This document is part of an archive of postings on Australian Politics, a blog hosted by Blogspot who are in turn owned by Google. The index to the archive is available here or here. Indexes to my other blogs can be located here or here. Archives do accompany my original postings but, given the animus towards conservative writing on Google and other internet institutions, their permanence is uncertain. These alternative archives help ensure a more permanent record of what I have written

This is a backup copy of the original blog

30 September, 2021

Prohibition doesn't work for Aborigines either

Alcohol could be sold on Mornington Island again in a bid to reduce the deadly prevalence of home brew, following a long-running campaign by the local council.

The Courier-Mail can reveal the State Government is seriously considering the reintroduction, that would allow moderated sales from a tavern in the Gulf of Carpentaria community.

Environment Minister and ministerial champion for the island, Meaghan Scanlon, visited the remote Indigenous community this week following harrowing stories of overcrowding in homes, high unemployment and shocking health statistics in this newspaper in May.

Following intensive discussions with the Mornington Shire Council, and seeing first-hand the issues affecting the community, the State Government is also poised to commit to an audit of taxpayer-funded services to determine whether the millions of dollars being spent were achieving the desired outcomes.

The Courier-Mail accompanied Ms Scanlon on her first visit to the island.

Assistant Minister Lance McCallum, Queensland Health director-general John Wakefield and other government officials also visited this week, and heard Mayor Kyle Yanner make the heartbreaking admission that he was now “immune to death”.

He said 19 locals had died for various reasons last year.

“We grieve on a regular basis,” Cr Yanner told leaders while at the local cemetery where there are many graves for people under the age of 50.  “I’m out of tears.”  The Mayor, who lost three brothers in a year, said residents were drinking their lives away.

“Until we get this law scrapped, which is discriminatory of its own, we’re going nowhere,” he said.

By making it legal, only selling mid-strength alcohol and moderating the amount sold, the council believes less home brew would be consumed.

In a bid to kerb its prevalence, the local grocery store has restricted the sale of sugar – allowing only two packets per person, each day.

Councillor David Barnes said the “myth” of a dry community needed to be exposed and expunged. “Prohibition has become part of the problem,” he said.  “It hasn’t led to a community that is healthier.”

Cr Barnes said while there were no AA meetings on the island, he hoped to be running some soon.

Ms Scanlon told The Courier-Mailwhile the alcohol ban, which was introduced about a decade ago, had good intentions, there were “clearly” some adverse side effects.

“It is complex though,” she said. “I don’t think it’s an easy fix and so we do need to consider it with everything in mind, but very clearly we’ve heard some very strong views … from the community around things needing to change.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/mornington-island-booze-ban-to-be-scrapped-due-to-home-brew-scourge/news-story/e63148f5e4738e43071404f7c20609a0

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Coal prices are roaring back amid a global energy crunch

Soaring coal prices have placed Australia’s mining and energy exports on track to reach a record $349 billion this year even as the value of the nation’s biggest export, iron ore, appears to have peaked.

Markets for thermal coal, used for power generation, are booming around the world as a global recovery from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic drives up demand for energy. Metallurgical coal used in steel-making has also touched new highs as supply shortages combine with rebounding industrial activity.

Federal government trade data to be released on Thursday reveals an expected 10 per cent rise in resources and energy earnings to hit an all-time high of $349 billion in 2021-22, before falling back to $299 billion in 2022-23.

“The sector has gone from strength to strength and is performing better than it was pre-pandemic,” Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt said.

Coal producers were hit hard in 2020 as the shock of the pandemic pummelled prices and a diplomatic feud led to China banning Australian coal shipments. The sector has also been under mounting pressure as global warming concerns cause investors to flee, while the United Nations, ahead of an upcoming climate summit in Glasgow, is calling on all countries to commit to phasing out thermal coal between 2030-40.

Although this year’s price rally signifies coal’s enduring near-term demand as an abundant source of energy, the federal Industry Department notes the commodity faces “significant competing forces”.

“Recent revenue surges are likely to run up against longer-term structural issues in the coal market,” it said. ”Investor and policy pressure has grown in recent years, and the global coal-fired power plant construction pipeline has contracted since 2015.”

Still, the share prices of ASX-listed coal miners have been rallying in the past month. Investment bank Morgan Stanley described Whitehaven Coal, whose value has jumped almost 50 per cent since August, as a “cash machine” amid expectations of higher coal prices lasting well into 2022.

Prices for the key steel-making ingredient iron ore, however, have been falling rapidly. China, by far the world’s biggest consumer of the commodity, has been seeking to cut steel mills’ output and tackle carbon emissions for the third straight month.

After hitting a record $US230 a tonne in May, iron ore has had its value slashed in half and is now trading below $US110 a tonne, hammering the share prices of the mining giants BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue.

UBS analyst Myles Allsop said Chinese steel production had weakened since July as Beijing put pressure on provinces to materially cut energy consumption and intensity to meet targeted emissions cuts of 3 per cent year-on-year. Problems plaguing top Chinese property developer Evergrande had also triggered a slowdown in construction reducing steel demand, he said.

Australia’s iron ore exports reached a record $153 billion in 2021 on the back of an aggressive infrastructure building blitz in China and weaker iron ore output from mines in Brazil, but is forecast to fall by as much as 35 per cent by 2022-23.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/coal-prices-are-roaring-back-amid-a-global-energy-crunch-20210929-p58vox.html

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Rainbow Beach businesses weigh in on Fraser Island name change to K’gari

Reception to the State Government decision to call the Fraser Island world heritage area by its original Indigenous name K’gari continues to be overwhelmingly positive, though a longtime Rainbow Beach businessman said one key detail remained unclear: who will pay?

Retired businessman Tony Stewart questioned the need for the change, saying the question of who would pick up the bill remained unanswered. “What’s this going to cost to change all the signage and marketing?” Mr Stewart said.

The State Government announced on Sunday its commitment to renaming the world heritage area centred on Fraser Island, the waters around it and parts of the mainland coast.

The move was celebrated the same day at a ceremony on the island with Butchulla elders and representatives.

Mr Stewart questioned the move and what it would cost the State Government, which did not seem to have any money for major safety fixes to the main roads between Rainbow Beach and Gympie.

Over the past two decades this stretch has been deadlier than any other in the Gympie region except the Bruce Highway; from 2000-2018 Tin Can Bay Rd was the site of 14 deaths in 13 fatal crashes.

Mr Stewart has been campaigning for safety upgrades to the stretch. “(The state) hasn’t got money to fix our road,” Mr Stewart said.

The change was something he said he could not “see the point of”, and said it reminded him of efforts to change the name of a national park in Victoria before the turn of the century.

“I saw this when they renamed the Grampians,” Mr Stewart said.  “It caused a big backlash down there.”

Wolf Rock Dive owner James Nelson said he understood why that would be a concern, but at the end of the day all marketing had to be replaced eventually.

“I’d wait until things looked a bit tired and swap (the names) out,” Mr Nelson said.

The name change had other benefits, too.

As a former United Kingdom resident Mr Nelson said that country was full of places named things like “Fraser”.

“There’s something quite cool about coming to another country and having an exotic local name,” he said.

Rainbow Beach Adventure Centre 4WD owner Wendy Shaw was “perfectly happy” with the change.

Ms Shaw, whose company hires out 4WDs for tourists to explore the Cooloola Coast and K’gari, said the renaming highlighted the island‘s native history. “It‘s just respectful to put the name back as it always should have been,” she said.

There was no fear of a potential drop in tourism either.  “It‘s still going to have the Fraser Island name around,” she said.

Cooloola Coast businesswoman Ruth Modin has owned the Rainbow Beach Foodworks for decades and said the name change would not damage tourism in the region. “It will have no impact on tourism,” Mrs Modin said.

An online News Corp poll run at the time of the announcement revealed 70 per cent of those who voted disagreed with the name change.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/gympie/rainbow-beach-businesses-weigh-in-on-fraser-island-name-change-to-kgari/news-story/061526b26f3900cc2dac4dfc47e8db69

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Northern Territory buffalo is going to waste, but these feral beasts could be our new beef

Adrian Phillips jokes he's probably got buffalo blood running in his veins, such is his passion for the wild animals.

Watching the former chopper pilot, contract musterer and butcher patiently coax a mob of wild buffalo through a set of yards on a Top End property, it's clear he does have a kind of "buffalo whisperer" ability.

He's a straight-shooting, rugged cattleman born and raised in the Northern Territory, where he claims buffalo helped give him a leg up in life when he did not have two cents to rub together.

"It was the buffalo that made money, [it's] black gold in the Territory, hey," he said.

He now runs around 700 buffalo and 3,500 cattle on a property on the Mary River about 100 kilometres south-east of Darwin.

"I put the buffalo in paddocks on marginal country where cattle don't do well," he said.

His buffalo are mostly destined for live export, but he is eyeing off a new market — domestic high-end meat production using the Riverine breed.

"They are bred for dairy buffalo, but they yield exceptional-quality meat and really good. There's [a] massive demand for the meat from the restaurant trade. So I'd like to see that line of buffalo go paddock to plate," Mr Phillips said.

"I call it Top End wagyu. Look, it's good eating beef. They hold white fat and good white fat there."

Demand for Australian buffalo

With cattle prices currently sky high, exporters like Patrick Underwood from Australian Cattle Enterprises said he was also seeing demand for buffalo surge.

Countries such as Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and some smaller nations are all putting orders in for Australian buffalo.

"So, there's been a big disruption to that supply throughout that market. Also, Australian cattle are so expensive, they're very expensive, and the supply is short. So buffalo is seen as a genuine alternative," he said.

Mr Underwood said buffalo were fetching 10 per cent more than last year, when 10,000 head were exported through the Darwin Port, the highest numbers to date.

The industry is feeling optimistic but also anxious the opportunity does not get squandered.

Louise Bilato heads up the Northern Territory Buffalo Industry Association.

"There's been ups and downs in the industry. We really feel that this is a period of huge opportunity where the industry can have a whole series of disparate aspects come together," Ms Bilato said.

"Obviously, because of COVID, some of the suppliers internationally are no longer there and Indonesia particularly is very keen not just to have our live buffalo but also to get boxed buffalo meat."

A game-changer was the reopening of the Rum Jungle abattoir near Darwin in December 2019. It processed 7,000 buffalo this year.

The meatworks can take the animals that are rejected or unsuitable for live export.

"That is the one big thing that has changed that has now gone from 20 per cent or 30 per cent of the animals could be sold to right now, nearly 100 per cent could be sold," Mr Phillips said.

Shooting to waste

In a world where waste is increasingly a dirty word, there are also environmental aspects.

A renewed buffalo trade could help keep control of the animals on Indigenous lands where they can wreak havoc. In some areas, buffalo are culled rather than mustered and sold. 

"So this shooting to waste is ridiculous. Yes, we need to manage numbers because it does create [an] environmental impact. And we see that but hey, let's get together and get contractors out there," said Mr Phillips.

Louise Bilato said they could take up to 30,000 animals each year and not make an impact on the 180,000 roaming in Arnhem Land.

She said there's also a need for more pastoralist or Indigenous landowners to "background" buffalo like Adrian Phillips is doing and retain young animals to be fattened during, and traded in, the wet season when contract mustering crews cannot get in.

Exporters say the consistency in supply would also help them sell the product.

"We'd like to see people spend money in infrastructure. And I think as an exporter, we should pay a premium for buffalo during the wet season to encourage that year-round aspect," Mr Underwood said.

Mr Phillips and his family are keen to see black gold reign once more.

"Make something really happen, you know, but if we want to keep going around in circles like we are, you're gonna kiss it all goodbye."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/northern-territory-buffalo-is-going-to-waste-but-these-feral-beasts-could-be-our-new-beef/ar-AAON1ZC?ocid=chromentpnews

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ATAR delay offers a silver lining for stressed Canberra year 12 students ahead of university

The release of the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) has been delayed to January 20 after the NSW Higher School Certificate final exams were also postponed due to school closures.

The University of Canberra has one of the earliest semester start dates in the country on February 7.

The University Admissions Centre (UAC) announced the first ATAR entry round would happen on January 26 which leaves a very short time for prospective UC students to receive an offer, decide to accept it and if necessary relocate to Canberra in time for the first week of class.

Deputy vice-chancellor academic Professor Geoff Crisp said the university had decided to have three rounds of the school recommendation scheme, instead of only one round, as well as an additional round of early offers based on year 11 results on January 13.

No matter what entry method they use, students will have guaranteed accommodation on campus if they're coming from interstate.

"It's a difficult time for everyone at the moment with the COVID lockdown, but of course, [there's] this additional stress of wondering whether you'll get into the course you want. We just want to make sure that we put their minds at ease as much as we can," Professor Crisp said.

At the Australian National University, classes start later on February 21 but the university has been working closely with UAC on a revised schedule so that students can get offers and start in time for semester 1.

ANU's deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Professor Grady Venville said the majority of applicants had already received offers as part of the university's direct entry process.

"Any student who has been given an offer and who finishes Year 12 will be able to study at ANU in 2022. Any student who has not yet received an offer to ANU should apply in the regular way through UAC," she said.

The ANU has issued 4561 early offers for 2022, which is down from 5341 offers given this time last year as travel restrictions and lockdowns impact on demand from interstate students.

"To all Year 12 students impacted by this delay, we say keep focused on completing your studies," Professor Venville said.

"We are proud and impressed that you are completing your senior secondary studies in the middle of a global pandemic. You should be proud too."

Year 12 student Rohan Jones, who is waiting to find out if he has been accepted to study psychological science at Southern Cross University, said the delay to the ATAR could put more pressure on students in their final term.

"There might be some feelings of regret for some people. There might be like, 'I could have tried harder'. And I think it's definitely adding a lot more stress for lots of students," he said.

Fynn Jammer is trying to decide whether he will take up an early offer from the University of Canberra to study business, innovation and entrepreneurship or take a gap year to explore Australia.

He said universities moving away from an ATAR score for entry was a positive step.

"I think is a very important skill to build a portfolio to show your creative works, to show who I am as a person as opposed to just a number that you then get an offer."

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7444358/atar-delay-offers-a-silver-lining-for-stressed-year-12-students/

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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 September, 2021

China power crunch sees potentially millions of homes in the dark and global supply chains cut

<i>Australia used to be a big supplier of thermal coal to China but that has been cut off by China for political reasons.  It would seem that replacement of the Australian coal from other sources has not been very successful</i>

A widespread power crisis in China threatens to become the “new normal” as the country’s manufacturers and citizens alike face a potential cold, hard winter ahead.

Several of the country’s provinces have begun to ration power supplies in the face of shortage of coal supplies, increasing energy demands from manufacturers and consumers and tough emission standards.

China, which is increasingly dependent on coal, has ordered provinces to limit power consumption, as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics and strives to curb emissions.

This has led to unannounced power cuts for citizens in many provinces, who have taken to social media to complain about the lack of heating and public infrastructure, including lifts and traffic lights not working.

The most severe impact of the power crisis has been seen in the country’s northeastern industrial belt, comprising of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces.

Huludao city told residents to not use high energy-consuming electronics including microwaves and water heaters during peak periods, according to Reuters.

The immediate effects of the power crisis have echoed in industry as well. Key suppliers of Apple and Tesla halted production in some plants. Power-intensive sectors like aluminum smelting, cement manufacturing, steel making and fertiliser production have been hit as well.  At least 15 Chinese companies that produce goods ranging from aluminum and chemicals, said their production was curbed by power cuts.

While the power crisis has taken its toll on citizens only this month, early indications of the crisis have been witnessed since March, which is when the country had begun witnessing spikes in power prices, reported Reuters.

https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/china/china-power-cut-supply-chain-b1927734.html

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Stop thinking our kids will be lumbered with massive government debts; they won’t be

If you’re one of the many who worry about how we’ll pay off the massive debt the Morrison government has incurred during the pandemic, the Parliamentary Budget Office has reassuring news.

The budget office – which is responsible to the whole Parliament and so is independent of the elected government – has prepared its own projections of the budget deficit and debt over the decade to 2032.

It’s also assessed our “fiscal sustainability” over the 40 years to 2061, testing the budget against 27 different best, worst and middle scenarios with differing assumptions about economic growth, the level of interest rates on government debt and the size of our budget deficit or surplus.

It finds that the federal government’s debt is projected to keep growing until it reaches a peak equivalent to about 50 per cent of gross domestic product in 2029. After that it’s projected to keep growing in dollar terms, but at a slower rate than the economy is growing, so that it slowly declines relative to the size of the economy, to reach 28 per cent of GDP in 2061 in the middle scenario.

We don’t pay off any debt unless we get the budget back into annual surplus. But this happens only in the best-case scenario, where the debt is completely repaid by 2058. Don’t hold your breath.

So the budget office’s reassuring news is not that we’ll be able to repay the debt – it’s unlikely we will – but that it accepts Scott Morrison’s assurances we don’t have to repay it to keep out of trouble. That, unless our leaders go crazy, we can outgrow the debt and that the interest bill isn’t likely to become a significant burden on taxpayers even though the debt remains unpaid.

These are not controversial propositions among economists. If you find them hard to believe then – forgive me – but you don’t understand public finances as well as you should. It’s a mistake to think that a national government of 25 million people has to live by the same rules as your household.

Households must pay off their debts before they’re too old to work, but governments go on forever and always have most of their population working and paying taxes. Their populations keep growing and getting a bit richer every year, so they can keep rolling over their debts.

They can do what no household can do: pay their bills not by working but by imposing taxes on other households. So stop thinking governments have to pay off their debts the way you and I do.

And stop thinking our kids will be lumbered with massive government debts; they won’t be. 

But that’s not to say government debt doesn’t matter or that it comes without a price tag. In its projections over the next decade and its scenarios over the next 40 years, the budget office assumes that the “shocks” causing ups and downs in the economy in the future will be no worse than those we’ve experienced over the past 30 years or so. Maybe; maybe not. As well, it assumes that present and future governments will be no more reckless spenders than governments have been over past decades.

It judges that our deficit and debt position will be sustainable over the next 40 years – will cause no need for “major remedial policy action” (no horror budgets) – “provided fiscal strategy is prudent”. We can continue to run budget deficits provided they’re “modest”.

We’ll need “a measured pace of fiscal consolidation”. Translation: if governments stop trying to keep deficits low, all bets are off. So governments will need to avoid wasteful spending. And they’ll need to ensure tax collections are sufficient to cover most of any growth in government spending.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/stop-thinking-our-kids-will-be-lumbered-with-massive-government-debts-they-won-t-be-20210928-p58v9t.html

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Australia and India move closer to major trade deal after Scott Morrison meets Narendra Modi

Australia and India expect to seal an interim trade agreement by the end of the year following a meeting on the sidelines of global Quad talks.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi have discussed the trade agreement and climate change during bilateral talks in Washington DC.

The two nations confirmed their commitment to announce an interim trade agreement by December.

It follows former prime minister Tony Abbott’s August trip to India on behalf of Australia to follow up stalled Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement negotiations.

Morrison and Modi also underlined the need to urgently address climate change and possibilities of providing clean technology.

“In this regard, Prime Minister Modi highlighted the need for a broader dialogue on environment protection,” a communique released by the Indian leader said.

Australia is inching towards a commitment to net zero emissions by 2050 amid immense international pressure in the lead-up to United Nations climate talks in Glasgow in November.

The Indian PM reiterated his invitation for Morrison to visit India.

“The prime ministers agreed that as two vibrant democracies in the region, the two countries needed to work closer together to overcome the challenges in the post-pandemic world.”

https://7news.com.au/politics/world-politics/australia-india-move-closer-to-trade-deal-c-4054264

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Dismissal of unvaccinated worker who refused flu shot upheld

The Fair Work Commission has backed the right of a business to sack an employee who refused to get a flu shot as required under a public health order.

The commission’s full bench majority upheld the dismissal of a receptionist at a NSW South Coast aged care facility who refused to get a flu vaccination shot.

In an earlier decision in April, Commissioner Donna McKenna found the worker’s dismissal by Sapphire Coast Community Aged Care in Bega was not unfair.

Commissioner McKenna rejected the worker’s unfair dismissal application on the basis that she did not provide evidence of an allergy she claimed had prevented her from getting vaccinated.

On Monday, a majority of the full bench upheld the original decision and dismissed the worker’s application to appeal.

“We do not intend, in the circumstances of the current pandemic, to give any encouragement to a spurious objection to a lawful workplace vaccination requirement,” the ruling said.

Recording her dissent, deputy president Lyndall Dean, in the minority, said the decision had denied the worker protections under the Fair Work Act “in part because of an inference that she holds a general anti-vaccination position”.

“Never have I more strenuously disagreed with an outcome in an unfair dismissal application,” she said.

The Australian Industry Group welcomed the commission’s decision saying it would influence decisions relating to mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. Chief executive Innes Willox said this was the commission’s first full bench decision on the issue of vaccination mandates to be handed down during the pandemic.

“It is pleasing that the full bench has supported an employer’s right to mandate vaccinations where reasonable in the circumstances,” he said.

Herbert Smith Freehills employment lawyer Alexis Agostino said the decision “should give some comfort to employers considering mandating vaccination policies within their workforce where those policies are lawful and reasonable”.

Maurice Blackburn Lawyers principal Mia Pantechis said the decision dealt with a dismissal in a specific context, “and although it provides guidance on the type of evidence required to prove a medical contraindication and to gain an exemption from a public health order mandating the vaccination of certain workers, it is not a blanket ruling that it’s lawful to sack employees who refuse vaccines”.

“In most workplaces, including those that are not the subject of a public health order, the question of whether it’s lawful to mandate that employees receive the COVID-19 vaccine or to sack employees who refuse requires careful consideration and a balancing of a range of factors.??

Ms Pantechis said these factors include work health and safety obligations, rights under anti-discrimination laws, the level of risk within the workplace, and whether flexible work arrangements can be offered.

Shae McCrystal, a professor of employment law at the University of Sydney, said the decision was unlikely to provide an authority to employers mandating COVID-19 vaccines outside of public health orders.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/dismissal-of-unvaccinated-worker-who-refused-flu-shot-upheld-20210927-p58v5a.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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28 September, 2021

Joe Hildebrand: Real genius of Australia’s submarine pact is nothing to do with boats

<i>The message that other major Anglosphere countries will give brotherly support to Australia is the main point.  Considered as a whole, the Anglosphere is a substantial counterweight to China</i>

Beijing is spitting chips about Australia’s US sub deal despite the first boat not being due for more than a decade. Their real anger is because of something else.

The biggest advantage of a nuclear submarine is that it never has to surface, which is also the biggest advantage of Australia’s nuclear submarine deal.

There has been much debate over the technical merits of the new nuclear subs we will get from the US and UK versus the diesel-powered subs we just ditched from the French. At least all our armchair epidemiologists have found a new area of expertise.

But the most critical characteristic of both the diesel and the nuclear subs is the one they have in common: Neither actually exists. Australia has no French submarines or American submarines — and it won’t be getting any of either for a very long time.

In fact, the seismic announcement that sent the French Ambassador storming out and the President sniffily screening his calls has almost nothing to do with submarines at all. Indeed, it is inconceivable that such explosive tantrums could be caused by an argument over aquatic metal.

Instead it is about something far more primal and real — and much more real than phantom U-boats.

Paul Keating knows it, which is why the former PM’s reaction was if anything even more visceral than that of the French. He may have landed on the wrong side of the argument but at least he knew what the argument was about.

The most precious commodities in the submarine swap aren’t underwater tin cans but the flags that stood behind Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and Joe Biden as the three leaders announced the new deal.

For Australia it was a clear message to China that we might not be the biggest kid in the playground but we’ve got both Blighty and Biff at our back. For the UK and USA it was a clear message that they now have not just an eye on the region but a dog in the fight.

Many on the lunar green left have sought to paint it as a provocative action but this is merely a form of geopolitical victim blaming. After the shameless trade war that China has waged upon Australia, its ubiquitous cyber attacks on our institutions, its open belligerence towards Hong Kong and Taiwan and its literal raising of the seabed in the South China Sea to create military bases — not to mention innumerable mass-scale human rights abuses within its own mainland — one wonders what they would consider an appropriate strategic response.

There was a time in global affairs just a decade or two ago when China was rightly considered a rational and reasonable actor. Sadly its more recent actions prove that while it may well still be rational — its hyper-nationalist and expansionist agenda is nothing if not calculated — it is no longer reasonable. Reasonable countries don’t put 200 per cent tariffs on wine.

So what do we do? The truth is there is not much we can do. Obviously Australia will never be any match for China in a straight fight, be it a trade war, a cold war or — God forbid — a hot one.

Our only option is to remind the Chinese that, as Princess Leia said to Jabba the Hutt, we have powerful friends. Some might sneer that the USA is a declining superpower but it’s the only one we’ve got. And, as Crosby, Stills and Nash once sang, you’ve got to love the one you’re with.

It should also be noted that if the United States can withstand its last two presidents then perhaps reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated. If a nation can survive both Trump and Biden then surely that is a mark of infinite resilience.

It is thus both wholly and sadly unnecessary that this new — or rather renewed — alliance is causing such an identity crisis within the Australian Labor Party. Labor has always been a friend of America, to the point that it even uses the American spelling of its very name.

The great John Curtin made perhaps the most important decision in Australian history when he turned to the US to defend Australia from Japan after the fall of Singapore in World War II. It is then strange that the party has been infected by anti-American sentiment in all the decades since.

Of course in the 1990s Labor heralded the advent of the Asian century and it might have been right then. That doesn’t mean it is still right now.

Placating Indonesia while it oppressed East Timor was bad enough. Placating China while it oppresses Hong Kong and Taiwan is a whole new art of acquiescence. It certainly has no place in a party that calls itself progressive.

Anthony Albanese is right to support our reinforced position as a member of a Western liberal democratic alliance. As Opposition Leader he is obliged to ask questions and find fault but he needs to stand strong even as he is bombarded by the bonkers left.

Former PMs might carry on and cry but it’s only future PMs that count.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/business/work/joe-hildebrand-real-genius-of-australias-submarine-pact-is-nothing-to-do-with-boats/news-story/74ec61f9e3c3e182ed154b4a48981ee4

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And then there's the QUAD

<i>Australia is also allied with India and Japan</i>

Australia will intensify co-operation with the United States, India and Japan to ensure that China does not exert excessive control over the supply of minerals essential to modern technology in one of the key goals of the first face-to-face leaders’ meeting of the “Quad” nations.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will meet with US President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House on Saturday (AEST) for the first in-person leaders’ meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue.

In a separate speech to the United Nations on Saturday, Morrison will position Australia on the front lines of the battle to ensure China does not monopolise the Asia-Pacific.

“The global strategic environment has rapidly changed, indeed deteriorated in many respects – particularly in the Indo-Pacific region where we live here in Australia,” the Prime Minister will say.

“The changes we face are many, whether it’s tensions over territorial claims, rapid military modernisation, foreign interference, cyber threats, disinformation and indeed economic coercion.

“We must reinforce a sustainable rules-based order, while ensuring it is also adaptable to the great-power politics of our time. Our voice is clear, it’s respectful, it’s constructive.”

The Quad is rapidly emerging as an influential grouping of leading democracies working together to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific.

The four leaders are also expected to announce significant initiatives on vaccine diplomacy, climate change, infrastructure and space exploration following wide-ranging joint discussions.

Morrison, Biden, Modi and Suga have agreed to map out supply chains for key minerals and products - such as semiconductors - to better understand the nations’ technological vulnerabilities.

China accounts for the majority of the global production of rare-earth minerals, including palladium and lithium, raising alarm that the rising superpower could block access to crucial consumer and defence technologies as part of a trade war with its strategic rivals.

An iPhone, for example, contains an estimated eight different rare-earth minerals, which are also integral components of high-tech weaponry such as fighter jets and guided cruise missiles.

Australia has the world’s sixth-largest reserves of rare-earth minerals, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, but they currently remain largely untapped with only two mines producing them. The largest by far is a mine at Mount Weld in Western Australia, owned by the Lynas Corporation.

In February the US Defence Department announced it had awarded Lynas a contract to develop a rare-earth processing facility in Texas.

The Morrison government believes the fellow Quad nations represent potentially lucrative export markets for Australian-sourced minerals such as lithium given their increasing concern about China’s reliability.

Rare earths were also a focus for Morrison during his previous visit to Washington in 2019 with then -president Donald Trump.

The leaders are expected to say that “resilient, diverse and secure technology supply chains for hardware, software, and services” are vital to their shared national interests.

Specifically, the four nations will “launch a joint initiative to map capacity, identify vulnerabilities and bolster supply chain security for semiconductors and their vital components”.

Australia's race against China's 'rare earths weapon'

A global shortage in semiconductor chips is driving up the prices of cars and other electronic goods such as laptops and televisions, leading the Biden administration to make boosting supply and reducing dependence on China one of its top economic priorities.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/quad-leaders-unite-to-weaken-chinese-dominance-over-rare-earth-minerals-20210924-p58ukq.html

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Bid to remove ‘racist’ slave trader Ben Boyd’s name from Sydney street fails

<i>The Kanakas were NOT slaves.  They were contracted labourers.  They were free to return to Kanaky at the end of their contract.  Most did</i>

Calls to remove the name of slave trader Ben Boyd, who was responsible for ‘blackbirding’, from a leafy Sydney suburb have failed.

North Sydney Council will keep the name of Ben Boyd Rd in Neutral Bay and Cremorne, on the lower north shore of Sydney, after a former Green’s staffer created a petition to change the name.

The petition caused a stir in the community with the council then asked to consider a name change.

The road was named after a colonial entrepreneur who lived in Neutral Bay in the 1840s.

Boyd was known for pioneering the practice of using cheap labour from the South Sea islands to work in Australia. It is known as ‘blackbirding’.

After the petition was circulated the council asked constituents for their thoughts.

A survey was put forward and 2318 residents responded, 54.7 per cent opposed the renaming of the street while 44.3 per cent were in favour. Just 1.6 per cent were unsure.

The papers also said there were 20 council installed street signs referencing Ben Boyd Rd. The cost of replacing these would be about $6200.

There are also two plaques in the community commemorating Ben Boyd with the council preparing to alter these.

“The larger of these are soon to be reinstalled with another plaque outlining the story of Boyd’s place in Australia’s historical narrative,” council papers said.

