.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sacked-climate-sceptic-loses-high-court-case-20211013-p58zk2.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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13 October, 2021

Sacked climate sceptic loses High Court case

The amazing thing about this verdict is that the court agreed it is wrong to criticize your colleagues. How could science progress without disagreements? Criticisms are the springboard to new knowledge

A marine physicist sacked after challenging his colleague’s views on climate change and the Great Barrier Reef, along with the university’s attempts to discipline him, has lost his High Court battle against James Cook University in a mixed decision for academic freedom.

Peter Ridd had been a long-serving professor at the university when he was fired in 2018 after forming the view that the scientific consensus on climate change overstated the risk it posed to the reef and vigorously arguing that position.

He took a parting shot at the university as he informed his supporters “with a heavy heart” on Wednesday that the High Court had dismissed his appeal over his sacking.

“So JCU actions were technically legal. But it was, in my opinion, never right, proper, decent, moral or in line with public expectations of how a university should behave,” he said in a statement posted to Facebook.

“It has cost me my job, my career, over $300K in legal fees, and more than a few grey hairs. All I can say is that I hope I would do it again – because overall it was worth the battle, and having the battle is, in this case, more important than the result.”

Dr Ridd, the libertarian Institute of Public Affairs and the left-wing National Tertiary Education Union argued that whatever the merits of Dr Ridd’s views, he was protected by a right to academic freedom in the university’s collective pay agreement with staff.

The university argued that Ridd was not sacked for his views but instead breached its code of conduct which required staff to act in a courteous and respectful way, and then further breached confidentiality requirements about the disciplinary procedure.

On Wednesday five justices of the High Court unanimously found that intellectual, or academic, freedom as contained in the university’s pay deal “is not qualified by a requirement to afford respect and courtesy in the manner of its exercise”.

The justices said that, as a result, an initial censure in 2016 against Dr Ridd was not justified and quoted the famous 19th century philosopher John Stuart Mill in their reasoning.

However, that did not result in an overall victory for Dr Ridd because the court found that his conduct extended well beyond the expression of opinion within his area of academic expertise. Had his conduct related only to his area of expertise or criticism of JCU decisions through proscribed processes it would have been protected by intellectual freedom. Because his case was run on an all or nothing basis, that meant Dr Ridd lost.

“This litigation concerned conduct by Dr Ridd far beyond that of the 2016 censure, almost none of which was protected by the intellectual freedom... That conduct culminated in the termination decision, a decision which itself was justified by 18 grounds of serious misconduct, none of which involved the exercise of intellectual freedom.”

The Institute of Public Affairs, which had helped Ridd run his case via crowdfunding and public relations support, said the decision showed Australia’s universities were mired in a crisis of censorship.

Ahead of the decision on Wednesday, federal Education Minister Alan Tudge announced that all 41 Australian universities were now compliant with the French model code on free speech, proposed by former High Court chief justice Robert French.

“This has taken two years to get to this point, but each university now has policies which specifically protect free speech,” Mr Tudge said.

The federal government has also legislated a definition of academic freedom into university funding laws - a push led by former education minister Dan Tehan who said last year that he’d received legal advice that Mr Ridd would not have been sacked had the definition been in place at the time.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/sacked-climate-sceptic-loses-high-court-case-20211013-p58zk2.html

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Classroom windows to be open so schools meet COVID-safe air standards

Students and teachers will have to put up with heat, noise and pollination in classrooms when school returns for some next week as new ventilation advice provided to the NSW Education Department says windows should be opened in all possible circumstances to mitigate COVID-19 transmission.

If windows are kept open at all times – including after lessons, over lunch and during hot weather or rain – independent modelling released on Tuesday shows the average public school classroom will meet global standards for fresh air changes and indoor carbon dioxide levels.

The department is also releasing 2200 school-level ventilation reports which are available to parents before students in kindergarten, year 1 and year 12 return on October 18. Other years return on October 25. They have divided school spaces into two categories: rooms that can have full capacity with their windows open, and rooms that need to implement the one person per four square metre rule.

For the latter category, which mainly affects staff offices, schools have been told how many people can be in that space safely.

Engineering consultancy Steensen Varming was contracted to provide independent advice to the department. It used guidelines from the World Health Organisation and the Harvard School of Public Health to gauge whether natural ventilation in classrooms met global standards for mitigating COVID-19 transmission.

The report assumes the typical NSW classroom has a 65 square metre floor area, 2.7 metre ceiling height, and accommodates 25 students and one teacher. It also assumes there are 3.25 square metres (or 5 per cent of floor space) worth of open windows – which is the standard that schools have been built to under construction codes – and that windows are positioned on one side of the room, which is a worst-case scenario.

“There are obviously numerous variables that would need to be considered ... However, known industry tools have been used to estimate likely [air changes per hour] of natural ventilation together with conservative assumptions of some variables for a typical classroom,” the report says.

The calculations indicate classrooms will achieve the main benchmarks of fresh airflow: there would be six air changes per hour and carbon dioxide levels would be about 726 parts per million, which is safely below the accepted threshold of 850. When the number of students in the room increases to 30, estimated CO? levels are 772.

“The typical classroom satisfies and exceeds the WHO road map first strategy approach of providing the nominated fresh air ventilation rate of 10 [litres per second] per person. Additionally, the results also show satisfactory CO? levels in the typical classroom,” it says.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the Steensen Varming report would allow schools to implement expert ventilation advice at a classroom level.

“Parents can be assured that everything is being done to ensure schools are safe for students,” she said. “We need to listen to the experts when it comes to ventilation, just as we do with vaccines.”

Steensen Varming said there was no “zero risk” scenario and that some of its advice may not apply to all school buildings, while issues such as hot weather had not been accounted for.

“As we are currently in spring external temperatures are mild and favourable for natural ventilation. However as we approach summer, and with rising ambient temperatures, the reliance on natural ventilation will lead to thermal comfort issues in classrooms,” the report says.

Classrooms that use air conditioning units on hot days will still need to keep their windows open, meaning rooms will not be as cool and students may be less comfortable.

High outdoor air pollution or pollen levels, loud outdoor noise for schools near construction sites or under flight paths, and security concerns might also affect a school’s ability to open windows. “If it is windy, hot, cold or raining then it may not be practical to fully open the windows or vents,” the report says.

But in all cases the advice says the “highest tolerable” amount of outdoor air should be used, even if it means students and teachers have to adjust their clothing to be comfortable: “[Windows] should be open as far as reasonably possible without causing intolerable discomfort.”

The report also says that wind pressure and certain temperatures – two factors that ensure successful natural ventilation – will inevitably vary based on weather, the position of the classroom and its windows, as well as obstructions like mesh or fly screens.

School Infrastructure NSW chief executive Anthony Manning said the design criteria governing the state’s schools with regards to window sizes meant classrooms would generally have all the fresh air they needed. His team will be working with schools in coming weeks as they adjust to the new edict.

“We’ve said to schools, you can run your wall-mounted air conditioning systems [for heat], you just have to run them with the windows open. They won’t be as effective, but they will provide some level of comfort. The idea is we’ll work with schools to understand all those issues [such as heat and noise] and find alternative ways of doing it,” he said.

The department is also sourcing about 10,000 air purifiers that schools can use if natural ventilation is not sufficient, or in the event of bushfire smoke or poor air quality.

The state’s infrastructure staff are finishing maintenance tasks before all students return on October 25. This includes fixing window frames that have been painted shut and fitting mesh or restrictors on windows above ground level so they can open safely.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/classroom-windows-to-be-kept-open-so-schools-meet-covid-safe-air-standards-20211012-p58zc5.html

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Voluntary assisted dying [euthanasia] bill draws multiparty support across NSW Parliament

Twenty-eight MPs from across the NSW Parliament will support new legislation to legalise voluntary euthanasia, the highest number of co-sponsors to a bill in the history of any Australian parliament.

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill is the first major parliamentary test for new Premier Dominic Perrottet, who has promised to allow a conscience vote on the issue which is likely to be highly divisive within the Liberal Party.

Neither Mr Perrottet nor Labor Opposition Leader Chris Minns support the bill.

The proposed law, which has the support of government MPs, Labor, Greens and assorted members of the crossbench, will give terminally ill people the option to end their lives at a time and place of their choosing.

On Tuesday, the independent member for Sydney Alex Greenwich, who will introduce the bill this week, delivered a petition of more than 100,000 signatures to the State Parliament supporting the legislation.

“This year, we have all heard the calls from the community, that people with a terminal illness in NSW deserve the choice of having a peaceful end of life, rather than a cruel and painful one,” he said.

Mr Greenwich said he hoped the multi-partisan support would ensure respectful debate of the bill through the parliament by the end of the year.

“There will be members who are obviously going to be opposing this reform, and they will come from a really genuine position, a faith position, no doubt,” he said.

“I want to work with them and see if we can address any of their concerns... if a member does have a concern that they feel can be addressed through an amendment then that amendment will be seriously considered”.

Should the legislation pass, Mr Greenwich said it would not be enacted for 18 months, to ensure the right policy settings can be in place.

Liberal MPs Lee Evans, Felicity Wilson, Leslie Williams and Nationals MP Trevor Khan are among the 28 co-sponsors of the bill.

Labor MPs co-sponsoring the bill include Jo Haylen, Jenny Aitchison, David Meehan, Jodie Harrison, Trish Doyle, Sonia Hornery, Leisl Tesch, Kate Washington, Tim Crakanthorp, Adam Searle, John Graham and Anthony D’Adam.

The bill also has the support of Greens MPs David Shoebridge, Abigail Boyd, Jamie Parker, Cate Faerhmann, Jenny Leong and Tamara Smith.

Opposition leader Chris Minns on Tuesday said he would not support the bill, but added he believed his view was in the minority within the NSW Labor party.

“I don’t think that you can codify the risks for a vulnerable person who’s in the latter stages of their life who may feel that they’re a burden on their family or their loved ones,” Mr Minns said.

“I think that’s a real concern and I don’t think it can be dealt with as per the writing of the bill.”

Mr Minns said he hoped the passage of the bill would be smooth. “Look I’m not hoping for problems I’m hoping that it’s dealt with,” he said.

Mr Greenwich acknowledged the concerns raised by Mr Minns, but countered that the legislation would create criminal offences to target coercion and require doctors be specifically trained to identify if someone is under any pressure.

“NSW will be the last state to legislate for voluntary assisted dying. That means we have been able to learn from the legislation and every other jurisdiction to make sure that we have the strongest safeguards,” Mr Greenwich said.

Fellow independents Greg Piper and Justin Field will also co-sponsor the voluntary assisted dying bill, as will members of the Animal Justice Party and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/voluntary-assisted-dying-bill-draws-multi-party-support-across-nsw-parliament-20211012-p58zba.html

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Finkel defends huge Chinese CO2 emissions

Dr Alan Finkel was Australia’s Chief Scientist for five years until the end of last year. He was then appointed Special Adviser to the Australian Government on Low Emissions Technology

The fact that China had a net zero target for 2060 when the developed world had a target date of 2050 was “partly fairness and partly reality,” Dr Alan Finkel said.

The former Chief Scientist, speaking in a live forum with Joe Hildebrand, said China was bringing millions of people out of poverty, “and they deserve to improve their lifestyle”.

As a manufacturing powerhouse for the world, China’s ability to decarbonise was limited compared to some other countries, Dr Finkel said.

“They can do nothing immediately, or in percentage terms as rapidly, as the more developed countries,” he said.

Dr Finkel said it was true that China’s emissions were “huge and getting bigger”.

“They want to know that everybody’s pitching in. Everyone has to contribute,” he said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/mission-zero-dr-alan-finkel-answers-your-climate-questions/news-story/e37e2c7ea5733b6d72b62fd2ba9b189c

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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12 October, 2021

Could a gas that leaks through steel be our new energy store?

Hydrogen is being touted as the solution to our energy woes. How did that happen, and why?

“It’s really been because of the global move toward decarbonisation,” Hydrogen Council CEO Dr Fiona Simon said.

“It’s time has really arrived because of the need for us as a global economy to move from the existing way that we use energy. Hydrogen has characteristics that we can value more than we could before.”

Australia’s CSIRO has been working on the industrial applications of hydrogen for at least a decade, but its big breakthrough came in 2017, when it developed a metal membrane that enabled the element to be separated from ammonia. This global first was critical because ammonia is much easier to transport than hydrogen.

The next year the CSIRO signed a deal with Fortescue Metals to help commercialise hydrogen technologies. Company chair Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest described hydrogen as “the low emission fuel of the future” and likened the moment to the beginning of an energy revolution.

Developments have come rapidly ever since.

The federal government co-funded one hydrogen export pilot project in its 2020 Budget, and added another four this year.

The CSIRO now lists 74 large-scale, demonstration and pilot projects using hydrogen across the country.

In May this year the organisation launched its Hydrogen Industry Mission, with a goal of driving the cost of production down to under $2 per kilogram.

Hydrogen sounds great. what’s the catch?

Cost. Hydrogen will not be competitive until it can be produced at under $2 per kilogram, with the Australian industry hoping to achieve that benchmark by 2030. As the element is highly flammable, and is so small it can even escape through steel, critics say retrofitting existing infrastructure for hydrogen is also likely to be extremely expensive. Others say the water needed to create green hydrogen needs to be of such high purity that will also be a massive cost hurdle.

Hydrogen holds a lot of promise, but it needs the right policy settings to encourage investment, Dr Simon said.

“Hydrogen is competing with an existing industry with existing economies of scale and existing subsidies,” she said. “So much of [hydrogen’s potential] relies on the right policy settings, that we don’t have.”

Some have suggested hydrogen will not live up to the hype, but Dr Simon said it will fulfil its potential: it’s just a question of how much.

“It’s gone past the point where it could fall over. Hydrogen is a thing, it’s real, the question is do we put enough gusto in to make it real, to see it meets its full potential. That’s an open question,” she said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/technology/environment/mission-zero-what-is-hydrogen-power-and-how-does-it-work/news-story/cdc2312c4b92b3311614361827481199

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2011 flood victims take fight to High Court

Victims of the 2011 Queensland flood have taken their decade-long fight for compensation to the High Court claiming it will be their “last chance for justice”.

Lawyers for almost 7000 flood victims lodged the application for special leave to the High Court this week, in a bid to challenge a ruling that left victims with only half of their expected $900 million payout.

The 2011 flooding of the Brisbane River damaged 6800 people’s homes and triggered one of Australia’s largest class actions.

In 2019, Maurice Blackburn lawyers secured a win for the flood victims when the NSW Supreme Court found Seqwater, SunWater and the state government failed to operate the dams properly or take into account rainfall forecasts when releasing water.

Aerial shot of Warwick when it was devastated by 2011 floods.

The Queensland Government and SunWater did not appeal the decision and will pay out around $440 million.

But in what flood victims called a “kick in the guts”, the State Government-owned Seqwater successfully appealed the decision last month despite being found to be 50 per cent responsible for the flood-related losses.

The legal blow left victims with only half their expected payout.

Ipswich city councillor and Goodna flood victim Paul Tully said the High Court application was the class action’s “last throw of the dice” and the latest turn in the seven-year legal stoush.

He said another delay was a “small price to pay” for Seqwater to be held accountable for its actions and for flood victims to be properly compensated.

“SunWater and the state government have already accepted they were partly liable for the flood and have agreed to pay their half of the assessed losses.”

“This is our last chance for justice to prevail after 10 long years.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/2011-flood-victims-take-fight-to-high-court/news-story/ce43a37cc2855c9341eff2b9d3ef90b5

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Left behind: progressives need to catch up with Perrottet and stop being so afraid of freedom

Who is afraid of freedom? That is the question, as we inch closer towards new freedoms on Monday. For many of us, it can’t come too soon. Human beings are not built for life in lockdown, confined to our domestic dungeons.

Having over 100 days of not seeing friends or family, having to juggle home-schooling with work, has been enough to plunge thousands of us into a state of what psychologists call “languishing” – not quite clinical depression but certainly not joy either.

Which explains Dominic Perrottet’s first steps as Premier in accelerating NSW’s moves towards reopening. The new Premier’s adjustments to the Reopening NSW road map are modest. The fully vaccinated will be able to have up to 10 visitors at home rather than five. Outdoor gatherings will allow 30 people rather than 20. Schools will fully return a bit earlier than expected.

Yet the announcements feel significant – maybe even unnerving to some.

Unlike many new political leaders who enjoy the benefit of a fresh start, there is already a healthy dose of suspicion directed at Perrottet from progressive commentators. Much, perhaps too much, has been said about his conservative Catholicism. His enthusiastic support for the Trump presidency and his enthusiasm for privatising public assets are more compelling reasons for concern. There is also a view that Perrottet is a free-market ideologue sceptical of public health restrictions, who wishes nothing more than to open us up, come what may.

There is no doubt that the new Premier is taking something of a bet in speeding up NSW’s reopening. Except the real bet isn’t what you might think it is.

Our revised reopening is hardly the stuff of a Trumpian push for “let it rip”. The NSW plan remains one of the most cautious in the world. And not just when compared with the US, where many Republican states have veered down the path of reckless libertarianism. Consider Denmark or Norway, social democratic states that value health and wellbeing. They started reopening back in April when less than 20 per cent of their population had a single vaccination. They have now essentially removed all restrictions on freedom.

It’s a sign of Australia’s COVID parochialism that we seem to think allowing 10 people into the homes of the double-vaccinated, instead of five, is a measure of radical risk-taking.

No, the bet that Perrottet is now taking is not about public health, but one about politics.

For months now, with vaccination rates surging in NSW, we have been on a psychological runway towards reopening. We’ve been the first state in the country to accept that we will indeed have to live with COVID. Most of us now understand that total victory can’t be declared over the virus, though we can protect ourselves from its worst dangers with a vaccinated population.

Perrottet’s political calculation is that we are now ready for take-off. This is one politician who isn’t afraid of freedom. His instincts tell him that the people of NSW increasingly aren’t either.

For Labor and those on the political left, there is huge political danger in all of this.

During the past 18 months, many self-described progressives and social democrats have grown comfortable with lockdowns. Taking their lead from Jacinda Ardern, Daniel Andrews, Mark McGowan and Annastacia Palaszczuk, they subscribe to the idea of COVID Zero. It has become a progressive article of faith that the best response to the pandemic is a strategy of elimination: using the awesome power of government to restrict people’s behaviour in pursuit of safety, almost irrespective of the cost.

Delta, of course, has rendered that a pipe dream. While some Labor leaders have moved on, others remain stuck in the fantasy that we can somehow hide from COVID-19. The reality is that vaccination – the higher the coverage, the better – is the best way to neutralise a virus that isn’t going away.

That is why the left risks being marooned in the pre-vaccine world of 2020, still criticising Liberal political leaders for exposing Australians to the dangers of COVID rather than offering their own alternative. There is no optimism, no energy, no hope.

Similar patterns are playing out overseas. This week, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson mocked his Labour rival, Keir Starmer, for opposing reopening. If Britain had listened to Labour, Johnson charged, “we’d still be in lockdown”. According to Johnson, had Christopher Columbus listened to Starmer he would only be famous for discovering Tenerife.

Dominic Perrottet is not Boris Johnson, but his fundamental political instincts are the same. We are entering a new phase of this pandemic, one where people’s minds turn to the future, their ambitions and the freedom they will be able to enjoy again. The Premier is willing to embrace that. If they want to stay politically relevant, progressives will have to do so too.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/left-behind-progressives-need-to-catch-up-with-perrottet-and-stop-being-so-afraid-of-freedom-20211008-p58yc4.html

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Australia won't tighten carbon emissions targets for polluters

Australia's energy minister on Monday rejected a call from the lobby group for the country's biggest companies to set stricter emissions limits on polluters but gave no indication what targets the government may announce ahead of UN climate talks this month.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is working on securing support from the Liberal party's rural partner, the Nationals, to back a target of net zero by 2050 and possibly a more ambitious target for 2030 than Australia's existing pledge to cut emissions by 26-28% from 2005 levels, ahead of the UN climate conference in Glasgow.

Yet, the Business Council of Australia - which represents the country's biggest companies including miners, gas and power producers - said over the weekend that emissions reductions of up to 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 could be achieved with big benefits for the economy.

Addressing an energy and climate conference on Monday, Energy Minister Angus Taylor swiftly shot down the council's recommendation that the government beef up its "Safeguard Mechanism" by requiring businesses that emit more than 25 million tonnes a year to buy carbon offsets, compared with the current threshold of 100 million tonnes a year.

The Safeguard Mechanism and the carbon offset market sets Australia's carbon price, which last week rocketed to a record high, but was still less than one-third the carbon price in the European Union, which has much stricter emission limits.

"A substantial tightening of the Safeguard Mechanism is a backdoor carbon tax consumers will ultimately have to pay for, and that's not acceptable," Taylor said at conference organised by the Australian Financial Review.

Australia is the world's fourth largest energy exporter, and Taylor said the government's main goal was to protect key industries, including gas, coal, heavy manufacturing and agriculture, while also promoting hydrogen, carbon capture and storage and soil carbon to cut emissions.

The government would stick to providing incentives to cut emissions rather than punishing polluters, he said.

"That means avoiding explicit carbon taxes or backdoor pathways to a carbon tax - sneaky carbon taxes."

Taylor's speech came the same day that Australian billionaire Twiggy Forrest, an outspoken critic of the government's energy policies, announced he would build the world's biggest electrolyser factory in Australia to further his ambition to produce green hydrogen.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/australia-won-t-tighten-carbon-emissions-targets-for-polluters/ar-AAPmh7b

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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11 October, 2021

A Sea of White Faces in Australia’s ‘Party of Multiculturalism’

She seemed an ideal political candidate in a country that likes to call itself the world’s “most successful multicultural nation.”

Tu Le, a young Australian lawyer who is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees, was set to become the opposition Labor Party’s candidate for Parliament in one of Sydney’s most diverse districts. She grew up nearby, works as an advocate for exploited migrant workers and had the backing of the incumbent.

Then Ms. Le was passed over. The leaders of the center-left party, which casts itself as a bastion of diversity, instead chose a white American-born senator, Kristina Keneally, from Sydney’s wealthy northeast to run for the safe Labor seat in the city’s impoverished southwest.

But Ms. Le, unlike many before her, did not go quietly. She and other young members of the political left have pushed into the open a debate over the near absence of cultural diversity in Australia’s halls of power, which has persisted even as the country has been transformed by non-European migration.

While about a quarter of the population is nonwhite, members of minority groups make up only about 6 percent of the federal Parliament, according to a 2018 study. That figure has barely budged since, leaving Australia far behind comparable democracies like Britain, Canada and the United States.

In Australia, migrant communities are often seen but not heard: courted for photo opportunities and as fund-raising bases or voting blocs, but largely shut out of electoral power, elected officials and party members said. Now, more are demanding change after global reckonings on race like the Black Lives Matter movement and a pandemic that has crystallized Australia’s class and racial inequalities.

“The Australia that I live in and the one that I work in, Parliament, are two completely different worlds,” said Mehreen Faruqi, a Greens party senator who in 2013 became Australia’s first female Muslim member of Parliament. “And we now know why they are two completely different worlds. It’s because people are not willing to step aside and actually make room for this representation.”

The backlash has reached the highest levels of the Labor Party, which is hoping to unseat Prime Minister Scott Morrison in a federal election that must be held by May.

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, faced criticism when he held up the white senator, Ms. Keneally, 52, as a migrant “success story” because she had been born in the United States. Some party members called the comment tone deaf, a charge they also leveled at former Prime Minister Paul Keating after he said local candidates “would take years to scramble” to Ms. Keneally’s “level of executive ability, if they can ever get there at all.”

Ms. Keneally, one of the Labor Party’s most senior members, told a radio interviewer that she had “made a deliberate decision” to seek the southwestern Sydney seat. She did so, she said, because it represents an overlooked community that had “never had a local member who sits at the highest level of government, at a senior level at the cabinet table, and I think they deserve that.”

She plans to move to the district, she said. In the Australian political system, candidates for parliamentary seats are decided either by party leaders or through an internal vote of party members from that district. Candidates do not have to live in the district they seek to represent.

When contacted for comment, Ms. Keneally’s office referred The New York Times to previous media interviews.

Chris Hayes, the veteran lawmaker who is vacating the southwestern Sydney seat, said he had endorsed Ms. Le because of her deep connections with the community.

“It would be sensational to be able to not only say that we in Labor are the party of multiculturalism, but to actually show it in our faces,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in March.

Ms. Le, 30, said she believed the party leadership sidelined her because it saw her as a “tick-the-box exercise” instead of a viable contender. As an outsider, “the system was stacked against me,” she said. “I haven’t ‘paid my dues,’ I haven’t ‘served my time’ or been in with the faceless men or factional bosses for years.”

What she finds especially disappointing about Labor’s decision, she said, is the message it sends: that the party takes for granted the working-class and migrant communities it relies on for votes.

Australia has not experienced the same sorts of fights over political representation that have resulted in growing electoral clout for minority groups in other countries, said Tim Soutphommasane, a former national racial discrimination commissioner, in part because it introduced a “top down” policy of multiculturalism in the 1970s.

That has generated recognition of minority groups, though often in the form of “celebratory” multiculturalism, he said, that uses food and cultural festivals as stand-ins for genuine engagement.

When ethnic minorities get involved in Australian politics, they are often pushed to become their communities’ de facto representatives — expected to speak on multiculturalism issues, or relegated to recruiting party members from the same cultural background — and then are punished for supposedly not having broader appeal.

“The expectation from inside the parties as well as the community is that you’re there to represent the minority, the small portion of your community that’s from the same ethnic background as you,” said Elizabeth Lee, a Korean Australian who is the leader of the Australian Capital Territory’s Liberal Party. “It’s very hard to break through that mold.”

Many ethnically diverse candidates never make it to Parliament because their parties do not put them in winnable races, said Peter Khalil, a Labor member of Parliament.

During his own election half a decade ago, he was told to shave his goatee because it made him “look like a Muslim,” he said. (Mr. Khalil is a Coptic Christian.)

“They want to bleach you, whiten you,” he added, “because there’s a fear that you’ll scare people off.”

In the Australian political system, the displacement of a local candidate by a higher-ranking party insider is not unusual. Mr. Morrison was chosen to run for a seat in 2007 after a more popular Lebanese Australian candidate, Michael Towke, said he was forced to withdraw by leaders of the center-right Liberal Party.

Ms. Keneally moved to the safe Labor seat, with the backing of party leaders, because she was in danger of losing her current seat. Her backers also note that she has been endorsed by a handful of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Middle Eastern community leaders.

Joseph Haweil, 32, the mayor of a municipality in Melbourne and a Labor Party member, said that as a political aspirant from a refugee background, he saw in the controversy over Ms. Le a glimpse of his possible future. Mr. Haweil is Assyrian, a minority group from the Middle East.

“You can spend years and years doing the groundwork, the most important thing in politics — assisting local communities, understanding your local community with a view to help them as a public policy maker — and that’s not still enough to get you over the line,” he said.

Osmond Chiu, 34, a party member who is Chinese Australian, said “the message it sent was that culturally diverse representation is an afterthought in Labor, and it will always be sacrificed whenever it is politically inconvenient.”

Ms. Le spoke out in a way that others in the past have avoided, perhaps to preserve future political opportunities. She said that she was uncertain what she would do next, but that she hoped political parties would now think twice before making a decision like the one that shut her out.

“It’s definitely tapped into something quite uncomfortable to discuss, but I think it needs to be out in the open,” she said. “I don’t think people will stand for it anymore.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/06/world/australia/labor-party-diversity.html

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Extraordinary story of how a mother and daughter spent months in jail for 'importing drugs' – but it was actually TEA

A mother and daughter got themselves into hot water when they were thrown in the slammer for six months due to a botched police investigation which wrongfully determined they were smuggling drugs when in reality it was just ginger tea.

Connie Chong and her daughter Melanie Lim imported the exotic brew from China so they could sell it in Australia online, but in January two of their shipments were seized by Border Force agents at Sydney Airport.

The preliminary indicator tests on the cargo wrongfully found the presence of a rare banned stimulant was known as phenmetrazine, leading investigators to suspect the tea pushers were really major drug queens.

Heavily-armed police officers then raided their Greenacre home in southwest Sydney slapping cuffs on the pair and discovering more of the substance. The terrified women were then charged with the commercial supply of drugs, refused bail and told they could be facing life behind bars.

But in August more thorough laboratory testing uncovered the shocking realisation that Chong and Lim were completely innocent and that the original presumptive colour test indicators detected a false positive.

All charges against the women have now been dropped but police prosecutors are refusing to pay for their legal bills despite their obvious blunder.

Defence barrister Steve Boland said the case was one of the most extraordinary police 'stuff-ups' in modern memory which has caused tremendous trauma for the pair.

'It is a gross injustice,' defence lawyer Benjamin Goh told 7News outside court on Tuesday. 'Two innocent women that have served their time as a result of the police not doing the investigations properly. 'It is open to the Crown to say 'sorry'. We stuffed up and two women went to prison for our dodgy prosecution.'

The women are now taking legal action against the NSW Police who say the delay in receiving adequate test results was due to a lack of lab equipment.

Their case seeking damages will continue before the court next year.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10063771/Sydney-mother-daughter-spent-months-jail-importing-drugs-actually-TEA.html

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Peter Dutton tells court he was ‘deeply offended’ by tweet branding him a ‘rape apologist’

Defence Minister Peter Dutton has told a court he was “deeply offended” by an “egregious” post on Twitter branding him a rape apologist, which prompted him to sue for defamation for the first time.

Mr Dutton, 50, formerly Home Affairs Minister and Immigration Minister, is suing refugee advocate Shane Bazzi in the Federal Court over a tweet posted on February 25 this year which said: “Peter Dutton is a rape apologist.”

The post linked to a Guardian Australia article reporting Mr Dutton’s comments in 2019 that some women on Nauru “have claimed that they’ve been raped and came to Australia to seek an abortion”. Mr Dutton suggested they were “trying it on” in order to secure a medical transfer to Australia.

Earlier on February 25, Mr Dutton had spoken at a press conference about the Brittany Higgins rape allegations and said he received a high-level briefing from police, which he did not personally pass on to the Prime Minister.

Ms Higgins, a former Liberal Party staffer, alleges she was raped by another former staffer in Parliament House in March 2019.

Mr Dutton’s barrister Nick Ferrett, QC, said there had been a number of “unpleasant observations” about his client during his time as a politician, however Mr Bazzi’s comment was “personal” because “it’s the opposite of who he is”.

On Wednesday, Mr Dutton told the Federal Court he was an officer in the Queensland Police Service for almost nine years before entering politics, including a stint as a plainclothes constable in the sex offender squad.

Mr Dutton said he spent considerable hours taking witness statements to prosecute those responsible for sex crimes, took victims to shelters and provided support to them during the investigation phase and in court.

He said Mr Bazzi’s tweet was brought to his attention by one of his staff members, and he was “deeply offended by it”.

“Obviously as Minister for Immigration or Home Affairs, it’s a rough-and-tumble business and there are lots of advocates and a lot of passion in the space where people make comments which are false and untrue, offensive, profane,” Mr Dutton said.

“But that’s part of the rough-and-tumble, if you like. This went beyond that, and it went against who I am, my beliefs.

“For some people, they don’t put constructed arguments. Even given the passion, either because of the limit to their vocabulary or their intellect, they resort to insults or comments which are profane and beyond the reasonable bounds. This went to a different level.

“That’s why I was most offended by it, because I thought it was defamatory. I thought it was hurtful, and I took particular exception to it.”

Mr Dutton said he had arranged for a legal letter to be sent to Greens Senator Larissa Waters for a similar tweet, also on February 25, which referred to Mr Dutton as an “inhuman, sexist rape apologist”.

The tweet followed Mr Dutton’s comment at the press conference about Ms Higgins that he had not been “provided with the ‘she said, he said’ details of the allegation”.

Mr Dutton said he took offence to Ms Waters’ comments, for which she apologised, and took offence to Mr Bazzi repeating them. He said he chose to sue Mr Bazzi because his comment was “egregious” and “goes beyond anything I’ve seen before”.

In court documents, Mr Dutton argues Mr Bazzi’s tweet defamed him by wrongly suggesting he condones rape and excuses rape. The politician is seeking damages, including aggravated damages, and costs.

Mr Bazzi is seeking to rely on the defence of honest opinion and the public interest-style defence of qualified privilege in the case. His barrister, Richard Potter, SC, said an ordinary reasonable reader would consider the entirety of Mr Bazzi’s tweet, and would have known the additional context related to Ms Higgins.

Mr Potter said no amount of loose thinking by readers would lead to the “strained” interpretation suggested by Mr Dutton. “If the respondent meant to convey that [Mr Dutton] condones or excuses rape, he could have done so explicitly,” Mr Potter said. “Context is significant, especially in this case.”

Mr Ferrett said Mr Bazzi could have said something in his tweet like “Peter Dutton doesn’t pay sufficient regard to allegations of rape”, but instead chose to say something more impactful, hyperbolic and serious. “Instead of saying something which the material justified, and which was being debated in the community at the time … he said ‘Peter Dutton is a rape apologist’,” Mr Ferrett said.

The hearing continues.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/peter-dutton-tells-court-he-was-deeply-offended-by-tweet-branding-him-a-rape-apologist-20211006-p58xol.html

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How Barnaby Joyce sent the ‘fear of God’ through Big Tech

Here’s a puzzle. On Wednesday, the Minister for Communications, Paul Fletcher, appeared at the National Press Club in Canberra. He took the national media spotlight to talk about his new booklet, Governing in the Age of the Internet. It’s a vast and urgent problem. But he had nothing new to say on the topic.

Fletcher didn’t so much as utter the words “social media” in his speech. Yet on Thursday, the very next day, Prime Minister Scott Morrison made news on Fletcher’s chosen topic when he damned the big social media companies that Fletcher is supposed to be in charge of regulating:

“Social media has become a coward’s palace where people can just go on there, not say who they are, destroy people’s lives and say the most foul and offensive things,” Morrison said at a press conference, signalling a crackdown. This made news not only in Australia but around the world. The global newsagency Reuters made it their “quote of the day”.

Morrison went further. It was “not a free country” where people could destroy lives with impunity. “So people should be responsible for what they say, in a country that believes in free speech. I think that’s very important … we intend to set the pace because we value our free society and in a free society, you can’t be a coward and attack people and expect not to be held accountable for it.”

So what changed in between the minister’s anodyne address and the Prime Minister’s unscripted denunciation? Two things. One was the appearance of the Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen before a committee of the US Congress. The other was Barnaby Joyce.

Haugen’s testimony to the US Senate Commerce Committee was the culmination of a systematic three-week media campaign she’d waged, supplying tens of thousands of pages of internal Facebook files to The Wall Street Journal for a blockbuster series known as the Facebook Files.

She was motivated to act, she said, because she’d lost a friend to online radicalisation. Now she was trying to coach the American legislature in how to do what it has never done – tame the tech monsters: “During my time at Facebook, first working as the lead product manager for civic misinformation, and later on counterespionage, I saw Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety. Facebook consistently resolve these conflicts in favour of its own profits.”

Among the many, the most powerful single disclosure Haugen made was the leaking of a March 2020 slide presentation posted to Facebook’s internal message board. It cited internal research at the company’s Instagram business: “Thirty-two percent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse. Comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves.”

Another slide said: “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.”

Among teenagers who reported suicidal thoughts, 13 per cent of British users and six per cent of American traced the desire to kill themselves to Instagram, according to the internal Facebook research.

Now Haugen told the Congress: “The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed. They won’t solve this crisis without your help.”

She told the senators: “When we realised the extent of the damage caused by the tobacco industry, the government stepped in. When we realised cars were safer with seat belts, the government stepped in.” It was now the responsibility of legislators to act against the damage wrought by Facebook. “I implore you to do the same here.”

At the same time Haugen was holding the attention of the US political and media worlds, Barnaby Joyce was getting alarming messages of commiseration from friends abroad.

They were very sad and sorry to see the horrible things being said about his eldest daughter, Bridgette, on social media. A mystified Nationals leader went to search social media sites and was stunned to find that his daughter was being insulted and abused by anonymous internet voices, supposedly for being in a relationship with John Barilaro, the NSW Nationals leader who this week announced his retirement from NSW Parliament.

Bridgette Joyce had worked on Barilaro’s staff, but it was a “devastating lie” that they’d been in a relationship, Barnaby Joyce said. It was not only a lie, it was being seized upon by hateful grubs and internet bottom-feeders anonymously to heap vilification and abuse on the young woman. In other words, just another day’s entertainment for the Twitter trolls.

Joyce, fuming and frustrated, acted as any concerned father would to try to find a solution. But as Deputy Prime Minister, he had more tools at his disposal.