“With that, the naming of Ben Boyd Road will be put in context, and residents and visitors can decide for themselves the nature of the man and his deeds.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/calls-to-remove-slave-trader-ben-boyds-name-from-sydney-street-fail/news-story/eeff8e3513dbbc92c629d0d11252934e

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It’s a $50b-a-year export industry. How long until coal’s rivers of gold run dry?

If the end of coal is near, it’s hard to see it among the open pits and billowing cooling towers of Victoria’s Latrobe Valley and the Hunter in NSW.

Canyons of brown and black coal, set between green paddocks and sloping hills, loom large in these mining districts and dominate their economies as a source of great wealth, just as they have for a century or more.

A global push is accelerating to eliminate the use of thermal coal — the worst-emitting source of energy — to restrain the planet’s rising temperature and avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

But the mines in Latrobe and the Hunter are still operating around the clock. White steam still rises from the nearby power plants as they burn coal to supply more than two-thirds of Australia’s electricity needs. And, at the ports, huge volumes of coal are still being loaded onto cargo ships bound for Asia, bringing in billions of dollars of export revenue a year.

“The coal industry is just so damn important to the regional centres,” says Peter Jordan, a Cessnock local and mining union official who worked in the sector for more than a decade.

“Our coal mining jobs are well-paid relative to other industries, but they support many others in the mining communities; services, retail, health … most of them wouldn’t exist without coal.”

With 50,000 coal mining jobs nationally, the industry’s head count is relatively modest in contrast to sectors such as manufacturing, which employs 900,000 Australians. But coal has an outsized influence in a handful of seats, where it is a provider of good jobs and rich revenue streams for governments.

“It sends rivers of gold to Sydney in the form of royalties,” Jordan adds, “paying for roads, schools, and hospitals.”

For now, coal is a $50-billion-a-year export industry. How long until its rivers of gold run dry?

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull lost his job over an attempt to reshape energy policy and push down emissions. Scott Morrison went to the last election warning voters that Labor’s “net-zero” target would unleash economic havoc and widespread lay-offs. 

Most Australians now say they want stronger emissions curbs, new polling suggests. But fewer than half (49 per cent) think coal power should be phased out within a decade and 44 per cent want to keep mining and exporting coal for as long as buyers want it.

Australia’s coal addiction might seem hard to shake. While 10 coal-fired power plants have shut down in the past decade, coal still generates about 70 per cent of the nation’s electricity.

Winds of change are, however, blowing anyway. The clean energy era is firmly upon us. And powerful forces are radically reshaping coal’s outlook overseas and on the home front.

With 3.3 gigawatts of new wind and solar power capacity plugged into the nation’s main grid in 2020 alone, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has officially declared the transition to be the fastest of anywhere in the world, describing the pace as “absolutely staggering”.

A consequence of more wind and solar farms being built, and more Australians installing rooftop solar panels, is that coal is getting squeezed. In the past 12 months, the flood of cheaper-to-run renewable energy has pummelled daytime wholesale power prices to levels where just about every coal-fired power plant is considered at risk.

This year, EnergyAustralia brought forward the closure of its Yallourn power station to 2028, four years ahead of schedule. Last week, it said it would shut its Mt Piper plant earlier, too, sometime prior to 2040.

Other sites, though, are still licensed to be burning coal until the back half of the 2040s, or even the 2050s, putting Australia at odds with a growing chorus of world leaders calling for a markedly more urgent phase-out plan.

Ahead of the world climate summit in Glasgow, the United Nations has launched a push for all OECD countries to quit coal power by 2030, and non-OECD countries by 2040.  “The alarm bells are deafening,” UN secretary-general Antonio Gutteres says.

Is it possible for Australia’s coal-dominated national power market to be rid of coal entirely by 2030? “It depends,” says Lisa Zembrodt of Schneider Electric, an adviser to many of Australia’s largest corporate energy consumers.

Put this question to the power station operators, and they invariably insist 2030 is far too soon and would raise the threat of a “messy” transition that could see price volatility or even blackouts.

AGL, which accounts for 8 per cent of Australia’s total emissions, says nine years is not nearly enough time for replacement capacity to be invested in, built and plugged into the grid.

“We certainly recognise that the date of 2030 is something that is on the table with respect of the UN targets,” AGL chairman Peter Botten says. “I believe that 2030 is a very, very challenging target.”

Still, at its annual investor meeting last Wednesday, more than 50 per cent of AGL’s shareholders including US investment powerhouses BlackRock and Vanguard defied the board and voted to support an activist climate resolution requesting consideration of new goals that would compel accelerated coal plant closures.

What it boils down to, according to Zembrodt, is a choice we have to make as a society: As expensive as it may be, are we prepared to invest in the transition — smart grids, micro-grids, demand-management technology, batteries, energy storage and infrastructure — to fill the gap?

“We should be seeking to phase out coal as quickly as possible … and 2030 is a great aim,” she says. “But we need clear policy, we need market design, we need coordinated efforts between government, the market operators and consumers to enable the transition and support it, rather than prevent it.”

Grattan Institute energy director Tony Wood agrees: Australia could be capable of retiring all its coal plants and replacing them with clean energy by 2030, but it would cost a “huge amount”.

“You would have to do a hell of a lot of things in the shorter-term that you otherwise would only have done in the longer term,” he says.

Because electricity production is a dominant source of emissions, exiting coal would help sharply reduce the country’s carbon footprint. At the same time, however, state and federal ministers have also become acutely aware to the risk of abrupt plant closures leading to undesirable outcomes for consumers.

Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor is driving development of a so-called “capacity mechanism” designed to spur investment into “dispatchable” assets – those capable of supplying on-demand power when the wind isn’t blowing and sun isn’t shining.

Taylor insists the mechanism would be technology-neutral, with equal opportunity for gas, pumped hydro and batteries. But the policy has drawn fierce criticism from environmental advocates who have dubbed it “CoalKeeper” because it may see coal plants paid to guarantee future supply by remaining in the grid for longer.

NSW thermal coal has rallied this year to $US180 a tonne – a 10-year-high, and a sign of enduring near-term demand despite accelerating emissions goals globally. 

As economies re-emerge from COVID-19 and energy consumption rebounds, coal markets are booming. What will happen next, though, is decidedly less certain. Top Australian coal destinations – Japan, China, South Korea – are targeting “net-zero” emissions by 2050-60, which, eventually, will diminish demand for fossil fuel cargoes.

There is much still to be answered. How sharp will the trajectory in those countries be? Will the world seek to limit global temperatures to 2.5 degrees of warming, 2 degrees or the most aspirational 1.5-degree pathway, as targeted by the Paris Agreement? What does that mean for Australian coal?

When the Reserve Bank of Australia considered these questions, it modelled four scenarios. Under one scenario of no change to existing policies in those countries, Australian coal exports rise 17 per cent by 2050. In other scenarios in which temperature rises are kept at 2 degrees or lower, coal falls by up to 80 per cent by mid-century.

“Countries are unlikely to materially alter their energy mix in the near term, and ... demand for coal will likely remain robust this decade, the RBA said. “However, as global appetite for coal tapers off from 2030 onwards under all scenarios except for the baseline, Australian coal-related investments are at risk of becoming ‘stranded assets’.”

Coal producers and analysts say Australian coal – with a relatively high quality and energy content – could face a brighter future than coal from other sources, as countries across Asia retire their older, less-efficient coal generators and move towards lower-emissions facilities.

“If everybody else goes down, we could end up holding a bigger piece of the global coal pie,” says Herd. “But is that who we really want to be? Do we want to be the last coal exporting-nation in the world?”

https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/it-s-a-50b-a-year-export-industry-how-long-until-coal-s-rivers-of-gold-run-dry-20210924-p58ue9.html

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A major Queensland university is set to ditch lectures next year in a move which has been slammed by the tertiary education union and protested by students

<i>Seems a lot of nonsense to me, as a retired lecturer</i>

From 2022 the University of the Sunshine Coast will no longer have in-person or online lecturers, with students instead to be provided with alternative learning materials such as quizzes and podcasts.

In a message to students about the change, USC stated “traditional style lecturers have been demonstrated to have poor learning outcomes”.

But many students have already voiced their concerns with USC psychology students launching a petition protesting the change, which has gathered more than 600 signatures.

USC Pro Vice-Chancellor (students) Professor Denise Wood told The Courier-Mai lecture attendance had been dramatically declining over the past few years, and students would now have access to more “engaging” online learning materials.

“USC remains predominantly a face-to-face on campus learning environment and that’s not changing,” she said.

“However over the years learning and teaching has changed, we are now living in a period of contemporary learning and teaching practice.

“Over the last decade, as has the entire sector, we’ve seen a gradual shift from the number of students wanting to come to face-to-face lecturers.

“A decade ago, you would see about 50 per cent attendance by week four, now you’re lucky to see between 20 and 25 per cent.”

National Tertiary Education Union Queensland secretary Michael McNally said members were concerned the university was taking a “one size fits all” approach, by ditching lecturers for all subjects.

“That’s a bit of a slamming condemnation of everything all of the staff up until now have been doing,” he said.

“A lot of our lecturers are quite happy to do some or even all of their teaching in this kind of format, because it works for them, it works for the subject they teach and their students prefer it.

“But there are also lots of situations where that type of format isn’t the best, and the academic staff need to have the ability to decide what’s the best learning format for their students.”

Prof. Wood said there would be no job losses with the change.

“The academics will still need to be available … and of course still need to respond to students,” she said.

In their petition, psychology students argued the “proposed will have a negative effect on student learning, specifically the psychology undergraduate degree”.

“Many students feel that the introduced interactive platform is a way for less and less teacher contact time,” the petition stated.

Prof. Wood said the university would listen to student feedback, with a survey currently underway.

“We will work with the student senate on analysing the feedback from students, and we will be responsive to it,” she said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/university-of-the-sunshine-coast-announces-plan-to-remove-lectures-for-all-subjects/news-story/c60b9ac4fcd82b071b310bfdc2f7753d

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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 September, 2021

Why has the price of aluminium skyrocketed around the world?

<i>Northern Australia has huge and easily accessible deposits of of bauxite right by the sea (at Weipa) and only a short sail from Asia.  So it is already a major supplier.  It may soon become even more dominant as a  supplier.  It easily has the reserves to replace Guinea and buyers should see that</i>

What happened this week was a huge spike in the price of aluminium, which goes into everything from cars and trucks to phones and beverage cans. The metal touched $3000 a tonne — the highest it’s been since the 2008 global financial crisis — before settling down a wee bit after a couple days. But it’s still almost 70% more expensive than this time last year.

Why has the cost soared?

Because of Guinea, a tiny country in West Africa. Earlier this month, a military junta ousted Guinean president Alpha Condé in a coup driven by frustration over a lack of social and economic reform during his tenure. (Ramming through a referendum to ignore term limits and extend his time in office didn’t win Condé any friends either.)

Guinea is one of the major producers of bauxite, the mineral that is the raw ingredient for the production of aluminium. With a country so dependent on mining producing a commodity the world is so reliant on, a military coup naturally introduced uncertainty into the market — and uncertainty often means volatility. Even though Guinea’s mines are making an effort to keep operations normal and production steady, prices can still rise because commodities are traded speculatively. This means traders are nervous about what could happen with this batch of colonels, or even the next government, whenever it’s formed.

Guinea’s travails have indirect effects. Any blip in the bauxite supply chain has potential to wreak havoc later on. This is especially true seeing that China, which turns much of Guinea’s rocks into shiny metal, has become a net importer of aluminium recently, so it doesn’t necessarily have the domestic back stock to keep up with industry demand.

Aluminium comes from an ore called bauxite. According to the US Geological Survey, bauxite is the “only raw material used in the production of alumina on a commercial scale”. In other words, if the world wants aluminium, the world needs bauxite. The process that turns bauxite into aluminium is called smelting, and it is fairly resource- as well as energy- and emissions-intensive. It’s a messy business.

While Australia was the world’s largest producer of bauxite last year, digging up 110 million tonnes, Guinea produced 82 million tonnes, or 22% of the world’s supply. For a country of just 13.6 million people, that is no small feat. More importantly, perhaps, it also has the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, with 7.4 billion tonnes. Guinea may not be to aluminium what the DRC is to cobalt, but it’s almost there.

What does this mean for the prices of goods that use aluminium?

Well it’s not good. Aluminium is everywhere these days. It’s used heavily in automobile production: Ford’s F-150 pick-up, the best-selling vehicle in the US, uses loads of it, which unfortunately got pricier thanks to former US president Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported aluminium. It’s in mobile phones. It’s in cans. The US uses it extensively in defence production. And the post-pandemic “greening” of the economy has led to increased aluminium demand due to its prevalence in electric car production and solar panels, as NPR’s Marketplace pointed out. 

Increased demand, combined with continued political uncertainty in Guinea, could keep aluminim prices sky high. If that happens, the prices of consumer goods will inevitably inch upward. The more volatile Guinea’s political situation is, the bigger the effect.

How long will this last? 

It depends on how long political instability in the country persists. Lately, consultations have begun to shift from military rule to a transitional government. But it could take weeks — or a whole lot longer — for a final decision to be made.

In the meantime, the leader of the coup, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, rushed to assure big mining companies he wouldn’t do anything to disrupt operations, which might take some of the froth out of the market.

Bauxite is Guinea’s golden goose, so it’s not likely the new junta will do anything to jeopardise exports in the short term. But if political instability continues — or if the government decides to take a bigger bite of mining revenues, potentially even leading to closures — supply problems could creep into an already jittery market. And if you drive, talk, or eat leftovers, that is not what you want to hear.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/why-has-the-price-of-aluminium-skyrocketed-around-the-world/ar-AAOLa36?ocid=chromentpnews

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Tim Blair: Inclusion actually means exclusion in the woke community

In the names of inclusiveness and social justice, girls and women are losing opportunities for athletic achievement – and even losing their gender identities, writes Tim Blair.

If ever you hear a woke type ­talking about the need for ­“inclusion”, brace yourself. It usually means someone is about to be excluded.

The latest victims of inclusion are female netball players. Last week several girls’ netball teams were swept aside in a state championship because netball administrators allowed a boys’ team to compete.

By “compete”, I mean “dominate”. The Queensland Suns Under-17 team, an all-male outfit, easily won the Under-18s championship in Brisbane against all-female ­opponents.

As you’d expect.

Parents and fans at the final expressed understandable outrage. So did NRL legend Cameron Smith, whose wife watched a game in which fellow former NRL star Matt Geyer’s daughter played against the boys.

“She just said Matt’s daughter’s team were a gun side and they had no chance. The males were just too fast, too physical. It was just a disadvantage to the girls,” Smith said on SEN.

“It’s crazy. How do you put one male team in against all the other ­females and expect the girls to compete? Particularly at that age when they’re still developing. It’s not fair.”

Damn straight. But according to Netball Queensland, allowing boys to play against girls was even better than fair. It was inclusive, the highest level of woke accomplishment to which ­humanity can possibly aspire.

Following criticism, Netball Queensland issued a statement boldly defending its decision to deny girls any chance of winning. It’s a masterpiece of social justice sophistry. Let’s take a walk on the woke side:

“We want to make clear that there is a place for everyone in our sport.” Except for a place on top of the podium. That’s now reserved for boys.

“We stand by the decision to choose inclusion over exclusion.” Says the same organisation that excluded girls from even the possibility of a championship win.

“We recognise that change is sometimes uncomfortable …” Especially for girls, who will probably give up netball entirely if they’re going to be beaten in every match.

“We are buoyed by the support of our wider netball community …”  As one sharp-eyed observer noted, they really should have used a more inclusive term than “buoyed”.

“We’d like to address the assertion that the young women who played the State Titles were disadvantaged in any way.” Really? The boys won their games by an average of 29 points and took out the final 46-12. If that’s not evidence of disadvantage, then what the hell is?

“We see this as a great development opportunity.” But not for girls, at least in terms of claiming a title.

“The inclusion of both women and men in the competition in 2021 was about affording all netballers the opportunity to play and develop our great game.” And for boys, and boys only, the opportunity to win.

“While we have been subject to commentary around the different physical attributes it should also be remembered that men are new participants to our sport and play a different style of netball.” A style known as “successful”. Because they’re boys playing against girls.

“It’s also imperative that we provide a platform for men and boys to participate – because if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.” I can’t see a girls’ team ever winning a netball championship again if boys are allowed to compete.

“And we aspire to be a sport for all.” You’ve taken a sport designed for girls and women and have handed it over to boys and men. Congratulations, ladies.

Queensland Netball’s idiocy, which if extended to other exclusively-female sports would scrub women from peak athletic involvement, is part of a broader woke war on women.

Last week the totally woke American Civil Liberties Union celebrated the memory of late Supreme Court justice and feminist hero Ruth Bader Ginsburg by promoting an old Ginsburg quote.

Problem was, Ginsburg’s 1993 quote used non-woke words such as “her”, “woman” and “she”. So the ACLU helpfully edited it, which turned an eloquent statement on abortion rights into an abortion ­itself.

“The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a [person’s] life, to [their] wellbeing and dignity,” the updated gender-neutral version reads.

“When the government controls that decision for [people], [they are] being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for [their] own choices.”

Fully adult humans should be capable of hearing or reading words that refer to women without having an ­inclusiveness-based panic attack.

Similarly, formerly-prestigious British medical journal The Lancet last week indicated its devotion to wokeness by also excluding women. “Historically,” The Lancet reported, “the anatomy and physiology of bodies with vaginas have been ­neglected.”

Seriously? “Bodies with vaginas”? That’s where wokespeak is taking us. They are reducing women to their genital component form.

Sensible people, such as psychologist and author Dr Jessica Taylor, took issue with this.  How, Dr Taylor wondered, could The Lancet present itself as caring about the exclusion of female bodies and female biology from medicine and science when the journal won’t even name them?

“I would like to hear The Lancet explain their scientific rationale for keeping the use of the word ‘men’, ‘male’ and ‘man’ when they are refusing to use the word ‘woman’, ‘women’ and ‘female’,” Dr Taylor added.  “Genuinely, I would like to hear that argument.”

They don’t have one. That’s why we hear nonsense phrases instead, like “if you can’t see it, you can’t be it”.

We are increasingly seeing women not mentioned in elite correspondence. What happens next?

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/tim-blair-inclusion-actually-means-exclusion-in-the-woke-community/news-story/5faefc8050b1be872e52586fc444f202

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Qld, WA may face legal challenges over border closures

<i>Barriers betwen the states are clearly ultra vires of section 92 of the constitution</i>

Queensland and Western Australia could find themselves vulnerable to unprecedented legal issues as the rest of Australia embraces ‘Covid normal’ in the coming months.

Constitutional lawyer Professor Kim Rubenstein told Ten’s The Sunday Project that anyone adversely affected by the states’ refusal to open their borders could have grounds for a case.

“Any person who is impacted by these restrictions and who can show that this is a disproportionate burden on trade (could mount legal action),” she said.

“So that if it can show that it is, in fact, protecting one state over the other, without a legitimate or proportional response, then it really is available for challenge. And we may, in fact, see that ahead of us.”

Professor Rubenstein told The Sunday Project that the Australian constitution “was motivated by a desire to travel freely across the country”.

“Section 92 was placed there to discourage any restriction of travel within Australia,” she said.

Professor Rubenstein said the court would examine “whether these restrictions are needed for the purpose that they‘re seeking to achieve in terms of health protection.”

If they’re found wanting, the state could be much more “vulnerable” to legal action.

It comes amid criticism over Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was unwilling to reopen the state’s borders even at 80 per cent national vaccine coverage.

Ms Palaszczuk on Friday said she was unwilling to reopen as “80 per cent actually takes you backwards and I do not want that for Queensland”.

Her remarks have since come under heavy criticism with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg labelling it a policy that would keep Queensland families apart.

“The decision, and the announcement by the Queensland government, which means we may not see an opening of the borders consistent with the National Plan, is not good, and it would be a bad decision that would cost Queensland jobs,” he said.

“It would be a bad decision that would mean Queensland families are kept apart and it would be inconsistent with what was agreed at the National Cabinet.

“It’s really important that, in Queensland, the borders open in accordance with those 70 and 80 per cent vaccination rates.

“People want their lives to come back to what it was, and it’s up to those premiers and chief ministers to give those people hope, to give them a chance to reopen their businesses, to be reunited with loved ones, to send their kids back to school.

“That’s what the people of Australia are expecting from their state and territory leaders.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/coronavirus/qld-wa-may-face-legal-challenges-over-border-closures/news-story/53842ef836eea72af83916426b66421f

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Australian PM refuses to commit to phasing out fossil fuels

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to commit to phasing out fossil fuels as a major climate conference approaches, while his deputy doubled down on opposing targets for net zero emissions of greenhouse gases.

Australia, the world's top coal and a major gas exporter, is under growing pressure to come up with emissions reduction targets ahead of November's COP26 United Nations climate conference in Scotland.

The International Monetary Fund called on Australia to set a "time bound" target to reach net zero emissions on Friday, when the country's treasurer warned that Australia must brace for much higher borrowing costs if it fails to commit to a net zero target by 2050, as many peers have done.

In interviews with Australian media after a summit in Washington, Morrison said his government was still working on its emissions plans, declining to commit to curbing fossil fuels that account for a major part of Australia's export revenue.

He told broadcaster SBS in an interview that aired on Saturday night that he was not prepared to pull back any fossil fuel industries immediately.

"We don't have to, because that change will take place over time," he said. "We are working on the transition technologies and fuels and the ultimate technologies that will be there over the next 20, 30 years that can get us to net zero... This doesn't happen overnight."

Morrison, who has a largely undefined slogan of "technology not taxes", was part of a government that torpedoed a carbon pricing scheme after winning the 2013 election while opposing the mechanism as a tax.

His deputy prime minister, climate change sceptic Barnaby Joyce, dug in on Sunday against a net zero target.

"We look at it through the eyes of making sure there is not an unreasonable, or any loss of... regional jobs," Joyce, whose National party represents largely rural voters, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Joyce said proceeds from mining and agriculture industries were vital for people in regional towns, from hairdressers to auto service providers.

"You've got to remember, fossil fuels are your nation's largest export and if you take away your nation's largest export, you've got to accept a lower standard of living," he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/australian-pm-refuses-to-commit-to-phasing-out-fossil-fuels/ar-AAOPo5K?ocid=chromentpnews

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Spanish mackerel ban shows contemptible disregard for commercial fishermen

Peter Gleeson

If you like eating Spanish mackerel, you might have to start saving your pennies because the price is about to skyrocket.

It follows the establishment of a so-called working group, which will look at banning the commercial ­fishing of mackerel in north Queensland waters.

The plan is to ban fishing in certain areas from July 1 next year, abolishing the existing quota system.

Fisheries Queensland has been managing the resource through a quota system since 2004 under the sustainable fishing banner.

They have recently announced the East Coast Spanish Mackerel biomass is at a critically low level and changes to the management will be implemented next July.

Among other possibilities, the most likely result of this is a drastic quota reduction for the fishermen.

No doubt there will be the standard stakeholder working groups and public discussion papers so that Queensland Fisheries can be seen to be going through the consultation process, but the outcome is inevitable.

This is yet another hijacking of a perfectly legitimate business by the Greens and their Labor Left mates.

The Greens hate all commercial fishing. It’s a bread-and-butter issue. Greenpeace have made an art form of trying to destroy fishing industries.

Unfortunately, there are not enough commercial fisherman left to have any voting clout, so outcomes become inevitable.

The utter disregard for the consequences to fishermen’s personal and financial circumstances shown by Queensland Fisheries is contemptible.

Fishermen in the north Queensland area are in despair at the proposed changes.

For Spanish mackerel farmers such as Peter Guymer, the fish are all caught one at a time on a line.

There is no trawl or net fishery for this species, and the fish he catches are consumed by Queenslanders.

Mr Guymer says this latest issue for the Spanish mackerel industry is part of a broader campaign to undermine the professional fishing industry.

“The demand for wild caught local seafood has never been stronger,’’ Mr Guymer says.

“The ultimate loser here is the seafood-eating public who cannot or don’t wish to catch it themselves and will be eating imported farmed product.’’

The Queensland Seafood Industry Association has tried to talk sense into the State Government, but received little solace.

The Government says Spanish mackerel stocks are under threat from overfishing, with 300 tonnes commercially fished each year since 2004.

The latest damning Fisheries Queensland view follows a 2020 report, which said harvest numbers were good.

If a ban was implemented, it would throw dozens of fishermen out of work, and mean Spanish mackerel would be off the menu at most ­restaurants.

This is a typical Greens-Labor Left stitch-up, with a Labor government complicit in sending a section of the industry to the wall.

Let’s hope sanity prevails and the quota system remains. It’s a very fishy situation indeed

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/peter-gleeson/opinion-spanish-mackerel-ban-shows-contemptible-disregard-for-commercial-fishers/news-story/b04b8344bf3ff474e568aa2b07709acd

************************************

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 September, 2021

Australia needs a ‘clear plan’ for net zero to avoid energy crisis

<i>Barnaby Joyce has hit thenail on the head.  Greenies and their supporters have NO plan for what will replace coal-fired electricity.  Nukes are anathema and natural gas is an increasingly scarce and expensive fossil fuel.  But only those two could keep the lights on at night and when the wind is not blowing</i></i>

Mr Joyce has made a slight pivot in his stance on committing to a net zero target by 2050 after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg made an economic case for adopting the target in a speech to business leaders on Friday.

The Nationals have traditionally been opposed to the commitment; however, the remarks from Mr Joyce may signal a future shift in the party’s position.

“We want to make sure – and the Coalition is a prudent organisation – we want to make sure that any process forward doesn’t just follow rhetorical flourish, one-line headlines, but makes sure that we have a clear plan,” Mr Joyce told reporters on Friday.

“I have to show the Australian people what happens, what it looks like when you get it wrong.

“And the UK energy crisis, the European energy crisis, will be our energy crisis.

“At the end of that graph resides coldness and unemployment, and we don’t want either of those.

Mr Joyce indicated he believed the treasurer was “completely right if people make decisions that restrict the flow of capital”, however, Australia should not allow “third parties” to restrict the capacity to act within rules and within a process that is legitimate.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/australia-needs-a-clear-plan-for-net-zero-to-avoid-energy-crisis-joyce/ar-AAOLudX?ocid=chromentpnews

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Victoria Police censored 'vital' media coverage of Melbourne protests

Victoria Police censored vital media coverage of Melbourne's protests by banning the live-streaming of aerial footage, according to Digital Editor Jack Houghton.

On Wednesday the Civil Aviation Safety Authority approved a Victoria Police ban of all helicopters bar their own flying over Melbourne CBD.

"A media blackout," Mr Houghton said. "A pathetic attempt by an over-zealous police force which lost control of its own city.

"You deserve to know what's happening in your city every moment of every day, and in my experience, police only ever want you to stop filming when they are worried about stuffing something up."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/victoria-police-censored-vital-media-coverage-of-melbourne-protests/ar-AAOMbZJ?ocid=chromentpnews

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Australia signs deal with Nauru to keep asylum seeker detention centre open indefinitely

Australia will continue its policy of offshore processing of asylum seekers indefinitely, with the home affairs minister signing a new agreement with Nauru to maintain “an enduring form” of offshore processing on the island state.

Since 2012 – in the second iteration of the policy – all asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by boat seeking protection have faced mandatory indefinite detention and processing offshore.

There are currently about 108 people held by Australia on Nauru as part of its offshore processing regime. Most have been there more than eight years. About 125 people are still held in Papua New Guinea. No one has been sent offshore since 2014.

However, Nauru is Australia’s only remaining offshore detention centre.  PNG’s Manus Island centre was forced to shut down after it was found to be unconstitutional by the PNG supreme court in 2016. Australia was forced to compensate those who had been illegally detained there, and they were forcibly moved out, mostly to Port Moresby.

But the Nauru detention facility will remain indefinitely.

In a statement on Friday, home affairs minister Karen Andrews said a new memorandum of understanding with Nauru was a “significant step forwards” for both countries.

“Australia’s strong and successful border protection policies under Operation Sovereign Borders remain and there is zero chance of settlement in Australia for anyone who arrives illegally by boat,” she said.

“Anyone who attempts an illegal maritime journey to Australia will be turned back, or taken to Nauru for processing. They will never settle in Australia.”

Nauru president, Lionel Aingimea, said the new agreement created an “enduring form” of offshore processing. “This takes the regional processing to a new milestone. “It is enduring in nature, as such the mechanisms are ready to deal with illegal migrants immediately upon their arrival in Nauru from Australia.”

Australia’s offshore processing policy and practices have been consistently criticised by the United Nations, human rights groups, and by refugees themselves.

The UN has said Australia’s system violates the convention against torture and the international criminal court’s prosecutor said indefinite detention offshore was “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment” and unlawful under international law.

At least 12 people have died in the camps, including being murdered by guards, through medical neglect and by suicide. Psychiatrists sent to work in the camps have described the conditions as “inherently toxic” and akin to “torture”.

In 2016, the Nauru files, published by the Guardian, exposed the Nauru detention centre’s own internal reports of systemic violence, rape, sexual abuse, self-harm and child abuse in offshore detention.

The decision to extend offshore processing indefinitely has been met with opprobrium from those who were detained there, and refugee advocates who say it is deliberately damaging to those held.

Myo Win, a human rights activist and Rohingyan refugee from Myanmar, who was formerly detained on Nauru and released in March 2021, said those who remain held within Australia’s regime on Nauru “are just so tired, separated from family, having politics played with their lives, it just makes me so upset”.

“I am out now and I still cannot live my life on a bridging visa and in lockdown, but it is 10 times better than Nauru. They should not be extending anything, they should be stopping offshore processing now. I am really worried about everyone on Nauru right now, they need to be released.”

Jana Favero from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the new memorandum of understanding only extended a “failed system”.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/sep/24/australia-signs-deal-with-nauru-to-keep-asylum-seeker-detention-centre-open-indefinitely

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Coking coal price hits record highs as Chinese steel-makers face pain

The price of metallurgical coal has risen to record levels as trade tensions and border problems push the cost for Chinese importers sky-high.

Coal for coking purposes has soared despite declines in iron ore values attributed to Chinese steel-makers abiding by a government directive to avoid buying from Australia. 

The value has surged to $US410 a tonne in the past week, representing a more than tripling in price since early 2020.

Coking coal is now overtaking iron ore as the largest input cost for many of the world's steel mills.

Mining analyst Peter Strachan said while the booming price appeared counterintuitive given the slide in iron ore demand, logistical issues in Asia were at play.