Among other things, he phoned the Prime Minister on Thursday morning and demanded that the government act to impose accountability on the US social media corporations. The government already had work under way to try to advance the accountability agenda, but Joyce insisted it move faster and, if need be, unilaterally. Joyce says he told Morrison: “This is enough.”

A Morrison trademark is his close supervision and control of his ministers. But Joyce, the leader of the Nationals and a force of nature, is beyond his control. So when Morrison gave his press conference that afternoon, he was primed. When a reporter asked him about the government’s work program, Morrison took the opportunity to “pick up and add my voice to Barnaby’s”.

Next, Joyce went public to denounce the rumours as “utter rubbish” and called for the social media companies to end the endless, anonymous “character assassinations” on their platforms.

Then he wrote an opinion piece for Friday’s issue of the Herald and Age: “Twitter, it is not the trolls that inspire the devastating mental health issues. The trolls don’t have a voice unless you give them one, and you do!” And: “The public has reasonable grounds to ask that these companies, supporting the lifestyles of billionaires, do not make their money by dropping character bricks on the heads of innocent private individuals.”

Joyce tells me that he wants the Commonwealth unilaterally to legislate to make Twitter, Facebook and the rest held liable for any defamatory material published on any of their platforms available in Australia. His ministerial colleague, Attorney-General Michaelia Cash, had already written to the states to consider this area of law, but Joyce is pushing her to act faster and unilaterally if necessary. He wants legislation passed before Parliament is prorogued for the election due by May next year.

And while he’d like to work with the US Congress on reforms, “don’t wait for them”, he adds. He promises that it’s not just a moment of catharsis: “I’m not going to just drop this.”

And Joyce takes up the car metaphor: “In a car, if I run over a person I go to jail, seatbelt or not. Online, I’m apparently indemnified. What’s the difference – breaking a leg or breaking a mind? We spend billions on mental health while they make billions in profits. I want to put the fear of God in them.”

And when Twitter and Facebook make the inevitable threats to withdraw from Australia in response? “I will say great, problem solved. I’ll say, hurry up!”

Paul Fletcher and the e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who works in his portfolio, are working on an ambitious, world-leading online safety code. It’s careful and painstaking work.

The Office of e-Safety already has a sound record of getting the US tech firms to remove harmful material on a voluntary basis. The new code would make it mandatory. This work, says Inman Grant, aims to stop serious cyber abuse, and could possibly intersect with Joyce’s agenda. She says it’s a world first and “we need to show restraint and use it for the most serious and harmful cases”.

This code could intersect with Joyce’s agenda, but it’s not at all clear whether Joyce’s unilateral law to hold Big Tech accountable for defamation would help or hinder.

Joyce is in a tearing hurry and he doesn’t seem to care whether others, even in his own government, can keep up. He had a phone call from Facebook’s Australian operation about 4pm on Friday, offering to work with the Deputy Prime Minister to help solve the problem. According to Joyce, he told the Facebook executive: “Your time is over. We are going to do something.

“How many opportunities do you need? Why are we going through this charade? It’s over.”

On the contrary, it’s just beginning.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/how-barnaby-joyce-sent-the-fear-of-god-through-big-tech-20211008-p58ycm.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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10 October, 2021

International farm subsidies the next target in Australian plan on carbon

Clever. If other countries in the developed world accuse Australia of not doing enough carbon reduction, Australia can embarrass them by pointing to an area where they could do much more. The upshot could be an informal agreement not to criticize one-another's CO2 emissions

Australia will back a push to slash farm subsidies overseas worth $740 billion a year in the hope of achieving deeper cuts to carbon emissions at the upcoming United Nations climate summit, declaring the payments encourage waste and hurt the environment.

The federal government is joining other big countries in vowing to tackle the subsidies after UN agencies said the spending could balloon to $2.5 trillion and undermine the Paris target to cut greenhouse emissions by 2030.

The campaign promises benefits for Australian farmers who suffer from their competitors being paid mammoth subsidies in the European Union and the United States, helping Prime Minister Scott Morrison seek a climate deal with the Nationals as soon as next week.

The Australian position, put by Trade Minister Dan Tehan in talks in Europe on Friday, joins calls from Brazil and Indonesia for cuts to subsidies that offer the biggest payments to farmers in wealthy countries and do the most harm to those in the developing world.

Mr Tehan raised the issue with US climate envoy John Kerry in a step toward getting the US, EU and the World Trade Organisation to acknowledge the problem and put it on the agenda at the climate summit that begins in Glasgow on November 1.

“If countries are serious about addressing climate change they have to address all aspects of reducing emissions,” Mr Tehan said in an interview.

“We cannot leave an issue untouched when it ultimately accounts for 25 per cent of emission reduction. “We’re looking at this and other countries need to do the same.”

Mr Tehan spoke to US trade representative Katherine Tai, European Commission Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis and World Trade Organisation Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala about setting up a climate group to pursue the issue in trade talks after the Glasgow summit.

Australian governments have long opposed the scale of the US and EU subsidies on the grounds they punish food producers elsewhere, but the climate talks build a stronger case to unwind decades of payments that encourage over-production.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation and other UN agencies estimated last month the subsidies cost $US540 billion ($740 billion) this year and would rise to $US1.8 trillion ($2.5 trillion) by 2030, hurting efforts on climate change.

“These are inefficient, distort food prices, hurt people’s health, degrade the environment, and are often inequitable,” they said.

The EU is promising to reform its subsidies as part of its action on climate change, given agriculture accounts for about 10 per cent of EU emissions.

Agriculture accounts for about 13 per cent of Australian emissions but has been a big source of carbon reductions since 2005, leading Nationals deputy leader and Agriculture Minister David Littleproud to warn that the sector cannot do as much “heavy lifting” in the future.

Mr Tehan acknowledged the campaign on farm subsidies meant Australia would have to accept concerns about fossil fuel subsidies from other countries when Mr Morrison and the federal government are being accused of doing too little to cut emissions.

“If questions are going to be asked about fossil fuel subsidies, which they are, then what we need to be saying is: OK, if we need to take action against fossil fuel subsidies – and the Australian government acknowledges that this is an area that there needs to have action on – then why not do the same on agricultural subsidies?” he said.

The Trade Minister also noted this in remarks to an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting on the “green economy” in Paris on Thursday, attended by Mr Kerry, before heading to a meeting of G20 trade ministers in Rome.

The value of the fossil fuel help is forecast to be much more than the farm assistance, the International Monetary Fund estimating last month fossil fuel subsidies are worth about $US6 trillion a year, with 70 per cent made up of “undercharging” for environmental costs.

Mr Tehan expects to raise the subsidy campaign with his Indonesian counterpart, Muhammad Lutfi, in the G20 talks in Rome in the belief developing nations also want the issue on the agenda in Glasgow.

“What this would do is enable developing countries, and countries like Australia, to be able to transition in a way which would help us set ambitious targets when it comes to emission reduction,” he said.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/international-farm-subsidies-the-next-target-in-australian-plan-on-carbon-20211008-p58ygx.html

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Immigrants will probably trust Dominic Perrottet - it’s inner-city folk whose values are "progressive"

The appointment of former NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet to the role of Premier provoked an outcry this week. It was a deeply weird reaction. Perrottet’s assent has been described as “scary” and “troubling”. He makes one writer, who is “a woman and a supporter of LGBTQIA+ communities” particularly “nervous”. A social media activist was concerned that his conservative religious and family values drive “attitudes and often policies that may be severely at odds with the central demands of democracy”.

The idea that holding conservative, faith-based family values is aberrant is very weird. Weird in the sense coined by evolutionary psychologist Joseph Henrich in his book on “how the West became psychologically peculiar and particularly prosperous”. Henrich tracks how the rules laid down in European Christianity’s “marriage and family program” replaced intensive kin-based institutions with an institution that expanded trust relationships beyond the family. The universalism it fostered created the Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Developed (WEIRD) world, Henrich argues.

Australians are individually among the WEIRDest. Whether or not we are now religious, our views have been shaped by the social structures our religious ancestors built, which encouraged individualism, independence, the notion that strangers have the same inherent human value as those related to us, non-conformity, resistance to tradition and a number of other characteristics which you might instantly recognise as positive, even aspirational, and which you probably believe you possess. Some of us are so non-conforming that we have talked ourselves out of religion entirely. We believe that you can be moral, spiritual and good without attending religious ceremonies or worshipping a higher being.

We are also open to other peoples and cultures and Australia’s immigration intake has made Australia the diverse, multicultural and multi-faith society it is today. Since the middle of last century, the overseas-born population has risen from one-tenth to one-third. This has increased the proportion of non-WEIRD to WEIRD people, as more people come to Australia from countries such as India, China, the Philippines, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

These countries tend to be more religious, more family-oriented and less individualistic than societies which have been WEIRD for a very long time. The people from them bring their cultural dispositions with them and, Henrich has found, generally these values are also held by their descendants over a couple of generations. These communities are more socially conservative, family-oriented and religious than your inner-city WEIRDo.

These communities now hold quite a lot of electoral power. That is not, of course, why the new Premier holds the values he does. But Henrich reports that immigrants from different countries living in the same country show higher levels of trust in people of faith, even if it’s a faith different to their own. The Premier’s values make him more trustworthy among the less WEIRD new Australians.

In retail political speak, Perrottet can connect with voters from many religions because he shares their values. But then so can NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns, who is also a family-oriented Catholic. Both men are focused on the needs and aspirations of non-WEIRD Western Sydney, in which the next state and federal elections could be decided.

By now the WEIRD people who are terrified of Perrottet should be waking up to a shocking discovery. Australian public life doesn’t revolve around their values. ABC Religion and Ethics presenter Andrew West wrote thoughtfully about the lessons of the 2019 federal election won by the Liberals, in which religious freedom played at least some part, observing that “Labor, and the broader left, need to understand that you cannot celebrate multiculturalism without supporting religious freedom”.

West points out that while no one expects politicians to adopt a fake religious identity, they do expect them to respect their rights “to believe, to manifest these beliefs in private and public, and to educate their children according to these beliefs”.

This means also respecting that people may have different views on social issues, such as same-sex marriage, abortion, gender and voluntary assisted dying. WEIRD people see these things as about individual choice. Less WEIRD people believe that individual choices affect the collective and so they may be more cautious about changing the social fabric. We should be able to disagree and debate such issues with respect, understanding that there are no objectively right or wrong answers on culture.

That might weird you out, but it is part of the tolerance that a multicultural society demands. Conservative governments have sometimes worried that such tolerance could go too far and have attempted to protect the progressive principles of our culture with a statement of Australian values. Progressives have often labelled these attempts as racist.

There could be another shock for the weirdos next week when the voluntary assisted dying bill is presented to NSW Parliament on Thursday. Minns opposes it. If he allows a conscience vote, many Labor MPs will also vote against the bill, including Hugh McDermott, the member for Prospect in western Sydney.

The inner-city WEIRDos have had the cultural power for a very long time. At least in NSW that might be changing. That is not “at odds with the central demands of democracy” but a WEIRD expression of it.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/immigrants-will-likely-trust-dominic-perrottet-it-s-the-inner-city-folk-whose-values-are-weird-20211008-p58yco.html

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Plan to bring thousands of nurses and doctors into ‘Fortress Australia’

An interesting sidelight of this is that the immigrants will be forthcoming. For many Brits, any opportunity to immigrate to sunny Australia will be seized

Australia will allow 2000 overseas nurses and doctors to enter the country for work under a plan being finalised by the Commonwealth and states to ease a healthcare staffing crisis.

With Melbourne and Sydney’s hospital beds jammed with COVID-19 patients and the health systems of other states also under strain, the reinforcements will be flown in over the next six months and predominantly dispatched to outer suburban and regional hospitals and GP clinics.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said doctors and nurses who had already applied to come to Australia would be able to sidestep travel restrictions to secure flights and take up critical jobs in our pandemic response.

“This will be a one-off boost to provide additional support,” Mr Hunt told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. “The Commonwealth is committed to it and the states are working constructively with us on it.”

The airlift is likely to be made up largely of migrants from Britain, Ireland and other countries where nursing and medical qualifications are recognised by regulators as being equivalent to those in Australia. This means they can start working shifts as soon as they arrive.

Details of the plan emerged as Victoria’s Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, expressed optimism that the state was nearing the peak of its current wave of infections and as NSW, where COVID-19 hospital admissions have begun to ease, prepares to take its first steps out of lockdown.

Concerns had previously been raised with Mr Hunt by the Australian College of Nursing and health service employers that the so-called “Fortress Australia” approach to the pandemic had isolated us from an important source of health workers at a time of urgent need.

The International College of Nurses estimates there is a global shortage of 5.9 million nurses. The UK’s Royal College of Nursing estimates there are more than 39,000 vacant nursing jobs in England alone. Australian College of Nursing chief executive Kylie Ward said there were more than 12,200 vacant nursing positions in Australia.

Australia entered the pandemic with 337,000 registered nurses and produces about 20,000 nursing graduates every year. It is also increasingly reliant on skilled migration to bring in experienced nurses to supplement the workforce and do harder-to-fill jobs in regional areas and aged care.

Figures provided by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation show that skilled migrants make up 21 per cent of all newly registered nurses. In Victoria, overseas-trained doctors make up 23 per cent of total doctors and 30 per cent of doctors in regional areas.

The Victorian Health Department estimates that since the start of the pandemic, the number of healthcare migrants joining the state’s workforce has plummeted by about 40 per cent. A department spokesperson said this was due to the difficulty of recruiting doctors, nurses and allied health professionals from overseas while navigating border closures and quarantine arrangements.

Ms Ward said this could create a longer-term problem for Australia’s healthcare. “If we don’t do something to secure our new graduates as well as keep the international pipeline, we are going to get caught in the worldwide shortage that is coming,” she said.

Despite the federal government including nursing on its list of priority occupations for skilled migrants and offering more than 3100 special medical visas to doctors and nurses to come here to work, would-be healthcare migrants have been refused travel exemptions and visas and bumped from flights.

The impact of this is being acutely felt in our hospital wards, GP clinics and nursing homes and also in the university and college courses where, until the pandemic, a steady stream of nurses from countries like India and the Philippines enrolled in three-month bridging courses to gain registration in Australia.

La Trobe University confirmed its entry program for international nurses had been “severely disrupted” by international border closures and it had no intake of students this year.

At Central Queensland University, enrolments for its graduate certificate in nursing have fallen from 70 students last year to just three this year. Southern Cross University used to train nearly 300 international nurses a year at its Lismore campus in NSW. It currently has none enrolled.

Although this is partly due to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia changing its entry requirements for overseas nurses, it suggests that many overseas nurses are giving up on Australia. In 2019, the Australian College of Nursing had a waiting list of 3000 people to do its course. The waiting list is now down to 300 and its current intake has just two nurses from overseas.

There is a split between the College of Nursing and the nurses’ union over the extent to which Australia should rely on overseas nurses, particularly those from poorer countries. The union argues it is unethical for Australia to draw on nurses from low-income countries facing their own shortage of healthcare workers.

“Overseas recruitment should not be the primary strategy to overcome workforce shortages in Australia or as an alternative to education and recruitment opportunities for the existing domestic workforce,” the union wrote in a recent submission to government.

The Australian College of Nursing’s Ms Ward said although Australia needed to do better to support and retain its own graduates, it should also keep its doors open to overseas nurses from diverse backgrounds.

“It is a female-dominated profession, so you are giving opportunities to women they wouldn’t otherwise get. Who are we to say no if they meet the criteria? We are part of a global system and should encourage diversity and opportunity.”

Mr Hunt agreed it was important for Australia to keep attracting healthcare workers from all parts of the world. He also said that in its urgency to attract more doctors and nurses to respond to the immediate pressures of the pandemic, Australia could not compromise on the standard of practice it required. “Safety remains, as always, the number one priority,” he said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/plan-to-bring-thousands-of-nurses-and-doctors-into-fortress-australia-20211008-p58yf0.html

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Cotton crop selling well despite Chinese ban

As Australian cotton growers were celebrating world cotton day this week, the value of their commodity was skyrocketing.

Key points:

Cotton prices have surged to highest levels since 2011

Around 50 per cent of next year's cotton crop has been forward-sold

Vietnam has become Australia's biggest export market

Cotton futures have surged more than 20 per cent in the past fortnight, reaching $US1.13 a pound this week — its highest level since 2011.

Cotton Australia chief executive Adam Kay said growers had now forward-sold around 50 per cent of next season's crop, with some growers locking in prices of $670 a bale.

"We are seeing a situation where the supply is less than demand — that is really driving prices," Mr Kay said.

"The word on the street is that the Chinese crop might not be as good as they thought, the Indian crop might not be as good as hoped, and next season there's talk that the Brazilian crop might be down by 10 or 20 per cent."

"These are all factors that are driving the market at the moment."

TradingEconomics.com has reported heavy rains are threatening cotton crops in major US growing regions such as Texas, and a pest called pink bollworm "is rapidly spreading across fields".

Meanwhile, Mr Kay said great seasonal conditions in Australia had the cotton industry on track to produce around 4.5 million bales next season.

"We've a rare situation where we have tremendous water in the [Murray-Darling] system, the major storage dams are full, so growers can confidently forward-sell at these exceptional prices."

Twelve months on from China's soft ban

A couple of years ago, China was buying around 70 per cent of Australia's cotton crop.

Then in October 2020, the Chinese government started to tell mills to stop buying Australian cotton, or risk their quotas being slashed. Australian cotton sellers suddenly had to scramble to find new markets for their product.

"Everyone was nervous at the start [of the soft ban]," Mr Kay said. "But the Australian cotton shippers have done a magnificent job in selling the crop to other markets and developing markets."

Australian Cotton Shippers Association chair Michael O'Rielley said the industry had worked hard to diversify markets for Australian cotton. "Right now, Vietnam is our biggest export market, followed by Indonesia which currently has the most upside," he said. "They are our closest neighbour, and we have short shipping times."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-09/cotton-prices-soar-for-australian-growers/100520118

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"Anti-Racism" Comes to Australian schools

Parents beware! Anything which the corruptors of society get away with in America will eventually be introduced into Australia. And the obvious place to introduce it is in the schools, under the radar of the parents. We have already been alerted to the "Safe Schools" abomination, and questions are now being asked about how the new curriculum undermines the national identity.

Now we have a three-part ABC documentary on "The School That Tried to End Racism". No doubt the intentions were good (which is more than can be said for some other teaching programs), but the sum result was to introduce racial tension into an area where it did not previously exist.

First of all, you should understand that about a fifth of Australia's population is of non-European background, and while we see a few of them scattered around here in Brisbane, the vast majority are concentrated in Sydney and Melbourne. Not only that, but they are concentrated in specific suburbs, some of which do not look like Australia at all. This is a relatively new development. Pauline Hanson warned about it, but they vilified her, demonized her, and put her in jail.

The program was introduced to a class of 10 and 11 year olds in a Sydney state school with a broad mixture of European and non-European children, with an idea of teaching them about racism before it started. It was acknowledged that the various pupils got on well together. This, you might think, is how racism is defeated: by having people, particularly the young, mixing together and discovering that a lot more unites them than divides them. Heck! My nephew's best friend in primary school was a "blackie" (his word) from Fiji. My wife grew up playing with the black kids in Papua New Guinea, so when she went to school in the U.S., she automatically gravitated to the negro girls (and got stones thrown at her as a nigger lover). However, they were now going to be put through a course to make them conscious of racial differences that hadn't bothered them before.

First of all, they asked the children to draw their friends. I suppose they were trying to establish that they picked their friends according to race, but we didn't hear much more about it. What did they expect? The drawings were so inexpert, it was hardly possible to identify the friends, or even their race.

So the kids were taken outside to learn about "white privilege". This is a definite import from America. The concept was invented by Peggy McIntosh, a specialist in "women's studies". In other words, she is one of those unnecessary academics who make their money creating tension and resentment between the sexes, and now she was intent on doing the same with the races.

To give her credit, she did not pretend that a white hillbilly was more privileged than a middle class black man. Instead, she talked of being able to get a "flesh coloured" Band-Aid close to the colour of her skin, to easily find a hairdresser familiar with her kind of hair, to open newspapers or turn on the TV and see white people widely represented, and know that her bad behaviour would not reflect on her race.

All these, of course, are simply a reflection on being in the majority ethnic group. I suppose my cousin, who works in Japan, finds himself surrounded by Japanese privilege. She did, however, add the fact that, if she gets a job with an affirmative action employer, people won't assume she got it because of her race - evidence that there is such a thing as "black privilege" in America.

But the managers of the school program were determined to teach the kids that being white gave them a head start in life, and for this they adopted a program straight from the US. They took them to a race track outside, and told them to take one or two steps forward or backwards depending on certain qualifications. The system was rigged to make the white children win, and left one poor little Vietnamese boy stuck at the back because he spoke Vietnamese at home, and was once asked where he really came from.

And what were the factors which allowed the white kids to step forward and win the race? Such things as speaking English at home, seeing people predominantly of their own race in advertisements and on TV, having most Members of Parliament of their own race, and so on. Is there any evidence that these factors give anyone a head start in life? It was never proved, just asserted.

The most ludicrous was for them to take two steps forward if they had blue or grey eyes. Are brown eyed white people at a disadvantage to those with lighter coloured eyes? Don't these idiots know that brothers and sisters can have eyes of different colours?

And no-one ever mentions the elephant in the room: immigration. If non-Europeans are really at a disadvantage in Australia - no matter whose fault it is - then bringing in more of them can only make the situation worse. Why import an underclass?

Through their agencies, Governments inflict us with contradictory propaganda. When they want to justify their unpopular immigration policies, they assure us that we are a "proud multicultural country", and we are all getting on swimmingly. But when they want to justify their procrustean anti-discrimination legislation and the indoctrination of children, they claim that there is racism everywhere.

Having now convinced the non-Europeans that they were hard-done-by second class citizens, they took them all back inside and told them to divide into two groups: whites and non-whites. One girl from the Lebanese Muslim community initially failed to act as planned. She looked around and decided she belonged with the whites. This of course was correct; non-European is not the same as non-white.

But in the second round, she decided to join the non-whites. (I might add, that we saw her family a couple of times, and a disturbing thought occurred to me: when she becomes a teenager, will she be forced to wear the headscarf like her mother? Will the school permit it? If so, this will isolate her from mainstream Australia more than anything else.)

The non-white groups consisted of children whose origins lay in the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, and east Asia. In other words, they were a mixture of races, religions, and cultures, with nothing in common except they were non-mainstream.

Instead of the teachers encouraging them to consider how they might fit in, they asked them to consider their experiences of being non-white - which meant rehearsing the occasional slights they had received in the past, plus what they had been taught about "white privilege".

The teachers noted that the white children were reticent when asked to reflect on what it meant to be white. What did they expect? Prior to that, it had never been part of their world view.

The program was a success; they had introduced racial tension where little had existed before. When they grow up, the non-Europeans will not assimilate, and they will assume that any difficulties they encounter will not be due to their own fault, or bad luck, but to Australian racism. The whites had been taught to feel guilty just for being white. I hope the parents of both groups were suitably impressed.

It will no doubt be a while before it is introduced to white cities such as Brisbane, but they are sure to expand it in Sydney and Melbourne. When this happens, parents will have to refuse to permit their children to get involved, and they must make a fuss at the local PTA, and with their Members of Parliament. This is why parents must be very diligent at investigating everything their children are being taught at school. The days are past when they could assume the education system was their servant.

https://malcolmsmiscellany.blogspot.com/2021/10/anti-racism-comes-to-australia.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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8 October, 2021

Kimberley fracking project's exemption from gas export ban sparks Conservation Council fears

Introduced last year, the change to WA's domestic gas policy prevents gas extracted onshore from being sent to the eastern states or overseas.

The only other exemption to the policy was given to the Kerry Stokes-backed Waitsia project, with Premier Mark McGowan defending the move on the grounds Waitsia was a "shovel ready" development that would deliver hundreds of jobs.

At the time the policy was changed, the Valhalla project being developed by Bennett Resources had been submitted to WA's Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), with plans for six wells on Noonkanbah Station, near Fitzroy Crossing.

But a recent announcement by Texas-based Black Mountain, which owns Bennett Resources, revealed it had now been granted an exemption from the export restrictions.

It was the first application for a fracking project since the state government lifted a ban on the practice in 2018.

The latest EPA document, released on August 4, reveals Bennett Resources now plans to build up to 20 "exploration and appraisal wells" at 10 sites.

The exemption has upset the WA Conservation Council, with the group saying it went against what was promised when the moratorium on fracking ended.

"It was lifted after an inquiry found that any gas fracking would likely be only small scale and only for the domestic market, and therefore have very limited environmental impact because the size of those developments would be very small," Council director Piers Verstegen said.

"We raised concerns about that at the time and said that we didn't think that was accurate and that those fracking companies would be trying to build very large fracking projects to access the export market. "That appears to be exactly what's happening now."

Minister for State Development, Jobs and Trade, Roger Cook, said the exemption was granted because the project would help build gas pipelines to connect the area to the broader WA network.

"We've said to [Black Mountain] … if they need to export a portion of their initial off-take in relation to this in order to make the project successful, then we would be prepared to consider that," he told ABC Goldfields.

"But we've also said that that would be on the basis that they commit in the long-term to domestic gas agreements, but also that they build pipeline infrastructure to make sure that the rest of the Kimberley benefits from this particular development."

The government said the project would still need to obtain all relevant approvals, including environmental, before going ahead.

Black Mountain president Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes said the company had been negotiating with the WA government since the export ban was put in place last year.

"All parties came to the conclusion that to get this project up and running, we'd need access to a pipeline and would inevitably need to export at least a portion of the gas, " she told ABC Kimberley.

She said the company was still in negotiations over just how much of the gas extracted from the project would be reserved for the WA market.

With local and statewide environmental groups already gearing up to campaign against the project, Ms Zumwalt-Forbes said the company would be fully compliant with all state environmental requirements.

"Give us an opportunity to prove ourselves, prove that we're good operators and we are good stewards of the environment," she said. "We plan on doing right by the community, and certainly following and exceeding all requirements.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/kimberley-fracking-project-granted-wa-gas-export-ban-exemption/100520190

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China turns to stranded Australian coal to combat power crunch

China is releasing Australian coal from bonded storage, despite a nearly year-long unofficial import ban on the fuel.

It comes as the nation scrambles to ease a power crunch stemming from a coal shortage, according to traders familiar with the matter.

The power crisis in the world's top consumer of coal is due to strong demand from manufacturers, industry and households, which has pushed prices to record highs and triggered widespread curbs.

An estimated 1 million tonnes of Australian coal had stayed in bonded warehouses along China's coast, uncleared by customs, since Beijing's unofficial ban was imposed last October, a trading executive said.

"Some of the Australian coal stuck at Chinese ports started to be released at the end of last month … though many of those [cargo loads] had already been diverted to markets like India," the trader, based in eastern China, said.

A second trader said the release from bonded storage would start this week.

Top economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While China has urged top miners to boost output and told power operators to step up coal imports in "an orderly manner" to ease the supply squeeze, it has refrained from directly resuming imports from Australia, formerly its number two supplier after Indonesia.

However, at 1 million tonnes, or the equivalent of just one day of China's coal imports, the stock's release would do little to quench the market's thirst for coal.

"Without resuming Australian coal imports, the supply shortage will be here to stay for some time, as it takes time to boost domestic production after nearly five years of output curbs," a third Beijing-based trader said.

"I am not optimistic. The shortage will last at least through the fourth quarter and possibly till after February or March, when the heating season ends.

Exports from other key suppliers, such as Russia and Mongolia, had been curtailed by limited rail capacity, while shipments from Indonesia had been hindered by rainy weather, traders said.

That led utility operators such as eastern China's Zhejiang Energy to bring in the first thermal coal imports from Kazakhstan on Monday, following its first imports of US thermal coal in June and July.

China imported 197.69 million tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, down 10 per cent for the year. But August coal imports rose by more than a third on tight domestic supplies.

To ease the supply strain, China State Railway Group pledged on Tuesday to allot more freight capacity to ensure coal inventories were sufficient for 14.4 days of use at 363 power plants with direct rail access, state media said.

Abhinav Gupta, a dry bulk shipping analyst at Braemar ACM Shipbroking in Perth, said his company could confirm the discharge of Australian coal in China.

"Based on our cargo-tracking system, we can see about 420,000 metric tonnes of Australian coal discharging in China in July and August 2021, which was loaded in 2020. In addition, another 55,000 metric tonnes was discharged in July 2021, which was loaded in May 2021," Mr Gupta told the ABC.

However, Mr Gupta said it was unclear how the Australian coal had been used, adding that China was looking at multiple sources overseas. "It is unclear if it has been sent to warehouses for stockpiling or being released to end users, such as power plants," he said.

"China has been pushing other suppliers to meet its demand. However, there are challenges, such as rains in Indonesia, and Russian coal being more in demand in Europe."

A DFAT spokesperson said clearance of thermal coal of Australian origin through Chinese customs is managed by China and is conducted through private contractual arrangements.

"Australia's coal exporters are competitive and reliable suppliers of high-quality coal to global markets," they said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-06/china-turns-to-stranded-australian-coal-to-combat-power-crun/100518440

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Roundup owner Bayer wins US court case as Australian farmers say they'll stick with local advice

Australian farmers say a decision by a US court in favour of Roundup maker Bayer has no bearing on their use of the weedkiller.

Industry group Grain Growers said it wasn't concerned with legal proceedings in other jurisdictions, but would follow the advice of the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA).

"It's really about what the APVMA says, and it says glyphosate is safe to use when you follow the recommended usage instructions," Grain Growers chair Brett Hosking said.

Glyphosate is a key ingredient of Roundup, which is banned in some countries but widely used on Australian farms.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Bayer, the owner of Roundup maker Monsanto, won a trial in California after a jury found that the herbicide was not the cause of young boy Ezra Clark's lymphoma.

Ezra's mother, Destiny Clark, alleged her son developed the cancer after he was exposed to Roundup, which she had used in the garden at the family's home.

The finding could be appealed.

It is the first case the company has won after losing several high-profile court battles that have cost the company billions of dollars.

"The jury's verdict in favour of the company on causation brings this trial to a successful conclusion and is consistent with the assessments of expert regulators worldwide, as well as the overwhelming weight of four decades of extensive science," Bayer said in a statement.

"While we have great sympathy for Ezra Clark and his family, the jury carefully considered the science applicable to this case and determined that Roundup was not the cause of his illness."

Biotech lobby group CropLife Australia described the result as a "win for science".

"The jury has considered facts and evidence and come to the same conclusion as every pesticide regulatory authority in the world — that glyphosate is safe to use and does not pose a cancer risk to humans," chief executive Matthew Cossey said.

"It's human nature that when someone is diagnosed with cancer, they want to find an answer to their question — 'Why me?'

"However, accepting a false but convenient answer as opposed to finding out the actual cause serves no-one.

"While we have great sympathy for anyone with cancer, it's important that these debates continue to be undertaken on science and actual data so that real causes of cancer are identified and addressed."

Australian class action in the works

Last year, Bayer agreed to spend more than $US10 billion to settle almost 100,000 lawsuits alleging that Roundup caused cancer.

Law firm Maurice Blackburn is preparing an Australian class action against Monsanto, representing individuals diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

The suit alleges the company was negligent when it sold Roundup.

Reflecting on the US decision, National Farmers' Federation chief executive Tony Mahar said no chemical compound had been studied as much as glyphosate.

"There is an extensive, international body of scientific work spanning 40 years and 800 studies that affirms that glyphosate is not a carcinogenic, and more precisely, that it does not cause non-Hodgkin's lymphoma," Mr Mahar said in a statement.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-08/bayer-wins-roundup-court-case-as-aussie-farmers-stick-with-apvma/100524494

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Homeschool registrations rising in Australia, alternative education advocates say mainstream schools need a shake-up

Homeschooling is understood to be the fastest-growing education sector and alternative school advocates say it shows mainstream schooling needs a shake-up.

Ms Blundell — who lives in northern Tasmania — said she and her husband decided to switch to homeschooling because their daughter was not coping well in a school environment.

"She's actually got an eating disorder called ARFID — which stands for avoidant restrictive food intake disorder — and that means that she has a phobia of eating," Ms Blundell said. "It's an anxiety-based food disorder, so she gets really stressed out and she refused to go to school."

Aria also has suspected autism.

Ms Blundell said her daughter struggled to get the help she needed due to large class sizes and because she was good at "masking her conditions".

"The school system was developed back when the world was a completely different place and, as the research is improving, I think the schools are being left behind," she said.

"While they are understanding and getting better, I don't think they're up to speed."

In Karalee, an outer-western Brisbane suburb, Shelly Lausberg's 15-year-old son, who has autism, struggled to return to school after COVID-19 lockdowns in his home state of Queensland.

"Our school then contacted us to say that they couldn't support his level of anxiety with how many other children they had," Ms Lausberg said. "He was at a private school … we contacted six other private schools who could not take him because he needs learning support, and they have no room in their learning support."

Ms Lausberg said her son could not attend a public school due to past experiences of bullying and the flexi-school would not accept him. "I guess I felt that homeschooling was my last choice," she said.

Ms Lausberg said her family had registered with a home education program. She said it had been challenging but her family had learned to make it work and her son was now thriving.

"I still work full time, but I don't work on a Monday, so I do school with him on a Monday and then I have two other people who come and help me on other days," Ms Lausberg said.

She said mainstream schools needed to look at how they helped all children. "Even if your child doesn't have autism or any extra needs, 27 or 30 people in a class is just too many."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-08/home-and-alternative-schooling-on-the-rise-in-australia/100503948

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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7 October, 2021

Bizarre moment protests against Australia's lockdowns break out in London accompanied by John Farnham's 'You're the Voice' - just days after New Yorkers staged a 'free Down Under' demonstration

What people overseas do not realize is that it is only NSW and Victoria where the lockdowns are oppressive. In Queensland one can live a pretty normal life, I am pleased to say

International rallies against Australia's lockdowns and hard borders have continued with protesters gathering outside the country's flagship building in the heart of London.

Dozens of people attended Australia House in The Strand in central London at the weekend to demonstrate against the country's ongoing lockdowns, with John Farnham's iconic anthem You're The Voice blasting through speakers.

The rallies come just days before the country's most populated state, NSW, is set to break out of its 100+ day stay-at-home order, with Victoria weeks off hitting their own 70 per cent vaccination milestone.

Londoners were locked down for 201 days throughout the pandemic, the fourth-longest in the world behind Melbourne, Buenos Aires and Dublin.

On Sunday, dozens gathered outside Australia House to continue to push an anti-lockdown agenda, which was followed days later by a similar rally in New York City.

The international movement under the 'Save Australia' mantra has seen protesters flood the streets opposing the country's ongoing restrictions while the rest of the world returns to a sense of normalcy.

Footage from London shows people with British accents arguing with police over human rights.

Several British protesters holding Australian flags attempted to block traffic on the main road in The Strand, while others stuck posters of support on the building.

One sign read 'jail Dan Andrews' referring to Victoria's premier who has overseen the longest lockdown in the world.

The rallies were accompanied by similar demonstrations in New York, with people marching down its iconic streets with messages of support for locked down Aussies.

'What's going on in Australia is not just going to be Australia. So when it shows up on our doorstep, we're going to punch it in the f**king teeth,' a man with a loudspeaker announced during the New York demonstration.

The timing of the rallies coincides with an accelerated vaccine roll-out across Australia - with more than 90 per cent of adults having received a single dose.

NSW will come out of lockdown on Monday October 11, authorities confirmed.

Victoria, the other locked down Australian state, will hit its 70 per cent threshold in the final week of October, which will see the entire country free from the stay-at-home orders.

International travel is also set to resume in November, with an easing of the hard border and hotel quarantine system.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10066743/Bizarre-moment-protests-break-against-Australias-lockdown-London.html

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Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart SLAMS climate change 'propaganda' urging schoolkids to 'do their own research' - after warning the country risks being in 'poverty'

Australia's richest woman has slammed climate change 'propaganda' and the spending of taxpayers dollars on reducing carbon in a speech to students at her former private school.

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart pre-recorded a keynote address to students at Perth's St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls in honour of its 125th anniversary.

The billionaire worth $31billion didn't hold back on her stance on climate change and urged the next generation to do their own research, ask questions and to always search for the facts.

It follows her recent warning that Australia is on the same track as Sri Lanka and Argentina in falling from prosperity to poverty due to a big-spending, regulation-heavy government.

St Hilda's Anglican School students only heard five minutes of Ms Rinehart's address played at an anniversary assembly, where she fondly looked back on her time at the school which was also attended by four generations of her family, including her mum Hope.