"Normally they get a lot across the border from Mongolia but COVID restrictions have meant they haven't been able to get enough truck drivers to do it," he said.

"Shipping costs have skyrocketed, the Chinese are just scrambling and paying over $US500 a tonne for the stuff delivered. Ex-Newcastle it's well over $US400, that's a new high."

With poor domestic supplies of metallurgical coal, Chinese buyers were racing to source shipments from across Asia, North America and as far afield as Columbia as a result.

As a result of China's hunt for new suppliers, major steel-making nations with limited domestic metallurgical coal such as India, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the EU are now increasingly turning to Australia.

Director of the Bowen Basin Mining Club Jodie Currie said the loss of the Chinese market had opened new doors for the region's miners.

"I think it gave them opportunity to look at other markets, Queensland coal is sought after across the world," she said.

"There were certainly shock waves sent through the industry but we've diversified, we've looked at other markets."

Property market-induced slide

Concerns over the financial woes of Evergrande, one of China's leading property developers has been seen by many commentators as a catalyst for the declining iron ore value.

Analyst Peter Strachan said, with increased recycling of metals domestically, metallurgical coal demand in China could reach a peak soon.

"Eventually there will be a correction, the Evergrande issue is going to put a hiatus on the expansion of steel-making," he said.

"We're also seeing a lot more scrap iron coming though the [steel production] system, eventually China's going to move towards 20, 30 per cent of their steel coming from scrap."

Falling steel production through July and August as a result of the planned cap on steel-making has been mirrored by a decline in other polluting industries such as cement, another sector blamed for poor air quality in Chinese cities.

"There are a number of climate-related, clean-air issues, the big polluters tend to cut back ahead of winter, especially with the Winter Olympics coming," Mr Strachan said.

After the price of iron ore crashed from $230 in May to as low as $93 a tonne in recent weeks, some stability returned to the market in recent days following indications Evergrande will pay interest payments due today.

The price rose back above the $US100 mark in mid-week trade.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/coking-coal-price-hits-record-highs-as-chinese-steel-makers-face-pain/ar-AAOKSuC?ocid=chromentpnews

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Vulcan metallurgical coal mine approved for Queensland

Vitrinite has been granted a mining lease for its new $160 million Vulcan metallurgical coal mine near Moranbah.

The project between Moranbah and Dysart will create at least 150 full-time jobs and is expected to deliver a major economic boost to the Isaac and Mackay regions.

Queensland Resources Council chief executive Ian Macfarlane said the Queensland company had invested significant time and effort exploring for coal on its Vulcan Complex project in the Bowen Basin.

He said it had led to the discovery of premium, high quality metallurgical coal seams.

Metallurgical coal, also known as coking coal, is primarily used to make steel and is currently attracting record export prices.

Mr Macfarlane said the granting of a mining lease for Vulcan facilitated the first four years of an expected 15-year-plus mine life, which on its own is a $160 million, nine million tonne (Mt) mine.

“During this four-year period, Vulcan will contribute an estimated $170 million in royalties to the Queensland budget which will be used to fund essential health, education and infrastructure projects,” he said.

“On top of that, the project will contribute millions of dollars to the Queensland economy through taxes and the uptake of goods and services.”

Resources Minister Scott Stewart said the new Vulcan coal mine was the first mining project for Vitrinite.

“The project shows ongoing investor confidence in Queensland’s world-class resources, infrastructure and skilled workforce,” he said.

“Queensland’s resources industry has been integral to our economic recovery, operating through the pandemic and now supporting a sector record 85,000 jobs in our state.

Vitrinite founder and managing director Nick Williams said the company was grateful to be part of the Central Queensland mining community.

He said he was proud to prove a private, family-style business could succeed in Australia alongside some of the world’s largest companies.

“We started off small, but what began as the dream of a few, young entrepreneurs has evolved to a stage where we’re creating at least 150 full-time jobs, which will lead to more indirect jobs, and can make a significant contribution to the state economy,” he said.

“We are a family business, and we want to continue how we’ve started, to create a company that supports family and makes people a keystone of every business function.

“When planning the Vulcan mine, and everything we do, we also put a very large focus on minimising our environmental impact, to ensure we’ll leave this land better than we found it for future generations,” he said.

“We have implemented plans to minimise water usage, reduce overburden movements, use innovative technologies and conduct progressive rehabilitation beyond our statutory requirements, so we take our environmental responsibilities very seriously.

“While this is good policy for the environment, it also translates into good business practices which will allow us to maximise the value of these resources for all Australians.”

Mr Macfarlane said the community could be confident the Vulcan project had undergone rigorous regulatory assessment to establish its environmental credentials before having its mining lease approved.

“Queensland is widely regarded as having the strictest environmental regulations in the world, which our industry is fully committed to complying with, along with our determination to lower carbon emissions and implement sustainable mining practices,” he said.

“The Vulcan Complex mine project is also the first resources project in Queensland to have its Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan approved under new legislation introduced in 2019.

“A PRCP commits mine operators to progressively rehabilitating land while the mine is operating and returning the land to its pre-mining use at the end of the project, which in this case is low-intensity cattle grazing.

“This is the future of mining and ensures Queensland resources companies can continue to operate safely and sustainably with the support of their communities and government regulators.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mackay/vulcan-metallurgical-coal-mine-approved-near-moranbah/news-story/f39a626d91f5184035cfc5755ab51dea

************************************

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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24 September, 2021

Environmental showstopper: AGL has its Greta Thunberg moment

It was the shareholder meeting of 2021 that was worthy of top billing - Australia's biggest carbon emitter, AGL, came face to face (well screen to screen) with its environmentally concerned investors.

Numerous Australian companies have recently faced the environmental backlash from investors. But AGL has been squeezed by the pincer of big emissions and plunging profit - enough to upset any shareholder.

The entertainment even included the self-nomination of a young student Ashjayeen Sharif to the board - a proposal roundly rejected by other directors and, unsurprisingly, wildly unsuccessful.

It looked like a cut-down version of Greta Thunberg's United Nations speech on the need for climate action with a corporate twist.

To be sure, shareholders chalked up a victory of sorts - scoring the largest vote in Australia's history in favour of forcing a board to report emissions targets and report how pay packets will be aligned with achieving them.

Ultimately this proved to be a pyrrhic victory because adopting the shareholder resolution required a change to the company's constitution - and the vote to achieve this failed.

But after a couple of hours of verbal beating, AGL chairman Peter Botten managed to have all resolutions voted in line with the board recommendations.

That said, the company avoided a second strike on its remuneration package but only after it acquiesced to big shareholders and proxy forms to overhaul pay performance measures and transparency.

Botten and his board don't need a shareholder meeting to take the temperature of its shareholders' feelings about AGL's environmental credentials.

They understand that AGL has been caught on the wrong side of history. Ten years ago, it loaded up its balance sheet with coal-fired generators it now can't afford to close down but which impose a massive reputational cost on the company.

(And AGL and other energy companies are getting no help from the government, which has a hopeless inability to commit to larger cuts in carbon emissions.)

The enormous fragmentation in the supply of energy has come about with the fall in the cost of renewables - a situation that has seen consumers and businesses switch to an energy self-service model.

In the case of households, this has been primarily achieved through the installation of roof solar panels, while large energy using companies have taken to building their own energy infrastructure.

A tsunami of supply collided with a COVID-induced shrinkage in demand - and the price of wholesale electricity fell accordingly - and with it AGL's earnings.

This move began slowly but in recent years has accelerated very quickly. AGL, which to be fair has also invested heavily in renewable energy, was overtaken by the environmental stampede. And it has a share price and earnings to prove it.

Less than two years ago, AGL completed a $650 million buyback of its own stock at $19 compared with the current price of $5.68. This alone demonstrates the board's failure to read the tea leaves.

While there was never any great threat to AGL's ability to push through the resolutions at Wednesday's annual shareholder meeting, the reality is this was merely a warm-up event.

The real action will take place next year when shareholders get to vote on splitting AGL into two separate companies.

These two companies can be roughly characterised as a retail supplier of energy and a wholesale generator of energy - officially named AGL Australia and Accel Energy - but more colloquially known as Cleanco and Dirtyco.

The challenge of navigating through this separation, avoiding saddling either sibling with too much debt and finding investors willing to retain a stake in a corporate environmental leper need to be addressed.

All this needs to take place against the backdrop of a further fall in AGL's earnings.

Wednesday's annual meeting will seem like a walk in the park in comparison.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/environmental-showstopper-agl-has-its-greta-thunberg-moment/ar-AAOGI39

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Landmark climate pollution case launched

Victorian environmental campaigners are launching landmark legal action against the state's Environment Protection Authority and three coal power stations over claims they failed to limit climate pollution.

Led by conservation group Environment Victoria, the Supreme Court case will be the first to test Victoria's Climate Change Act, which was introduced in 2017.

It will also be the first challenge to the regulation of air pollution from the state's coal-burning power stations.

The owners of Loy Yang A, AGL Energy; Loy Yang B, Alinta Energy; and Yallourn, EnergyAustralia are cited in the legal action.

Environment Victoria will allege the EPA "failed to protect the health of the community and the environment" by not taking any action against these three coal power stations while reviewing their licences in March this year. 

"The Andrews government passed nation-leading climate change legislation in 2017, but Victoria's environment watchdog chose to ignore it when making a crucial decision about coal power station licences this year," EV chief executive Jono La Nauze said.

"The EPA took more than 1200 days to review the licences of three coal power stations and then failed to take any action on the greenhouse gases they emit.

"Our case will argue that they failed to properly consider key sections of the Climate Change Act and the Environment Protection Act."

AAP contacted the EPA for a response, however it declined to comment due to the upcoming court case.

Coal power station owners Alinta Energy, EnergyAustralia and AGL also declined to comment on specifics of the case, while the matter is in court.

An AGL spokeswoman said it acknowledged its role in energy transition and is committed to ensuring this is done responsibly "balancing Australia's current and future energy needs with the commitment to decarbonise".

An EnergyAustralia spokesman said it had a strong record of environmental compliance and a commitment to improvement.

"EnergyAustralia is committed to being a leader in environmental stewardship and the responsible operation of our assets is paramount," the spokesman said.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/landmark-climate-pollution-case-launched/ar-AAOIK40?ocid=msedgntp

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Victoria’s police commissioner comments on social media video of man being slammed to ground at Flinders Station

Victoria Police’s chief commissioner has commented on footage circulating of a heavy-handed arrest in Melbourne.

The 12-second clip emerged overnight on Wednesday and is believed to have been filmed during the day of protesting action across the city.

Footage shows a man talking to at least three police officers at Flinders Street Station.

Another officer then approaches the man from behind and appears to slam him into the ground.

The man appears to strike the ground face-first and the person who filmed the footage says he lost consciousness and was bleeding.

“This poor guy was calm, he was just talking to the police, you can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground,” the caption on the video said.

“You can see it in the video then he gets thrown to the ground. You can hear his face hit the tiles. He was unconscious, blood and urine everywhere.”

On Thursday morning, Police Commissioner Shane Patton spoke to 3AW and was asked about the video.

“We’ll investigate that. I don’t know what the full circumstances are,” Patton told the station.

“There’s always context to everything. We’ll investigate it with an open mind.”

Patton said he was not “jumping to any conclusions”.

Victoria Police said in a statement it was aware of the circulating vision.

“The exact circumstances around the incident are yet to be determined and are under investigation by both Transit Safety Division and Professional Standards Command.”

https://7news.com.au/news/victoria-police/victorias-police-commissioner-comments-on-social-media-video-of-man-being-slammed-to-ground-at-flinders-station-c-4046703

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Josh Frydenberg’s plea to banks, super funds and insurers

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has urged banks, super funds and insurers not to abandon the mining industry during the economic transition to lower emissions.

In an online speech to major employers, Frydenberg will say businesses that recognise climate change-triggered trends will have the most promising futures.

“At the same time, there is a message to Australian banks, super funds and insurers,” he is expected to tell the Australian Industry Group on Friday.

“If you support the objective of net zero, do not walk away from the very sectors of our economy that will need investment to successfully transition.”

The treasurer believes it is wrong to assume traditional sectors like resources and farming will face a decline during the economic transition.

“To go the next step and achieve net zero will require more investment across the economy,” Frydenberg will say.

“An economy-wide transition is needed, as in the words of the former governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, this isn’t about funding only deep green activities, or blacklisting dark brown ones.”

Instead, he favours a broad-based approach which invests in emissions reduction across all sectors including agriculture, mining and manufacturing.

“It’s a long-term shift, not a short-term shock.”

The Morrison government is under immense international pressure to commit to more ambitious emissions reduction targets ahead of a major United Nations.

Australia has become increasingly isolated over its refusal to adopt a 2050 net zero emissions goal.

While an increasing number of moderate Liberals have urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison to adopt the target, Nationals and other conservative MPs oppose the move.

Frydenberg praises BHP’s investment in renewable power at mines and pursuit of net zero emissions by 2050, along with Fortescue’s expansion into green hydrogen for steel making.

The treasurer will also note three of the world’s biggest fund managers - BlackRock, Fidelity and Vanguard - have a net-zero goal.

“For them, there is an alignment between the commercial opportunities and the environmental outcomes.”

Frydenberg warns reduced access to capital markets could impact interest rates on home and small business loans, along with the viability of major projects.

“Australia has a lot at stake,” he will say.  “We cannot run the risk that markets falsely assume we are not transitioning in line with the rest of the world.”

He argues the government is making progress on meeting emissions reduction targets and investing in new technologies.

State and federal energy ministers will meet on Friday to discuss incentives to keep dispatchable power running during the transition to cleaner technologies.

https://7news.com.au/business/dont-abandon-mining-investment-treasurer-c-4052667

************************************

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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23 September, 2021

(1)Males and females are different after all

An angry backlash has erupted after an all-boys netball team won a state title in Queensland by beating sides made up of female players in the decider.

The Queensland Suns Under-17 team was comprised entirely of boys and won the Under-18s championship in Brisbane this week, beating regional female teams en route to the trophy.

The Courier Mail reports after the Suns beat the Bond University Bull Sharks 46-12 in the final, some members of the crowd directed abuse towards the boys, with many believing it was unfair they were allowed to compete.

Suns coach Tammy Holcroft told the publication: “The abuse ranged from comments made courtside deliberately within earshot of the Suns contingent, to adults making vulgar comments directly behind the team bench.

“It’s disappointing that the frustration was directed at the players.

“At the very core of this, our boys just want to play and they copped the brunt of these comments and behaviours and were made to feel unwelcomed and unsupported.”

NRL commentator and radio host Andrew Voss said it was “bulls***” the boys team, which was undefeated throughout the tournament and boasted an average winning margin of 29 goals, was allowed to compete against the girls.

“How is that common sense?” Voss said on his SEN breakfast show. “You’re surely not going to endorse that as the way of the future, at Under-18s level.

“They say they want to be inclusive, not exclusive. That’s bulls***. It’s a farce.”

NRL legend Cameron Smith said former Melbourne Storm teammate Matt Geyer’s daughter played against the Suns team this week, and Smith’s wife went along to watch a game.

“She just said Matt’s daughter’s team were a gun side and they had no chance. The males were just too fast, too physical, it was just a disadvantage to the girls,” Smith said on SEN.

“It’s crazy. How do you put one male team in against all the other females and expect the girls to compete? Particularly at that age when they’re still developing. It’s not fair.

“That’s a weird one to enter a male team in the netball competition.”

In a Facebook post after the final, the Bull Sharks wrote: “Congratulations on an outstanding tournament to our 18U Women. Undefeated by other women’s teams for the week and runners up in the State Titles.”

The comments on a separate Facebook post promoting the final questioned why an all-boys team was competing against a girls side.

“Netball QLD in their wisdom thought it would be fair to include a young men’s state team against regional young women’s team and allow them to contest the State Title,” Jodie Muir wrote.

Renee Miles replied: “Netball QLD seems to be as intelligent as the QRL,” with a face palm emoji.

Netball Queensland posted about the success of the state titles on Facebook, but the comments underneath were extremely critical.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/sports-life/uproar-as-allboys-netball-team-beats-girls-to-win-state-title/news-story/819d1d0101345dad1aee9ea814102456

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(2)Males and females are different after all

Following the debut of MMA fighter Alana McLaughlin, an Australian advocate has called for transgender athletes to be banned from competing in professional women’s sports.

McLaughlin, the second openly transgender woman to compete in MMA in the United States, won her debut on Friday night via submission at the Combate Global prelims.

The 38-year-old used a rear-naked choke against Celine Provost to end the match three minutes, 32 seconds into the second round.

Provost landed multiple punches in the first round, but McLaughlin ultimately came out on top.

As she was declared the victor, McLaughlin wore a shirt with the phrase, “End Trans Genocide.”

Her debut comes as multiple states argue bills aimed at restricting transgender athletes from participating in youth, high school and college sports.

Speaking on 2GB’s Ben Fordham Live, Save Women’s Sport Australasia co-founder Katherine Deves said including transgender athletes in professional sport was “an attack on women and girls”. “Humans cannot change sex,” she claimed.

“Sex matters for sport. Sport does not care about your feelings or your identity.

“This is male violence against women. It is sanctioned, and celebrated, and monetised.

“It’s an attack on everything that women have fought for, for equality of access to sports competitions.

“How far do we have to fall as a society before the authorities stop pandering to the woke and start protecting women and girls?

“We don’t want to have mediocre males playing against the most elite women in the world.

“Women’s sports is not a dumping ground for men who can’t hack it in male competition.”

According to Sport Australia, there is no evidence of athletes transitioning from a man into a women in order to gain a competitive advantage.

McLaughlin, who began her gender transition after leaving the U.S. Army Special Forces in 2010, said she hopes to be a pioneer for transgender athletes in combat sports.

“I want to pick up the mantle that Fallon put down,” McLaughlin told Outsports before the fight, referring to Fallon Fox, who in 2012 became the first transgender woman to fight in MMA.

“Right now, I’m following in Fallon’s footsteps. I’m just another step along the way and it’s my great hope that there are more to follow behind me.”

McLaughlin began training a year ago and was cleared to fight by the Florida State Boxing Commission after having her hormone levels tested, according to ESPN.

She said it was a “nightmare” finding an opponent.

“I‘m getting a lot of variations of the same nasty messages calling me a cheater,” McLaughlin wrote on Instagram on Saturday.

“She almost finished me more than once, and on scorecards she definitely won that first round.

“This is the only post I‘ll make about this. Transphobes are just making my block hand stronger.”

https://www.news.com.au/sport/ufc/sex-matters-transgender-mma-fighters-debut-slammed-by-australian-advocate/news-story/bf3aec8a9265639697a7eea9666ac326

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Pauline Hanson's message supporting tradies who refuse mandatory Covid vaccines

Senator Pauline Hanson has come out in support of construction workers protesting in Melbourne with a controversial social media post.

The One Nation leader posted an image with the phrase 'Building Lives Matter' to her Twitter and Facebook accounts on Wednesday night.

The image was accompanied by a caption stating: '@OneNationAus stands with construction workers fighting for freedom of choice!' 

Mark Latham, NSW One Nation upper house MP also shared the same image to his own public Twitter account. 

Melbourne has been rocked by three straight days of protests which started over mandatory vaccinations for constructions workers and ballooned into wider unrest.

Senator Hanson is the founder of the right-wing populist party and has previously been criticised for her references to the Black Lives Matter movement against racially motivated violence and police brutality.

Many of her followers shared her support for the Melbourne protestors and praised her 'building lives matter' slogan.   

'You're always there for the average bloke ... love your work champion,' one wrote. 

'Good on you Pauline, it's just a shame so many people miss your point,' wrote another on Facebook. 

'I don't always agree with everything you say, but you are a true patriot Pauline. You have a genuine love for this country and its people,' said another supporter. 

But some social media users objected to Senator Hanson's support for the protesters.

It is also not the first time Senator Hanson has spoken out against mandatory vaccinations.

She has been reprimanded by health officials for making false claims about vaccinations and saying people should have the right to choose to catch the virus and deal with the consequences. 

She has also made claims the government have been using lockdowns as a 'bullying tactic' to push residents into getting the vaccine. 

Liberal senator Amanda Stoker was also criticised for her response to the protests. 

She condemned the violence, but said the demonstrations reflected the effect of lockdown and a heavy-handed police approach.  

The violent rallies began on Monday at the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) headquarters where construction workers gathered to protest mandatory vaccines and other government-imposed Covid regulations. 

CFMEU boss John Setka said the majority of Monday's protesters were non-union members, and blamed neo-Nazis and 'right wing infiltrators' for the violence.

Ms Hanson also referred to the Black Lives Matter movement in June 2020.

During global demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ms Hanson attempted to put forward an 'all lives matter' motion in the Senate.

Her motion was denied formality by an overwhelming majority and did not proceed to a vote, with one senator walking out in protest. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10016451/Read-Pauline-Hansons-controversial-message-supporting-tradies-refuse-mandatory-Covid-vaccines.html

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Furious former Victorian premier UNLEASHES at 'appalling' Dan Andrews for construction lockdown which prompted violent protest and is leaving thousands of tradies out of work

A former Victorian Premier has slammed Dan Andrews for his 'appalling' management of the state's lockdown which he says has led to the violent riots that have swept through the city.

Jeff Kennett spoke on Wednesday night after previously referring to the current premier and his government as a 'cancer' on Victoria.

Mr Kennett said the continual lockdowns were destroying the livelihoods of hard working Australians and slammed Mr Andrews' handling of the protests. 

'The way they've managed it has been appalling,' he told A Current Affair.

'This doesn't only effect those in high-rise buildings, it effects tradies out on the street. Plumbers, electricians, small builders who are doing family homes. 

'It's just been an across the board lockdown without any management.'

His comments come as Melbourne will wake up to a new world record of being the city with the most days locked down, having been under stay-at-home-orders for 235 days since the pandemic began - ahead of Buenos Aires, Dublin and London.   

Mr Kennett, who was premier between 1992 and 1999, said the state has been 'going backwards for two years' under Mr Andrews. 

'It's not the premier's fault we have the virus, it's certainly his and his government's fault for the way they've managed this crisis and led us to where we are today,' the former Hawthorn Football Club president said.

The 73-year-old said the government should be looking for broader advice on how to handle the pandemic, rather than solely focusing on health impacts.

'You can't exist on medical advice alone. Talk to single parents who are home schooling month after month. Children with no experience of the discipline of going to school, the disadvantage to their education and social education,' he said.

'I understand we need medical advice but you've also got to take into consideration the impact on children and businesses and the economy as a whole.'

Mr Kennett, who has been publicly critical of Mr Andrews throughout his tenure as premier, called for an overhaul in the government's planning that could see future riots avoided.

The former premier also condemned some of the protesters, saying there was a difference between demonstrating and violence.  

Meanwhile, Melbourne will claim the unwanted record of city locked down longest in the world as it enters its 235th day of heavy restrictions since the pandemic began on Thursday.

Melbourne jumps ahead of Argentinian capital Buenos Aires for the record, slightly ahead of Dublin in Ireland and England's London as the cities with the most days spent at home. 

'We've been in lockdown this year more than we've been out,' Peta Credlin said on Wednesday.

'Kids basically haven't been at school for two years. Tomorrow we are the world's most locked-down city. That's a terrible title for the once 'world's most livable city' to wear.' 

Melbourne suffered through a 112-day lockdown last year and has endured six in total to claim the record. 

Police arrested more 215 people at Wednesday's protest. Tap handles, golf balls and batteries were thrown at police, according to Deputy Commissioner Ross Guenther.

Two police sustained head injuries after being pelted with bottles. They estimate between 300 and 400 people attended the protests. 

The riots hit a new low on Wednesday after defiling and desecrating the sacred Shrine of Remembrance war memorial.

The group of tradies, anti-vaxxers and violent thugs stood on the steps of the memorial chanting 'lest we forget' and believing police wouldn't engage with them while standing on the hallowed military ground.

Instead police fired rubber bullets and pepper balls and threw stinger grenades as they were pelted by rocks, with scenes turning violent and ugly again.

Protests are expected throughout the rest of the week.   

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10017319/Furious-former-Victorian-premier-UNLEASHES-appalling-Dan-Andrews-construction-lockdown.html

************************************

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 September, 2021

Morrison is making an enemy of China – and Labor is helping him

<i>Paul Keating comes out as a Sinophile below.  What he says about the subs is nonsense but I agree with him in deploring the nagging of China.  Criticizing a Communist regime was never going to do any good.  Western criticisms have caused China to lose "face" and that was always going to engender hostility</i>

The Liberals, having no faith in the capacity of Australians and all we have created here, could not resist falling back, yet again, to do the bidding of another great power, the United States of America.

Menzies, even after World War II, did Britain’s bidding against the international community in attempting to wrest the Suez Canal from Egypt just as he deceptively committed Australian troops to Vietnam to appease the United States.

Howard, another US appeaser extraordinaire, committed us to an illegal war in Iraq with tragic consequences.

And now, Morrison, a younger throwback to the Liberals’ Anglosphere, shops Australia’s sovereignty by locking the country and its military forces into the force structure of the United States by acquiring US submarines.

And all in the claim of a so-called “changed security environment”. That change is China’s more aggressive international posture – the posture of now, the world’s largest emerging economy. This change in China’s domestic and foreign posture is labelled by Morrison and his government not as the shifting posture of a re-emerging great power, but as “the China threat”. As though China, through its more abrupt and ruder foreign policy, has also presented a military threat in its dealings with Australia.

A threat that, in fact, has never been made and that has never materialised.

The word “threat” explicitly connotes military aggression or invasion, a threat China has never made against Australia or even implied making.

Chinese tariffs on wine or seafood do not constitute a military threat any more than does China’s intolerance of Hong Kong domestic political management.

Hong Kong and its affairs do not and cannot be represented as some military threat to Australia – an event that requires from us consideration of a military response. Even Chinese island-pumping in the South China Sea does not represent a military threat to Australia, unwise on China’s part, as I believe it to be.

But this is the construction Scott Morrison and his government have placed on China and its relationship with Australia.

It is a “threat”, implying by use of the word, that it is a military one.

This false representation of China’s foreign policy has also been condoned by the Labor Party, if not explicitly. In her five years as Labor’s opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman, Penny Wong, by her muted complicity with the government’s foreign policy and posture, has neutered Labor’s traditional stance as to Australia’s right to strategic autonomy – an autonomy unconstrained by any power, including, that of the United States.

Instead, Wong went along with the stance of Julie Bishop and Marise Payne – calculatedly, with not a cigarette paper of difference between her and them. And did it with licence provided by Bill Shorten as leader and, now, Anthony Albanese.

Now that long policy void is being exploited by Scott Morrison. At Morrison’s instigation, Australia turns its back on the 21st century, the century of Asia, for the jaded and faded Anglosphere – the domain of the Atlantic – a world away.

And Labor is complicit in the historic backslide. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age have been up to their necks in it also. Peter Hartcher’s bi-weekly froth-mouthed articles about China and its supposed threat, along with Chris Uhlmann and his wicked representation of China as marauding Nazis, has constituted an important part of the climate that has allowed Morrison to now shop the country to the Americans.

China does not attack other states, unlike the United States, which does attack other states, yet the Herald and The Age have portrayed China as an aggressor power with malevolent intentions.

In a measure of luck, Australians have been vested with a continent of our own. A continent having a border with no one – with no other state. And certainly, not remotely within any territorial contest or claim by China, which is 10 flying hours from Australia’s east coast cities.

The notion that Australia is in a state of military apprehension about China, or needs to be, is a distortion and lie of the worst and most grievous proportions. By its propagation, Australia is determinedly casting China as an enemy – and in the doing of it, actually creating an enemy where none exists.

So poisonous are the Liberals towards China they are prepared for Australia to lose its way in the neighbourhood of Asia, in search of Australia’s security from Asia, by submission to yet another strategic guarantor – 240 years into our history.

This strategy amounts to a massive bet on the United States and its staying power in Asia. Rather than Australia finding its own way around the region, including with China, as we have done so well in the past, Morrison and Labor have tied us to the unknown endurance of the United States and the pain it is prepared to wear in defence of what it believes are its core Asian interests.

I have said before, but it is worth repeating: the United States is a naval power, whereas China is a continental power. A continental power with the largest land mass in Asia occupied by 20 per cent of humanity. And competently served by a modern military.

The United States, by its aircraft carrier fleets, enjoys naval force projection but that projection is fuelled from its bases on the American west coast. Its capacity in a military exchange with China will be limited by the attenuation of its supply lines and the vulnerability of its surface vessels to Chinese submarines and ballistic missiles.

I have also said before, but worth repeating, that when it comes to major international conflagration, land beats water every time. Through this submarine purchase, Australia surrenders its naval forces to the command of the United States, while setting itself into a military position incapable of defeating Chinese land-based and sea denial forces.

It takes a monster level of incompetence to forfeit military control of one’s own state, but this is what Scott Morrison and his government have managed to do

https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/morrison-is-making-an-enemy-of-china-and-labor-is-helping-him-20210921-p58tek.html

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Clear majority of Australians want net zero emissions by 2050

<i>This is nonsense.  The survey showed what they have constantly been told to believe -- not what they "want"</i>

A clear majority of Australians want the federal government to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, lifting support for the target to 60 per cent as Prime Minister Scott Morrison faces pressure from world leaders to take more action on climate change.

A more ambitious target for 2030 also has slim majority support, with 52 per cent of people saying the federal government should deepen its emission cuts over the next decade, a crucial timeframe for a United Nations climate summit in November.

But Australians are divided on phasing out coal, with 49 per cent backing calls to close coal-fired power stations within a decade but 44 per cent saying the country should continue to mine and export coal for as long as buyers want it.

The majority support for greater ambition on net zero crosses party lines, with a new survey showing 57 per cent of Coalition voters and 67 per cent of Labor voters want the 2050 target.

Mr Morrison arrived in New York on Tuesday for talks at the United Nations General Assembly, including meetings with United States President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, two leaders who want him to do more to cut emissions.

Mr Biden has asked leaders to commit to deeper cuts at the UN climate summit to be held in Glasgow in November, putting pressure on Mr Morrison to go beyond his policy of reducing emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2030.

“We have to bring to Glasgow our highest possible ambitions,” Mr Biden said last Friday. “Those that have not yet done so, time is running out.”

Mr Johnson warned on Monday that “too many major economies are lagging too far behind” on climate, using a major speech in New York to say stronger action was not a matter for the “unkempt fringes” but a significant trade and security issue.