She has since shared the unedited 16 minute address on her website, where she urges students to ask teachers questions while doing their own research into which came first, global warming, or an increase in carbon.

'It should help to point to four independent facts, which all come to the same conclusion, independently, including, what has been found in the geological record of ice, ocean floors, and separately chemistry principles,' Ms Rinehart said.

'If these four independent facts all support, global warming comes first, not increases in carbon, the rationale would ask, why does the media in general and those they influence, now call for reducing carbon?

'Why should taxpayers' money be spent towards reducing carbon? The higher debt our government racks up, the higher your taxes will be forced to be.'

Ms Rinehart also slammed government for supporting grants on one side of the argument, making it less beneficial to consider natural influences on climate and other scientific facts.

She ended her climate change tirade with a plea to always search for the facts, even it's not considered popular. 'Please be very careful about information spread on emotional basis, or tied to money, or egos, or power-seekers,' she warned. 'Facts may not be popular, but that shouldn't mean, they should be overlooked.'

Fees to attend the exclusive girls school in Perth range from $17,786 a year for kindergarten and to $27,120 for Year 12.

Ms Rinehart looked back fondly of her time at St Hilda's Anglican, despite the 'awful' boarding school food.

'I’m grateful that I had a real education, not one based on propaganda, but facts, and rationale,' she said.

'I continue to believe that facts and rationale should provide the basis for education, it concerns me greatly that the current generation of school leavers and attendees, too often miss such important basics, as too often propaganda erodes these critical foundations.'

She also paid tribute to Australian pioneer women before finally ending her address with quotes from former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as 'we sure need better leadership in our country.'

Rinehart has warned Australia is on the same track as Sri Lanka and Argentina in falling from prosperity to poverty due to a big-spending, regulation-heavy government and urged everyone to be 'on guard' against the 'ruining effects of socialism' in order to preserve the nation's wealth.

She sounded the warning in a chapter for an upcoming book titled Australia Tomorrow edited by Jake Thrupp which features essays from prominent centre-right thinkers including former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce and broadcaster Alan Jones.

'For generation after generation, we have wanted to hand down a better country for our children,' she wrote in her essay obtained in advance by Daily Mail Australia. 'Sadly for this generation I believe this is now at risk, which the younger ones amongst us, in particular, should not want.'

Mrs Rinehart urged the Federal Government - which last year oversaw a record $167billion budget deficit, largely due to heavy spending to offset the crippling effect of Covid lockdowns - to show more fiscal restraint in the years to come.

'Alluring political words of ''free this'' and ''free that'', more taxpayers' money for this or that, helped to turn once prosperous Ceylon, prosperous with its tea plantations and other agriculture, into a country which couldn't support itself with food,' she wrote, using the British colonial name for Sri Lanka which became independent in 1948.

'Instead, its people faced hunger, loss of free speech, consequent damaging riots, property damage, unhappiness, police and military, and a country name change as it struggled with the results of its socialist path.'

Mrs Rinehart, whose wealth soared by $2.2billion in the six months to May this year due to surging iron ore prices, also cited Argentina - which was the world's tenth wealthiest nation per capita in 1913 but now suffers political instability, inflation and a 42 per cent poverty rate - as a cautionary tale of big government.

'The socialist policies of Peron and others saw incredible inflation, people unable to support their families, rioting; and the country has never regained its affluent position in the world, even 100 years later,' she wrote, referencing Juan Peron, who nationalised Argentina's large companies and set up social welfare programs when he became president in 1946.

Sadly, the economy ruining effects of socialism don't just last between elections. They last much, much longer,' Mrs Rinehart wrote.

'We should be on guard against this and, in particular, the entitlement culture, big government, high taxes and government tape – these are problems that need to be faced, if we want Australia to continue to be the wonderful country that it has been.'

The 67-year-old Mrs Rinehart, who inherited a bankrupt mining business from her father Lang Hancock and built it up, said 'agriculture, mining, small businesses, investment and defence are the keys to our nation and our future'.

She urged the government to 'stop making decisions influenced by the media of the moment and instead act to make the bold decisions our country needs.'

Ms Rinehart also called for the regulation burden on businesses to be reduced, saying the long-time owners of Fossil Downs, a cattle station in the Kimberleys, were forced to sell up due to 'government tape'.

'John, the husband of the owner and manager, had to get up around 4am each morning, like most do on stations in the far north, but he wasn't able to get to bed until around 1am, still doing government paperwork,' she wrote.

The mother of four also slammed 'crazy laws' in the Northern Territory which prevent farm owners killing crocodiles and wild dogs to protect their livestock and land-clearing restrictions which have made some properties more vulnerable to bushfires.

Mrs Rinehart referenced a report by free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs which found there has been 80-fold increase to Commonwealth environmental regulation since the first Commonwealth environmental department was established in 1971.

The report in October 2019 called for environmental regulation to be placed solely in the hands of the states to reduce red tape.

In July last year Mr Morrison presented to National Cabinet plans to devolve federal legislation under changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act which are currently before the senate.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10063943/Gina-Rinehart-slams-climate-change-propaganda-recorded-speech-Perth-schoolgirls.html

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Foxtel Australia launches review into Christian TV channel with anti-vax message

Censorship coming?

Foxtel Australia has launched a review into one of its offerings, an American Christian television channel, that has been accused of broadcasting COVID-19 disinformation.

Daystar TV — owned by ‘televangelists’ Marcus and Joni Lamb — has been available on Foxtel in Australia since 2015 through the broadcaster’s basic subscription package.

Foxtel says it has approximately 1.7 million subscribers around Australia.

Since the pandemic began, the Lambs have hosted interviews with controversial doctors and anti-vaccination advocates.

Some of the guests have promoted vaccine conspiracy theories and unproven treatments for COVID-19 that have been widely debunked by accredited experts, health professionals and governments around the world.

It’s unclear whether broadcasting the discredited claims breaks any rules in Australian Media and Communication Authority’s broadcasting codes.

Unlike the new Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation for online platforms brought in by ACMA earlier this year, there is no equivalent code for television.

They are responsible for initial complaints before they are referred to the media regulator.

“If they receive a complaint that their broadcasts are in breach of the code and the complainant is not satisfied with the broadcaster’s response or the broadcaster has not responded within the required time, then the complainant may make their complaint to the ACMA,” an ACMA spokesperson said.

ACMA said it had not received any complaints about Daystar TV before The Drum’s inquiries, but has since asked Foxtel for copies of the broadcasts.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-07/foxtel-channel-covid-misinformation-claims/100518956

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Longest commercial flight in Qantas' history flies over Antarctica en route to Australia

The longest commercial flight in Qantas' history landed in Darwin on Wednesday night after a route that took it from Buenos Aires over the coast of Antarctica on a near-18 hour long haul.

The repatriation flight was the return leg of a charter flight that carried Argentina's rugby team home from Brisbane to Buenos Aires on Sunday after the 2021 Rugby Championship. The Department of Foreign Affairs were notified about the flight and worked with Qantas to use the returning plane to bring home Australians.

Flight QF14 took off from Buenos Aires at 12.44pm local time, 19 minutes behind schedule, but landed in Darwin five minutes early after a journey that took 17 hours, 25 minutes.

The Qantas Boeing 787 Dreamliner covered 15,020 kilometres, exceeding the distance of Qantas' previous longest non-stop commercial flight, from Perth to London, which is 14,498 kilometres.

Speaking before the flight, Captain Alex Passerini, Qantas's chief technical pilot, said a lot of work had gone into planning the trip.

"There's no changes to the plane needed … it was designed around these sort of missions and it does it very well," he said.

"But it does require a bit of fine tuning when you're operating at these ranges. We have quite a bit of flexibility over the South Pacific as there's not a lot of other traffic to deal with, but small changes in wind can have quite a significant impact on the route that we take. That is calculated by our flight system."

For such a long flight, four pilots would be on board, including two captains for this flight.

"All four pilots are on deck for take-off and landing, but then we get into a rest program and start a rotation. We cut up the time to give everyone an equitable rest and have two pilots on, two pilots off at any given time. Typically you'll get two rest periods over the course of the flight."

Captain Passerini, who has flown with Qantas for 30 years, including on the Perth-London non-stop route, said flying over Antarctica's coast was the quickest way to get from South America to Australia.

"We'll end up flying over the continent at around 73 or 74 south latitude, depending on the winds," he said. "Hopefully the cloud cover will be kind to us and we can give our passengers a view."

The flight approached Australia from the south, crossing the Great Australian Bight to then fly over the Red Centre to Darwin.

Captain Passerini and his co-pilot gave updates via Qantas' Twitter feed during the flight, pointing out the temperature hit minus 75° Celcius while flying over the Walker Mountains of Thurston Island, one of Antarctica's largest islands.

While Qantas has flown longer distances previously, most recently with the Project Sunrise non-stop flights from London and New York to Sydney, those were test flights that were not carrying paying passengers. Although the Buenos Aires flight is a one-off, it is the longest flight in Qantas' 100-year history to carry paying passengers.

The world's longest regular commercial flight is Singapore to New York, operated by Singapore Airlines. The 18-hour route was suspended in March last year but resumed in December.

While the Qantas repatriation flight brought back 107 Australian citizens and permanent residents from South America, some Australians who had seats on the flight were forced to cancel their trips due to Argentina's closed borders.

Connecting flights from other South American countries were cancelled by the Argentine government, leaving some Australians scrambling to find alternatives in time to make the departure.

Supplied PR image for Traveller. Check for re-use. Qantas longest commercial flight Buenos Aires to Darwin

An image from FlightRadar24 shows how flying via Antarctic airspace is the most direct route from Argentina to Australia. Photo: flightradar24

Joe May, who has lived in Panama for 18 years but has been seeking to return to Australia for health reasons, paid $2396 for a seat on the repatriation flight. He used a friend's credit card after being unable to work in his job as an English teacher due to the pandemic.

Last week disaster struck after Panama carrier Copa Airlines informed him his connecting flight to Buenos Aires had been cancelled. After nearly giving up hope and cancelling his seat on the Qantas flight, he managed to get on to another flight with Copa after being put on standby.

Speaking from a hotel room in Buenos Aires prior to the flight, Mr May said he had mixed emotions. He has a three-year-old daughter with his Ecuadorian wife and he plans to start the process of applying to residency for his family after he arrives in Australia, which he expects to take about two years.

"I have been watching the news about the reopening of the borders and home quarantine but I have been fed so much bulls--- over the past year I don't believe anyone," he said.

Qantas brought forward the return of international flights to mid-November in the wake of the federal government's announcement that borders would reopen once vaccination rates of 80 per cent were reached.

https://www.traveller.com.au/longest-commercial-flight-in-qantas-history-flies-over-antarctica-en-route-to-australia-h1z0qh

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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6 October, 2021

Australia will stop sending detained asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea and refugees given the option of permanent citizenship or transfer to Nauru

The federal government is ending offshore processing in Papua New Guinea for asylum seekers detained after trying to reach Australia by boat.

The arrangement was set up in 2013 under the then-Labor government and authorised regional processing in PNG.

Under a timeline announced on Wednesday, processing in PNG will permanently end on December 31.

As of July this year, there were 124 asylum seekers in PNG.

From January, PNG will have responsibility for those who remain, the Australian and PNG governments said in a joint statement. This means any asylum seekers still in PNG will be offered a pathway to permanent migration, including citizenship.

PNG will also provide support to those temporarily in the country awaiting transfer to a third country.

Prior to the December deadline, Australia will offer asylum seekers in PNG 'voluntary transfer' to its offshore processing centre on the Pacific island of Nauru.

'This government's strong border protection policies - including a commitment to regional processing - have not changed,' Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said. 'Anyone who attempts to enter Australia illegally by boat will be returned, or sent to Nauru.'

Ms Andrews said PNG and Nauru had been longstanding partners in the fight against people smuggling. 'I thank them for their close cooperation and support,' she said.

The federal government in September signed a new agreement with Nauru, which began offshore processing in 2012, to continue that arrangement. There are about 107 detainees in Nauru.

Between 2008 and 2013, more than 50,000 people arrived in Australia on more than 820 boats and at least 1,200 died at sea, the government said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10062789/Australia-stop-sending-detained-asylum-seekers-Papua-New-Guinea.html

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High-profile real estate agent is SACKED after posting a 'racist' comment about China

A Melbourne real estate agent has been given the sack after a 'racist' comment he posted online sparked public outcry. Matthew Scafidi has been permanently stood down from his position as franchisee director of real estate agency Jellis Craig in the inner-city suburb Mitcham.

The self-confessed 'home gym enthusiast' questioned the origins of a piece of workout equipment in a post to his personal Facebook page on Monday. 'No Australia Made logo on this one, can I assume on this and price that it's a Chinese import? Wanting to avoid Chinese imports if I can,' he asked.

The since-deleted post quickly caused a stir on social media with other Facebook users claiming Mr Scafidi's sentiments were 'racist'.

One woman re-uploaded a screenshot of the offending post and claimed the real estate agent was making the following points.

'1. Chinese imports are cheap and shoddy and 2. People with Chinese origins are not part of Australian community,' she wrote.

'It is disturbing to see this comment from an individual like Matthew who runs business in Mitcham where the three largest ancestries in 2016 were English, Australian and Chinese.'

Several members of the wider community also took offence to the post and expressed their grievances in the Google reviews for Jellis Craig.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10062997/High-profile-real-estate-agent-SACKED-posting-racist-comment-Facebook.html

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Jewish College asks parents, relatives for vaccination certificates

Moriah College in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has asked parents for copies not only of their own vaccination certificates, but also those of everyone in their house aged over 12 and all people who are in regular contact with students.

The school sent a letter to parents last week, asking them to email the information to the school by October 11. “Vaccination status will only be considered as confirmed on receipt of a copy of a vaccination certificate,” the letter said.

“[The information] will assist us with the planning of events and activities as we analyse the risk of inviting parents and family members onto campus.” All information would be confidential, it said. A spokeswoman for the school said supplying the information was not compulsory.

“As the School prepares to reopen and as a part of our COVID-safe plan, we are asked to examine our risk exposure to the virus,” Moriah’s letter said. “The School will therefore be asking parents to provide information about their child/ren’s vaccination status in much the same way as we ask for other vaccination details.”

Other schools - such as Kings, Trinity Grammar, Kincoppal Rose Bay and SCEGGS Darlinghurst - have asked parents to update their children’s vaccination status. Santa Sabina has asked for the vaccination status of both parents and students.

“Sharing this information is completely voluntary and confidential but will assist in reducing the intensity of the response should there be a case here at Santa Sabina,” principal Paulina Skerman wrote. Some, such as St Catherines and MLC School, have not requested any student or parent information.

Teachers are required to be fully vaccinated by November 8, but no such government rule applies to students aged 12 or over who are eligible for vaccination. There is no rule preventing the children of unvaccinated adults from attending school, or their parents from picking them up.

When businesses reopen at 70 per cent community vaccination, only vaccinated patrons will be allowed inside. However, schools differ from businesses such as pubs, restaurants and beauty salons because education is legally compulsory.

Moriah’s letter did not tell parents there would be consequences if parents, siblings or family members were unvaccinated.

“Health advice from the NSW government is that high-vaccinated school communities will help to minimise the transmission of COVID-19,” the letter from the college’s vice principal, Roberta Goot, said.

“The college has accordingly been advised by the Association of Independent Schools (AIS) to communicate with our families and gather information about their vaccination status to assist in the safe opening and operation of the college.

“We therefore ask you to complete the attached table with the names, year groups and vaccination status of any student at Moriah College; the names and vaccination status of all other members of your household aged 12 years and over, and the names and vaccinations status of anyone else who is in regular contact with your children, e.g. grandparents who drop off or collect children on a regular basis.

“All information provided will be treated as confidential. Please email the completed table to [the school] together with copies of all the relevant vaccination certificates by Monday October 11.”

If family members were awaiting their second vaccination, the school asked that their certificates be forwarded as soon as that dose was received.

The head of AISNSW, Geoff Newcombe, said the association passed on NSW Health advice directly to member schools, including the Public Health Order, which all schools must follow.

“The PHO makes it clear that parents and other visitors who are doubly vaccinated may only come onto a school site for purposes such as volunteering or coaching. However, the guidelines applicable to a school’s LGA should be followed,” Dr Newcombe.

“For any other situation, schools conduct their own risk assessment based on their individual circumstances.”

Vaccination rates are high in NSW, with the state expected to hit 70 per cent double vaccination for eligible adults sometime on Wednesday, and first dose rates close to 90 per cent.

Face-to-face learning is due to resume for the youngest and oldest students in the greater Sydney lockdown area on October 18. Years 2, 6 and 11 return on October 25, and the remaining students go back to school on November 1.

Masks will be compulsory for teachers and high school students, and will be strongly recommended for primary school students. Moriah’s back-to-school brochure said masks should be worn indoors and outdoors unless eating or drinking.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/moriah-college-asks-parents-relatives-for-vaccination-certificates-20211006-p58xot.html

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Bald Hills Wind Farm cover-up exposed

IT’S a wind farm, not a mushroom farm.

But as the Supreme Court of Victoria heard last week, that old adage about keeping them in the dark and feeding them on horse manure, certainly applies to the relationship between the operators of the Bald Hills Wind Farm and neighbouring farmers.

What can only be described as an extensive cover-up to hide such things as evidence of the highly irritating noise coming from faulty turbine gearboxes, came to light during a searching cross-examination of key Infrastructure Capital Group (ICG) employee, James Arthur.

It revealed, among other things, how the owner-operator of the Bald Hills Wind Farm, the IC Group, tried to remove, avoid or hide evidence of non-compliance, even to the point of accepting “liquidated damages” payments because of “tonal audibility defects” with a majority of the Senvion turbine gearboxes, while at the same time denying the complaints of neighbours about exactly that issue and pursuing the State Government for compliance approval.

In a feature of Day 9 at the Supreme Court hearing last Friday, Georgina Costello, barrister for the plaintiffs, local landowners, John Zakula and Noel Uren, demonstrated how ICG had known about the “special audible characteristics” coming from the faulty turbine gearboxes, not only from the complainants, but also from Marshall Day Acoustics, their own acoustic experts, and the turbine manufacturers Senvion Australia, as early as April 2017, but by 2021, the problem has still not been rectified.

Since the demise of Senvion in May 2019, ICG has been working with Vestas Australian Wind Technology Pty to try to fix the problem which may ultimately require the replacement of the gearboxes in most, if not all 52 turbines.

In August 2020, Vestas provided a condition report to ICG which included the following details:

“The Bald Hills Wind Farm, completed in 2015, consists of 52 Senvion MM92 wind turbines. Since commissioning, Senvion had been working with the owner, Infrastructure Capital Group, ICG, to resolve a gearbox tonality issue present in the majority of the turbines which breached Senvion’s contractual noise warranty and generated noise complaints from the community.”

Ms Costello pursed Mr Arthur over Vestas’ statement:

“There’s still a tonal problem affecting the turbines today, isn’t there?” Ms Costello asked Mr Arthur.

Mr Arthur: “That’s correct, yes.”

Ms Costello had earlier demonstrated that by April 2017, Marshall Day Acoustics had also told the Bald Hills Wind Farm operators that there was a tonal noise issue with the gearboxes in the turbines.

It was around the same time as Mr Arthur acknowledged reading letters from John Zakula complaining “the noise was causing him considerable disturbance and seriously affecting his sleep” as well as “affecting his health, causing anxiety, stress, headaches and other issues”.

Mr Zakula said: “The noise is severe and at its worst at night and it’s continuous through the entire nights and days… exceeding night-time levels as specified in the planning permit,”

And he also specifically reported, in October 2016 and November 2016, that “there are significantly notable special audible characteristics”.

Ms Costello went on to say that while the operators of the wind farm claimed to have successfully implemented a curtailment program, to reduce noise levels under certain conditions, it hadn’t been operating successfully in 2015, 2016 and 2017 when neighbours started complaining about the noise.

Ms Costello also demonstrated how uncertain wind speed measurement, due to interference from surrounding turbines, meant some turbines continued to operate in unrestricted mode, and are still making excessive noise.

Ms Costello went on to describe how the Wind Farm operators had changed its complaints’ handling process without telling the neighbours, effectively allowing them to ignore any repeated issues.

A company secretary for ICG said in an email (May 12, 2017): “We don’t want to engage with the complainants until the Marshall Day report confirming that the wind farm noise is compliant with the regulations is confirmed by the EPA”.

Mr Arthur agreed, that in consultation with “the relevant government department” and “the National Wind Farm Commissioner”, they didn’t believe they had to investigate repeat complaints and the policy was changed in 2018 without telling the neighbours until 2020.

Ms Costello: “So you didn’t tell the plaintiffs – Mr Uren or Mr Zakula – that you were going to change the complaints handling process so that you weren’t going to investigate repeat complaints, did you, until much later? That’s right, isn’t it?”

Mr Arthur: “That’s right, we didn’t tell them at the time, that’s correct.”

Ms Costello: “And poor old Mr Zakula kept writing to you, didn’t he, before you told him that you weren’t going to bother investigating repeat complaints. That’s right, isn’t it, Mr Arthur?”

Mr Arthur: “Yes, Mr Zakula was still writing, I believe, yes.”

https://stopthesethings.com/2021/09/28/wind-farm-noise-nuisance-case-uncovers-wind-industrys-culture-of-lies-deceit/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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5 October, 2021

China shoots itself in the foot

While Australian coal exports go from strength to strength

China is facing an ongoing power crisis and rolling outages as it sticks to its snub of Australian coal, with exports dropping to less than one per cent of what it was.

The coal ban has been described as a “disastrous failure” by one foreign policy expert who said desperate Beijing could be forced to temporarily lift its unofficial sanction and pay for Aussie coal at inflated prices due to the risk of blackouts it wants to avoid.

Just $24.8 million in metallurgical coal, used for making steel, was traded to the super power in the first quarter of the year, compared to $2.04 billion the year before, according to Department of Industry responses to Senate estimates questions.

New data shows that no Australian thermal coal was exported to China in the first quarter of this year, compared to $1.04 billion in the same time 2020.

China has been facing power shortages and turned to rationing electricity in some parts, as Chinese industry ramps up production in the wake of the pandemic, and demand increases as winter approaches, combined with a coal shortage in the country.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute director Peter Jennings said while politically China would want to source its coal from elsewhere, other markets it would normally turn to like Mongolia and Indonesia are dealing with supply issues.

“This demonstrates the failure of Beijing’s attempts to coerce us,” he said.

“The intent was to punish Australia and to make us submit ourselves, but it hasn’t worked. It helped a lot of our industries diversify and it’s punished Chinese consumers.

“As much as they may not want to do it, they may considering taking Australian exports at that bubble price.

“It’s been a disastrous police failure for (China’s President) Xi Jinping.”

But Mr Jennings warned local producers that any new purchases would likely only be short term.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg last week said Australia had found new markets for 90 per cent of its product.

Resources Minister Keith Pitt said Australian thermal coal was already fetching record prices, topping $US200 a tonne, saying it was in demand as a reliable, dispatchable energy.

“Our coal sector has done a remarkable job in the face of challenges over the past year opening up new markets, and expanding existing ones, and is now reaping the rewards,” he said.

“The shortfall in coal exports to China has now been balanced out by increases in sales to other markets, particularly throughout Asia.

“Forecasts released last week indicated Australian resources and energy exports will hit a record high of close to $350 billion this financial year and coal will be a significant contributor to that.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/business/qld-business/why-chinas-australian-coal-ban-has-been-a-disastrous-failure/news-story/6beaec9c009e6fb52e29343c76616d52

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760,000 Aussie frontline workers are considering quitting their jobs

All over Australia, hundreds of thousands of workers are fed up, and on the verge of quitting their jobs - which would spell disaster for the country.

ICU nurse Helen Connors* feels a huge amount of “guilt” that people have died alone on her ward as they battle Covid-19 and she hasn’t had the time to sit there and hold their hand.

She works in a busy Sydney hospital but was also sent to a regional area for two weeks as the outbreak spread and the pandemic caused massive shortages.

As Covid cases soared over a thousand in NSW for a number of weeks, Ms Connors said the last month and a half had been the “worst” and “extremely stressful” as the ICU ward dealt with patients who are very sick.

And she’s not alone - new research has found nearly one fifth of essential workers in education, emergency services and healthcare have considered quitting their jobs because of the pandemic.

This represents around 760,000 essential workers across Australia who could be at risk of leaving their front-line profession, and would lead to already stretched professions moving closer to breaking point.

Ms Conners, who is in her late 20s, said the huge amount of people requiring ICU care is putting a massive strain on staff.

Those unfamiliar with ICU are required to upskill immediately or more experienced workers like her have the responsibility to train up workers under a highly pressured environment, she explained.

“There is a lot of tasks and things to learn like the ventilator and different ways of monitoring and that stuff is all learned on the job. In a normal environment you get six months to get to that point, but at the moment you have no time,” she said.

“These people who have nursing skills from wards are having to learn extra stuff as soon as they possibly can as we need them now.

“Not everyone has the same skills or same knowledge as we do in ICU, so its quite stressful having someone that may not know exactly what doing. So you have to do your own work and watch over them and make sure they are doing their job properly. But it’s not their fault and it’s better than not having anyone at all.”

But Ms Connors, who works in an ICU with 50 beds, said the “emotional burden” is the heaviest thing to come out of working during the pandemic’s current outbreak in Sydney.

“We deal with death in ICU normally but there is definitely more death than normal around with this illness and it’s made 10 times harder as a lot of these patients can’t have their family there if they are dying as their families also have Covid,” she said.

She said its “really sad” when someone is at their sickest and they can’t have the comfort of their mum, dad, sibling or partner being by their side.

“It’s really hard to know that they can’t have that person there, especially when they are dying. I feel a lot of emotion for the families and often they are so sick they are unaware at that point but I feel a lot of empathy for families and they are ones that go on knowing their loved one died alone,” she said.

“We try our best to be there and hold their hands. But that’s happened to me – I've been busy with another patient and my other patient is expected to die and has died .... It’s hard to know that people are dying alone essentially.”

She said all her colleagues feel so “stretched” and that they don’t have the time to give the “full package of empathy” such as spending time talking to lonely patients.

Meanwhile wearing full PPE, while essential for their protection, also adds to the patient’s isolation as they can’t even see their nurse’s hair colour or smile, she added..

The Sydneysider said the “added pressure and guilt” of the job is also spilling over into her personal life too where she is more irritable with her partner, but she isn’t ready yet to give up a job she is “passionate” about.

Then there’s Rachel Ahmed*, a teacher from a school in a Western Sydney hot spot area.

She is seeing a concerning trend among children as she delivers classes online at a crucial age where they are learning to read.

“I teach year one and delivering learning that supports those children is really challenging as you have children that have an adult who is supporting them and some that are there by themselves,” she told news.com.au.

“It’s been really challenging and it’s been a case of if you know they don’t have an adult around there is only so much you can do and it’s almost like you have to turn a blind eye that they aren’t learning.

“The gap between my students will be huge when we return to the classroom and it's not due to a lack of ability but due to lack of support, which is really hard.”

She said there are children who haven’t picked up a book in six weeks, which will hinder their ability to access the learning when they return.

But she doesn’t blame parents who are juggling working from home and supervising their children during school time.

The Sydneysider said her job has been “turned on its head” during lockdown – increasing her workload dramatically.

On any one day she’s expected to plan lessons by creating slides and audio, conduct Zoom calls with her class, offer tech support, check in on the wellbeing of students, guide them through the online delivery platform and answer any questions raised.

There’s also expectation to check in with families every week via a phone call.

“It’s been a mammoth task. It's not just a few minutes conversation,” she said.

“I’m speaking to families that have lost everything being in a hotspot – they have lost work and are feeling depressed. I am meant to be speaking about their child and it ends up being a half an hour conversation. I could cut it short but when you’re supporting someone going through a tough emotional time its hard to do.”

The teacher, in her late 20s, said there is minimal downtime for her. “It’s not as if working from home has allowed me to have extra time to do anything,” she said.

“My time has been eaten up by all the additional tasks I have to do and its really draining to have to go through your own issues and the way you’re feeling, and not only supporting your class but their families as well.”

Another huge concern is the massive misinformation being spread surrounding kids getting vaccinated, with some parents questioning whether they could trust her as they believed she would be immunising their children in “secret”, Ms Ahmed said.

Obviously that would never be allowed, Ms Ahmed added, but this puts her in “uncharted territory” as she is not a “medical professional” and doesn’t want to get drawn into the debate around vaccines.

Working from home has also made it hard to “switch off”, yet she feels guilty about how parents are coping with the impact of lockdown.

“I feel like my life has just been school and that’s been really upsetting,” she said.

“But I know that there are people in really stressful situations in terms of having a lot of children and not having a steady income and I feel guilty about not doing everything in my power to help.”

Most of all she is worried about her children, who fill out a check in questionnaire each morning, and increasingly the responses are “heartbreaking”.

“More and more children are not doing so well and they have missed me and missed coming to school,” she said.

“A lot of the time it’s that social interaction they are missing, where they just don’t get to play especially if they are not from a big family as they are not playing with other kids, which is a really scary thought in terms of social development.”

Being an essential worker, although often less recognised than roles such as healthcare, is taking its toll on Ms Ahmoud.

“I’m bitter as I’m expected to be everything for everyone and it makes me upset,” she said. However, she isn’t ready to give up on the profession she loves.

New research commissioned by Hiver, a member-owned bank for essential workers, also revealed that 58 per cent essential workers had experienced threats to their personal safety at work, while 65 per cent reported greater difficulty looking after their own mental health as the pandemic continued.

In Victoria and New South Wales, almost 80 per cent of essential workers reported that they have found it harder to fulfil their roles on the front line this year.

This was a significantly different experience to essential workers in other states, where only around 38 per cent found their jobs harder to fulfil in 2021.

Carolyn Murphy, chief digital bank officer of Hiver, said the responsibilities of workers were more intense than ever because of the pandemic.

“The people who face-up to the very personal impacts of Covid-19 on a daily basis are telling us they are nearing breaking point,” she said.

“As the pandemic goes on, if we are expecting to continue our reliance on essential workers, we need to look carefully at how we can provide meaningful support in their lives.”

She added the research found that 41 per cent of essential workers aged 18-34 are finding it difficult to get affordable housing close to their work.

“We believe (affordable housing) could assist in reducing stress and improving the mental wellbeing of many of our front line workers,” she added.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/760000-aussie-frontline-workers-are-considering-quitting-their-jobs/news-story/56bfdebf0de1697d501e3ea082a4b02b

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NSW’s new premier has hit out at critics who fear his religious views will impact the way he governs the state

Dominic Perrottet has been elevated from Treasurer to Premier after a landslide win in a vote among Liberal colleagues. Sworn in at a Government House ceremony on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Perrottet is the state’s youngest ever Premier, at the age of 39.

He will also be seen as a far more conservative leader than his moderate predecessor Gladys Berejiklian.

Mr Perrottet, a conservative Catholic who opposes same-sex marriage and abortion reforms, said it would be “sad” if people thought he shouldn’t serve as premier because of his religion.

“My religious views and my Christian faith is something I am incredibly proud of, as many people across our state are,” he told reporters.

“Does that in any way take away my capacity to serve as premier? Well, I do not think so, and I think it is a sad thing that some people do.

“People right across our state, in the main, believe in freedom of religion and freedom of the opportunity to serve in public life regardless of what your ethnic background is what your religious values are.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Perrottet won the party room ballot 39 votes to five, comfortably defeating Planning Minister Rob Stokes. Stuart Ayres became his deputy.

“It’s been an honour and an absolute privilege to be elected as the parliamentary leader of the Liberal Party,” Mr Perrottet told reporters. “I really appreciate the trust that my colleagues are putting in me.”

Mr Stokes also spoke to reporters after suffering a resounding loss. “I always said that I would give people a choice – they have chosen emphatically,” he said.

“Democracy is the winner today. Dom Perrottet will be a magnificent premier and he has my undivided loyalty and support. “I will use every ounce of strength in my body to make sure he is re-elected as premier of NSW when we go to the polls in 2023.”

Asked whether he would like to remain in the cabinet, Mr Stokes said it would be “entirely up to the premier”.

Moderate faction powerbroker Matt Kean was promoted to Treasurer after helping Mr Perrottet secure victory. He will also keep his portfolio of Environment Minister for the time being.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard offered a philosophical take after emerging from the meeting.

Mr Hazzard said the atmosphere in the room was “good, but obviously sad” because MPs were mourning the loss of Ms Berejiklian as leader.

“We talked about Gladys, obviously, how sad we all are,” he told NCA NewsWire.

Calling an official press conference soon after the meeting, Mr Perrottet praised his predecessor, Gladys Berejiklian.

“It is my hope that I will continue the strong leadership that Gladys has shown throughout this pandemic,” he said.

Mr Perrottet also heaped praise on his new deputy, along with his wife and children.

The new state leader said he would not only be an “infrastructure premier” but also a “family premier”.

His ascendancy to the top job came after his Ms Berejiklian resigned as a result of an anti-corruption investigation into her conduct in office.

Her announcement was followed by an intense weekend of backroom wrangling that saw Mr Perrottet amass enough support to feel he could win the vote by Sunday.

As treasurer, Mr Perrottet was the second-highest ranking Liberal in the NSW parliament. Ms Berejiklian held the same position before she was chosen as premier in 2017.

The 39-year-old Catholic and father-of-six is the leader of the party’s right faction and was previously the deputy leader of the NSW Liberal Party

The Epping MP lives in northwest Sydney with his wife Helen and children Charlotte, Amelia, Annabelle, William, Harriet and Beatrice.

His choice of having a big family of his own may have been inspired by his own upbringing – Mr Perrottet is the third eldest of a dozen brothers and sisters.

Mr Perrottet studied law at Sydney University and worked as a lawyer before he was elected to the NSW parliament in 2011.

Mr Perrottet graduated from Redfield College, a Catholic school that has an Opus Dei priest as its chaplain, and has said his politics are partly influenced by his Christian faith.

“It’s certainly part of who I am (politically), it inspires me to try and make a difference,” he told a Catholic podcast last year.

In a statement on Friday, he said Ms Berejiklian’s departure was “an incredibly sad day for NSW”.

“The interests of the people of NSW must always come first, and the priority for the government is to ensure we continue to keep people safe, and that we reopen the economy and get people back to work, kids back to school, and life back to normal as fast as possible,” Mr Perrottet said.

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/politics/liberal-mps-to-vote-on-new-nsw-premier-after-gladys-berejiklians-departure/news-story/9d4295d861757cf9f81a654e0610c177

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‘Save Australia’ protest erupts in New York (!)

Australia became the surprising focal point of an American anti vaccine mandate protest march for teachers in New York City overnight, with hundreds of demonstrators chanting “Save Australia” and some waving Aussie flags.

The large crowd gathered outside the Australian consulate in the city for speeches in support of Australia after they marched through Manhattan.

The march began in Brooklyn outside Department of Education headquarters earlier in the day, as hundreds of people gathered to hear speeches. It mobilised and moved across the Brooklyn Bridge and into Manhattan, with chants of “Wake up, New York,” “Let us teach,” and “We, the people, will not comply.”

Some members of the crowd flipped over a Covid-19 testing site tent on their way through the city, with many of them booing and chanting, “Shame on you!”

One man, recording on his phone, overturned the testing site’s table. Another then pulled down the tent, before police officers intervened.

The march ended outside the Australian consulate in Midtown, where speeches were held in support of Australia.

“What’s going on in Australia is not just going to be Australia. And when it shows up on our doorsteps, we’re gonna punch it right in the f***ing teeth,” one speaker said. “We’re holding the line for Australia, we support Australia!” said another.

Australia has become a focal point for some commentators in the USA who see the nation as an extreme example of lockdowns and Covid restrictions.

For example, last month, the Texas Freedom Coalition posted the image to its Facebook page that likened Australia’s strict Covid-19 lockdown laws to a penitentiary system.

A map of Australia is pictured alongside the text: “What the world’s largest prison looks like from space”.

It is understood that the majority of those taking part in the march in New York overnight were Department of Education (DOE) staffers – protesting the agency’s Covid-19 vaccination mandate as it went into effect on Monday.

Teachers and other DOE employees at the rally told the New York Post they had been officially placed on unpaid leave with health insurance after refusing to get the jab.

Others said they were still being paid, but weren’t being allowed in their schools as their religious or medical exemption requests are still being considered.

In New York State, looming deadlines for vaccination have been accompanied by a substantial bump in shots among healthcare workers and others.

And about 96 per cent of New York City teachers have had at least one vaccination shot, with a surge taking place in the past week as the deadline approached.