“In the years to come, the only great powers will be green powers,” Mr Johnson said.

The exclusive survey, conducted for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by research company Resolve Strategic, shows the national support has risen to 60 per cent from 55 per cent in a similar survey in June.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/clear-majority-of-australians-want-net-zero-emissions-by-2050-20210921-p58tkk.html

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Climate change to deliver suburban house price pain: RBA

<i>As recent experience has shown, the big factor in real estate prices is interest rates.  Low interest rates=high prices.  Everything else is detail</i>

Climate change could cut property prices across a swath of Sydney’s northern suburbs from Lane Cove to Ku-ring-gai, with Reserve Bank analysis showing many homeowners face declining equity in their houses and rising insurance costs.

As separate work by the RBA warned coal and LNG exports to key Asian markets were likely to fall as nations such as China and South Korea reduced their carbon emissions, the bank’s research on the Australian property market suggested climate change was a growing risk to the financial sector.

Economists Kellie Bellrose, David Norman and Michelle Royters found by 2050, about 400,000 more loans (or 2.5 per cent of all loans) would have a loan-to-value ratio of more than 80 per cent – half of those with an LVR of more than 90 per cent – as property values fell due to climate change.

They suggested there would be 254 “climate-sensitive suburbs” at increased risk of a drop in value by that time, rising to 1438 suburbs by 2100.

In Sydney, most of the city’s northern suburbs from Mosman to the northern beaches and across to the Ku-ring-gai area stretching past Hornsby fell into this category, along with the Cronulla peninsula. Almost every coastal suburb in Brisbane was considered climate-sensitive, as was the area around Lilydale, Croydon and Kilsyth in Melbourne’s outer east and Mandurah to the south of Perth.

In Australia, about two-thirds of major bank lending is for residential mortgages, making any change in housing values a key risk.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is working with the nation’s largest banks to identify their potential vulnerability to climate change amid growing global recognition of the risks it poses to the entire financial system.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) latest report confirmed the world was on track to experience extreme weather due to global warming even if swift action was taken to limit global warming to 2 degrees. It predicted Australia, which has warmed 1.4 degrees since 1910, would experience rising average temperatures with extreme heat, more frequent and intense bushfires, droughts, floods and rising sea levels.

The RBA economists said the risks in climate-sensitive suburbs could further increase if the insurance costs for affected areas became prohibitive.

“That is, the technical insurance premium may understate the actual rise in premiums, particularly if insurers become more concerned about exposures to ‘high risk’ regions,” they said. “This may arise because many of the addresses within these regions are impacted by the same hazard (for example, an entire town is built in a flood zone or near fire hazards). In addition, if climate change causes incomes in these regions to also decline, it would result in even larger risks to banks.”

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/climate-change-to-deliver-suburban-house-price-pain-rba-20210920-p58t5v.html

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Australian documents showed French submarine project was at risk for years

France shouldn't have been surprised that Australia cancelled a submarine contract, as major concerns about delays, cost overruns and suitability had been aired officially and publicly for years, Australian politicians said.

Paris has recalled its ambassadors from Canberra and Washington, saying it was blindsided by Canberra's decision to build nuclear-powered submarines with the U.S. and Britain rather than stick with its contract for French diesel submarines.

Yet as early as September 2018, an independent oversight board led by a former U.S. Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter had advised Australia to look at alternatives to the French submarine, and questioned whether the project was in the national interest, a 2020 public report from the country's Auditor-General shows.

Australian parliamentary hearings and reports on the project, first priced at $40 billion and more recently at $60 billion, even before construction had begun, also showed problems emerging. In June the defence secretary told parliament "contingency planning" for the programme was under way.

"They would have to have their eyes shut not to realise the danger they were facing," said Rex Patrick, an independent senator for South Australia, referring to France.

Government ministers said this week Canberra had been "up front" with Paris about the problems.

A French lawmaker also raised questions in the country's parliament in June about Australian concerns over delays, and whether Australia might be considering submarine alternatives, French government records show.

"We chose not to go through a gate in a contract," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters when he arrived in New York on Monday. "The contract was set up that way, and we chose not to go through it because we believed to do so would ultimately not be in Australia's interests."

An official from the French Embassy in Canberra said an intergovernmental agreement should have allowed for confidential discussions between ministers about changes to political or strategic circumstances.

"No warning, no proposals for discussion were offered," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The deal was first announced in 2016. A pre-design review was delayed in 2018 because the "work provided to Defence by Naval Group did not meet Defence's requirements", the audit said, citing lack of design detail, operational requirements and 63 studies not completed.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/australian-documents-showed-french-submarine-project-was-at-risk-for-years/ar-AAOF0To?ocid=chromentpnews

************************************

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 September, 2021 

True blue Aussie bushman and rodeo champ, 75, is fined $100 for carrying a POCKET KNIFE on his belt - despite doing so every day since the age of 14

<i>This is an absurd prosecution from every angle.  Section 2A of the Act  specifically provides that "A person may carry a knife on his or her belt for performing work in primary production."  The magistrate who convicted  him needs to brush up on the law</i>

An elderly bushman who has carried a tiny pocket knife for more than 60 years was charged and forced to face court after possessing the item in public.

Wayne McLennan, 75, is a local legend in his hometown of Chinchilla, Queensland, where he the former rodeo champion is affectionately known as 'Cowboy'.

But last month, when heading home from the local pub, Mr McLennan was stopped and breathalysed by police, before being taken to the station after blowing slightly over the limit.

After producing a second test under the legal blood alcohol level, the policewoman informed him he would be getting charged for another crime. 

'While I was there she said 'but I am going to charge you for wearing a pocket knife in public'. I said "what? I didn't know you weren't allowed to wear one",' he told A Current Affair.

'I've been wearing one since I was 14 years old. She said "that's it, that's the law".' 

Mr McLennan said he has been going about his business on his farm and in town with the tiny knife in his pocket for decades.

The blade, which barely measures more than an inch, is used for common jobs around the property and is a necessary part of every farmer's toolbelt.   

'Well if I got to go and put a bale of hay out, I use it to cut the string and then open a bag of horse feed, use it to open the top,' he said.

Cowboy was out in Chinchilla last month having a few beers at the pub with friends before he got some takeaways and headed back to his car.

Police stopped him before he even got in the car and said they were going to breathalyse him, where he blew over the legal limit.

The 75-year-old blew under the legal limit on his second attempt, but police still didn't let him go.  

Cowboy was charged with Section 51 of Queensland's Weapon Act, which says a person mustn't possess a knife in a public place or school unless they have a reasonable excuse.

The farmer said he 'wouldn't have had one on me if I'd known I wasn't allowed to wear one' and was shocked at the decision of the policewoman.

Mr McLennan faced local court where a magistrate fined him $100 and allowed him to leave without conviction.

He says no one around town could believe his story.  'That's why people keep ringing me and talking to me about it, they didn't know whether it was true or false,' he said.

Other bushmen around town have supported the 75-year-old, saying it was common place to innocently carry a small pocketknife. 'Oh it's ridiculous, every second guy here that walks into the pub here on a Friday night, has a pocket knife on their belt,' fellow Chinchilla local Tom Latimore said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10009017/True-blue-Aussie-bushman-fined-100-carrying-POCKET-KNIFE-belt-Queensland.html

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Fraser Island to be renamed with Aboriginal name

<i>This will create a lot of unnecessary confusion</i>

The Queensland government will change the name of Fraser Island back to K'gari, the name used by its traditional owners.

The Butchulla people on Sunday celebrated the name-change - which mean's 'paradise' - for the UNESCO World Heritage Area.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service renamed the national park as K'gari (Fraser Island) in 2017.

Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation official Jade Gould said her people had been campaigning for years for the name to be changed back.

"The name Fraser Island is a tribute to Eliza Fraser - a woman whose narrative directly led to the massacre and dispossession of the Butchulla people," she said in a statement.

"A word meaning paradise in Butchulla language is a much more fitting name for such an iconic place."

Queensland Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon says the government will soon begin talks with the Butchulla people and other stakeholders to formally rename the island.

She said the government has renamed a number of places already, including Naree Budjong Djara National Park on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island) and Gheebulum Kunungai National Park Mulgumpin (Moreton Island).

"The Palaszczuk government recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island heritage and cultures, which represent an enduring and ongoing connection to Country for over 60,000 years," Ms Scanlon said.

The island's Kingfisher Bay Resort Group general manager David Hay said his company supported the Butchulla people's push for the name to revert.

"This change couldn't have come at a better time as we emerge from COVID and work to attract domestic and international travellers back to the region and the island," he said. "There has never been a truer word spoken - K'gari really is paradise."

K'gari was originally known by Europeans as Great Sandy Island before it was changed to Fraser Island after Scotswoman Eliza Fraser was shipwrecked there in 1836.

Ms Fraser was eventually rescued by an escaped convict and taken back to Moreton Bay, now Brisbane. She initially claimed she was mistreated by the local Indigenous people on the island, but changed her account a number of times.

Liberal National Party MP Jarrod Bleijie was against the name being changed back to K'gari. "Have been going on holidays to Fraser Island all my life and will continue to go to FRASER ISLAND for the rest of it, despite what woke @AnnastaciaMP says," he tweeted.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/fraser-island-to-revert-to-indigenous-name/ar-AAOCrvk?ocid=chromentpnews

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Aboriginal man flees the police in unregistered car.  Crashes and dies

<i>His own worst enemy</i>

Raymond Noel Thomas was driving to the shops to buy chocolate in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote in June 2017 when police in a patrol vehicle saw he was driving an unregistered car.

Officers decided the car "looked dodgy" and when it failed to stop they began a pursuit, which saw both vehicles reach speeds of more than 150km/h.

During the chase, Raymond Noel's vehicle veered to the wrong side of the road, sideswiped an oncoming car, hit a parked car and crashed.

Just over 20 seconds later, the 30-year-old Aboriginal man was dead.

Coroner John Olle's findings handed down on Monday quoted a statement by Auntie Debbie, Raymond Noel's mother.

"The loss of our son, there are no real words to say how heartbreaking, devastated and how heavy we carry grief."

During the inquest, the court heard evidence that the 30-year-old Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Wiradjuri man's first interaction with police was at the age of 10, when officers handcuffed him while he was playing with his cousins on a woodchip mound.

"I can just imagine the fear that Ray must have been experiencing that night, right up until the very end," his father Uncle Ray told the inquest.

Coroner Olle slammed the police pursuits policy that led to the deadly crash, saying the two officers involved, Sergeant John Sybenga and Senior Constable Deborah McFarlane, never considered how the pursuit might end.

"They did not consider whether their attempt to intercept had elevated an initial poor decision not to stop, into a scenario of extreme danger," he said.

The court had heard they were experienced officers who were both licensed to drive at unlimited speeds.

He found police should no longer be able to conduct pursuits for "minor traffic infringements" at speed and without emergency lights.

https://au.yahoo.com/news/coroner-slams-vic-police-pursuit-081042198.html

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France and Australia agree submarines won't stop trade deal

French and Australian officials said Monday that France’s anger over a canceled submarine contract will not derail negotiations on an Australia-European Union free trade deal.

France withdrew its ambassadors to the United States and Australia after President Joe Biden revealed last week a new alliance including Australia and Britain that would deliver an Australian fleet of at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

The deal sunk a 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) contract for French majority state-owned Naval Group to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines for Australia. The money would have been spent over 35 years.

French Ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thebault denied media reports that France was lobbying the European Union not to sign the trade deal with Australia that has been under negotiation since 2018.

“At this stage, negotiations do continue and there is a strong interest ... for Australia to have a free trade agreement with the EU,” Thebault told Australian Broadcasting Corp. from Paris.

Such a deal “has the potential to deliver a huge amount of benefits for Australia,” Thebault added.

Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan said he would travel to Paris within weeks for trade negations and was “very keen to touch base with my French counterpart,” Franck Riester.

“There’s a strong understanding from my recent trip to Europe to discuss the EU free trade agreement this is in the mutual interests of both Australia and of Europe,” Tehan said, referring to an April visit. “I see no reason why those discussions won’t continue,” Tehan added.

French President Emmanuel Macron will speak in the coming days with Biden in their first contact since the diplomatic crisis erupted.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison flew to the United States on Monday for a meeting with Biden and the leaders of India and Japan that make up the Quad security forum.

“This is all about, always about ensuring that Australia’s sovereign interests will be put first to ensure that Australians here can live peacefully with the many others in our region, because that’s what we desire as a peaceful and free nation,” Morrison said before departing Sydney.

https://au.yahoo.com/news/france-australia-agree-submarines-wont-034704238.html

************************************

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)

***************************************

20 September, 2021

$464 million in grants to kickstart hydrogen industry

<i>This is pretty silly.  It is true that burning hydrogen produces no pollution but obtaining the hydrogen does.  Whether it is extracted from natural gas or produced by electrolysis, it is an industrial process that uses a lot of energy.

And once you have the hydrogen you need a heavy and expensive pressure vessel to transport it -- and that uses up energy too. And the vessels do explode sometimes, dangerously</i>

The state’s first test-run Hydrogen refuelling station opened in Redlands today with one of the state’s first hydrogen cars getting a tank of fuel made from Queensland sunshine.

Queensland’s burgeoning hydrogen industry will get a cash injection in a bid to get manufacturing plants running and create a global export hub.

Gladstone has been singled out as one of seven regions to be prioritised for $464 million in grants to help build pilot projects, set up joint ventures, secure supply chains and get production up and running.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison will today announce the cash, saying it will help establish new export industries and set up Australia to supply energy to the growing market in southeast Asia.

The scheme is in addition to the announcement last week for a large-scale renewable hydrogen plant to be built near Gladstone by electricity generator Stanwell, as well as federal, state and other corporate backers.

It’s location near a port, water and high-capacity electricity generation has put the central Queensland city in prime position to take part in a hydrogen boom.

The Clean Hydrogen Industrial Hubs grants will open next Tuesday, September 28, and will include grants of up to $3 million for research and development projects, and a second stream of up to $70 million to rollout hydrogen hubs.

Industry applicants will have to stump up at least half the cash for the proposal, with the grants only to cover 50 per cent of the cost.

Mr Morrison said the funding was about fast-tracking the development of the emerging technology.

“Our plan to invest and develop low emissions industries will mean more jobs for Australian workers, particularly in our regions, cheaper energy for businesses and lower emissions,” he said.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the hydrogen industry was expected to create 8000 jobs and generate $11 billion a year by 2050.

“A thriving hydrogen sector will help Australia to achieve its emission-reduction goals while continuing to grow our economy and support existing industries,” Mr Taylor said.

There are a range of hydrogen projects already starting in Queensland, including the Stanwell project, Dyno Nobel’s study producing renewable hydrogen at Moranbah and QUT research into renewable energy hybrid systems to generate hydrogen.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/464-million-in-grants-to-kickstart-hydrogen-industry/news-story/0759e3cea87d255b148f6271a5c7ad97

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Greenie lawfare rife in Australia

After the United States, Australia has the highest number of climate change litigation cases in the world.

In May 2020, in an Australian legal first, a youth environment group called Youth Verdict challenged a proposed mega-coal mine in Queensland on the grounds that it infringed on their human rights because of its contribution to climate change. Youth Verdict argues the mine will contribute to catastrophic climate change and increase the risk of bushfires, drought, floods, heatwaves and cyclones.

They are basing their argument on new protections provided under the state’s Human Rights Act, which came into effect in January 2020, the first time a human rights argument has been used in a climate change case in Australia. A hearing date for the case has been set for February 2022.

In a world-first legal case filed in July 2020, a university student in Melbourne accused the Australian government of misleading investors in sovereign bonds by failing to disclose the financial risk caused by the climate crisis. If successful, the claim could compel the government to disclose how climate change might affect the nation’s economic growth or the value of the Australian dollar. The case is awaiting judgment.

In a landmark decision in May, the Federal Court of Australia found that Environment Minister Sussan Ley had a “duty of care” to protect children living in Australia from personal injury or death resulting from climate change. If not overturned, legal experts say the judgment could “constrain the ability of both government and private entities to undertake projects that contribute to net carbon emissions”.

The Environment Minister is appealing the decision, with the appeal to be heard on October 18.

In another major ruling in August, a NSW court ordered the state’s Environmental Protection Authority take steps to safeguard against climate change, requiring the authority to “develop environmental quality objectives, guidelines and policies to ensure environment protection from climate change”.

The case was brought by the Environmental Defenders Office, a non-governmental legal service organisation, on behalf of survivors of the devastating 2019-20 bushfires. The state’s environment minister says he won’t appeal the ruling.

In late August, the Environmental Defenders Office lodged a new lawsuit against the oil and gas giant Santos, on behalf of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), alleging that Santos breached consumer and corporate laws by claiming to produce clean energy and have a pathway to net zero emissions.

The ACCR says the oil and gas company engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by telling shareholders in its 2020 annual report that it produced “clean fuel” and provided “clean energy”.

On September 2, news emerged that a Commonwealth Bank investor was suing the lender, demanding to see internal documents on its decisions to finance fossil fuel projects to ensure it has complied with its own environmental framework.

And just this past week, there were two more significant climate litigation developments. In NSW, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision to refuse a coal mine in the Bylong valley, north-west of Sydney. The state’s Independent Planning Commission had dismissed the plan for the 6.5 million tonne-a-year mine two years ago, and a previous court appeal was also rejected in part because of the climate change impacts of digging up the fossil fuel.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, a High Court legal challenge was launched against the state of Victoria, arguing it lacks the constitutional power to tax electric car drivers with a road user charge.

Federal and state governments, regulatory bodies and corporate actors have been put on notice. If they don’t take steps to mitigate climate change, they too could end up in Australia’s courts.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/as-australia-s-climate-policy-disappoints-hope-is-found-in-court-20210910-p58qmc.html

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Retailers want vaccine passport certainty before opening

The nation’s leading retailers, from fashion and sporting goods to auto parts and furniture, have called on governments to provide a legal framework for shoppers to declare their vaccine status when walking into stores, as the chains seek more certainty about how to handle the prickly issue as shops reopen.

Companies such as furniture retailer Nick Scali and Super Retail Group, whose retail banners include Rebel Sport, Supercheap Auto and Boating Camping Fishing, have also increased their pool of available casual staff to build a “reserve bench” of employees in case a store is declared a Covid-19 exposure site, forcing staff to isolate themselves for weeks.

These are two of the many minefields retailers are now preparing to cross as they prepare for an easing of restrictions in NSW, Victoria and the ACT, allowing them to open their bricks and mortar stores to customers for the first time in months.

Top of the list of their concerns is how retail front line workers will determine whether shoppers have received both Covid-19 vaccinations, how to prove their vaccine status and the legalities around even asking for proof in the first place.

“Customer abuse is not a new phenomenon but we have absolutely seen increases of instances and I can see a request like that (vaccine status) being very frustrating for customers,” Super Retail chief executive Anthony Heraghty told The Australian.

“I think being really clear about expectations and process would be helpful – if that’s what the government wants.

“Could a check-in app cover any kind of vaccine requirement?

“It is just being very clear about expectations. We can execute against that but we just need to know the rules.

“We have got training available for our team members for any number of customer interactions.

“You would argue that potentially this would be a high-stakes engagement, interaction with the customer, and we want to make sure our team members are well supported in understanding what are the rules of the game.

“Having incredibly crystal clear rules as early as possible would be a great help.

“I think it is unreasonable to expect individual businesses to make their own determination. It has to be a policy setting like masks or checking in.”

Mosaic Brands chief executive Scott Evans, whose chains include Noni B, Katies and Millers, has been busy refreshing stock for summer and preparing staff and is also looking for vaccination guidelines from government.

“If somebody comes back and isn’t vaccinated, what’s going to be the rule around that?” he asked.

“(It’s) more serious for us because we play in the mature space – we are a 55-age plus business and we generally have mature ladies inside the stores.

“We have to make sure that we are absolutely putting everybody’s safety first.

“The second thing we are keen to understand from the government is if you are double-vaccinated and you work inside the store and get Covid-19, you’ll have some time off like the flu, that will be normal – but if you are in close contact, what will be the rule?

“If I am store manager and happen to get Covid-19 and I have a second in charge and a part-timer who has been with me that day, do they have to self-isolate for a period or is it business as usual provided they are fully vaccinated?

“There are too many questions at the moment and not enough answers with regards to what are the rules going to be. They are obviously in Canberra trying to thrash it out and make sense of it all but you can’t close the store every time you have a close contact.”

Other retail challenges include the need to secure staff to prepare for the opening of stores, potential short-term closures if there is a Covid-19 exposure and the flow of workers between stores within a retail chain.

Recently Woolworths revealed that more than 3000 of its staff had been forced into home isolation due to Covid-19 exposure, causing some shortages on the shelves.

Nick Scali chief executive Anthony Scali said: “We are getting ready to reopen and we think it will be quite strong, pent-up customer demand. We are going to have to over-employ because if stores get shut down because someone with Covid-19 walked in those people who worked in that store will have to isolate for 14 days.

“You will have to have a reserve bench almost ready to go in, and that is the sort of planning we are doing.”

Super Retail CEO Mr Heraghty said his retail chains had slightly higher casual staff levels in preparation for reopening, in case of disruptions and store closures triggered by fresh Covid-19 outbreaks.

At department store Myer, chief executive John King is hiring for the expected Christmas rush and opening up of stores.

“We feel strongly that we have planned well for Christmas in terms of marketing, merchandising, online, product and offer, in-store theatre, and we are recruiting a lot of people for Christmas.

“As soon as we are allowed into (our stores) they will be set up and we will be off and running.”

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The French should have seen submarine decision coming, PM says

France should have been aware Australia was prepared to break a $90 billion deal to build conventionally powered attack submarines, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has suggested, despite Paris’ accusation that the Canberra-Washington move was treacherous and brutal.

As Defence Minister Peter Dutton said the broader arrangement under the trilateral relationship with Britain and the United States was aimed at ensuring enemies “think twice” about attacking Australia, the Prime Minister defended the decision to break the contract with France as in the national interest.

Paris has recalled its ambassadors to Australia and the United States over the decision by Canberra to abandon its deal with France’s Naval Group to build 12 submarines. Australia will instead buy at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, most likely from the United States, as part of the security partnership with Britain.

Mr Morrison, who held talks with French leader Emmanuel Macron about the submarines in June, said Australia’s concerns about the Naval Group boats were well known.

He said he could understand France’s disappointment, but added he had always been clear that Australia would act in its own strategic interests.

“I think they would have had every reason to know that we have deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the attack class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests and we had made very clear that we would be making a decision based on our strategic national interest,” Mr Morrison said.

“Ultimately this was a decision about whether the submarines that were being built at great cost to the Australian taxpayer were going to be able to do a job that we needed it to do when they went into service.

“Our strategic judgment based on the best possible of intelligence and defence advice was that it would not, and so therefore to go forward when we are able to secure a supreme submarine capability to support our defence operations, it would have been negligent for us not to.”

Mr Morrison said he had told Mr Macron of Australia’s decision on the evening before it was announced.

But France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, in a sign of the rupture between Paris and Canberra, used public television to label the decision as “duplicity, disdain and lies”.

The recalling of its ambassadors “signifies the force of the crisis today” between the French government and Washington and Canberra, he said in an interview on France 2 television.

Mr Le Drian denied reports there had been advance consultations with France ahead of the announcement, saying “this isn’t true”.

“(Allies) don’t treat each other with such brutality, such unpredictability, a major partner like France ... So there really is a crisis. There are reasons for us to question the strength of our alliance,” he said.

The French ambassador to Australia, Jean-Pierre Thebault, said before he left the country that he had been at the meeting between Mr Macron and Mr Morrison in June.

He said the Australian Prime Minister had mentioned “there were changes in the regional situation” but gave no indication it was about to abandon the French contract.

“Everything was supposed to be done in full transparency between the two partners,” he said.

A spokesman for Mr Morrison said later the ambassador was not at the meeting as it was dinner between the Prime Minister and Mr Macron.

Outside the submarines decision, the new Australia-UK-US agreement also provides for advanced technology such as long-range hypersonic missiles and undersea drones. More US Marine troop deployments in Australia are also likely.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/federal/deep-and-grave-concerns-french-should-have-seen-sub-decision-coming-20210919-p58syv.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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19 September, 2021

Australia poised to rent nuclear submarines in just a few years while it waits up to two decades for new fleet to be built

The Australian government is prepared to lease nuclear submarines from the US while its own fleet is being built, Defence Minister Peter Dutton says.

Last week, Australia entered into a surprise regional security pact with the US and the UK, known as AUKUS, which includes building US nuclear submarines but these will not be ready until the late 2030s.

Asked on Sky News' Sunday Agenda program whether the government would consider leasing nuclear submarines in the interim, Mr Dutton said: 'The short answer is yes'.

'There is all of that discussion to take place in the next 12 to 18 months,' he said.

'The talk that you can just buy a nuclear-powered submarine off the shelf, of course, is just not accurate or correct.'

He said the Chinese are pumping out submarines, frigates and aircraft carriers at a record rate and so the rest of the world has stepped up its own production. 'That unfortunately is the dynamic we are operating in at the moment,' he said.

However, Australia's decision has caused a stir in the region, and backlash from the French.

The scrapping of the $90 billion diesel submarine deal between Australia and France has prompted the European nation to recall its Australian ambassador.

If Australia had chosen a French nuclear model, it would have involved setting up a nuclear industry in Australia as they need to be refuelled every seven to 10 years.

The technology used by Britain and the US means the reactor does not need to be refuelled for the life of the submarine - about 35 years. 'Therefore, we don't need a domestic industry around nuclear,' Mr Dutton said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10005371/Australia-rent-nuclear-submarines-waits-new-ones-built.html

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Tenancy Reform Bill One Step Closer to Becoming Law – Will an Owner still be able to terminate a lease?

Well the Bill is now before the QLD Parliament!

The Community Support and Services Committee has now published its Report into the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 recommending that the Housing Legislation Amendment Bill 2021 be passed. This Bill is presently before Parliament for debate and could be passed before the year is out.

In this series of updates on the reforms “Qld Tenancy Reforms – What An Investment Owner Needs to Know” by the Property Management Team at Clark Real Estate we provide interested investors with some further detail on these proposed reforms. We’ll keep you up to date with the progress of the Bill through Parliament, crucial info you need to know and when the changes are due to come into effect.

Removal of “Without Grounds” Terminations of Tenancies.

One major policy of the current government, which has been a point of contention between tenants and investment property owners, is the provision of an expanded suite of additional approved reasons for lessors/providers and tenants/residents to end a tenancy.

Initially, the proposal was to remove the ability of an owner to terminate a tenancy “without grounds” altogether. For owners, this caused some angst facing the prospect of a fixed term contract turning into a perpetual lease unless one of a limited number of circumstances arose such as wanting to sell or move into the property themselves. Understandably, investors were left feeling as though control of their asset was slipping into the shallow end of a social housing pool.  However, a change has been made so that ‘without grounds’ terminations were still removed but an additional ground added for termination if a fixed term tenancy is due to expire. The relief from owners is audible.

The Queensland Law Society highlighted what investors were arguing,  ‘This is consistent with the fundamental nature of a contract, under which the parties reach agreement at the outset that the contract is for a specified period”.

So the new proposed grounds for termination are:

fixed term tenancy agreement is due to expire

the premises is to be vacated so that redevelopment (eg conversion from a house into flats) or demolition of the property can be undertaken

the premises is to be vacated to allow significant repair or renovation works to be undertaken

the premises is subject to a change of use (such as changing from long-term accommodation to short stay accommodation or holiday lettings)

the owner or their immediate family needs to move into the premises

the premises has been sold and vacant possession is required

the premises is to be vacated so that it can be prepared for sale.

In each case, the lessor would be required to give the tenant two months’ notice. However, a fixed term agreement could not be ended before the contracted end date, unless the tenant agrees.

There are also penalties for providing false reasons, restrictions on who are deemed ‘immediate family’ and an inability to rent the premises for a 6 month period after ending a tenancy on the grounds the property was to be sold, change of use or owner occupation. (Housing Legislation Amendment Bill, cl 56, 58, 59, 61, 63, 76, 77 and 80 and cl 88)

It still leaves the question though, how are periodic tenancies to be handled? The very nature of a periodic tenancy is a rolling tenancy. Arguably, the proposed legislation does not sufficiently provide for ending a periodic tenancy which could lead to an unintended consequence of creating a lease in perpetuity. 

The Committee has recommended that the Department “maintain a close watching brief on the impacts, intended and otherwise” and to collect data on how leases are managed and ended.

https://www.clarkrealty.com.au/uncategorized/tenancy-reform-bill-one-step-closer-to-becoming-law-will-an-owner-still-be-able-to-terminate-a-lease/

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Queensland introduces social reforms slowly so as not to give conservatives too many scares

Three years ago, when a fledgling movement for voluntary assisted dying laws in Queensland began meeting with MPs to gauge support, campaigners were told not to hold their breath.

Those consultations revealed what the state parliament has now confirmed – significant support among politicians for VAD. The move also had strong public approval. So why the delay?

At the time, the Queensland government made it clear to campaigners that it would not pursue an aggressive agenda of social reform. The state was already about to begin debate on decriminalising abortion, which had been in the criminal code since 1899.

The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said in 2018 an inquiry into VAD could be considered “down the track”, but that the issue wasn’t a priority at the outset of her government’s second term.

Change would come. But slowly, cautiously.

Labor has followed a consistent template for social reform in Queensland, where it has held office for most of the last 32 years.

In 2018, former Labor minister Anne Warner told Guardian Australia that when the Wayne Goss government was elected in 1989 there was a lot of “fear” about the idea of opening up debate on abortion laws.

We have to recognise that we have progressed and become more recognisably progressive.

“[At one point] I got a phone call from [Goss] saying ‘don’t scare the horses’,” Warner recalled.

“We’d been out of government for 30 years, change would have to happen slowly and systematically.”

Chris Salisbury, a Queensland political historian from the University of Queensland, says “don’t scare the horses” became like a mantra to Goss during his term in office.

“[Former premier] Peter Beattie said you had to be conscious of not frightening the electorate with too much reform at too quick a pace,” Salisbury said.

“Palaszczuk has got around to some of these harder social reforms that her predecessors couldn’t bring themselves to touch, but there’s a very pragmatic nature to the reform agenda.”

As Palaszczuk’s Labor government now settles into its third term in office, it has come to exploit that pragmatic upside of social progress in Queensland. Two weeks before the 2020 election, a promise to bring voluntary euthanasia laws to the parliament tapped into the more than 80% of voters who supported VAD.