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/global/save-australia-teacher-protest-in-new-york-city-gathers-at-the-australian-consulate/news-story/c4393b3522f61f061e8f7ed7833a7522

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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4 October, 2021

Innocent male student targeted over rape claim

Bettina Arndt

Kristin Hosking is used to a tough life. She and her husband Phil run a sheep farm near Tamworth in Northeast NSW

They have coped with drought. “We had to hand-feed our stock and watch them die. But we pulled together and got on with it. That’s just nature, you can understand that,” said Kristin.

Next came the bushfires. “What was left of our feed was lost in the fires, along with fencing and hundreds of acres.” That too, the family just dealt with, with their sons spending months fighting not just on their farm but on their neighbours’ as well.”

But what came next just blew them away. “How do you prepare your kids for absolute evil?” asks Kristin.

“How do you explain to your son that even through you have lived your life in a respectful, decent way and have done nothing wrong, all it takes a malicious lie from one girl and you can be thrown out of university and your life impacted forever?”

On the first of March this year, Kristin’s son suffered an “emergency eviction” from the University of New England. He was advised by university administrators that he’d been accused of a rape that supposedly had happened five months earlier, in a dorm room on campus. He was given two hours to pack his bags and leave the university grounds.

Kristin and Phil brought James home to the farm and she took leave from her job because she was frightened of leaving him on his own. “I’ll never forget the absolute bewilderment and hopelessness in his eyes when we arrived to pick him up. My beautiful, caring young man was shattered.”

James had been accused by a young woman living in the same dorm who was known to suffer mental health issues. As a male nursing student, he’d became a support person for her after she told him about her history of self-harming, her tales of being raped by an uncle in Sri Lanka, and her suicidal thoughts. She was part of a group of four friends who interacted most days over a six-month period in 2020.

The bungling, self-serving handling of this complaint by the university was appalling – but sadly typical of the biased, negligent treatment of accused young men by the kangaroo courts currently operating across Australian universities.

Just think about this. Here’s a young woman accusing a fellow student of rape - in October last year. The university refers the matter to police but James is not even told. They leave him living in the dorm near his accuser totally innocent of the fact that she’d accused him of a criminal offence – and all this time he is exposed to the possibility of further accusations.

Then suddenly, five months later, the university decides to expel him - by which time his accuser has moved on to study elsewhere. Despite this, he is suddenly deemed a risk to others on campus. It later emerges that the university received a complaint from parents of a friend of the accuser, asking why an alleged rapist was living in the dorm.

Once this all happened, the university asks police to get a move on with the investigation. James produces detailed evidence of his activities on the night in question – the alleged rape took place in her room after the friends all attended a games night. He has social media messages showing the girl’s friendly involvement with him over the subsequent few weeks. But eventually she withdraws contact – which he believes may have been due to her taking offence when he pressed her to address her mental health issues.

Finally, after months of anguish and thousands in legal fees, the police announce they are dropping the case and the university informs James that the girl has withdrawn her complaint.

James is now back at college but the very public handling of his expulsion from the university has left him feeling very uncomfortable and shamed, with the accusation always hanging over him. He’s lost a year of his nursing studies and is now struggling to complete his degree because his disrupted schedule has meant he misses out on the government study payments.

Kristin has decided to speak out because she believes the public needs to tune into the injustice being perpetrated by our universities. I’ve made a video with Fiona, as she describes the shattering impact of this event on her family. James was happy to go public but we believe it’s too much of a risk for the young man to deal with the unfair stigma that accused men face.

The shaming of this young man by the University of New England is par for the course. Our universities have in place sexual misconduct regulations which pay lip service to fair treatment for accused students but in practice, accused young men are routinely left out to dry.

In the last few years, I’ve been following a string of such cases, having gathered a group of very generous lawyers willing to offer pro bono help for students dealing with these kangaroo courts.

The wildly unfair, inconsistent treatment of accused students is so distressing to witness. Here was James left for months not even being told he had been accused, while other students are expelled or thrown out of colleges within days of an accusation being made. One young international student found himself given two hours to get out of the college which had been his only home since he’d arrived in Australia – dumped alone and desperate in ghastly accommodation far away from his few new friends.

https://thinkspot.com/discourse/E1uyme/post/bettina-arndt/innocent-male-student-targeted-over-rape-claim/bvZtjy

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The ‘speed bump’ news publication trusted by Australia’s youth

When Sam Koslowski and Zara Seidler started uploading news breakdowns on Instagram for their family and friends in 2017 they couldn’t predict that four years later it would become a trusted news source for hundreds of thousands of young Australians.

<a href="https://www.thedailyaus.com.au/latest-stories/">The Daily Aus</a> has quickly grown into the go-to news source for young Australians, jumping from 70,000 readers in December 2020 to 219,000 less than a year later. The social media-driven platform’s aim is simple, engage the young in the news that matters.

“We think of ourselves as a speed bump that meets our readership where they are. You should be able to scroll on social media, see a photo of a coffee, a brand you like, and then a little, digestible explainer of ours about interest rates before going back to what you’re doing more knowledgeably,” Koslowski told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Over 85 per cent of the publication’s 219,000 followers are under the age of 35, and a significant proportion exclusively use it to get their news. Koslowski says young people gravitate towards The Daily Aus because it delivers high-quality news that isn’t patronising, is devoid of jargon but “isn’t afraid to use a swear word in a headline”. For now, the publication is focussed on producing explainer articles, and while it’s likely to dip its toe into the breaking news space Koslowski would “rather be slow and right, than fast and wrong” for now.

Unlike most traditional media companies, The Daily Aus has consciously avoided adopting a subscription-based revenue model. Instead, Koslowski and Seidler are focussing on growing a devout readership before thinking about how to monetise them.

Koslowski is proud of the way The Daily Aus has made its mark on young people, he’s cautious about disrupting that relationship with revenue grabs too early and said the publication is more likely to emulate publications such as the satirical newspaper The Betoota Advocate.

“Our audience doesn’t sit on web browsers and pay to read like other generations do,” he said.

Following in the footsteps of The Betoota Advocate makes sense. Both organisations are primarily social media based, have audio offerings, newsletters, and are both published by Piers Grove.

Grove argues working with brands to advertise around an article on a website is ‘a really horrible way’ to cultivate a media business because it makes the relationship with the audience immediately transactional.

“I always try to look at how I can grow a community of people around this content, so they can use the content as a way to engage with each other and develop an identity. Once I have that, I look at what we can do with them,” he says.

He says The Daily Aus’ strength has come from listening to its audience singularly, rather than pandering to advertisers. As a result, he says, The Daily Aus has avoided the ‘fairly vacuous’ relationship traditional publications grapple with where a reader’s loyalty extends only to the next story.

The High Court recently ruled that media outlets are legally responsible as “publishers” for third parties’ comments on their Facebook pages, in a decision with implication for all social media users. What it means for The Daily Aus is less clear. Its biggest audience is on Facebook-owned social media platform Instagram, but it’s too soon to tell whether the judgment applies to all Facebook products.

Koslowski is a former lawyer, and isn’t sure what to make of the decision “if you’re going to rely on social media to give you revenue, you’re responsible for the content, but we don’t make any money off social media content, we’re not a part of the bargaining code dynamics, so I’m not sure that it should apply to us,” he said.

In the event it does, Koslowski is willing to disable comments entirely, but says it’s a shame for the relationship between publisher and reader as The Daily Aus often replies to comments to clarify confusing elements of the news for its readership.

He says the media bargaining code is a win for news literacy and accessibility, but it delays a difficult discussion for the industry about what a ‘sustainable’ revenue model is for news companies and where social media behemoths fit in as more Australians stop paying for news. He also questions the way the code works given social media-based platforms with the highest growth on the paying platforms, such as The Daily Aus, aren’t included.

Despite growing nearly 100,000 new Instagram followers over the past three months, The Daily Aus is not wedded to the platform, “we’ll meet our readers wherever they want us, at the moment it’s Instagram, tomorrow it could be TikTok,” Koslowski says.

The Daily Aus does not shy away from the fact a significant proportion of its content is originally reported by other platforms. Koslowski is a big admirer of traditional media but says failure to source information correctly or attribute other outlets holds the industry back in the era of ‘fake news’.

He adds that focussing too much on inter-industry squabbles detracts from the overall goal, “We have a clear aim. We want every young person who walks into the voting booth at the next federal election to know who they’re voting for and why and if that means directing to them to a wonderful infogram by the ABC or a great analysis piece by The Sydney Morning Herald, great.”

“News companies should work together in the game of having a more educated public rather than placing too much emphasis on ego-driven exclusives”, he says.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/companies/the-speed-bump-news-publication-trusted-by-australia-s-youth-20210916-p58s3g.html

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Meet Dom Perrottet — the conservative Catholic and father-of-six who will be NSW's next Premier

A man with a big family and strong ideals around freedom — meet Dominic Perrottet, the man who is set to take NSW's top job at a critical time.

Mr Perrottet has secured a deal that will see him become the state's 46th premier and Gladys Berejiklian's successor.

Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres will become deputy Liberal leader and Environment Minister Matt Kean will become Treasurer.

The party will hold an official vote on Tuesday which the ABC understands will be a formality.

Mr Perrottet will take the helm just as Greater Sydney and its surrounds prepare to reopen for fully vaccinated people on October 11 after more than 100 days of COVID-19 lockdown.

The timing is far from ideal, but Mr Perrottet has emphasised his "hope" and "optimism" about leading the state through uncharted waters.

Last year, Mr Perrottet was widely criticised for his handling of the $38 billion state-run insurance scheme icare, which is supposed to look after millions of workers when they get sick or injured on the job.

It emerged the troubled agency, set up by Mr Perrottet in 2015, had lost more than $3 billion despite cutting benefits to thousands of injured workers.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry into the scandal-plagued organisation was last year told the wife of former icare chief executive John Nagle was paid $800,000 over three years after being awarded a contract without a tender.

Mr Perrottet, 39, has been front and centre of the NSW Liberal Party since becoming Treasurer and deputy leader in 2017.

He is part of the Liberals' right faction which is considered less dominant in NSW.

This may mean he faces more challenges in parliament than his moderate predecessors Ms Berejiklian, Mike Baird and Barry O'Farrell.

Growing up in West Pennant Hills in the Hills District of Sydney, Mr Perrottet was one of 13 children.

His family ideals are fierce and he went on to have six of his own children with wife Helen.

As a child he attended the Roman Catholic school Redfield College in Dural, which is run by Opus Dei priests.

The Opus Dei sect has been tied to secretive dealings, along with aggressive recruitment methods and accusations of elitism and misogyny.

But Mr Perrottet has never shied away from making his faith public. Last year he spoke about how his devout Catholic beliefs have had a fundamental influence on his work in politics. "I think having a Christian faith is part of who I am and inspires me to make a difference wherever I go," he said.

Mr Perrottet graduated from Sydney University with degrees in commerce and law and worked as a solicitor in banking restructuring and insolvency law.

Like Ms Berejiklian, he was heavily involved in student politics and served as president of the NSW Young Liberals.

In 2011, at age 28, Mr Perrottet won the very safe Liberal seat of Castle Hill but in 2015 successfully stood for the electorate of Hawkesbury.

In his inaugural speech to parliament in 2011, he said he would lead based on the four ideals of sacrifice, generosity, freedom and opportunity.

"I believe in freedom, because it is only by exercising freedom that individuals can develop the habits of generosity, hard work, fairness and concern for others," he said.

"I believe that these habits have made our country great and are ultimately the foundation for the pursuit of the good life. You cannot do good without striving to be good."

Mr Perrottet is the founder of the Hills St Vincent De Paul Young Adults Program and and has served on The Hills Australia Day Committee.

In a 2016 post on his official Facebook account, Mr Perrottet praised Donald Trump's election as US President, describing it as "a victory for people who have been taken for granted by the elites".

Part of the post read: "If you stand for free speech, you are not a bigot."

"If you question man-made climate change, you are not a sceptic.

"If you support stronger borders, you are not a racist.

"If you want a plebiscite on same sex marriage, you are not a homophobe.

"If you love your country, you are not an extremist."

"These are mainstream values that people should be free to articulate without fear of ridicule or persecution by the Left."

Mr Perrottet served as the Minister for Finance under former Premier Baird in 2014 and his portfolio was expanded to include property and innovation.

In the lead up to the 2019 election, Mr Perrottet tried to take back the seat of Castle Hill and even nominated for pre-selection — a controversial move that upset ministerial colleague Ray Williams, who held the seat.

Mr Perrottet wanted to be based in a seat closer to his home, and his decision sparked a civil war within Liberal ranks.

He eventually backed down and instead was pre-selected for the seat of Epping, which he still holds.

Most recently, Mr Perrottet has been one of the architects of the JobSaver program, and pushed back against the federal government when they scrapped JobKeeper benefits just as the Delta outbreak began to take hold in NSW.

His conversations with Prime Minister Scott Morrison were said to have been particularly heated during his repeated calls for JobKeeper to be reinstated.

Mr Perrottet has been a part of the crisis cabinet making the all-important decisions about managing COVID-19 and has committed to a strong job recovery.

“[In 2020] we lost close to 300,000 jobs in this state and we recovered every single one of them plus 30,000 more and we will do it again," he said while announcing his run for top job.

He says the state's long-awaited reopening will still go ahead despite the shock leadership changes.

"What we want to make sure is that we continue to focus on the people of our state who are going through a difficult time," he said. "That recovery package is in its final throes and it's pretty much finished. What it's focused on is stimulating the economy through Summer."

Mr Perrottet is expected to lead with an economy-first mantra, but will take over as Premier just as the state's health system is expected to be under the most pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I know this is a time of challenge for our state but I have complete hope and optimism that NSW is in a very good place," he said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-03/meet-dominic-perrottet-will-be-next-nsw-remier/100510952

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Santos seeks carbon credits for plan to bury emissions underground

Gas giant Santos could have one of the world’s biggest carbon capture and storage projects operational in South Australia by 2024 after the federal government made the technology eligible for carbon credits intended to drive industrial emissions cuts.

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor’s announcement that carbon capture and storage (CCS) had been added to the list of approved technologies under the Emissions Reduction Fund has cleared the last major hurdle for Santos to green-light the $210 million project at the Cooper Basin’s Moomba gas plant.

Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher.

Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher.CREDIT:TREVOR COLLENS

Santos managing director Kevin Gallagher said the company had begun the process of applying to register the Moomba project with the Clean Energy Regulator to access Australian Carbon Credit Units.

“Once the project has been registered, we will be in a position to make a final investment decision to proceed,” Mr Gallagher said.

“The Australian government’s focus on CCS and other low-emission technologies sets Australia up to capitalise on our natural assets and become a carbon storage superpower, building on the position we have established as an energy superpower over more than half a century.”

CCS – which traps carbon dioxide emissions produced by factories or power plants before they are emitted into the atmosphere and injects them underground – has been a divisive area of climate policy, but is being targeted as a priority for the federal government’s emissions-reduction road map.

The Greens and environmental advocates oppose the inclusion of CCS in the Emissions Reduction Scheme, which awards credits to entities that cut pollution by employing one of the approved techniques, as it would direct taxpayer dollars to fossil fuel companies and potentially delay the massive research and development push needed to switch heavy industry to clean fuel sources.

There are also fresh questions about the technology’s prospects of functioning at scale after Chevron’s giant Gorgon CCS project in Western Australia this year failed to meet a crucial target of capturing and burying at least 80 per cent of the carbon dioxide released from its gas reservoirs, despite several years of work and spending more than $3 billion.

Supporters of CCS argue it is a necessary and unavoidable component of the world’s decarbonisation goals to avoid the worst and most immediate impacts of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the International Energy Agency say carbon capture is needed now to start reducing the pollution from difficult-to-abate industrial processes like cement production.

If it proceeds, Moomba could eventually have the capacity to stash as much as 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Gordon Ramsay, a Sydney-based energy analyst with the Royal Bank of Canada, said Moomba was expected to be a low-cost CCS project due to Santos’s position as a leading operator in the mature Cooper Basin.

“Santos has existing CO2-separation equipment at Moomba that is already being used to meet Australian domestic gas pipeline gas specifications,” Mr Ramsay said. “Santos also has a number of existing wells that can be repurposed for CO2 injection, and it has depleted reservoirs with proven rock seal in which it can safely store hydrocarbons.”

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/santos-seeks-carbon-credits-for-plan-to-bury-emissions-underground-20211001-p58we1.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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3 October, 2021

China expected to stop phosphate exports, food production prices set to rise

There are huge deposits of phosphate in North Africa so China is the main supplier only because they do it more cheaply

China's economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is moving to restrict the production and export of phosphates until the middle of next year.

Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient. Australian grain farmers use the granulated fertiliser at planting to establish crops.

The fertilisers are made from phosphate rock reserves mined mainly in China, Morocco, Western Sahara, the US and Russia.

Last year 65 per cent of the mono ammonium phosphate (MAP) fertiliser used in Australia came from China.

Phosphates editor with fertiliser market publication Argus, Harry Minihan, said US import duties on Moroccan and Russian origin phosphates had caused the product's price to double in the past year.

He said restricting its production and export would serve China in two ways in this high price environment.

"The Chinese government want to make sure there is enough product in the country for farmers, and they are also trying to reduce emissions as well."

However, this will cause pain for other nations.

"China is the top phosphate supplier into Australia, and if there is a restriction in exports, it's going to have some real significant impact on Australian buyers."

Not a trade issue

While a phosphate shortage will drive up costs for Australian farmers, Mr Minihan said restricting exports was not related to trade tensions between the two nations.

"This is going to have severe effects on other major importers as well," he said.

"It is not just Australia that is going to be affected.

"India is the world's largest DAP importer, and they still have significant requirements for their winter rabi season."

Difficult purchasing decisions

Wes Lefroy, senior agriculture analyst with Rabobank, said prices were also high across the range of farming inputs, including chemicals.

"From a glyphosate perspective as well, prices out of China have more than doubled this year, and around 65 per cent of the globe's glyphosate comes from China, and that represents a large chunk of Australian supplies."

Mr Lefroy said there was no reason to expect fertiliser prices to fall before next season.

Currently, urea and phosphorous fertilisers are trading either side of $1,000 a tonne, much higher than usual levels.

"We're expecting prices to remain elevated into 2022, which puts farmers in a difficult position ahead of next season," he said

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-10-01/china-expected-to-stop-phosphate-exports/100505026

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Now "wilderness" is a wrong word

What image does the word "wilderness" conjure in your mind?

Maybe it's damp moss encircling a giant myrtle-beech in takayna/Tarkine, or dry red earth and rocky outcrops deep in the centre of the continent. Or it might conjure nothing at all.