Issues like abortion and VAD have become political third rails for their LNP opposition – wedging them between constituents who want reform and the majority of grassroots party members with fundamental objections.

Many of these reforms are years – even decades – slow in responding to the views of Queensland citizens. They are safe, overdue and popular. They are also plentiful, in a state shaped by anachronisms that hark back to the ultraconservative Bjelke-Petersen years.

The state government has already started work on the next tranche of social reforms. The include a review of the sex work industry that will look at decriminalisation, in a state where the laws are described as “puritanical”. The government has taken steps towards a treaty with First Nations people.

All of which is not to say the current government is particularly leftwing either. Laws targeting climate change protesters and ongoing “tough on crime” rhetoric are not popular with progressive groups. The state does not have an independent environmental protection agency.

ABC Vote Compass data shows Queensland is notionally conservative – sitting marginally to the right of other states.

And while Vote Compass data from the past two federal elections shows community views in Queensland becoming more progressive, voters shifted firmly to the right on polling day in 2019.

Queensland is unquestionably a conservative place in the sense that voters have entrenched reformist governments and rejected radical ones. The rise and fall of Campbell Newman’s one-term Liberal National government seemed to underscore that sentiment; even when the dial shifted to the right, voters felt uneasy with hasty and wholesale changes.

Polling on VAD, gay rights and abortion consistently shows that on those issues – even in regional areas – Queensland is no more conservative than any other states.

Salisbury says the decentralised nature of Queensland has accentuated some very conservative pockets, but that overall the nature of the state has changed substantially.

“We have to recognise that we have progressed and become more recognisably progressive than how we used to be characterised and caricatured,” he says.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/making-progress-is-queensland-actually-as-conservative-as-we-think/ar-AAOyzZ4?ocid=msedgntp

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Feminists throw children under the bus

Bettina Arndt 

There’s no end to the dreadful chicanery being used to prop up the feminist narrative of virtuous women and villainous men, as we have seen in two recent examples, one from the UK and the other Australia. It is astonishing how hard the ideologues work to deny that essential truth about human nature – that neither gender has a monopoly on vice nor virtue.

Last month an Australian social issues journal published the most fascinating research - Allegations of child sexual abuse – which showed judges determined that only 12 % of the child sexual abuse allegations involved in contested family court cases were found to be true.

Accusations of abuse that were deliberately misleading were found to be twice as common as true allegations, according to the study by Webb, Moloney, Smyth and Murphy, which reviewed family court cases from 2012 to 2019.

You might wonder how many of the 102 cases of deliberately misleading accusations were prosecuted for perjury? Anyone who followed submissions to the recent Family Law inquiry will know the answer to that one - precisely zero.

Though startling, these results shouldn’t come as a surprise. Over thirty years ago I published an article quoting a retiring family court judge speaking out about the proliferation of false accusations of child sexual abuse in contested cases. Other judges have raised concerns about the problem and it has long been known that false accusations are more common in custody disputes.

That’s the real world, very different from the alternate reality occupied by these researchers who make it clear they hoped to prove false accusations were rare. Nola Webb, barrister and lead author of the study, proudly told the ABC that she commenced the research because she was shocked to hear from mothers reporting their child abuse accusations were being dismissed in family court.

Faced with devastating evidence that judges conclude most of the allegations didn’t stack up, the researchers do their best to massage the results to disguise the extent of the false allegation problem. For instance, they exclude allegations which are “one of a multitude of criticisms of the other parent” claiming this might “minimise their seriousness and compromise their believability.” What, a mother fires off a barrage of complaints including child sexual abuse allegations and that somehow makes these allegations less serious? Go figure….

Also excluded from the false accusation category are cases they deem as "genuine but mistaken belief" which is clearly a phony category designed to minimize the rate of false accusations. (For data wonks, my brilliant researcher has put together a brief explanation of some of the complexities of this study’s statistics here).

The bottom line is, here we have an important study revealing the true extent of the problem of false allegations of child sexual abuse in family court cases – allegations which often result in small children being subjected to multiple intrusive interviews by court experts and the shaming of innocent fathers.

But this significant news is totally ignored by our mainstream media, apart from one skewed ABC article claiming the judges have it all wrong. Oh yes, there was also a bizarre blog in Diplomat magazine claiming the study proved “the family court offers a prime example of how male supremacist groups are able to alter the culture of public institutions to the detriment of our collective social health.”  

https://thinkspot.com/discourse/eKu38B/post/bettina-arndt/feminists-throw-children-under-the-bus/bvZtjy

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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 September, 2021

Greenie teacher guilty of common assault after putting a plastic bag over handicapped student’s head

A demonstration of what can happen to marine animals caught in plastic bags has left a Sunshine Coast teacher awaiting sentencing for common assault.

Jesslee Ann Regmi, 56, was demonstrating to a class the impacts of plastics on wildlife, specifically turtles, when she placed a plastic bag over the head of a young teenager without his consent on July 25, 2019.

Magistrate Rod Madsen found Regmi guilty of common assault after the matter went to a hearing in May.

During his judgment in Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Thursday, September 16, Mr Madsen said he found Regmi’s actions to be unlawful.

The court heard Regmi had approached the teen from behind and placed the bag over his head to show the class what can happen if plastics end up in the ocean and how marine animals can be harmed.

Despite Regmi giving evidence she had approached the teen in his line of vision before she placed the bag over his face, and not his head, Mr Madsen said the evidence given by the teacher aides who were in the class gave a clear picture of what occurred the day of the offence.

“All of the witnesses say the plastic bag was completely placed over the head of the complainant,” Mr Madsen said.

The court heard Regmi had in her defence argued the teen had given her permission to place the bag over his face and stood up during the presentation.

However, Mr Madsen said the teen, who had the intellectual capabilities of a six-year-old and was non-verbal according to evidence given by his mother, could not have implied any form of consent during the interaction with the plastic bag.

“In my view, I think it would not have been reasonable for the defendant to rely upon a non-verbal response of an intellectually impaired person to the demonstration, given she had some knowledge and experience with him,” he said.

The court heard the teacher aides present in the class had alerted the school principal the following day after they had felt the demonstration was “a bad idea”.

“The clear and overwhelming evidence was that in conducting the lesson, the defendant grabbed a plastic bag, placed it completely over the head of the child and then removed it without his consent,” Mr Madsen said.

“In my view, clearly a child like (the victim) should never have been exposed to that demonstration, particularly as he had limited capabilities.

“Clearly as he had an intellectual impairment, clearly he was never reasonably able to give consent.”

Regmi, who remains on bail, will be sentenced on Thursday, September 23.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/sunshine-coast/police-courts/jesslee-ann-regmi-guilty-of-common-assault-after-putting-a-plastic-bag-over-students-head/news-story/636b51850b1028be0f457c31c7174822

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Voluntary assisted dying ["euthanasia"] will become legal in Queensland following a historic and emotional victory in State Parliament

Queensland MPs voted 61-30 to legalised assisted dying on Thursday evening.

From 2023 Queenslanders suffering a terminal illness that is expected to cause death within 12 months will be able to choose when to end their life. 

Clem Jones Trust chairman David Muir said there was an “overwhelming sense of relief” for terminally ill patients and their families. “Terminally ill patients are the centrepiece of this legislation and their families too, this is for their benefit,” he said. 

“For many years polling in the community has shown this legislation and this issue is very popular with around 80 per cent approval.”

Deputy Opposition Leader David Janetzki attempted to amend the Bill, introducing 54 clauses including the provision to expand conscientious objection to include doctors and health practitioners.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/voluntary-assisted-dying-set-to-pass-6130/news-story/fd086c935a32fa66b51c953a67f2f1a4

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Religious schools in Victoria are banned from sacking or refusing to hire staff because they are LGBTQ

New rules will come into effect in Victoria which bans religious schools from discriminating against staff who identify as LGBTQIA+.

The schools will no longer be able to sack staff or refuse to hire someone based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Under current laws, 'faith-based' organisations are allowed to discriminate employees based on their sexuality, gender and marital status due to a gap in legislation. 

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said the state government would now look to close the 'unfair, hurtful' loophole that allows schools to use religion as the basis for its decision.  'People shouldn't have to hide who they are to keep their job,' Ms Symes said in a statement. 

'We're closing this unfair, hurtful gap in our laws so that Victoria's LGBTIQ+ community won't have to pretend to be someone they're not, just to do the job they love.

'These laws strike the right balance between protecting the LGBTIQ+ community from discrimination and supporting the fundamental rights of religious bodies and schools to practice their faith.'

The new legislation means teachers and staff will be protected from getting the sack from religious institutions when disclosing their sexual orientation.  

Foreseeably the move has sparked heated debate amongst the religious community with Lobby group Christian Schools Australia describing the state's proposal as an 'attack on people of faith'.

The group's public policy director Mark Spencer said it would oppose the legislation that he believed could 'change the nature of Christian schools'. 'Why is the Government trying to dictate to a Christian school who it can employ or in what role?' Mr Spencer said.

'The Attorney-General can choose all her staff on the basis of their political beliefs – why can't Christian schools simply choose all their staff on their religious beliefs?'

Ms Symes told The Age under the new reforms any discrimination against potential employees would need to be 'reasonable' and an important part of the job.

'For example, a school couldn't refuse to hire a gay or transgender person because of their identity but might be able to prevent that person being a religious studies teacher because of their religious belief,' she said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9997171/Religious-schools-Victoria-banned-hiring-firing-staff-identify-LGBTQIA.html

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Push to make sexual consent education compulsory in Australian curriculum to stem assaults

Sexual assault survivors and advocates say consent education needs to be compulsory, explicitly about intimate relationships and taught much earlier in all Australian schools.

And with the Australian curriculum undergoing its once-in-a-six-year review, they believe the opportunity for change is now.

In February 2021, then-university student Chanel Contos asked on Instagram, "have you or has anyone close to you ever been sexually assaulted by someone who went to a single sex school in Sydney?"

In the six months since then, her website,  "Teach Us Consent", has received more than 6,000 testimonies and about 43,000 people have signed her Petition For Consent To Be Included In Australian Schools' Sex Education Earlier.

"The majority of signatories are now at university or in their early years of the workforce," Ms Contos said.

"They understand all too well the long-lasting impacts sexual assault has not just on the victim, but on their friends, family and wider community, so they're advocating for younger generations to receive the education that they were either deprived of or received far too late."

On Thursday, Teach Us Consent convened a roundtable, bringing together experts, political leaders and people with lived experience to discuss how respectful relationship, sex and consent education is best embedded in the national curriculum.

Ms Contos said consent needed to be mandated and taught in a way explicit to romantic relationships, at the same time children learnt about the biology of sex, in years 7, 8,9 and 10.

"We can save school-aged kids from experiencing sexual violence by introducing holistic, well-supported sexuality education earlier in the Australian national curriculum," she said.

Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia chief executive Hayley Foster said the ramifications of sexual assault could be lifelong, particularly for the victim.

"Children as young as 10 are getting their sex education from mainstream pornography, the vast majority of which depicts aggressive, non-consensual, violent, and degrading behaviour, and we're not stepping in to provide them with a reality check," Ms Foster said.

"Through our inaction, we're putting young people in harm's way and stealing their futures in the process."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-17/consent-education-australian-curriculum-teach-us-consent/100449910

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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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16 September, 2021

GPs hit out at restrictions on supposed Covid treatment Ivermectin

<i>The general Leftist determination to find fault with Trump has to be factored into any judgment about Ivermectin.  As I read it, the condemnations of it and the devotions to it are both too sweeping.  

On my reading of the research literature, it is in a familiar class of drugs that is useful if taken early in disease onset but useless after that.  So both sides can quote findings that support their position.</i>

The move by Australia's legal drug authority to warn general practitioners against prescribing the drug Ivermectin as a supposed 'Covid treatment' has divided the grass roots medical fraternity.

Last week, the Therapeutic Goods Administration issued new restrictions on the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19 symptoms amid fear it was being handed out by GPs to those using it as an unauthorised treatment for the virus.

The drug, which has traditionally been used to treat lice and scabies in humans, and which also is used to treat conditions in animals, gained popularity as a potential Covid cure after ex-United States President Donald Trump talked it up while in office. 

News of the direction stirred robust debate among doctors commenting under a Royal Australian College of General Practitioners article. 

While some welcomed the decision, many appeared furious that they were being told what was best for their patients. 

'The contempt we are held in by our bureaucracy is palpable,' one GP stated. 

'Once again general practice is considered the lowest common denominator of medicine, and our competence and objectivity to treat our patients appropriately is questioned,' another doctor wrote. 

Some GPs argued it was 'common knowledge' among doctors that vaccination alone was not the only approach to manage pandemics.

'Being vaccinated does not make anyone a superhuman to COVID infection. If our goal is to keep Australian safe from dying, shouldn't we give alternatives to those who for whatever reasons will rather die than take the vaccines,' one doctor wrote. 

'India saved their nation with Ivermectin. Do we want people to die in their homes in the name of promoting vaccination? GPs should stand up for choice.' 

GPs are now only able to prescribe ivermectin for TGA-approved indications, such as scabies and certain parasitic infections.

The changes mean only specific specialists , including infectious disease physicians, dermatologists, gastroenterologists and hepatologists, will be permitted to prescribe the drug for other 'unapproved indications' if they believe it appropriate.

'These changes have been introduced because of concerns with the prescribing of oral ivermectin for the claimed prevention or treatment of COVID-19,' the TGA told doctors.

'Ivermectin is not approved for use in COVID-19 in Australia or in other developed countries, and its use by the general public for COVID-19 is currently strongly discouraged by the National COVID Clinical Evidence Taskforce, the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration.'

'I am neither for or against Ivermectin at this stage,' one GP commented.

'WHO had given contradictory statements on Covid inflection right from the start. For example, no human to human transmission.'

Some GPs claimed they had been bullied by anti-vaxxers desperate for access to the drug to treat Covid.  

'I have been approached by an aggressive family twice and I obliged once which was so hard next time that I needed to call police to get rid of that patient - frustrating indeed,' a GP stated.  

It is understood the drug's promotion by anti-vaxxers has led to a dramatic increase in its uptake by the large sections of the community. 

The drug has been used as an authorised treatment for Covid-19 in some eastern European, South American and Central American nations, and was used in India to during the outbreak of the Delta strain, but is not recommended by the WHO. 

It came back into the headlines this month when prominent podcaster Joe Rogan said he used the drug and others to treat his Covid infection and rapidly recovered, with some attacking his promotion of unauthorised treatments. 

A quick look on social media reveals the drug is widely promoted in anti-vaccination circles as an alternative to the jab. 

'There has been a 3-4-fold increased dispensing of ivermectin prescriptions in recent months leading to national and local shortages for those who need the medicine for scabies and parasite infections,' GPs were warned.

The health watchdog has warned improper use of the drug can be associated with serious adverse effects, including severe nausea, vomiting, dizziness and neurological effects such as dizziness, seizures and coma. 

Although some GPs remain skeptical of the TGA advice.  

'Ivermectin is wrongly painted as a dangerous drug and a "serious overdose reaction" of diarhoea is mentioned. This is laughable,' one GP wrote.

'Many patients taking all sorts of medications are experiencing diarhoea and a S/E. Should we remove all these meds from GP's hands then?' 

Former Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who in August assumed the leadership of Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, has repeatedly said drugs such as ivermectin and the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine - another unproven treatment - should be used to treat Covid.

'I'm not saying take the drug. I'm not saying the drug works, but I'm saying the doctor should be free to sit down with their patient and make a decision,' he previously told SBS.

Last month, the equivalent to the TGA - the US FDA - put out a tweet urging people not to take ivermectin, amid a surge of calls to poison centers nationwide. 'You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it,' the agency wrote. 

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/gps-hit-out-at-restrictions-on-supposed-covid-treatment-ivermectin/ar-AAOsAya?ocid=chromentpnews

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Australia to make history by building a nuclear submarine fleet with the help of a new alliance with the US and Britain to counter the worrying rise of China in the Pacific

<i>This is great news.  That French deal was a stinker.  It was another Malcolm Turnbull brainfart</i>

Australia will build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet in a major new alliance with the US and Britain to counter the worrying rise of China in the Pacific.  

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday morning unveiled Australia's role in a landmark tripartite security group, known as 'AUUKUS', to switch to nuclear-powered submarines with help from its two of its biggest allies.

The landmark defence pact was announced in a historic joint press conference with US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

The deal will mean Australia will walk away from its controversial deal to spend up to $90 billion buying French diesel-powered submarines.

This is the first time Australia has ever embraced nuclear power after decades of debate - and the first time the U.S. and UK have shared their nuclear submarine technology with another nation.  

Mr Morrison said though Australia has no plans to acquire nuclear weapons or build its own nuclear power capabilities.

Australia has at least 40 per cent of the world's uranium supplies and new submarine deal could pave the way for the country to embrace nuclear power to drastically reduce carbon emissions  

 The move towards a nuclear Australia has been described as 'China's Worst Nightmare' in a strategic bid to counter its influence in the region - especially in the South China Sea. 

Thursday's announcement comes just days before Mr Morrison travels to Washington DC for the first in-person summit of the four 'Quad' nations - Australia, US, Japan and India.

Australia's relationship with China has become increasingly hostile ever since Mr Morrison demanded an inquiry into the origins of the Covid pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019. 

Arbitrary bans and trade tariffs were imposed on billions of dollars worth of key Australian exports to China including barley, wine, beef, cotton, seafood, coal, cobber and timber. 

Australia is now set to follow its allies the US and UK, who both use nuclear technology, with speculation it would tear up the submarine deal with France. 

Senior Australian ministers were involved in a flurry of late-night meetings on the top-secret shipbuilding program on Wednesday, with Anthony Albanese and other senior Labor MPs briefed on the matter. 

The Prime Minister reportedly held concerns French-owned shipbuilder Naval Group would be unable to deliver submarines until 2030 with deadline and price disputes.

Mr Morrison reportedly tried to speak with the French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday regarding the new deal. 

News of Australia's decision was instead reportedly disclosed to Paris by the secretary of the Defence Department, Greg Moriarty, the ABC reported.

The Australian Naval Institute has repeatedly criticised the troubled French submarine project while welcoming the use of nuclear technology. 

'With regional tensions increasing, then building our own one-off type submarines which will arrive in the early 2030s is not good enough. We have no guarantee they will work,' the article stated. 

'When we built the Collins class submarines (at exorbitant expense) they did not work properly for several years.

'Instead we should buy 12 of a proven design which is already in the water. We want long-range hunter-killer vessels. We also want them to be able to stay submerged for long periods to avoid detection. Nuclear does this in spades.' 

It is speculated the US had planned to operate some of its nuclear submarines from Perth's naval base HMAS Stirling. 

The UK, which also uses nuclear technology, is expected to support Australia with the move in the three-nation security pact. 

Sources say plan is a move to counter China's rise in the technology and military sectors. 

It is one of a string of initiatives designed to demonstrate Washington's global role after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Biden will next week host his first in-person summit of leaders of the Quad nations — made up of Australia, India, Japan and the United States — which have been coordinating against China's growing reach.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9995135/Australia-build-nuclear-submarines-alliance-Britain-counter-rise-China.html

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Neat.  The person representing Britain in negotiations with Australia is an Australian

Britain’s Foreign Secretary has been demoted over his handling of the Afghanistan evacuation crisis and replaced in the prestigious post by one of Australia’s top allies.

Dominic Raab, who remained on holiday in the Greek islands as the Taliban swept into Kabul, was the biggest casualty of a cabinet reshuffle Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes will reset his flagging government.

Raab will be replaced as the third most senior minister by Liz Truss, whose post-Brexit work as International Trade Secretary has seen her popularity surge with Tory voters to the extent she is now seen as a potential future alternative to Johnson.

Truss was in charge of negotiating a new free trade agreement between Australia and the United Kingdom and stared down a push by protectionist forces within her party to water down the agreement.

She has a close personal friendship with Australia’s High Commissioner to Australia, George Brandis, and a good working relationship with former trade minister Simon Birmingham and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Brandis said Truss took on the role as the two nations deepened co-operation on the economy and security.

“Liz is a champion for the values we cherish, and Australia is delighted to see her take on this critical role at an important moment in our bilateral relationship,” he said.

“She has been a great friend of Australia during our free trade agreement negotiations. We warmly congratulate her on her new appointment.”

Raab was demoted to the more junior Justice Secretary post during Wednesday’s reshuffle but was also named Deputy Prime Minister in a bid to save face. The Deputy Prime Minister title is rarely used in Britain and confers the holder no real constitutional powers.

Only four other people have ever been formally appointed Deputy Prime Minister: Geoffrey Howe, Michael Heseltine, John Prescott and Nick Clegg.

Johnson had faced calls to sack Raab after he went on holiday in Crete as the Taliban advanced on Kabul but initially stood by him.

Raab denied the holiday interfered with the evacuation of Afghans, British citizens and interpreters.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/uk-foreign-secretary-demoted-over-afghanistan-evacuation-top-australian-ally-promoted-20210916-p58s03.html

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Qld mine to produce 'new economy' element

<i>Julia Creek is well and truly in the outback so Greenies are unlikely to find anything "endangered" there</i>

An element used in the manufacture of large-scale renewable batteries that can be "charged thousands of times without degrading" will be mined in remote Queensland for the first time.

Vanadium is used in high strength, low alloy steel and is emerging as a "critical battery storage commodity" for its use in large-scale electricity grids. 

Saint Elmo is the first mine approved in what the Queensland government describes as a "potential vanadium hub" in the far northwest, with several companies investigating the area.

In giving the project the green light, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk described vanadium as a "new economy mineral" that is also important in the manufacture of specialty steel.

She said the $250 million Saint Elmo mine near Julia Creek was the "first cab off the rank" for a new era in Queensland resources.

"This also lays the foundation for a potential next level new industry in Queensland manufacturing vanadium redox flow batteries," Ms Palaszczuk said in a statement on Wednesday.

First production from the mine is expected in late 2023 with an initial output of up to 5000 tonnes of vanadium pentoxide per year predicted.

Queensland exploration and mining company Multicom, which owns the mine, has forecast production to increase to 20,000 tonnes annually as the project expands.

Ore processing will occur on site with product to be shipped from the Port of Townsville, chief executive officer Shaun McCarthy said.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/qld-mine-to-produce-new-economy-element/ar-AAOrQyg?ocid=chromentpnews

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Also see my other blogs.  Main ones below:

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

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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15 September, 2021

Students being told to 'deconstruct' Australian flag

The IPA's Bella D’Abrera says students being told to ‘deconstruct’ the Australian flag is part of a “wider problem in our society” where there is a minority of people who seem to “hate” Australia.

It comes as state and federal education ministers in Australia have slammed lessons put together by a third party and promoted by the NSW Education Department.

Students are asked to examine the Australian flag in part of a project to ‘deconstruct’ symbols of Australia.

"Unfortunately, these are the people who are writing the school curriculum, these are the people who are unelected bureaucrats sitting in the Department of Education in New South Wales," Ms D'Abrera told Sky News host Chris Kenny.

“It’s divisive, it’s critical race theory...it’s everything that they shouldn’t be taught.”

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/students-being-told-to-deconstruct-australian-flag-is-divisive/ar-AAOq9Qt?li=AAgfYrC

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Electric cars still expensive to run

<i>Despite no gasoline costs</i>

The running costs for an electric vehicle have dropped more than $10,000 a year in the past five years, according to the RACQ.

The Queensland motoring group has included six electric vehicles during its annual review of the monthly and annual running costs of 81 different vehicles.

The survey measures all monthly expenses associated with normal private car ownership including loan repayments, fuel, tyres, servicing, insurance and government charges.

The survey finds the running costs of the most affordable electric vehicle on Queensland roads - MG’s ZS - is now $10,000 less than operating costs of the most affordable electric car five years ago.

Six electric vehicles were examined in the RACQ’s running costs survey, with the cheapest electric car costing $44,000 on-road, and the most expensive model $65,000.

RACQ spokeswoman Lauren Ritchie said electric vehicles were significantly more affordable but were more expensive than an average petrol car.

“The MG ZS is the cheapest EV on the market in Queensland and will set a buyer back $1086 per month to own and run,” Ms Ritchie said.

The RACQ’s on-road costs include loan repayments.

“Other EV models available include the Hyundai Ioniq Elite EV which costs $1207 per month, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV at $1263 per month and the Nissan Leaf $1306 per month,” she said.

The average monthly running costs of all small cars in 2021 is $713, small SUVs $889; all medium-sized cars $1149; people movers $1336; electric car $1247; medium SUVs $1175; large SUVs $1388 and all-terrain vehicles $1599.

An equivalent petrol-run car is still on average $195 a month cheaper than an electric car, Ms Ritchie said.

“But with more models coming onto market and more EV charging infrastructure being rolled out in Queensland, now might be the right time to consider switching,” Ms Ritchie said.

She said the range of hybrid and full electric vehicles had surprised the RACQ’s on-road cost assessment teams.

She encouraged drivers considering an electric vehicle to explore the widening range of vehicles being offered.

“Drivers who are keen to transition to lower emissions transport but are concerned about range can also consider a plug-in hybrid or hybrid option,” she said.

“For example a $30,000 Toyota Corolla Ascent Sport Hybrid costs $821per month.”

The most affordable petrol-powered car in the survey is the MG3 Core, which costs $607 to run each month.

The most expensive car to run is the Nissan Y62 Patrol Ti at $2220 a month.

“The costs associated with owning and running a car really do add up for whichever vehicle you choose,” Mr Ritchie said.

“Drivers should do their homework and really weigh up just where they want to spend their money.”

The RACQ running-costs survey is based on driving 15,000 kilometres a year, with the full cost of the vehicle paid out over a five-year loan.

The cost of petrol used in the 2021 survey was 131.90 cents a litre for unleaded petrol, 146.40 cents per litre for premium petrol; 127.30 cents per litre for diesel engines.

Costs for electric vehicles were calculated using an average domestic electricity tariff of 23.93 cents per kilowatt hour.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/electric-car-costs-could-spark-motorists-to-throw-the-switch-racq-20210909-p58q5a.html

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Farmers get nod to clear land for bushfire protection. Greenies howl

Environmental groups say a new code allowing land clearing 25 metres out from fences will do little to aid protection against bushfires in NSW but could have devastating impacts on wildlife.

The state government over the weekend released its long-awaited code for landholders "to reduce the potential for the spread" of fires from or into properties. "This should be undertaken with consideration of environmental impacts," the code states.

The 25-metre distance on either side of the fence, though, was not among the 76 specific recommendations of the state's bushfire inquiry after the 2019-20 fires.

Instead, the review called for a simplification of the vegetation clearing policies to ensure they were "clear and easy to navigate for the community, and that they enable appropriate bush fire risk management by individual landowners without undue cost or complexity".

Independent upper house MP Justin Field said the 25-metre measure "was totally plucked from the air" without scientific basis.

"These rules will be a disaster for regional communities," Mr Field said. "We're going to see vegetation bulldozed, chopped down, piled up and likely burnt across the state as a result of this decision with almost no regard to the environmental impact.

"This is going to pit neighbour against neighbour and will create massive fragmentation of bushland, leading to a further drying out of the landscape that may increase bushfire risks."

Proponents for the clearing had sought even wider clearing and for them to be applied to national parks before the cabinet compromised on the 25-metre zone that avoided the national park estate, according to one official who asked for anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.

An uproar from some local councils, though, led to the Sydney metropolitan region being excluded from the clearing code. Areas close to rivers and other sensitive regions including core koala habitat are also excluded.

"There was quite a lot of thought that went into that [25-metre] distance," Kyle Stewart, an RFS Deputy Commissioner, said, adding it provided "an operational distance" that balanced firefighting effectiveness and other factors such as conservation.

The RFS would work with partner state agencies to help enforce the code's provisions, he said.

Martin Tebbutt, a resident near the Blue Mountains town of Bilpin, said Mr Elliott had "done a snow job" because nothing had changed for his land as it was within the Greater Sydney region.

"We won't be able to protect ourselves along our boundary," Mr Tebbutt said, adding that even 10 metres from the fence line would have been sufficient. Getting approval through the Hawkesbury Council for any clearing would continue to be "quite onerous", he said.

Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said councils within the Sydney Metropolitan areas "would be given the opportunity to opt-in to ensure the Code is applicable to any pockets of rural zoned land within their Local Government Area".

"The onus is on the landowner to ensure that they comply with the applicable regulations," he said.

The Herald also sought comment from Environment Minister Matt Kean and Planning Minister Rob Stokes.

Chris Gambian, head of the Nature Conservation Council, said thousands of hectares of wildlife habitat would be destroyed without requiring an independent assessment of the environmental impacts.

"Neither the NSW Bushfire Inquiry nor the royal commission recommend land clearing on property boundaries as a valid response to the Black Summer fires, but politicians in the government think they know better," Mr Gambian said.

"If these codes stand, it will be a black mark on the record of Matt Kean, who in many respects has been a good minister for the environment."

According to the self-assessed clearing, "it is the responsibility of the owner of the land to maintain a copy of the Rural Boundary Clearing online tool search results from the day that the clearing is undertaken. Landowners are required to provide evidence of the online search tool results in the circumstance that a relevant regulatory authority seeks such evidence".

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/sydney/black-mark-farmers-get-nod-to-clear-land-for-bushfire-protection/ar-AAOne60?ocid=chromentpnews

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Australia plugs for a land carbon sink

Endorsed by the Australian government in a widely unnoticed dot-point in May’s federal Budget and even given faint praise in modest mentions by the IPCC itself, a campaign to enhance the significant capacity of the soil to act as a carbon sink has a particular relevance to Australia.

Although there may be scope for some reservations about the entirety of claims by Mulloon Institute chair (and my former political colleague and friend) Gary Nairn that ‘it is possible to absorb the world’s annual anthropogenic emissions in our soils’, there is no doubt about the science that soil plays a role (understated in the latest catastrophe-oriented IPCC report) in reducing the impact of climate change through the natural cycle of soil carbon sequestration – and in particular by the land rehydration techniques employed by Mulloon in the NSW Southern Tablelands in conjunction with the government’s National Landcare Program and as part of the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Critical of IPCC’s reliance on cutting emissions as the only recommended way to deal with climate change, Nairn points to other, simpler solutions: ‘soil contains two to three times more carbon than the atmosphere…. The long-term removal, capture or sequestration in soil of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helps slow or reverses atmospheric CO2 pollution’. With the IPCC forecasting a future of less rain overall but more intensive events, risking flooding and erosion, Nairn’s view that ‘the least expensive and most practical action that will quickly get results, including a return on investment, is fixing and rehydrating our degraded landscapes’, has the backing of Prime Minister Morrison. When Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced the May budget’s $37 million funding of National Soil Innovation (included in the budget’s $233 million towards improving farming productivity, profitability and participation in the Emissions Reduction Fund), Taylor said the fund would support the development of technologies to reduce the measurement costs involved in ‘unlocking the untapped potential of our soils in line with our approach to reducing emissions by innovation not elimination’.

This cause was taken up earlier this year by the Menzies Research Centre’s James Mathias in the Daily Telegraph with the claim that ‘Increasing soil organic carbon is the single most useful step we can take to remove excessive carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. By improving the way we farm, agriculture can become a net consumer of atmospheric carbon. Since Australian farming soils in aggregate are low by world standards, the potential to absorb carbon and turn it into productive use is huge. The benefits of soil carbon, however, go further than sequestration. Even without the imperative to restore the carbon balance, richer soils are more productive and require fewer inputs.

Australia is not alone in looking to better ways of dealing with CO2. In the US, the ultra-green Union of Concerned Scientists last month described the management of soil carbon as ‘an important tool in battling the climate crisis. By adopting healthy soil practices that keep carbon in soil and sequester carbon for the long term, farmers can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation. Such practices can boost resilience to increasingly extreme droughts and floods, reduce air and water pollution, and help farmers and their communities to thrive’.

While still focussing overwhelmingly on the negative impact on the land (floods, fire and famine) of its forecast human-emissions-caused global warming than on the positive prospects of land-use changes to assist the removal of greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, the IPCC has nevertheless become more aware of the potential of land carbon sinks – and acknowledges that biological methods of increasing land carbon storage also enhance primary productivity. But in the IPCC’s current ‘Advice to Policymakers’ there are no policy proposals, no urgent campaign to turn land sinks into a positive weapon, even though it accepts that there is a potential to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and durably store it in reservoirs. It projects that higher CO2 emissions will result in natural land carbon sinks taking up, in absolute terms, progressively larger amounts of CO2. However, the share of emissions absorbed by land is projected to decline with increasing cumulative CO2 emissions, resulting in a higher proportion of emitted CO2 remaining in the atmosphere.

The IPCC reckons that two-thirds of the estimated carbon lost from the soil as a result of human agriculture over 12,000 years is recoverable with best management practices. ‘These may be applied to the restoration of marginal or degraded land but may also be used in traditional agricultural lands’. But while restoration of degraded forests and non-forest ecosystems can play a large role in carbon sequestration, the IPCC warns against afforestation of native grasslands, savannas, and open-canopy woodlands that lead to the undesirable loss of unique natural ecosystems with rich  biodiversity, carbon storage and other ecosystem benefits. All this endorses much of the Mulloon approach, with its rehydration focus being reinforced by the IPCC’s satellite observation that links lower global-scale terrestrial water storage with a lower global net land CO2 sink.

But there remains a gap between many of the IPCC’s conclusions and hard evidence to support them. As the American Enterprise Institute conservative think-tank opined last month, ‘it is important to recognise that the assumption of many politicians, environmental groups, and no small number of scientist-activists — that humans are the single most significant cause of climate change — is simply unsupported by the available science….Public discussion of the climate crisis consistently ignores the very real possibility that the small amount of warming that will likely occur might yield noteworthy benefits….[such as] a substantial (CO2-induced) greening of the earth over the past 35 years. Though there will likely be some negative consequences of a warming planet, there will likely be positive effects as well’. 

So why no public IPCC campaign for world leaders to prioritise land carbon sinks, with their immediate and diverse benefits, as a less economically-destructive alternative? The suspicion is that the catastrophists at the IPCC won’t abide anything that reduces the alleged urgency of their emissions reduction mantra. As the AEI says, ‘Instead of merely dismissing the faux science that lends support to climate alarmism as a “hoax,” conservatives must do more to engage with and reclaim the growing body of scientific evidence that supports their climate-change realism’.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2021/09/business-robbery-etc-76/

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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 September, 2021

‘It’s a risky time for Labor’: Chris Kenny

<i>Losing Fitzgibbon is sad.  He was the last of the old-time Laborites who actually cared about the worker instead of transexuals and the rest of that fruity crew.  The Labor party no longer represents the worker and the workers are noticing.

Much has been said about the backroom deal in favour of Kristina Keneally.  As a former Premier she should have broad appeal but Western Sydney might not be included in that if it is still largely working class instead of ethnic.  As S.M. Lipset noted in the '60s, the workers are "ethnocentic" and  may not like having an American representing them.  America is not popular with a lot of ethnics either</i>

“There’s a fair bit happening around the Labor Party at the moment, and it might not be doing them much good,” he said.

“They’ve been doing okay in the polls, but they wouldn’t want to get too far ahead of themselves.”

It comes as Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon has announced his retirement from politics at the next federal election.

Mr Kenny said Fitzgibbon “will be missed because he’s been a voice of reason”.

“Anyway, the other sign of hubris is something I mentioned last week, and that is the factional move to parachute Kristina Keneally into the safe seat of Fowler in Western Sydney,” he said.

“She’s doing it, apparently not for her own advantage, but to help the people of the Western suburbs.”

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/its-a-risky-time-for-labor-chris-kenny/ar-AAOntSH?ocid=chromentpnews

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Australia's farmers on track for record-breaking season easily surpassing $70bn worth of produce

<i>Where's that food shortage Greenies are always predicting?  Agricultural output is trending up, not down</i>

It is official. Australian farmers are having a record-breaking good time.

Government economists at the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) now expect the agriculture industry will grow a whopping $73 billion worth of produce this financial year.

If realised, it will be the first time farmers have broken through the $70 billion barrier, up from $66.3 billion in 2020-21 and $59.6 billion in drought-ravaged 2017-18.

Good weather across most of the country, combined with drought in Russia, Canada, and the United States, will boost returns for grain growers now expected to export $30 billion of winter crop — an increase of 17 per cent.

ABARES says sugar, cotton, and grain growers are on track to reel in almost $40 billion in 2021-22.

An almost insatiable hunger for protein, a return to good seasons, and herd rebuilding is expected to keep livestock prices near record highs, with the value of the red meat sector forecast to jump by 8 per cent this year to $33.5 billion.

The value of Aussie-grown fruit and vegetables is also expected to hit a record, hauling in more than $12 billion at the farm gate.

ABARES expects a global economic recovery to keep wool prices strong and the high cost of livestock feed in China to drive up demand for Australian dairy products.

"The forecast for next year is due to a combination of factors, all tumbling neatly into place," said ABARES executive director Jared Greenville.

"While there are risks related to mice, labour availability, and continued uncertainties due to COVID-19, we are expecting national production to remain robust."

The value of Australia's food and fibre exports is also expected to be a record, jumping by 12 per cent to $54.7 billion for 2021-22.

The latest commodity forecast, released by ABARES today, shows the value of Australia's farm production revised up by 12 per cent, or $8 billion, considered the largest revision made in a single quarter for 21 years.

Not all smooth sailing

ABARES has identified Australia's international trade relationships, access to farm workers, high international freight costs, and pests — in particular the mouse plague — as potential disrupters to the farm sector's good fortunes.

Distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine was also a concern.

"The speed of COVID-19 vaccine distribution is the key downside risk, especially in emerging and developing economies," today's report said.

"Continued outbreaks increase the risk of further virus variants which could be more resistant to vaccines, more infectious, or more likely to cause death or serious illness.

"This would slow the recovery in travel and discretionary spending, and lead to reduced prices for agricultural products."

The report did not discuss Australia's domestic vaccine rollout.

It said the loss of Australia's most valuable market, China, for wine and barley due to political tensions was still having an effect on returns.

"While agricultural exporters are proving adept at diversifying into new markets or taking advantages of changes in trade flows, this does come with transition costs and lower prices as has been seen for barley," Dr Greenville said.

He estimated the price of Australian barley had dropped by as much as 20 per cent since China introduced tariffs in May 2020.

According to ABARES, the value of wine exports will fall an extra 12 per cent in 2021-22 also due to tariffs imposed by China.

It said the labour shortage, exacerbated by COVID border restrictions, contributed to about a 5 per cent jump in the retail price of fruit and vegetables last year.

ABARES expects retail prices for fruit and vegetables will be similar again this year.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/australias-farmers-on-track-for-record-breaking-season-easily-surpassing-dollar70bn-worth-of-produce/ar-AAOp1rx?ocid=chromentpnews

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Australia now the biggest gold producer

<i>What happened to South Africa?  Black rule, I guess</i>

Australia has become the biggest gold producer in the world, overtaking China for the first time.

It's great news for gold miner Red 5 which is ramping up efforts to begin production at its King of the Hill mine in Western Australia's Goldfields.

"We started constructing in October 2020 and we're on track for the first gold in about seven or eight months time, in the June quarter of 2022," Red 5 managing director Mark Williams says.

The miner is turning the switch back on at the open cut and underground gold mine it bought four years ago.

The timing is pretty good too, with spot gold prices hovering at about $US1,800 an ounce.

"We've been able to essentially beat the rush with the escalation in the pricing," Mr Williams tells The Business.

How did we top China?

China has been the world's biggest gold producer since 2007, with Australia the second largest producer for about a decade.

Gold analysts Surbiton Associates report China produced 153 tonnes of gold in the first half of this calendar year.

Australian gold miners produced 157 tonnes.

"That's the first time that's happened," Surbiton Associates director Sandra Close says.

But, she adds, it wasn't an increase in Australian production that led to the switch.

"The Chinese, I believe, have had some problems in the mines with some safety problems, some personnel being killed, so at the moment some of the mines are being investigated.

"We shall have to see what happens to gold production in the next six months, both in Australia and in China."

Australian gold production is rising

The last two years have been the best on record for Australian gold producers.

In the 2019/20 financial year 328 tonnes of gold was retrieved from beneath Australian soil — the most ever in a year.

Last financial year was the second best year, yielding 321 tonnes.

"We do have a larger number of smaller mines compared to some of the other gold mining countries such as, say, the US," explains Dr Close.

"That gives us a little more flexibility sometimes."

IBISWorld research predicts the $26 billion sector will see revenue rise 11.6 per cent this year "due to continued uncertainty about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy".

It says the growth is also due to an anticipated surge in industry output and higher gold prices.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data reveals investment in gold exploration rose more than any other commodity in the June quarter, up 19.3 per cent to $429.8 million.

Why does the gold price go up when everything else goes down?

Gold is known as a safe haven asset.

Generally the price of gold increases when there's political and economic instability.

"Gold is the one safe haven asset that everybody flocks to in times of difficulty, in times of turmoil and trouble," says The Perth Mint's chief executive Richard Hayes.

"Given where the world is today with COVID and the terrible problems that we've seen around the world, the demand for both gold and silver has gone through the roof."

But it's not always a straight line.

The gold price fell when the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold around the world.

"The initial reaction was quite negative — we actually saw in March 2020 gold prices fall roughly about 11 per cent and that was a reflection of a flight to safety and the market running towards the US dollar," explains Commonwealth Bank director of mining and energy commodities research Vivek Dhar.

Six months later, gold peaked at a new high.

"We have certainly seen a lot of volatility because up until August last year we actually saw gold track higher to lift above $US2,000 an ounce," he says

It's now come back down and is worth about $US1,800 an ounce.

"But it's held at the $US1,800 mark rather than the sort of $US1,200, $US1,300, $US1,400 mark that it was holding at pre-COVID," Mr Hayes adds.

"So certainly that's up by 20 to 25 per cent on where it was two years ago."

What about digital currencies like bitcoin?

Some argue digital currencies are giving gold a run for its money as the ultimate store of wealth.

But the extreme volatility of the likes of bitcoin and ethereum, where the price can move more than 10 per cent in a single day, has others arguing it's too risky.

"Bitcoin or ethereum coin exists in cyberspace. At the end of the day, it's simply an entry in an electronic ledger," argues Mr Hayes.

"If you look through history at commodities, where they have shot from relative obscurity to prominence, like South Sea pearls or the tulips out of Amsterdam, they all went through the same cycle that we're seeing now with cryptocurrencies — they went up spectacularly in value and fell just as quickly."

What else drives the gold price?

The biggest factor affecting the gold price right now is the US Federal Reserve and a weaker US dollar.

While the Reserve Bank of Australia is continuing with its tapering of bond buying, the US central bank is yet to move.

"A delay to tapering is likely to provide less support for the US dollar than otherwise and that should be positive for gold," Mr Dhar explains.

"While the inverse relationship between gold and the US dollar has deviated significantly in the past, in recent months movements in the US dollar have provided a reliable steer of gold price movements."

Which means we could see the gold price, and its contribution to our economy, rise again.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/australia-in-the-gold-medal-position-for-producing-the-precious-metal-knocking-china-from-top-spot/ar-AAOejGI

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AGL faces investor climate push ahead of coal demerger

AGL, the nation’s heaviest greenhouse gas emitter, is set to face pressure from shareholders to commit to stronger decarbonisation targets and detail how its demerged businesses will match their spending plans with the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

As investors prepare to cast their votes ahead of AGL’s annual general meeting, prominent proxy advisor Institutional Shareholder Services has recommended backing an activist-led push for stronger climate action because it would allow shareholders to make an informed decision about the looming demerger.

“Additional disclosure is needed regarding the expected assumptions on future power prices and maintenance and fuel cost and demand for fossil fuel power generation,” said the firm, which advises large investors on how to vote on board appointments, executive pay and other corporate matters.

AGL last month reported a $2.06 billion full-year loss, largely driven by the continued influx of new wind and solar power driving down wholesale power prices across to levels where coal is increasingly unable to compete, and warned of further profit pain to come.

Responding to the pressures of the clean-energy transition, AGL is proposing to split itself into two companies: AGL Australia, to hold its power, gas and telecommunications retailing divisions as well as some cleaner generation assets; and Accel Energy, which will own its carbon-heavy coal and gas-fired power stations.

Oil and gas sector ‘losing appeal’ even as prices recover

The motion to be heard at AGL’s investor meeting on September 22 was prepared by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), a shareholder activist group, and calls for the company to set out “short, medium and long-term” targets for the direct and indirect carbon emissions of both the demerged entities.

“AGL saw a 34 per cent decline in net profit after tax in financial year 2021,” ACCR climate director Dan Gocher said. “But these losses will pale in comparison to what lies ahead if AGL continues to do nothing.”

With its fleet of power plants across the country, AGL is Australia’s top carbon emitter, accounting for 8 per cent of national emissions. Like heavy polluters worldwide, it has faced a rising tide of pressure from activists and increasingly climate-conscious major investors to improve its carbon credentials and, in particular, reduce reliance on thermal coal.

AGL is preparing to shut down its Liddell coal generator in NSW next year but is not scheduled to close the neighbouring Bayswater plant until 2035. Its newest coal plant, Loy Yang A in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, is licensed to run for another 27 years until 2048.

AGL has urged investors to vote down the ACCR’s resolution, saying the targets it calls for would require the accelerated closure of AGL’s coal-fired power stations before adequate replacement capacity being developed and would jeopardise the supply of reliable and affordable electricity to customers.

“AGL understands the critical importance of decarbonisation of the electricity sector and the acceleration of the energy transition,” the company said. “However, AGL does not consider it is in the best interests of Accel Energy or AGL Australia to make the commitments set out in this resolution at this time.”

A company spokeswoman said that AGL, for more than a decade, had been investing in renewable and flexible generation as part of its pathway to decarbonisation and was committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Our proposed demerger will position both organisations to continue to deliver and build on that commitment,” she said.

AGL splits off coal power stations as green shift accelerates

“As part of the proposed demerger, AGL Energy will set separate climate commitments for Accel Energy and AGL Australia, enabling each business to focus on their respective strategic opportunities and challenges presented by the accelerating energy transition.”

Last year, more than 20 per cent of AGL’s investors supported a motion filed by the ACCR calling for the company to bring forward its coal exit plans.

AGL has pledged that both demerged companies would put their climate reporting to a non-binding advisory shareholder vote at their first annual general meetings.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/companies/agl-faces-investor-climate-push-ahead-of-coal-demerger-20210907-p58pot.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 September, 2021

‘Woke Left is destroying Labor’: Political legend unloads on his own party

An ALP stalwart has sensationally claimed Labor’s Left are obsessed with climate change, identity politics and cancel culture.

It’s a hot and sticky Sunday afternoon in Dimbulah in the early 1950s and a young Keith De Lacy leaves his family’s tobacco field with his father, Ernie, a former cane cutter and the local president of the Communist Party.

Keith had a far-from-privileged upbringing, as the second eldest of four children for Irene and Ernie, who did it tough during the Great Depression but who instil in their children an appreciation of education, a collectivist mindset and appreciation of hard work.

Now 81, Keith De Lacy lives in an apartment overlooking the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. It’s a stone’s throw from state parliament, where he spent his best working years as one of Queensland’s most-respected treasurers during the Goss government, from 1989 to 1996.

His father and those hardworking, solid “red raggers’’ of his childhood are ultimately the reason he joined the Labor Party in 1970.

De Lacy’s faith in Labor was born out of those early days when workers gravitated to the party to protect themselves from opportunistic employers.

But now, he laments, it is a far cry from today’s Labor Party, which he says has lost its moral and ethical compass.

The Labor Party, De Lacy believes, faces an existential crisis that could ultimately lead to its political extinction.

De Lacy has outlined his crisis of faith in the party in a wide-ranging new memoir, A Philosophical Journey, in which he eviscerates the Labor Left’s obsession with climate change, identity politics and cancel culture, and its love affair with the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements.

He pulls no punches.

He says the Rudd government accelerated the electoral carnage as the Labor Party threw its lot in with the elites, when Labor’s reason for existing over many decades was to fight them.

The so-called progressives, De Lacy says, “have nothing  more  than  a  patronising,  sneering contempt  for  working  class  people  and their culture’’.

He accuses the “woke’’ brigade within the Left faction of Labor of alienating average Australians. “Certainly in terms of philosophy, the woke Left of the Labor Party is destroying itself through overreach … simply by overdoing it,’’ De Lacy says.

He writes of a “massive cultural evolution’’ over the past few decades, underscored by a mindset highly critical of the society in which we live, which “sees only the bad and ignores the good’’.

“It is supported by a range of ideological carcinomas, some newly minted, and others given a new lease of life in a grand postmodern reinvention,’’ he says.

“They are killing themselves. Most Australians are not in the front line of politics, yet they have a reasonable and sensible view of the world.

“Yet the Left are telling them that ‘you are a racist’ and your sons and grandsons are sexual monsters.

“They just won’t cop that, and nor should they. My point is that our society is suffering from a disease called ‘overreach’.”

In his book, De Lacy refers to film producer Harvey Weinstein, who was outed as a sexual predator and “millions of women with an agenda jumped on board, and sexual harassment became the cry’’.

“The Me Too movement exploded out of the blocks. But it burst into overreach within the blink of an eye,’’ he writes.

“Many men were tried in the media and the court of public opinion with no presumption of innocence. “Inevitably it became a political tool.’’

De Lacy says the Me Too movement is in danger of losing the support of the mainstream.

“There are many women out there who have sons and husbands and vex how these loved ones are going to negotiate the rocky shoals of the Me Too tsunami, the new rules of engagement,’’ he says. “Men are being turned off, especially the notion that all men are rapists.

“Many male executives are now reluctant to relate one-on-one with females to offer comfort and support, whether working, travelling or mentoring.

“The worst outcome is that it turns it into a woman versus man contest (and) serial predators use it as a cover.’’

De Lacy says the Black Lives Matter movement suffers from the same disease, stoking the fires of racism to overcome racism.

“Hysterical activists are the greatest dead weight an otherwise noble cause can have,’’ he says. De Lacy says protesters turned off Mr and Mrs Average, and the proof was in the 19-year term of Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen as premier.

“Sir Joh, a superficially mediocre leader, served more than seven terms, ably assisted by well-meaning opponents who became intoxicated by a cause, to their own detriment,’’ he writes.

“I hate to say it, but the reconciliation overtures of Indigenous Australians are in my view now in danger of being killed by the self-defeating exuberance of the Black Lives Matter protests who unfairly stain the motives of all Australians, to the extent that the potential referendum looks to be a dead duck, killed by friendly fire.

“The Australian philosophy is to live and let live, which can manifest itself as, I have nothing against it, but if you try to shove it down my neck, you can go jump.’’

In his book, De Lacy talks of Karl Marx, the true father of identity politics, who did not believe in individualism, but that people were members of a class.

“The Labor Party was therefore a logical manifestation of group identity, representing the working class,’’ he says.

He says the Labor Party formed to pursue workers’ rights democratically, yet “it seems okay these days for trade unions to break what they term unjust laws, or for groups to ignore democratic verdicts and glue themselves to a public road”.

De Lacy says women enjoy a vital and expanding role within society, however, he says you wouldn’t know this if you listened to so-called progressives and feminists, who promote the identity politics of discrimination.

“We seem more determined than ever to put people into identity prisons based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class,’’ he says.

“People in identity grouping become prisoners, sentenced to a life of grievance, blame shifting, non-performance, unhappiness, emotional anger and even hatred.

“Once you can absolve yourself of personal responsibility, once it is always someone else’s fault, or the fault of history, there is a loss of agency – no way out. There is only misery.’’

De Lacy talks of the term “white privilege” or as some refer to it as “stale, pale and male’’.

“This constant refrain of ‘white male privilege’ can be a bit tiresome, especially the obligatory guilt associated with it.

“Many of the people who I see occupying the higher stations in life these days come from working class backgrounds.

“Most people who get to the top do it through hard work and application.

“And attitude. Not because of intrinsic privilege. Most people (not all) who end up on Struggle Street do so because of their own personal shortcomings, not because privileged oppressors got in the way.’’

De Lacy points to Chelsea Clinton, who landed a job at NBC as a special correspondent paying $900,000 a year, while her mother, Hillary, flies around America condemning white privilege.

“There is a crisis of values out there,’’ he says.

“We are paying the price, as are many vulnerable women and children.

“Boy-girl relationships are destined for a major rewrite going into the future.’’

https://www.couriermail.com.au/lifestyle/qweekend/woke-left-is-destroying-labor-political-legend-unloads-on-his-own-party/news-story/da77a645ee4e6061a5bb455ceb5b4d64

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Regions To Bear Brunt Of Feel-Good Emissions Target

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that Australia would “not achieve net zero [emissions] in the cafes, dinner parties and wine bars of our inner cities”,

Rather, “it will be won in places like the Pilbara, the Hunter, Gladstone, Portland, Whyalla, Bell Bay, the Riverina. In the factories of our regional towns and outer suburbs,” Morrison said at the Business Council of Australia event.

But for the people who live and work in these regions, a net zero target is far from a “win”.

A net zero emissions target is a policy designed by inner-city elites, and it only serves their narrow interests.

These elites insist that Australia needs to drastically reduce its carbon emissions, even though we only account for about 1.1 per cent of global emissions. To put that in perspective, every 16 days China emits the same amount of carbon emissions that Australia does in an entire year.

“Reducing Australia’s emissions to zero will have no discernible impact on global emissions. But it certainly makes the inner-city elites feel like they’re being responsible global citizens.”

For Australians in the outer suburbs and regions however, the cost couldn’t be greater.

Research by the Institute of Public Affairs published earlier this year estimated that a net zero emissions target would place up to 653,000 jobs at risk. And, no surprises, these at-risk jobs are overwhelmingly concentrated in regional areas. Some regional electorates could see as many as one in four jobs placed at direct risk, and this doesn’t account for the flow-on effects of mass job destruction.

The experience of the loss of Australia’s car manufacturing industry demonstrates the point. A survey by the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union found that two years after Holden’s Elizabeth plant closed 24 per cent of laid-off workers remained unemployed, and two-thirds of those who found a job were in part-time, casual, or contract employment. Only 5 per cent of the workers had a new job that had the same or better working conditions.

We know from the experience to date that Australia has reduced its emissions at a great cost to those living in the regions. As National members of parliament Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan wrote in a newspaper article in February, “the emissions from people living in cities have gone up during the past 30 years, but their moral guilt has been eased by sending the bill to the bush”.

The mechanism for this was a clause in the Kyoto agreement that allowed Australia to claim a carbon credit if we cleared less land each year than the 688,000ha cleared in 1990. As Joyce and Canavan explained, this “led to state governments imposing ever tightening restrictions on land clearing.

Now Australia clears just 50,000ha of land a year. This is not enough to keep our farming land at a constant amount, let alone develop new areas. In fact, if we had not stripped the right from farmers to develop their own land, Australia’s emissions would have gone up, not down, in the past 30 years.”

The adoption of a net zero emissions target would do exactly the same thing: allow inner-city types to feel good about their so-called “action on climate change”, which does not extend beyond putting Australians living in the regions out of work.

When those working in relatively higher-emitting industries raise concerns about their job security, they are told that the new wave of “green jobs” will ensure that they can continue to work and provide for their family. But these promises ring hollow. IPA research has identified that for each renewable activity job created since 2010, five manufacturing jobs have been destroyed.

The NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap details how the Berejiklian government plans to force expensive and unreliable renewable energy onto households and businesses.

Under the roadmap, the government will establish five renewable energy zones over the next decade and “support an expected 6300 construction jobs and 2800 ongoing jobs mostly in regional NSW”.

In other words, the NSW government’s plan admits that only 900 jobs would be created each year, with the vast majority of these being temporary.

Where the 107,000 people employed in agriculture and mining across the state are supposed to work if their jobs are destroyed as a result of the emissions reduction effort is not made clear.

Perhaps that’s because to the inner-city elites, some jobs are more important than others.

https://ipa.org.au/ipa-today/regions-to-bear-brunt-of-feel-good-emissions-target

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Welcome to the two Australias

Joe Hildebrand

For the first time in more than a century the federation is crumbling. We are no longer a single country but once more a rabble of bitter and bickering states. We are back in the days of fighting over the correct width of railway tracks.

This sounds both outrageous and absurd — and it is. The problem is that it is also quite literally the state of the nation right now.

We have a situation in which the two geographically largest states, Queensland and WA, are openly rejecting the plan for national unity to which they themselves committed just weeks ago. Half of mainland Australia has effectively declared it no longer wants to be part of a single nation.

And now our foundational and most populous state of NSW has declared that it will open up its borders to the rest of the world while the hermit states declare they will not even open theirs to the rest of the country.

In short, we have a scenario in which foreign citizens will be able to fly from Singapore to Sydney but Australian citizens won’t be able to drive from Ballina to Brisbane.

Not since the Berlin airlift, in which international planes flew into the free west of the city while domestic trains were blockaded by the communist east, has there been such an utterly idiotic state of affairs.

Why? Because we are two Australias. Hell, maybe more.

We initially managed to stop the spread of Covid-19 through geographical good fortune. We were an island nation that shut its borders, something we have become adept at.

But soon after we became a loose coalition of states and territories that shut down both their own borders and themselves and did whatever else seemed politically expedient to their leaders.

For the more remote sparsely populated states this was arguably a reasonable option but for Australia’s only two truly international metropolises the story was catastrophically different.

Melbourne tried to eliminate the virus and failed. Again and again and again and again and again and again.

Indeed, such was the diehard devotion of the lockdown brigade that one self-proclaimed health expert declared to me — without any apparent trace of irony — that the only reason Lockdown 6 didn’t work was because Lockdown 5 wasn’t long and hard enough.

It is hard to follow such logic without inducing a migraine, suffice to say that apparently the only reason Covid is with us at all is because not enough people have been bricked up in their basement walls.

To his credit, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews this week conceded that his short and sharp/hard and fast lockdown strategy had no chance of constraining the Delta variant. Hard and fast it may have been but short and sharp it certainly was not.

This fact was of course already well known in NSW, where even our once-unbeatable contact tracing system was beaten by the Delta variant, and in New Zealand, which pursued an even harder and faster lockdown strategy than Victoria and was still overrun.

But unfortunately Andrews’ army of online apparatchiks didn’t seem to get the memo. Instead they started attacking Victorians themselves for not being obedient enough.

One particularly notorious account which purports to be close to the Andrews government even made this extraordinary statement on Twitter: “The underpinning theme in Victoria is noncompliance. People working against us by not following the rules, or promoting noncompliance. I called these people traitors and I have absolutely no regrets.”

This is the sort of line Joe Stalin himself might have sketched on the back of a beer coaster. Another commenter called the same people “sickening wretches”.

The problem is that if you look at the areas where the virus is spreading most widely and where the noncompliance is occurring these people are overwhelmingly in struggling communities, migrant communities, lower socio-economic communities and — needless to say — Labor electorates.

If you ever needed any more proof that the new puritanical left actively hates poor people you need look no further than that tweet.

Once more these hard-line fanatics are creating two Australias: The pure and the impure, the clean and unclean. It is verging on the language of genocide.

Compare this to the approach of NSW Labor Leader Chris Minns, whose response to the same type of communities in south west and western Sydney was to ensure all local Labor MPs were reaching out to their constituents and ensure they were getting vaccinated.

Meanwhile, when it comes to breaking the rules at a macro level that’s apparently no problem.

Queensland and WA are now openly rejecting the very rules that they themselves agreed to, holding millions of lives and livelihoods to ransom while conducting completely unfounded scare campaigns about the impact of Covid-19 on children.

Once more the extremism and violence of the language is both shameful and chilling. And these are supposed to be the touchy-feely tolerant ones.

So welcome to the two Australias – one hard-line and humourless, the other happy and human. I know which one I’d rather be living in.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/joe-hildebrand-welcome-to-the-two-australias/news-story/e6280bd66d3ef975b37d4919c684eba2

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Don’t despair of the COVID obsessives, they are an antidote to apathy

Unlike accused criminals, hospital patients get to remain anonymous when they do something so dumb it lands them in trouble. Mercifully, there was no name or sex attached to the COVID-positive “Patient X” admitted to Westmead Hospital after overdosing on the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin.

Westmead toxicologist Associate Professor Naren Gunja concluded, “Thankfully they didn’t develop severe toxicity [from ivermectin], but it didn’t help their COVID either.” The “treatment” brought to mind another cure for parasites: the proverbial man who successfully eliminated his bed bugs by burning down his house.