We don't all perceive wilderness the same way, and for Wardandi and Bibbulmun woman Chontarle Bellottie, it's a totally foreign concept. "Wilderness is not in my language. It's not in the way that I communicate," she says.

"Because for me, my interpretation of [wilderness] is untouched, whereas we know as traditional owners that we've cultivated and gathered and hunted for so many thousands of years ... in a way where we've been able to live off the land in a very sustainable way."

While some people might not associate wilderness with a complete absence of people, many do, and that's a problem, according to Wiradjuri scientist Michael Fletcher.

Dr Fletcher, a palaeoecologist and geographer at the University of Melbourne, started exploring the idea when investigating the formation of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area landscape. "I found it was people who were responsible for its present form and its form over the past 40,000 years," Dr Fletcher says.

His analysis of sediment layers suggest that the lush temperate rainforest that we see today was, until colonisation, eucalypt savannah and grassland actively managed by Aboriginal people.

"So the term wilderness is not only inaccurate, the notion that wilderness carries, which is the absence of people, is dehumanising really to Aboriginal people."

It's time to strike terms like "wilderness" from our lexicon, he adds. "While they're just words, they're actually very powerful."

The prevalence of the wilderness concept means global conservation policy and public perception still often overlook how biodiverse landscapes have been shaped by Indigenous people, Dr Fletcher argues in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week.

"Globally, many places that are called 'wilderness' are either current home to Indigenous people who actively manage the landscape, or are former landscapes which Indigenous people were the managers of, and are still trying to get recognition and agency back into their territories," he says.

"And they're being inhibited by this notion of wilderness, which underpins many conservation efforts."

Dr Fletcher says excluding Indigenous people from places, whether under the guise of wilderness protection or not, has degraded the health of those ecosystems — especially in Australia.

But there is disagreement over use of the term "wilderness" in conservation science, and it comes down to how you define it, according to James Watson, a conservation biologist at the University of Queensland, who was not involved in the study.

Although Dr Watson agrees with most of what the paper suggests about the need to include Indigenous people in conservation efforts, he says the idea that scientists still use the term wilderness to imply an absence of people was "nonsense".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2021-10-02/wilderness-conservation-indigenous-science/100500954

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Urgent action required as Australian kids get left behind on writing

Kids can think. They just can’t write. The same applies to teachers. No wonder we’re in a mess.

When you look at educational benchmarks – including NAPLAN results, back when the Queensland Government bothered to publicly release them – it’s clear that writing is not students’ strong suit.

Children are slipping further and further behind as they struggle to string a sentence together, and now schools are forking out big bucks on rescue packages.

Writing coaches are being brought in to show teachers how to do their jobs.

Schools, both private and state, are spending up to $100,000 a year on the Writer’s Toolbox program, which includes in-house workshops for teachers on the basics of writing and how to integrate them across the curriculum, not just in English lessons.

The program’s founder Dr Ian Hunter, a New Zealand historian, author and former university lecturer has pretty much struck gold.

The real question is: how was it allowed to come to this?

Sometime in the “free loving” 1960s, Education Queensland took its eye off the ball. It let the teaching of explicit writing skills slip in favour of encouraging individual expression.

According to Dr Hunter, “the rules of grammar went out the window”, and writing became about the process, one’s personal creative journey. “The mantra in Education Queensland at that time was ‘language is caught not taught’,” he tells Qweekend today.

“So we now have these generations of young teachers who have never been taught the rules of writing.”

I can’t count the number of times my son, then in primary school, would show me a teacher’s “corrections” on his homework, scribbles in red pen that were actually wrong.

Then there were the official letters home from school that were riddled with errors, using “less” when it should have been “fewer”, “me” when it should have been “I”, and my personal pet hate, the sign-off where they say, “please don’t hesitate to contact myself”. It should be “me”, and teachers should know this, but a good many don’t.

How, then, can we expect our kids to understand?

Writing is not some outmoded skill – even in this age of emojis, abbreviations and short, sharp text messages. It is essential to expressing our thoughts and consolidating ideas.

As prolific American writer Joan Didion, now 86, once said, “I don’t know what I think until I write it down.” The very act of writing, including choosing the right words and structuring sentences, pushes us to think more, to analyse, to discover.

And unlike other things we learn at school but never use afterwards, writing remains relevant. Written communication is high on the list of 21st century skills that employers seek and understandably so.

Some of the most influential people in the world sparked change through their writing. Consider Charles Darwin, whose theory of evolution informed modern science studies, or Simone de Beauvoir, who gave voice to global feminism.

Alarmingly, Dr Hunter says proper writing instruction – once the hallmark of good schooling - stops around Year 7.

From then on, kids are left free-wheeling and largely clueless about how to express the thoughts in their head.

When more sophisticated thinking is required as they move into the higher grades, they flounder, and by the time they get to university – if they make it that far – they really struggle.

It was while teaching business history to tertiary students in New Zealand that Dr Hunter realised just how compromised young people were, and it inspired him to write a book on essay writing.

Schools then asked him to write a version for younger audiences, and his Writer’s Toolbox took off from there.

What his experience shows is that two things need to drastically change.

Universities must sharpen teacher-training programs to include the essentials of good writing, and the government must strip back the curriculum to allow schools to once again put a laser focus on core skills.

We can’t expect kids to pick up writing by osmosis.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/kylie-lang/kylie-lang-urgent-action-required-as-qld-kids-get-left-behind-on-writing/news-story/ac07a6413077952e915044312abb779c

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Punchard gone at last: He got off lightly

A senior constable convicted of leaking personal information about a friend’s ex-wife and her new partner, including their address, after accessing a police database has resigned from the Queensland Police Service following years of legal battles.

Neil Glen Punchard, 55, had a suspended prison sentence reinstated in August, following a successful appeal by the QPS.

His resignation from the QPS was effective from September 17, according to official police documents viewed by the Courier Mail.

The road policing officer from the South Brisbane District was charged in December 2018 with nine counts of accessing the Queensland Police Records and Information Management Exchange computer program – known as QPrime – and leaking personal information about the woman, including her address, to her ex-husband over a one-year period from 2013.

The mother of three told the Courier Mail in 2019 that she had moved her family twice in three years – after first making sure the removalists were not being followed – after the officer passed her address along to her ex-husband, Punchard’s childhood friend.

Punchard pleaded guilty in the Brisbane Magistrates Court in 2019 to nine counts of using a restricted computer without consent, gaining the benefit of knowledge, in 2013 and 2014.

He received two-month jail sentence, wholly suspended for 18 months, with a conviction recorded, but remained a serving police officer, on full-pay “administrative duties” at the time but was later suspended on full pay.

A back-and-forth lengthy court process ensued, with Senior Constable Punchard first winning an appeal against the jail sentence in 2020 with District Court Judge Craig Chowdhury instead re-sentencing the officer to 140 hours of community service with no conviction recorded.

On August 13 this year, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by the Commissioner of Police and set aside Judge Chowdhury’s orders.

The appeal court heard that Punchard had already completed the 140 hours of community service, but the appeal court judges said that fact “did not cause such an injustice” to the officer to be an impediment to their orders that would effectively reinstate the Magistrate’s sentence.

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll has been under pressure by both the victim and members of the community to sack Punchard and has previously said she would consider his suitability to remain employed by QPS after the appeal process was finalised.

An online petition calling for Punchard’s dismissal from the police service has reached 67,352 signatures to date.

The woman filed a breach of privacy case against the QPS in Brisbane’s Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in 2018.

Her complaint about the privacy breach was passed around between the QPS, the Crime and Corruption Commission, Ethical Standards Command and politicians for years, before QPS “substantiated” the complaint.

The QPS always denied the agency was liable for breaching the woman’s privacy.

Access to QPrime was tightened by the QPS in 2016, with members of the public now even prevented from accessing their own files.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-qld/senior-constable-who-leaked-the-address-of-a-mates-exwife-has-resigned-from-the-police-service/news-story/a10ee38fe22c7c5983bbfceee4ebd408

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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1 October, 2021

Theme park boss is forced to apologise after 'fat-shaming' kids by WEIGHING them on scales before they step onto a water ride

There probably are safety reasons for excluding fatties but I guess it could be done discreetly

A Perth theme park boss has issued an apology after 'fat shaming' customers by forcing them to weigh in on a public scale before riding on the water slides.

Adventure World sparked outrage after introducing a 'weigh before you play' rule at the beginning of the school holidays, banning anyone heavier than 90kg on one ride and 180kg on another.

Scales were erected at the entrances of rides and customers were asked to weigh in to 'avoid disappointment', with a light visible to other patrons flashing green or red to signify if they passed or failed the admission requirements.

The policy was quickly slammed by furious customers who accused the Bibra Lake theme park of 'fat shaming' children, with one mother reporting her 13-year-old daughter was turned away from a ride after stepping off the scales.

Adventure World CEO Andrew Sharry on Thursday issued an apology acknowledging the rule had caused 'distress' to customers.

'In our efforts to introduce important systems to better manage safety on some of our waters slides, we have handled the communication of these new water slide systems poorly and we have upset our guests and members. This is the last thing we wanted to do,' he said.

'I am genuinely sorry that we have caused this distress to our guests and members. Our purpose is to create happiness and magical memories. We have not achieved that on this occasion and I acknowledge that we can do better.'

Hockeyroo Georgia Wilson was one of the most vocal critics calling on Western Australians to boycott the business and for Mr Sharry to resign unless he met with eating disorder sufferers.

In light of the backlash, Mr Sharry said he met with an expert on body image and eating disorders this week and had personally apologised to a family whose daughter was forced to do a 'walk of shame'.

'I can now see how these water slide safety systems would be received as traumatic and upsetting for some of our guests and members,' Mr Sharry said.

'I have spoken with the family involved and have personally apologised for the hurt that we have caused.'

The apology comes after mother claimed her 13-year-old daughter was publicly rejected from a ride after weighing in and forced to walk back down the stairs.

'Once at the top she was stopped and asked to stand on a weigh machine. The lights flickered green and then red and then green again,' she said, Perth Now reports.

'The operator then walked over to an electrical box and looked inside it, and then came back to her and said sorry, you weigh this amount and you can’t go down.'

'I was angry and disappointed in Adventure World. We’ve enjoyed these rides for years and now all of a sudden we weren’t able to.'

Mr Parry said the park is investigating alternative slide safety options but did not confirm whether or not the scales would be removed.

'I am in the process of taking advice from a body image and eating disorder specialist who has met with me on site to review the new safety systems installed on four of our water slides,' he said.

'We are in the process of identifying changes that will cause less impact on our guests and members, whilst also meeting our safety requirements.'

It is not the first time the theme park has come under fire over its controversial policies.

In 2019, the park sparked fury after banning women from wearing skimpy swimwear, such as g-string and Brazillian-cut bikini bottoms.

The request to 'choose appropriate swimwear' ignited immediate backlash, with customers telling the park it did not have the right to advise women on what they could wear.

Adventure World later issued an apology on Facebook for causing offence, but stood by its decision to maintain a 'family friendly' theme park.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10044491/Adventure-World-CEO-Andrew-Sharry-apologises-fat-shaming-children-ride-weight-policy.html

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Real estate agent sends warning letter to 300 homes saying new housing block for the homeless and 'disadvantaged' will hurt their property values

Must not tell the truth

A real estate agent has spammed 300 households with a letter warning them their property values would plunge when a public housing block was built nearby.

Harcourts salesman Chris Parsons claimed many of his clients in Mandurah, south of Perth, planned to sell up rather than have 100 'socially disadvantaged' new neighbours.

Mr Parsons said he and other residents were concerned about the $28.1 million development's 'obvious effect on property values'.

The document, bearing the Harcourts Mandurah letterhead, asked if the home owner had been informed of the new building in their suburb.

'I am writing to you directly due to your close proximity to the upcoming development of a 50-apartment complex that will house up to 100 homeless and 'socially disadvantaged' residents,' the letter sent on Monday began.

'Many of my previous clients have already come to me with intentions to move out of the area after hearing of what is coming.

'I personally live in and own a home close to this planned development and have my own concerns, including the obvious effect on property values.'

Mr Parsons wrote that he met with the developers and discovered that due to council zoning rules, 'little to no' community consultation was required.

He told residents to call or email him to find out more about 'what this could mean for the future value of your home'.

Outraged recipients posted the letter on local social media groups, speculating that the letter was really a ploy to drive sales.

'To me it looks like a scare tactics letter for him to get you to sell your house. Do your homework. Plus this if it is true is a great project that will help so many less fortunate have a safe, warm place to live,' one local wrote.

After recipients complained, Mr Parsons wrote a grovelling apology and handed it out to the same 300 homes on Wednesday.

'I would like to apologise for any concerns this has caused, as a resident of this neighbourhood and a local real estate agent I have had discussions with members of the public around this topic and I was looking to gather further information, so that I could be in a better position to assist home owners where I can,' he wrote.

'It was not my intention to generate negativity around this development but instead to get a better understanding of the community sentiment in a small sample area within close proximity to the site.'

Mr Parsons added that he was confident the facility 'will be of benefit to the community' and be well run and maintained by local and state governments.

He wrote that Harcourts Mandurah had collected donations for a homeless support group in the area for more than 10 years.

The company said the initial letter was a case of Mr Parsons 'flying solo' and that it did not believe he was acting with any malice towards homeless people.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10043883/Real-estate-agent-spams-Mandurah-households-warning-new-public-housing.html

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Terrifying warning from top doctors that Australians are dying from 'everyday conditions' thanks to hospitals being FULL of Covid patients

Top doctors have warned Australians are dying from treatable conditions because already overburdened hospitals are being hit with a surge in Covid cases.

In recent months, paramedics have had to X-ray and treat patients in car parks and hospital corridors while they wait for space to open up in emergency departments.

When states reopen, experts now fear hospitals could be further overrun because - even at 80 per cent double-jabbed - there will still be five million unvaccinated Australians.

A discussion paper voicing concerns was drafted by leading doctors from four states and was this week presented to an urgent meeting of health ministers.

The paper warned hospitals were struggling to cope with the combination of Covid cases and routine care - causing treatment delays for non-urgent conditions that can then turn deadly.

The health ministers were told urgent measures must be put in place to support hospitals.

The specific requests made in the discussion paper include that GPs be redeployed to emergency departments to ease the workload.

Also suggested was giving funding for GPs to work nights and weekends to deal with indirect Covid impacts in the community away from hospitals wards and ICUs.

That thousands of patients with less-serious conditions be transferred out of hospital beds and into at-home treatment where they can be visited by a GP is another option.

Another was to dramatically increase immigration intake for skilled health workers coming from overseas, including doctors and nurses.

As well as a spike in Covid cases courtesy of large-scale outbreaks of the Delta strain in NSW and Victoria - where there have been hundreds of cases per day - hospitals are also dealing with staff shortages.

Frontline staff have been diverted to Covid testing and vaccination centres across the country, while others have been resigning because of burnout dealing with Covid.

When National Cabinet meets on Friday, a plan to deal surge capacity for ICUs as state open up will be on the agenda.

'The health system doesn't just look after Covid and it's already full. We're seeing... a perfect storm and it's causing the hospital system it to overflow,' Australian Medical Association deputy president Chris Moy told The Australian.

'What happens is people either don't get care or it gets displaced. Diagnoses are made at much later points, and people get worse or they die,' Mr Moy said.

Both the NSW and Victorian health ministers have said there needs to be an increase in funding for hospitals.

'The past 20 months have seen all of the existing problems in our health care and in our hospital system amplified to the level where the system is in crisis like it's never been, in every state,' Victorian health minister Martin Foley said.

President of the Australian College of Emergency Medicine John Bonning agreed saying the overcrowding of hospitals was putting patients at risk.

'Patients are being treated in corridors. People with pneumonia, complications of diabetes, patients with strokes, patients with heart attacks, patients with trauma are sometimes struggling to get a bed for as long as 24 hours. It is dangerous' he said.

The federal government defended its backing of the public healthcare system ahead of Friday's National Cabinet meeting.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said health system funding had more than doubled to $30billion a year since 2013.

He added state and territory health ministers had recently signed a five-year deal which guaranteed $35billion in finding and that $6billion had also been funded to hospital since March 2020.

In 2020 the federal government agreed to support the healthcare system in every state and territory by helping with costs incurred through Covid outbreaks.

The Commonwealth currently pays 45 per cent of the costs incurred but the states want this increased to 50 per cent.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10045785/Top-doctors-warn-Australians-dying-treatable-conditions-hospitals-Covid-patients.html

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Brisbane named among top cities in the world for students

Despite the international education sector being hit hard by the pandemic, Brisbane is still one of the best cities in the world for students according to a major new study.

Brisbane has been named as one of the top 10 cities in the world for students thanks to its reasonably priced rent, young population and safety in a new international study.

The Best Student Cities in the World index for 2021 has been released by international student company Studee, and named the River City at No.9 in the world, ahead of fellow Aussies cities including the Gold Coast (14), Canberra (16) and Sydney (18).

Researchers found Brisbane scored above average in six of the nine categories which were analysed, including on the costs of rent and living, food options, free speech and safety.

But Brisbane was trumped by Melbourne at No.2 – which was applauded for its exceptional food scene, cheap technology and safety – along with Adelaide (5) and Perth (7).

Japan’s Tokyo came in at No.1, thanks to its high number of world-class universities, high internet speeds, and high levels of free speech.

Canada’s Quebec and Montreal also made the list, along with Seoul, Houston and Pittsburgh.

Studee president Jihna Gavilanes said deciding where to study was a huge decision for prospective international students.

“With so many options available, choosing where to study can feel overwhelming, especially if you're moving away from home for the first time,” she said.

“The things that are important to one student won’t be to another, so our ranking system uses several factors that actually make a difference to students.

“You’re not just choosing where to study, you’re picking the place you will call home and the neighbourhood where you could start your career.”

Researchers also took into account a city’s internet speeds – for which Brisbane was rated among the lowest of the top cities – as well as the cost of a MacBook and what percentage of the population was aged between 15 and 24-years-old.

“When choosing where to attend university or college, you need to consider everything that could impact your experience,” Ms Gavilanes said.

“Your surroundings, the cost of living, and your social life are all factors you should think about before deciding where to enrol.

“Getting an education can be expensive so you must find the right place that works for you for the next few years and beyond.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/tertiary/brisbane-named-in-top-cities-in-the-world-for-students/news-story/3af09809eb1912c40e45a47a4e8d0c2e

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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