But we can reconstruct Patient X’s logic. Ivermectin is a drug promoted by medical experts from Donald Trump to Craig Kelly MP, who claim it has anti-COVID-19 properties. Normally, it is used to fight worms, lice and rosacea. It’s quite possible that it was Kelly’s leadership that persuaded Patient X to give it a whirl. I received a text from Kelly last week, being one of the lucky thousands of Australians whose phone number was hoovered up by his supposedly random distribution system. Thanks for the spam, Mr Kelly. I don’t have rosacea (not now), worms (not since I was a teenager), and nits (ditto, when I had hair) – but if I get COVID-19, I’ll keep your musings in mind.

The thing about Patient X overdosing was this: in the remote possibility that ivermectin might work against COVID-19, you have to overdose on it to give it a chance. According to a 2020 study published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, ivermectin can only act against a virus (in vitro) at eight times the approved dose. The US State of Mississippi has reported that 70 per cent of calls to its poisons centre came from people who bought ivermectin at livestock supply centres. Fourteen other studies involving more than 1600 patients, in a review cited by the Australian Department of Health, have yet to produce evidence of ivermectin’s anti-COVID properties. Maybe the subjects just didn’t take enough to bring on the vomiting and diarrhoea and, as with certain hallucinogenic fungi, it’s only after the puking finishes that things start happening.

But what would doctors know? We live amid the ultra-democratisation of knowledge, when Dr Google has hijacked our brains and made everyone a freaking expert.

The taps are fully open on instant expertise. Medical know-how is infectious in the community. There’s a public health expert who’s been chalking footpaths near my house saying things like “COVID 97 per cent survival” and “suicide rate up 53 per cent”. Out on my allotted exercise time, not even the birdsong can keep up with the overheard snippets of expertise: authoritative declarations about vaccination percentages and infection numbers, ICU admissions, post-lockdown jobs data and Delta mortality rates. Some families are so surfeited with their own expertise that they have banned COVID-related conversation after 6pm. You just need a break from all that knowledge.

Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan tests positive for COVID-19

In these highly strung, data-obsessed days, few can resist the power of a scientific-sounding number. Who is not fixated on that double-dose rate hitting 70 per cent, the daily infection rate announcement to which we tune in every morning, the cultish allure of hard stats? These kinds of numbers used to be divided into two categories: lies and damned lies. The Soviets raised a love of numbers to a fetish: statistics on manufacturing production were one side of the coin on which the dark side was measured by quotas sent to the gulag. Even in benign places like Australia in the 1980s, few can forget Paul Keating’s lustful gurglings of “a beautiful set of numbers” as he sought to educate the public on macroeconomics. Sufficiently educated, the public then hit him over the head with a number of its own, a 17 per cent interest rate. Today, citizens cite data as a cushion against anxiety.

It’s easy to deride the epidemic of self-made expertise. But, as I drink from my half-full glass of home remedies, I like to think that what we are living with is a lot better than the alternative: a population which is indifferent, incurious, uninterested, asleep. I grew up in such a population. The so-called Generation X, raised in an atmosphere of post-Vietnam cynicism, pummelled by unemployment and rolling recessions, tended not to look to politics and public policy for solutions. 

Amid this general withdrawal, politics became a magnet for the mediocre. And now we reap the harvest of our apathy: the flower of Generation X in Canberra, the major political parties led by a charlatan and an incompetent. If you are Generation X or thereabouts, you must be embarrassed what your long-ago apathy has coughed up.

By contrast, the cohort growing up now are being forced to make decisions about their world. If today’s crisis is breeding tomorrow’s leaders, then the sheer quantity of argument around COVID-19 can only motivate future action. People tuning in to their state premier’s 10am or 11am briefing is a fundamental change of habit, an increase in community engagement and, let’s hope, a kind of rehearsal for the bigger challenges that await, challenges in which the scientific overlaps with the moral.

Whether it’s through instant Wiki-expertise or a more substantial inquiry, COVID has prompted Australians to engage with public policy in a way few have lived long enough to have experienced. They are engaged with the search for political solutions to this crisis as they have never been engaged before. The attention on our health systems, the curiosity about the interlocking mechanisms between jurisdictions (whoever thought federalism would be the galvanising passion of our time?), and the sheer volume of argument is not only unprecedented but, viewed through my half-full glass, reason for optimism.

Ivermectin, COVID-19, and making sense of scientific evidence

Even the pandemic of Google-brain gives cause for hope. I’m encouraged by people chalking the pavements and protesting against police heavy-handedness even if I suspect they are less than fully hinged. The lingering threat to democracy, beyond this pandemic, isn’t people who want to convince you of their nonsense. It’s people who don’t care, people who submit passively, people who don’t ask questions. We shouldn’t worry as much about those spreading misinformation as those who accept it unthinkingly.

This crisis has stirred up enough argumentative energy to light up the globe. A return to apathy will return it to darkness. The only number that is really dangerous to our future is zero: a public with zero interest, zero thinking, zero to say.

And thanks for the medical advice, Mr Kelly. I’ll grab some ivermectin when my sister-in-law’s horse gets worms.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/don-t-despair-of-the-covid-obsessives-they-are-a-cause-for-hope-20210902-p58od6.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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12 September, 2021

‘Version 2.0’ of UQ COVID-19 vaccine to start clinical trials in 2022

The head of the team developing the University of Queensland COVID-19 vaccine candidate says the “window has closed” on that vaccine joining the global fight against the pandemic, but confirmed they are working on version 2.0.

Speaking at an online scientific symposium on Friday, UQ Professor Paul Young said they were well down the road to developing a new version of their vaccine candidate, using the same molecular clamp technology.

Professor Young told the meeting that after the initial version 1.0 vaccine was abandoned in December 2020 because of cross-reactivity issues with HIV screening tests, he fully expected the international funding body that initially backed the research, to request he and his team move on to other projects.

However, in a Zoom call shortly after announcing to the world that they had failed in their initial push for an Australian-developed COVID-19 vaccine, the vaccine’s backers told him to go back and try again.

“When I got on that Zoom meeting, there were 126 people there,” he said.

“Having seen our phase one clinical data, they were unanimous with wanting us to stay focused on COVID. So, we have done that, and we are taking a new COVID vaccine forward.”

The UQ team had initially been backed by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, a global partnership launched in 2017 to develop vaccines to stop future epidemics, and then partnered with pharmaceutical company CSL to manufacture the vaccine.

Version 1.0 had performed well in the initial clinical trials, giving well over 90 per cent coverage against the Wuhan strain of the virus, using a molecular “clamp” to hold a protein in a shape that mimicked part of the spike protein seen on the outside of SARS-CoV-2, which caused the body to make antibodies for the virus.

However, the actual clamp molecule used was sourced from the HIV virus because it was very effective and the researchers didn’t have time to look for a better candidate.

Although there was no risk of contracting HIV from the small molecule, it did set off HIV screening tests, something the researchers did not initially think would happen.

Professor Young said they briefly considered pressing forward with the vaccine anyway and using a work-around, but ultimately decided against it because the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines were more advanced in their development.

“What tipped us over in the end was not wanting to cause vaccine hesitancy,” he said.

“And so the right decision was made at that particular time. Whether that was the right decision, given the fullness of time, I don’t know.

“But we’ve turned it around and found a successful alternative, so that we’re very pleased with, and we will progress with that.”

Professor Young said they had developed around 20 new versions of the vaccine, using a different molecule for the “clamp” used to hold the spike protein together.

He said they would be entering clinical trials in 2022, with work being done on animal models in the near future.

“Not surprisingly, we’re looking at a number of different variants including Delta, and the new clamp is working well,” he said.

Professor Young said he had been heartened by the massive outpouring of public support for the UQ vaccine project, both from the project’s commercial partner CSL, and the Queensland and federal governments, not to mention many private philanthropic investors.

He said some gave more than others, but all gave what they could.

“My favourite memory is receiving a letter from a boy in Melbourne who sent us 70 cents, which is all he had in his share jar,” he said.

“It was that level of community support; it buoyed us, it was absolutely extraordinary.”

The online conference was organised by Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute, and run by the Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine, with the theme “Making sense of COVID-19”.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/queensland/version-2-0-of-uq-covid-19-vaccine-to-start-clinical-trials-in-2022-20210910-p58qih.html

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‘Their views will not be muzzled’: News Corp’s local boss outlines climate campaign

News Corp Australia’s executive chairman Michael Miller has told local staff the company’s commentators such as Andrew Bolt and Rowan Dean will not be “muzzled” as part of a company-wide editorial project focused on climate change and reducing carbon emissions.

In an all staff email obtained by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Mr Miller confirmed plans for a company-wide climate change campaign in October, but said the push was not conceived due to pressure from advertisers and that different viewpoints will be featured in it.

“Our plans are not in response to any advertiser questions or concerns,” he said. “However, since the coverage this week, it has been great to be contacted by our clients and major Australian companies who are interested in how they can be involved.”

“All our commentators and columnists will be encouraged to participate, and their views will not be ‘muzzled’” .

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age this week revealed plans for the Rupert Murdoch-controlled media company to begin advocating for reducing emissions, marking a major shift in its long-standing editorial hostility towards carbon reduction policies. The article said a plan was devised to limit – but not muzzle – dissenting voices among News Corp’s stable of conservative commentators.

The article sparked a furious response from Bolt, who said on his television program midweek he would leave the organisation if the plan was true.

“So we are going to champion a useless gesture by Australia that won’t lower the temperature but will cost jobs and money - when we are already in the schtuck?,” he said this week.

“A pretend fix, to a pretend crisis, after we campaigned against the carbon tax? Okay. But it’s the boss’ paper, it’s their right to campaign even for something stupid and seem like fools for once fighting against what we are now fighting for,” Bolt told his Sky News viewers. “If that is what the Murdoch media will ask of me, I am out of here.”

“If I’m still here, you’ll know it was all untrue. If I’m gone, worry,” he said.

News Corp’s campaign is set to feature in city tabloids including Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Melbourne’s Herald Sun, national broadsheet The Australian and on Sky News.

Mr Miller said the “major editorial project” was first discussed in March at a meeting of News Corp’s editorial board, which is chaired by The Australian’s editor-in-chief Chris Dore. He said the work will focus on key environmental and climate issues and the options Australia need to consider reaching a zero emissions target. It will feature leaders in the field and perspectives from lawmakers, scientists, academics and business leaders.

“Australians have told us that caring for the environment is a priority,” Mr Miller wrote. “They have told us that they are interested in the issues, the political and personal choices, as well as the costs and trade offs involved. They also want to know more about how their choices can help make the planet a better, greener place.“

“We will endeavour to ensure that all views, not just the popular ones, are heard,” he said.

Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire has in recent years faced growing international condemnation and pressure over its editorial stance on climate change, which has previously cast doubt over the science behind global warming.

Negative publicity about its coverage appeared in global outlets such as The New York Times and Financial Times during Australia’s deadly bushfires almost two years ago. The coverage by local tabloids and national masthead The Australian also triggered a comment from Murdoch’s youngest son, James Murdoch, who publicly denounced the outlets’ “ongoing denial” of climate change. Mr Murdoch quit the News Corp board last August due to concerns about its editorial stance.

Climate change scepticism has proven difficult to uphold as leading corporations start to aggressively push their green credentials. Woolworths and Coles used the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games to broadcast advertisements that focused on their green credentials. But Mr Miller said to staff that the reason for the editorial work was due to the changing needs of its audience, rather than any requests from advertisers.

Mr Miller said News Corp will also reinvigorate 1 Degree - an initiative which began in Australia in 2007 following a famous speech by Rupert Murdoch where he said the planet deserved “the benefit of the doubt”.

News Corporation’s global environmental targets include reducing its fuel and electricity emissions 60 per cent by 2030 on a 2016 base year, reduced supply chain carbon emissions 20 per cent by 2030 and hit net zero by 2050.

”No doubt other media and social platform users will try to take issue with our coverage and attempt to make News the story, however we have never been afraid of pushing boundaries and facilitating tough and uncomfortable conversations,” Mr Miller said. “This is a conversation which Australia needs to have.“

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/their-views-will-not-be-muzzled-news-corp-s-local-boss-outlines-climate-campaign-20210910-p58qlo.html

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Self-appointed guardians of acceptability are quick to press cancel on new human rights chief

Even before commencing in the role, the new human rights commissioner has contributed significantly to the human rights discussion in Australia. The appointment of Lorraine Finlay has horrified sections of the activist commentariat. From Crikey to ABC radio, Finlay’s supposed sins were listed and repeated: she has spoken against affirmative consent, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. She has even criticised the Australian Human Rights Commission itself. With a finger firmly on the “cancel” button, the self-appointed arbiters of acceptable culture have sought to end Finlay’s tenure before it begins.

While fulminating over Finlay’s appointment, they omitted what she had actually said on each of these topics. So here I lay out, in her own words, the unacceptable and regressive views of Lorraine Finlay, a law lecturer at Murdoch University, who has worked as a senior human trafficking specialist with the Australian Mission to Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Judge for yourself whether they are incompatible with upholding human rights.

Referring to NSW’s move to enshrine affirmative consent in sexual assault laws, Finlay said that “affirmative consent standards make for a great moral code, but a bad legal standard”. She explained that a “yes-means-yes” standard “means that an individual accused is now required to show that at every step along the way they actually got or were able to prove there was enthusiastic consent to what they were doing”. So, she concluded, “the biggest concern with this is the due process issue”.

Proving sexual consent and rape will remain a fraught issue, regardless whether we operate under a “no-means-no” or a “yes-means-yes” framework. The fact is, there are almost never witnesses who can confirm that consent was explicitly obtained. The idea of an app to keep a record of consent was rubbished because, as consent education advocate Chanel Contos said, perpetrators could point to it as evidence, even if consent was later withdrawn. “Consent can be taken back at any time, and an app couldn’t account for that,” she told the media.

So “yes means yes” relies on the idea that consent can be withdrawn at any time, turning a sexual encounter into rape, without an outward signal from the victim if the victim freezes. And the burden of proof required to convict someone of the heinous crime of rape, punishable by many years of jail, falls on the accused, who is guilty until proven innocent. Finlay’s contention is that this is wrong and the standard of innocent until proven guilty must apply.

The objections Finlay has expressed to Section 18C, which makes it unlawful to offend, humiliate or intimidate based on race, are practical. In a 2016 article for The Conversation she and her co-authors referred to the case of a group of students at Queensland University of Technology, who were thrown out of an unsigned computer room reserved for Indigenous students and posted about it on Facebook. “Just got kicked out of the unsigned Indigenous computer room. QUT stopping segregation with segregation … ?” one student wrote. Cindy Prior, the Indigenous woman who ejected the students from the space and later brought the suit, also alleges that one student used a racial slur on the Facebook thread that he later deleted. That allegation was unable to be proven and was categorically denied at the time.

Finlay argued that in the application of 18C, “the process itself is the punishment” because defending it causes “significant costs in time, money and stress”. One of the students involved abandoned his ambition of becoming a teacher “because parents or students may Google his name and find he was accused of racism”.

Section 18C was also the context of another of Finlay’s crimes: criticism of the AHRC. She and her co-authors wrote that, “the AHRC’s conduct in [the QUT] case has been disgraceful. Judge Jarrett’s dismissal of this case raises the question of why the AHRC did not initially reject Prior’s complaints against the students. That the AHRC proceeded to conciliation may have given Prior false hope that her case against them had merit.” Prior was bankrupted by her unsuccessful attempt to sue the students. She was also subjected to vile racial abuse as a result of the exposure the trial received – much of it from overseas, outside the jurisdiction of Australian law.

Finlay’s documented objection to an Indigenous Voice to Parliament is that “we don’t want to be dividing our country on the basis of race”. Her views are recorded in a video made along with Indigenous opponents of the Voice who agree.

It is obviously possible to argue against any or all of Finlay’s positions, but that is not what the activists who seek to “cancel” her are doing. They skate over the detail and context of her arguments and instead seek to create a situation in which only people with views that conform to their own are eligible to participate in public life. It sounds better to accuse Finlay of objecting to affirmative consent, protections against race hate and inclusion than it does to say that she is against the abolition of due process, trial by media, and segregation. The latter are all reasonable arguments in complicated matters. This is cancel culture in action: an attempt to win difficult debates by playing the woman instead of the ball.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/self-appointed-guardians-of-acceptability-are-quick-to-press-cancel-on-new-human-rights-chief-20210910-p58qfn.html

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NSW Jewish community granted exemption to mark new year celebrations

Jews will be able to perform a sacred ritual of the Jewish new year festival after the NSW Health Minister granted believers an exemption to the state’s public health orders.

Brad Hazzard has given permission for rabbis to blow the shofar – a ram's horn – outdoors during the Rosh Hashanah celebrations on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Rosh Hashanah celebrates the birth of humanity and usually involves synagogue services, prayer and food. A key element is the blowing of the shofar, which is a Jewish call for repentance.

Rabbi Paul Lewin from the North Shore Synagogue in Lindfield said the festivities would look different to usual due to the lockdown restrictions on gatherings and movement.

“It’s a real family affair to go to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah. It will be really missed this year,” he said. “There’s joy for the festival but certainly a pang of sadness we can’t celebrate it in its full glory.”

Orthodox Jews face extra challenges to celebrate remotely because of their strict adherence to Sabbath conditions that includes no technology.

“From sundown, all our mobile phones are off, computers are off, the TV is off,” Rabbi Lewin said. “One of the biggest problems we have is we can’t livestream services. My synagogue is going to have a Zoom an hour before the start of Rosh Hashanah, so we all bring in the holiday together.”

Many synagogues in Sydney have also organised take-home packs for congregants consisting of honey, apples and booklets of sermons.

The celebrations last for two days – from sunset on Monday until sunset on Wednesday and one of the key rituals is the sounding of the shofar.

Only a rabbi can blow the horn, so it’s the only ritual that believers can’t perform at home on their own. The exemption will allow rabbis to sound the shofar on Tuesday and Wednesday at parks across the state.

Rabbi Benjamin Elton from the Great Synagogue in Sydney’s CBD said the exemption was a “great relief”. He will be blowing the shofar at Hyde Park in the mornings and Rushcutters Bay in the afternoons.

“We expect people will naturally distribute themselves across all the [time] slots, so it won’t be too crowded on any one occasion,” he said.

The conditions of the health exemption are that rabbis can blow the horn only in 10-minute increments for up to three hours each day. Under Jewish tradition, there is no requirement for followers to hear the horn at a particular decibel level or length of time, so they can simply walk through the park as part of their daily exercise.

NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark said he was grateful the horn-sounding ritual could proceed.

“The community appreciates the co-operation of NSW Health and its work with the community to have very strict conditions that allow this to occur with negligible risk,” he said.

"With synagogues closed, limits on gatherings and restrictions on travel, this year’s Jewish High Holy Days will look unlike anything we have seen before. Many families will be unable to celebrate together as they have for generations. But we are together in spirit, even if physically apart."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-jewish-community-granted-exemption-to-mark-new-year-celebrations-20210903-p58ojx.html

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Australian mother develops Covid-killing disinfectant in just two months to protect her vulnerable husband from the virus

A mum-of-four has revealed how she and her husband came up with Australia's first TGA approved 'Covid-killing' disinfectant in just two months.

Sophie Westlake, 45, was terrified for her family, and in particular her immuno-compromised husband Steve, 53, when Covid-19 swept across the globe in 2020.

Steve has Myasthenia Gravis a condition similar to MS, and had several lymph nodes in his chest removed as a young man which left him with a compromised immune system for life.

Sophie wanted to keep the people she loved safe but couldn't find a disinfectant which was proven to kill the virus on surfaces.

And when she phoned large cleaning-product manufacturers she was disheartened by their lack of enthusiasm to make a Covid-killing disinfected.

So, with the help of her husband who has a medical background and their four children, Sophie created Virosol - and took it to the TGA for approval.

'This all came about at the start of the first lockdown, when we had no idea what we were dealing with, there was just no information about Covid so everyone was scared,' she told FEMAIL. 

'We didn't have much else to do apart from baking and craft activities, being in lockdown, so we just spent heaps of time researching.

'As a family we are very proud to have been the first cab off the rank for TGA approval.'

Once the first products hit the shelves, Sophie received calls from the large companies asking how she managed to get her disinfectant over the line so quickly.

'The big companies all wanted to know how we got TGA approval in two months when it can sometimes take years,' she said.

'I don't really know how to answer that but I guess it's because I was just being really annoying and calling them every second day to get it pushed through,' she said.  

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9972541/Mum-four-reveals-Australias-TGA-approved-Covid-killing-disinfectant.html

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An antibody cocktail that can beat Delta to be tested

Australian researchers have been given a $5 million grant to carry out human trials of a breakthrough Covid antibody treatment thought to stop the disease progressing.

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research scientist Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham’s team has found two potent antibodies proven to fight Delta and other Covid variants in a petri dish.

With the new funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) the team will mix the antibodies into a cocktail and manufacture enough in Australia to be used in a human clinical trial to test whether they are safe to use.

These trials are expected to begin within 12 months.

“Monoclonal antibodies are just lab made versions of antibodies that sort of mimic what our bodies already make to fight infection,” Associate Professor Tham said.

“We know that when you combine two different antibodies against the virus, you can limit viral escape against treatment,” she said.

When used early in the infection they can stop the virus progressing and prevent people going to hospital.

It took the team just nine months to identify the antibodies after receiving a previous MRFF grant.

Australia has already approved for use existing monoclonal antibody treatments produced overseas called Sotrovimab and Remdesivir.

“So ours are more potent than Sotrovimab from GSK. The other thing that’s different about ours is that we use two antibodies, rather than one,” Associate Professor Tham said.

The antibodies also work against the key Covid variants.

“We’ve tested them against the Delta variant, we don’t obviously have Mu yet, but we’ve tested, Alpha, Beat and Delta,” she said.

The treatment will be manufactured entirely in Victorian and Queensland-based production facilities including at the University of Queensland, and at the CSIRO in Clayton Victoria.

Minister for Health and Aged Care Greg Hunt said research was a key weapon in the ongoing fight against Covid-19 and central to the Government’s Covid-19 National Health Plan.

“Our plan provides support across primary care, aged care, hospitals and research, and includes funding from the MRFF for a Coronavirus Research Response,” Minister Hunt said.

“We are backing our best and brightest researchers to drive innovation and contribute to global efforts to control the Covid-19 outbreak.

“The considerable expertise of Australia’s world-class health and medical researchers is critical for ensuring preparedness and the safety of all Australians and the global community.”

To date, the Government has invested $96 million from the MRFF in Covid-19 research.

Sotrovimab is being used in Australia to treat of people with mild to moderate Covid-19 who are also at a high risk of being hospitalised.

It is expected that approximately 10 per cent of people with Covid-19 may have some benefit from Sotrovimab.

Remdesivir has been available in Australia since mid-2020 and is used to treat people who have more severe Covid-19

https://www.couriermail.com.au/coronavirus/an-antibody-cocktail-that-can-beat-delta-to-be-tested-on-aussies/news-story/4d4703eada6a4adbb77930a932b672ff

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‘I won’t have a bar of it’: Minister slams national curriculum draft over ANZAC Day stance

<i>ANZAC day is when Australians remember their war dead</i>

Education Minister Alan Tudge has slammed the draft of the national curriculum, which suggests students should be encouraged to contest the importance of ANZAC Day, saying he “won’t have a bar of it”.

Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has attacked proposed changes to the Australian curriculum, slamming the idea that Anzac Day should be “contested”.

Speaking on triple j Hack on Tuesday night, Mr Tudge said he was concerned the draft curriculum painted “an overly negative view of Australia”, taking particular umbrage with the changes to how Anzac Day is referenced.

Under the proposed draft curriculum, Year 9 kids would learn “the commemoration of World War I, including different historical interpretations and contested debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend and the war”.

“In relation to what occurred in 1788, the arrivals of the First Fleet, people should learn about that, and they should learn the perspective from Indigenous people at that time as well,” Mr Tudge said.

“However, there’s things that I don’t like, such as the way that Anzac Day is presented, for example.

“Instead of Anzac Day being presented as the most sacred of all days in Australia, where we stop, we reflect, we commemorate the 100,000 people who have died for our freedoms, it’s presented as a contested idea … Anzac Day is not a contested idea, apart from an absolute fringe element in our society.

“The word contested itself is used 19 times throughout the curriculum – it’s asking people to, instead of just accepting these for the things which they are, such as Anzac Day, to really challenge them and to contest them.”

Mr Tudge has been a vocal opponent to the proposed curriculum changes – particularly in Year 7 to 10 history – and has also slammed the curriculum’s failure to mention Captain James Cook.

Other changes to the history curriculum include “contested debates about the colonial and settler societies, such as contested terms, including ‘colonisation’, ‘settlement’ and ‘invasion’.”

The final revisions to the Australian curriculum will be provided to education ministers for consideration and endorsement by the end of this year, with an updated version to be available for 2022.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/anzac-day-is-not-contested-says-education-minister/news-story/7c4ca43e7d0c91f916e499a8d97ddd35

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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 September, 2021

Corals climate 'fighters'

<>i>That they "need rising temperatures to slow" is just an assertion.  No figures are given</i>

Corals may be able to roll with the punches of climate change better than initially thought in coming decades, but need rising temperatures to slow to have a fighting chance.

Corals can pass down the ability to survive rising temperatures via their genes, researchers say.

That's the finding of new Queensland-led research, published on Monday and based on an analysis of 95 trait measurements across 19 species of reef-building corals from previous studies.

The authors determined corals, which have suffered widespread bleaching events in Australia this century, can pass down abilities to survive under environmental stresses such as rising temperatures through their genes.

"We found their ability to pass on adaptive traits is maintained despite increasing temperatures," said lead author Kevin Bairos-Novak, a PhD candidate at James Cook University's Coral Centre of Excellence.

"In particular, corals that are better than average at survival, growth and resisting bleaching stress under future ocean conditions should be good at passing those advantages on to their offspring."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/corals-climate-fighters-but-need-time/ar-AAO7Y65?ocid=chromentpnews

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Queensland’s top 100 schools revealed, with seven earning perfect scores

Queensland’s top-performing high schools have been named following an analysis of academic outcomes among state and private schools, with seven of them managing to earn a perfect score.

Brisbane State High School was given an overall rating of 100 and was named as being in the top one per cent of schools in the state for 2020 by independent website Better Education, which analyses a school’s academic outcomes.

With more than 3000 students, BSHS has long-suffered from catchment fraud from desperate parents determined to land their kids a spot due to its stellar reputation for academic and sporting achievements.

Also topping the list were neighbours ­– and Queensland’s most expensive private schools ­- Brisbane Grammar School and Brisbane Girls Grammar School.

Fellow top private schools St Joseph’s College Gregory Terrace, St Aidan’s Anglican Girls School, Ormiston College and Somerset College were also awarded perfect scores by Better Education.

Mansfield State High School (with a score of 99) Indooroopilly State High School (98) Kelvin Grove State College (98) and The Gap State High School (98) were the next top rated public schools, rubbing shoulders with top privates such as All Hallows’ School (99), Anglican Church Grammar School (99) and Somerville House (99).

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/schools-hub/queenslands-top-100-schools-revealed-with-seven-earning-perfect-scores/news-story/b8e94784fb765ad71ac7821c8012a2b2

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Labor to resist Greens policies: Albanese

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese says a Labor government won't be told by any minor party what to do on tax policy.

The Greens have announced a push for a new 40 per cent corporate super-profits tax on the excess profits made by big corporations, including mining corporations.

The policy would be part of its negotiating platform if the next election ends in a hung parliament. 

Mr Albanese, who was a senior member of the last minority government, said Labor would have its own policies to put to voters.

"And I've said before, we won't be in a circumstance whereby any minor party tells us what to do," he told reporters in Sydney on Monday.

"We're seeking a mandate as a party of government to secure a majority Labor government after the next election, so that we can concentrate on fairness, concentrate on growing wealth, but also wealth distribution as well, making sure that no one's held back and no one is left behind."

Greens leader Adam Bandt told AAP he did not believe Mr Albanese.

"Whether it's Anthony Albanese or anyone else, if the Greens have two or three seats in the House and that's the difference between Labor being in government or staying in opposition, of course they'll talk to us," he said.

"If Labor seriously wants to remain in opposition because they won't tax billionaires and put dental into Medicare, then they're betraying the Australian people."

A minority-held parliament is not out of the question at the next election - due by May 2022 - with a uniform national swing of 0.5 per cent required to remove Scott Morrison's majority.

Meanwhile, veteran WA Greens senator Rachel Siewert has formally resigned from the upper house.

The Greens will need to nominate a replacement to fill the casual vacancy, which will then require the WA state parliament to rubber stamp it.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/labor-to-resist-greens-policies-albanese/ar-AAO8Jpg?ocid=chromentpnews

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Sikh temple sold to Christian group

MEMBERS of the Gold Coast Sikh community have been left without a place of worship and have raised questions over the use of almost $1m in donations and government funding after the city’s brand new temple was sold to another religious group for $5.61m.

Members of the Sikh community, known for its generosity to needy people across the city, say they are “in shock” and “broken hearted” at the loss of their gathering place.

But the man behind the sale says it became inevitable after “internal bickering” and lack of financial support made the temple unsustainable.

The Helensvale Gurdwara Sahib, on an 8300sq m site on Shepparton Road, had been open just over two years when it was sold in July to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

The temple was sold by the Gold Coast Sikh Foundation, a private company directed and ultimately owned by accountant Surjit Ahluwalia Singh.

Local Sikhs tried to stop the sale by staging a peaceful protest and online campaign. They also made two offers to buy the property from Mr Singh’s foundation, but were unable to raise or borrow enough money to go through with a sale.

As the community rallied against the sale in May, the temple was closed to worshippers. They have nowhere else to gather.

Mr Singh said his foundation had taken out a $2.25m Bendigo Bank loan towards the $5.38m land and building costs and that he and his companies made up the difference.

“It was my dream that once the loan was paid that I would be able to gift the site and the building to the community,” he said.

“In the end, the community did not wish to keep using the site or contributing to the costs, so I was left with no choice but to sell the building.”

https://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/news/gold-coast/northern/gold-coast-sikh-temple-sold-by-surjit-singh-for-561m-questions-raised-over-charitable-donations/news-story/cd4a771e5b4b1570ea926d48e1552e74

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Australia debuts 'Orwellian' new app using facial recognition, geolocation to enforce quarantine

The government of South Australia has implemented a new policy requiring Australians to use an app with facial recognition software and geolocation to prove that they are abiding by a 14-day quarantine for travel within the country. 

While a conservative expert described the policy as "Orwellian," he told Fox News that it represents an improvement over the current COVID-19 policy. Australians voluntarily choose the quarantine app over alternative quarantine measures.

Australia has banned international travel, unless residents have a permit to leave the country. The country has also severely restricted domestic travel. Residents must spend 14 days in quarantine upon return.

Steven Marshall, premier of the state of South Australia, launched the quarantine app policy in late August. Residents returning from New South Wales and Victoria, two other Australian states, may spend their 14 days in post-travel quarantine at home, rather than in a hotel, so long as they download and use the "Orwellian" app, developed by the South Australian government, ABC News Australia reported.

The app uses geolocation and facial recognition software to track those in quarantine. The app will contact people at random, asking them to provide proof of their location within 15 minutes.

"We don't tell them how often or when, on a random basis they have to reply within 15 minutes," Marshall said.

If the resident cannot verify his or her location or identity when requested, the South Australia Health Department will notify the police, who will then conduct an in-person check on the person in quarantine. Marshall said the government will not be storing any of the information provided to the app.

In a statement to Fox News, the government of South Australia noted that registration to use the app for home quarantine is voluntary. Only about 20 people who have applied for the program are using the app in early September. 

"The home quarantine app is for a selected cohort of returning South Australians who have applied to be a part of the trial. if successful, it will help safely ease the burden of travel restrictions associated with the pandemic," a government spokesperson told Fox News.

"I think it is accurate to describe it as Orwellian, but one has to understand the context," Robert Carling, an economics senior fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies, told Fox News. "It is home quarantine Australian style, and the alternative is hotel quarantine Australian style, under police guard, which people hate."

Carling explained that South Australia is launching a trial home quarantine as a replacement for hotel quarantine, a nationwide policy, "and Australians would be happy to take any form of home quarantine instead of hotel quarantine."

Biden admin recommends COVID-19 booster shotVideo

"Hotel quarantine is much more oppressive than home quarantine, even if the latter comes with Orwellian surveillance features," the CIS scholar explained. Australians have to pay for hotel quarantine themselves, which costs about $2,500 Australian ($1,850 U.S.D.), he estimated.

"Since March 2020 Australians have been banned even from leaving the country unless they can get a special permit to do so," Carling explained. He called this exit ban a "totalitarian, North Korea-style measure. Many other countries have had compulsory quarantine of some kind but they haven't had exit bans."

"International travel cannot be viable with hotel quarantine but it would be with home quarantine," the scholar noted. "Of course, we would prefer no quarantine at all, but that seems to be a bridge too far for our extremely COVID-risk averse governments at this point."

According to Johns Hopkins University data, South Australia has reported zero new cases of COVID-19 since August 23 and zero deaths since April 12. South Australia has the fifth-largest population of Australian states, at 1.8 million. New South Wales, with a population of 8.1 million and the major city of Sydney, represents the majority of new cases and deaths, driving a resurgence in the country.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/australia-debuts-new-orwellian-app-using-facial-recognition-geolocation-to-enforce-quarantine

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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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9 September, 2021

Australian superannuation juggernaut  says it will not divest its substantial oil and gas holdings to meet newly detailed climate targets, as it announced plans to phase out thermal coal investments by the end of the decade

IFM, which is owned by 23 industry superannuation funds, is one of the world’s biggest infrastructure investors and owns substantial oil and gas pipelines in the US. The company announced plans to achieve net zero emissions in its $74 billion infrastructure portfolio, including by fully exiting thermal coal by 2030.

IFM’s global head of infrastructure Kyle Mangini said there is “relatively little debate” on the outlook for thermal coal – an energy source that governments around the world are rejecting in the quest to reduce carbon emissions and transition to renewable energy sources.

“We acknowledge that it is part of the energy mix today but it will be phased out of the energy mix over time, and from that perspective, it’s not a sound long-term investment,” Mr Mangini said. “We put the blanket exclusion on coal really because of the view it’s not viable and that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.”

Major investment firms have set net zero emissions targets in recent years and are now using either divestment - selling out of carbon-heavy assets- or engagement - remaining invested to advocate for change - to achieve these goals.

IFM’s remaining exposure to thermal coal is limited to the Polish district heating business bought in 2006. But the fund manager owns other carbon-heavy assets including North American oil and gas infrastructure projects Colonial Pipeline and Buckeye Partners. Chief executive David Neal said there were no plans to sell these assets to meet decarbonisation targets.

“We’re really focused on transition rather than divestment,” Mr Neal said. “So what can we do to help the assets in the oil and gas sector at the right time and in the right way transition to support the new cleaner economy? There is a lot of opportunity to do just that.”

“Divestment might get the emissions down in our portfolio but it does absolutely nothing for the planet’s emissions and it certainly does not help the global economy. This is about being a responsible investor.”

IFM’s interim targets include reducing scope one and two emissions (direct emissions and emissions from electricity use) across infrastructure assets by 40 per cent by 2040. This will be achieved, for example, by encouraging its airports and ports to install solar panels or diversify operations to include clean energy projects.

Reducing scope 3 emissions is not part of IFM’s climate plan, which includes indirect emissions like those from airplanes using IFM’s airports or gas passing through IFM’s pipelines. Mr Neal said these were “incredibly important” to understanding long-term risks but were outside IFM’s “direct influence and control”.

“The more people are concerned about the emissions that come from flying, the less airports get used. Those sorts of things,” he said. “There’s a difference here between what we’re worried about and what risks we’re managing.”

The International Energy Agency in May released a report claiming there could be no new oil and gas projects if the world was to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Mr Neal said retaining its oil and gas assets would “in many cases but not exclusively” rely on the development of new technologies or carbon offsets.

Mr Mangini added the oil and gas sector would play a “really important stabilising role” for the adoption of renewable energy until “storage capability is built into the system more broadly”.

“The fact you can generate [energy] now with a renewable source that is less expensive than fossil fuels means you don’t require government subsidies in many cases is a huge development. Now you have investment being led by the market instead of being led by the government,” he said. “There has been tremendous progress, there is so much RND [research and development] I feel very optimistic we will see a lot more progress.”

Nationals MP George Christensen last week accused the major banks of “caving” to international investor pressure when making decisions to phase out exposure to thermal coal. Mr Neal also rejected any “pressure” from investors and said decarbonisation was rather a collaborative approach to managing investment risk.

“I think we are all on this same journey. Our investors are working through how is their long-term risk being managed? How are the opportunities from this massive energy transition that’s going to occur over the next couple of decades, how are those opportunities being embraced?

“There’s no doubt those engagements are much more intense than they used to be. There’s huge momentum across the investment world in understanding how climate risk can be managed.”

IFM will soon release interim decarbonisation targets for the remainder of its $174 billion portfolio including listed equities, private equity and debt.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/not-viable-ifm-to-stick-with-oil-and-gas-but-dump-coal-on-path-to-net-zero-20210906-p58p7r.html

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Woke Melbourne council BANS men from applying for $63,000-a-year street sweeper job 'to promote equality' - but non-binary people and transgender women are eligible

A Melbourne council has limited applications for a $63,000-a-year street sweeper job to people who identify as 'non-male'.

Darebin City Council, in Melbourne's northern suburbs, posted the Street Sweeper Operator vacancy on its website, with applications closing in mid September.

The advert states only women and non-binary or gender-nonconforming people are eligible for the job in order to achieve 'a diverse and inclusive organisation that reflects our community'.

The council described the ban on men as a 'special measure' under Victoria's Equal Opportunity Act in order to 'to foster greater equality'.

The job listing also states the council is an 'Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in its selection and employment practices.'

The council promotes itself as a 'progressive leader' in local government and is passionate about social inclusion and creating a diverse workforce.

It also states Darebin Council is home to one of the 'largest, most diverse communities' anywhere in Victoria regarding 'culture, language, religions, gender, age, abilities, socio-economic background, employment status, occupation, and housing needs.' 

Daily Mail Australia contacted Darebin City Council and Mayor Lina Messina for comment.

The same council last week voted unanimously for staff to create a report on ways to ban nuclear weapons in the community.

A motion moved by Independent Councillor Gaetano Greco called for staff to examine how the council can embed exclusions of nuclear weapons in council investment policies and to find out if the council is involved in 'transacting' with companies associated with the production of nuclear weapons.

Councillor Greco also asked for advice to be gathered on how to further advocate for the ban of nuclear weapons and to urge other councils, organisations and communities to take action.

Four councillors from Darebin also attended the Australian Local Government Association, where delegates passed a motion to urge Australia to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9964047/Melbourne-Darebin-Council-BANS-men-applying-63-000-year-street-sweeper-job.html

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‘Delta usurped the one decision Australia thought we could control’

The Delta variant has forced Australia to live with COVID-19, a leading epidemiologist said, stressing that the public should no longer expect to hear about every case as the pandemic approaches the end of its second year.

In a paper published by the Sax Institute on Wednesday, Deakin University epidemiologist Catherine Bennett argued that the advent of the Delta variant has forced Australia to abandon its hope of stage-managing a perfect reopening to the world.

Professor Catherine Bennett believes the Delta variant has shown Australia it cannot stage a perfect reopening, and instead must focus on vaccination.

Professor Catherine Bennett believes the Delta variant has shown Australia it cannot stage a perfect reopening, and instead must focus on vaccination.CREDIT:JASON SOUTH

“Delta has usurped one important decision we thought was in our control – when we would let the virus in,” Professor Bennett wrote in the paper.

She said this drastic shift in the number of cases in the community, coinciding with the planned push for vaccination rates, had greatly bolstered the latter, although it was not surprising that the former was weighing on the mind of both some members of the public and some state governments.

“Our confidence in the path out of our current situation, in which more than half of the Australian population is affected by lockdowns, is not helped by the realisation that we are shifting into our transition from a very un-COVID-zero position,” she added.

Professor Bennett said NSW Health was “paving the way” for other states by shifting the focus of daily press conferences and alerts from case numbers and exposure sites to vaccination figures and availability.

“We do not know yet what the test, trace and isolate model in the transition plan looks like, but it will have a different emphasis from the 360-degree approach employed to date that includes searching for transmission chains downstream for those exposed and also upstream for a possible source,” she wrote.

“We no longer need to find every case if we are in suppression mode and NSW Health may be paving the way ahead for all states as they shift emphasis under the sheer burden of case numbers.”

Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Professor Bennett said there was still merit in reporting daily case numbers as NSW approaches higher levels of vaccination coverage.

“Right now they are a predictor of what’s happening in hospitals and everyone still wants to know. I think if they did suddenly disappear, people would feel more anxious,” she said.

However, she said this should end once vaccination rates were sufficient and cases were not peaking.

“What you are managing then, at a state-level, is the disease, you are not managing every single infection,” she said.

“That becomes the domain of public health teams. And it could be a case of, if you catch it and you have been vaccinated, you won’t need to quarantine and that will be it.”

She flagged that Australia would be unlikely to experience a UK-style Freedom Day. Instead, it was likely that Australia would live with certain restrictions, such as masks, as well as social distancing habits. Professor Bennett expected some parts of the country to watch on for the effects of reopening in the two most populous states.

“We are testing our seaworthiness as we go,” she said.

Professor Emeritus Stephen Leeder, a University of Sydney public health researcher and director of the Research and Education Network at Western Sydney Local Health District, said he did not know if Australia “ever really thought COVID was in their control”, noting the international experience, as well as the potential for new variants, were well understood by government and health authorities.

“If we are to say the strategy of having zero cases is no longer an option: did we ever really think it was?”

Professor Leeder agreed that vaccination rates had been accelerated by the introduction of Delta into the community, but said he believed an elimination strategy was never viable, or seriously on the table, despite the rhetoric of some state premiers, such as Western Australia’s Mark McGowan.

“If that was a strategy, it would need to be inclusive of the whole of the world, like we have done with smallpox. But we are nowhere near that; there is COVID everywhere around the world,” he added.

 https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/delta-usurped-the-one-decision-australia-thought-we-could-control-20210907-p58pjx.html

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China’s ban on Australian coal is an own goal

One of the curious developments of the past few months is that the slump in iron ore prices hasn’t been accompanied by similar falls in the prices of other key steelmaking ingredient, metallurgical coal.

Indeed, while the iron ore price has fallen about 34 per cent, from just under $US220 a tonne in mid-July to around $US145 a tonne, Australian metallurgical coal prices have soared from around $US100 a tonne at the start of this year to about $US220 a tonne. In China, the steel mills have been paying as much as $US440 a tonne for metallurgical, or coking, coal.

There are a number of influences at play to explain the divergence between the prices of what should be quite highly correlated commodities.

The iron ore price slump was the obvious consequences of a decision by China’s authorities to cap annual steel production at the same level as last year’s 1.05 billion tonnes. Given that the mills’ production was up 12 per cent in the first half of this year that has forced an equivalent cut to output in the second half.

That directive was part of a broader effort in China to curb soaring commodity prices, reduce China’s reliance on Australia for iron ore (part of the broader “punishment” for our leaders’ supposed intemperate remarks) and reduce emissions from one of its most emissions-intensive industries.

Metallurgical coal was, with energy coal, among the Australian exports targeted by the Chinese authorities for both explicit and unofficial bans late last year.

Initially buffeted by the abrupt cessation of demand from the biggest market for Australian coal, both energy and metallurgical coal prices have rebounded quite dramatically.

China authorities are aiming to reduce leverage in the over-indebted property and construction sectors where some of the country’s biggest companies are teetering. Those sectors are the biggest sources of demand for steel.

Metallurgical coal is interesting because Australia, and BHP in particular, dominate the seaborne trade in metallurgical coal with a market share of around 60 per cent. BHP accounts for roughly two-third of those exports. The next biggest supplier, the US, has a share of only about 16 per cent.

Unlike iron ore, where China is by far the dominant customer, demand for metallurgical coal is far more widely spread. China, Japan, the European Union and India each absorb about 20 per cent of seaborne supply.

While, as occurred with energy coal and other Australian products, the Chinese bans created initial shocks and disruptions as China’s demand completely evaporated – for months cargoes of Australian coal sat fruitlessly off China’s coast and prices dived – China appears to have miscalculated how quickly the producers would respond and how significantly its bans would rebound on its own industries.

For the moment, at least, while some of the exports China has targeted haven’t had the ability to adjust as easily or seen their markets recover in the same way as energy and metallurgical coal, the Chinese sanctions are hurting their companies and economy more than Australia’s.

Having lost China as a customer the Australian coal producers scrambled to find new customers, perversely aided by the slump in the prices. Buyers in Japan, India, the EU and South Korea, presented with high-quality coal at bargain prices, grabbed the opportunity.

Having shut off access to Australian coal, China had to find supply elsewhere. For metallurgical coal it turned to North America, Russia, South Africa and Mongolia.

Unsurprisingly, given the dominance of Australian supply in the metallurgical coal market in particular and the extra distance and costs involved in shipping North American coal to China relative to Australian coal, that caused some significant dislocations in a market already being impacted by the first half boom in China’s steel production.

China’s domestic prices for coking coal began spiking sharply even as the cost of its imports was rising.

Some production shutdowns in Australia when the initial loss of China as a customer and the price plunge forced the producers into losses, curtailing supply while COVID-related border closures that impacted access to Mongolian production and mine closures in China itself flowing from safety and environmental concern were other influences on a price for China’s own supply that surged quite dramatically. It’s now solidly over $US400 a tonne, having peaked at $US440 a tonne.

The price rise for the Australian metallurgical coal producers hasn’t been as dramatic but is above $US220 a tonne – it has more than doubled since the start of the year – dragged up by the prices China has been forced to pay to replace the Australian volumes with higher cost and lower quality products.

Australian coking coals are premium products, helping to maximise production yields and minimise the environmental effects. The redirection of Australian exports at prices way below those China is paying is good for China’s competitors in Asia and Europe and not so good for its own mills.

China has imposed price caps on its domestic coal producers and the big second-half cutbacks to steel production (if the mills do fully comply with Beijing’s directive) will also have an impact on demand for coal.

The outsized role of the Australian producers in the market for metallurgical coal, the premium quality of their products, the proximity of Australian supply to the key Asian markets and China’s own need for high-quality coal ought, however, to provide a relatively elevated floor under prices.

The super-premium prices China is paying are the unintended consequences of its efforts to punish Australia for the temerity of our leaders asking for proper investigations of the origins of the pandemic, criticising China’s treatment of Uighurs and its actions in Hong Kong.

For the moment, at least, while some of the exports China has targeted haven’t had the ability to adjust as easily or seen their markets recover in the same way as energy and metallurgical coal, the Chinese sanctions are hurting its companies and economy more than Australia’s.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/china-s-ban-on-australian-coal-has-an-expensive-sting-in-its-tail-20210907-p58pij.html

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Militant vegan who earns $40,000 a month on OnlyFans and stormed Louis Vuitton while half-naked and covered in her own menstrual blood says she feels 'empowered' when screaming 'animal abusers' at strangers

<i>I have always said that self-promotion is a major motivation for Leftism so this admission is no surprise.  She  demonstrates because it makes her feel good.  Whether she actually cares about animals is unknown</i>

A militant vegan who allegedly stormed Luis Vuitton wearing a g-string and smeared with her own menstrual blood says she'll never stop protesting against the 'animal holocaust' - even if her friends and family abandon her.

Tash Peterson was charged with disorderly conduct after she allegedly interrupted shoppers at the high-end store at Raine Square in Perth's CBD on August 21 yelling: 'If you're not vegan, you're an animal abuser'.

She will face Perth Magistrates Court in mid-September and believes she will be hit with a $6,000 fine, but the 27-year-old is unfazed and believes the alleged demonstration was a wild success.

'I think it was my most powerful disruptive protest yet,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 

'It's important for me to be as creative as possible so more people see my message - the moment my clothes come off, I get a lot more attention.'

A day after the bloody stunt, she was at it again outside the same store carrying a megaphone and wearing a cropped black hoodie with 'end the animal holocaust' on the front and 'if you're not vegan, you're an animal abuser' on the back.

The serial protester then started accusing stunned strangers on the street of being murderers.

'Who was murdered for your leather bag, down jacket and woollen jumper? If you buy animal skin, fur, wool, scales, feathers and silk, you are paying for the most horrific animal abuse on this planet,' she bellowed into the megaphone.

While the footage of Ms Peterson being dragged out of Luis Vuitton by burly security guards while wearing next to nothing and drenched in her own fluids was alarming, the serial protester said she's only just getting started.

She has now traded in her job as a pool lifeguard to sell topless and nude selfies for her Only Fans subscribers, and earns staggering $40,000 per month - more than enough to fuel her dream of being a full-time activist.

'I was trying to figure out how to sustain my life as a full-time activist,' she said. 

'I'd been considering Only Fans for almost a year, and I thought deeply about it and realised I'm on a mission to help animals - I'm willing to do almost anything to help them.' 

Unbridled by finances, Ms Peterson is thrilled to be able to pour all her energy into her 'creative' public demonstrations.

'I want to go inside facilities and expose the [animal] industry,' she said.

'There are so many amazing forms of activism - I'm so grateful to be a full-time activist now - maybe eventually one day I can travel the world and do it.' 

Ms Peterson's abrasive demonstrations usually involve chastising customers at non-vegan restaurants, supermarkets and shops for consuming animal products - while scantily clad and dripping with blood.

Earlier this year, her wild stunts saw her banned from every pub in Western Australia.

On Friday she revealed that Instagram deleted her Vegan Booty page, which boasted about 31,000 followers, for repeatedly uploading photos of animal abuse to 'expose' the industry.

When asked if she ever feels embarrassed or ashamed after any of her protests, which are filmed and widely distributed on social media, Ms Peterson said any backlash she receives only encourages her to keep going.

'It's a very surreal feeling going inside a venue and doing a unique protest - it's difficult to explain what it's like in the moment, but I'm there for these trillions of animals who are suffering,' she said.

'I do get incredibly nervous before disrupting, but once I'm inside I feel empowered.' 

Ms Peterson already has a criminal record for trespass after she ran on to Perth Stadium in the first-ever women's Western Derby in 2020 while holding a black flag reading 'right to rescue' - until Fremantle midfielder Kiara Bowers tackled her. 

When she walked free from Perth Magistrate's Court, she and a fellow activist stood on the court steps for several minutes with black duct tape over their mouths holding signs reading 'it's time to listen to the animals'.

Peterson refused to answer questions from reporters while the squeals of cows and pigs being slaughtered in Western Australian abattoirs played from nearby speakers.   

She acknowledged that she will have to be careful not to land in jail where her animal rights messages would fall on deaf ears, but feels that her brushes with the law are justified. 'I don't want to have to be breaking the law, but I believe one has a moral obligation to break unjust laws,' she said. 'If I'm getting a criminal record because I'm getting my message out there, that's something I'm willing to risk.' 

Ms Peterson is also happy to forgo precious relationships with family and friends who can't handle her very public form of activism. 

'I'm willing to risk any relationships with family and friends - nothing is going to stop me - I find I'm only wanting to do more than I ever have before,' Ms Peterson said. 

'I've lost many friendships already because people can't handle that I do this sort of thing - I don't really speak to a lot of my old friends anymore.'

Ms Peterson recalled her mother laying in bed for months because she was so riddled with anxiety over the amount of times the police came knocking on the door looking for her only daughter. 

She said it put an 'enormous' strain on her family, who became increasingly stressed over her antics, 'but it wasn't going to stop me,' she added. 

While her mother eventually went vegan herself and now supports her daughter's active vegan lifestyle flourishing Only Fans page, her father has had a harder time trying to accept her life decisions.  'He says he's proud, but it doesn't quite sit right with him,' she said. 

'It's affected our relationship a lot, but it's not going to stop me.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9942005/Militant-vegan-Tash-Peterson-earns-40-000-month-OnlyFans-stormed-Louis-Vuitton-Perth-WA.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 September, 2021

Queensland water utility wins appeal against 2011 flood damages ruling

<i>The Wivenhoe dam could easily have stopped the flood but it was mismanged by the bureaucrats in charge of it  -- who ignored their own manual.

This judgment says that the operators can do what they want as long as they agree with one-another!  This should go to the High Court</i>

State-owned dam operator Seqwater has won an appeal against a landmark ruling on the 2011 Queensland floods.

In 2019, the Supreme Court in New South Wales found the Queensland government, Sunwater and Seqwater, had acted negligently and had contributed to the disaster.

It was ruled engineers had failed to follow their own flood mitigation manual, leading them to release large volumes of water at the height of the flood, damaging more properties.

A judge ordered more than 6,500 victims whose homes or businesses were damaged were entitled to almost $900 million in compensation.

Two of the defendants agreed to pay their share of the settlement but Seqwater — which was found liable for 50 per cent — appealed against the decision on a number of grounds.

During a hearing in May, Seqwater argued engineers had acted appropriately and the decisions about water releases were suitable.

In a published judgment today, three NSW Court of Appeal judges ruled the engineers "acted by way of consensus" and "ultimately" followed the strategy determined by the senior flood operations engineer and were not in breach of the Civil Liability Act.

"Failure by Seqwater's flood engineers to depart from that strategy was not proven to be in breach," the judges found.

"Even if their conduct departed from the manual, that did not of itself entail a breach of that standard."

Ipswich councillor and Goodna flood victim Paul Tully slammed the unexpected decision as a "kick in the guts" to many still-struggling flood victims.

"This decision defies commonsense and logic given that SunWater and the state government have already accepted they were jointly liable for the flood," Mr Tully said.

"We now have the bizarre situation where the state government and SunWater have agreed to pay $440 million as their assessed 50 per cent liability, while Seqwater has squirmed out of its responsibility on a legal technicality."

Mr Tully accused Seqwater of legal delaying tactics over 10 years "lacking one iota of justice, common decency or fair play".

"In the past decade, many flood victims have passed away, marriages have failed and people have suffered mental breakdowns as a result of the legal delays."

The judgment also rejected the initial judge's determination that losses had been caused by the "cumulative effect" of several breaches by the flood engineers.

"That approach was artificial … and assumed that each flood engineer could and should exercise independent judgment," the judges found. "The flood engineers acted in a collaborative manner … all were liable for each breach. "The fact that a particular engineer was on duty at a particular time was not a critical factor."

The matter was dismissed and the respondent was ordered to pay costs.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-08/qld-court-2011-floods-appeal-hearing-class-action/100143440

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Queensland bans single-use plastics

Queensland has banned single-use plastic straws, stirrers, cutlery and plates, as well as containers and cups made from expanded polystyrene.

Initially announced in March, businesses had until September 1 to stop using items listed under the first stage of the state government ban.

The plan received huge support from the community during consultations, with 94 per cent of 20,000 respondents supporting the proposal.

The related legislation also makes provision for more single-use items to be banned through regulation in the future.

Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon confirmed earlier this year more restrictions are likely in the future.

“There’s been a lot of commentary around things like coffee cups, a range of other plastics, so we’ll be making sure that we’re consulting widely around what the next phase of those products is,” she said in March.

“Queensland really is ahead when it comes to the rest of the country on single-use plastics, but we want to make sure that we’re continuing to progress with this.”

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/qld/2021/09/01/queensland-ban-single-use-plastics/

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Western Sydney curfew 'doesn't work' and was only brought in because of 'media pressure'

The deputy premier has launched a scathing attack on the curfews imposed on residents in Western Sydney, claiming the controversial measure simply 'doesn't work'. 

John Barilaro broke rank with his superior Gladys Berejiklian by claiming curfews do more harm than good during a regional Covid update on Monday. 

Mr Barilaro was asked by reporters if he would consider enforcing a similar 9pm-5am curfew in the city of Dubbo and other regional communities, which have suffered a surge in cases.

He responded by saying the measure 'didn't work' and had only been imposed in the first place after pressure was applied by media outlets. 

It is just one of several controversial Covid restrictions imposed on Australians despite not being based on health advice, including closing children's playgrounds, a draconian one-hour exercise limits and bringing in similar curfews in Victoria. 

'I am going to say that and I can get away with saying that,' Mr Barilaro said.

Locked-down residents in 12 LGAs of concern in Greater Sydney are not permitted to leave their homes from 9pm-5am unless they are an authorised worker or involved in an emergency or need medical care. 

Curfews were also brought in during Victoria's cripping lockdown last year, despite officials admitting it was only introduced to help police control the movement of people - and was not based on any health advice.

There are currently 1,071 Covid-19 patients in NSW in hospital, with 177 in intensive care and 67 ventilated.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9961695/Coronavirus-Australia-John-Barilaro-slams-Western-Sydney-curfews-says-measure-doesnt-work.html

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How ‘insane’ QLD fishing laws could raise the price of seafood

New fishing rules seven years in the making are being blasted as “insane” and the “last nail in the coffin” for commercial Queensland fishers.

The new harvest strategies bringing the state’s total to 15 include commercial operators having to report bycatch discarded back into the ocean for the first time.

Mackay Fish Market owner David Caracciolo said the laws — affecting the mud crab, east coast inshore, trawl fin fish fisheries and more — were “ridiculous” and hastily rolled-out.

“At midnight every night, (commercial fishers) have to report their catch in before they start fishing the next day,” Mr Caracciolo said. “Things have to be telephoned in at midnight, paperwork’s got to be done on the boat.

“These guys are in boats 14 to 20 feet (4.2m to 6m) long, in the oceans or the creeks or whatever, operating in blowing winds, rain, all that sort of stuff.

“Products have to be weighed at a designated point at a landing point or a boat ramp approved by Fisheries.

“They’ve just made it that difficult for fishermen to operate under that they’ll exit the industry voluntarily.”

Fisheries Minister Mark Furner said there would be a transitional period until December 31 with the department focusing on education to help fishers adjust. “Enforcement action may be taken, however, in the case of intentional, repeated or serious noncompliance,” Mr Furner said.

Australian Marine Conservation Society’s Simon Miller said the rules also set new catch limits for barramundi, crabs and prawns among other species for both commercial and recreational fishers.

“At the moment, there’s no reporting requirements for recreational fishers, there’s just bag limits and size limits,” the fishing spokesman said.

Mr Miller explained catch quotas were localised to different regions; for example, if Mackay’s barramundi levels stooped, the catch limit would be reduced accordingly, and vice versa.

He said the majority of Queensland’s “table” fish were nearing target sustainability levels while other species such as scallops, snapper and pearl perch were in a “bad place”.

He welcomed the new strategies but said the government must support small-scale fishers for whom the majority were responsible stewards of the ocean.

He also said more needed to be done for Queensland to become the “gold standard” of sustainable fishing, pushing for cameras on boats particularly in higher-risk gill net and trawl fisheries.

Mr Miller said the AMCS also wanted temporary halts on gillnet fishing if and when too many protected species were caught — such as dugongs, turtles, dolphins and sawfish — to allow populations to recover.  “It’s vitally important we protect these species,” Mr Miller said.

Mr Caracciolo said the suggestions were “totally ridiculous” with gillnetters attending their nets “all the time”, adding shark populations were thriving and he could not recall the last time a commercial fisher interacted with a dugong.

He further slammed the catch quotas as a “total minefield”, “hinged on discrimination” and introduced for political appeasement. “We’re just totally under the belief that the commercial sector is the one that is the scapegoat and we’re the ones that are penalised,” Mr Caracciolo said.

“People who are going to suffer out there besides the fishers is the market, the consumers. “If they do have wild caught fish, it’ll be that expensive they won’t be able to touch it.

“It’ll increase imports, that’s what’s going to happen.  “We’ve got the third biggest ocean mass in the world and we’ve got the smallest fishing industry.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/mackay/how-insane-qld-fishing-laws-could-raise-the-price-of-seafood/news-story/cb073d6102b64b11be0858c29b2e5159

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Australia’s education minister says he doesn’t want students to be taught ‘hatred’ of Australia

Australia’s education minister has said he doesn’t want students to leave school with “a hatred” of their country, in a ramping up of his rhetoric about the draft national curriculum.

Alan Tudge, who has spent months campaigning against elements of the proposed new curriculum, said if students did not learn about Australia’s “great successes” they were “not going to protect it as a million Australians have through their military service”.

In an at-times combative interview with the ABC’s youth radio station Triple J, the federal education minister indicated he believed Anzac Day should be “presented as the most sacred of all days in Australia” rather than “contested”.

“I want people to come out having learnt about our country with a love of it rather than a hatred of it,” Tudge said, without explaining how the content might encourage students to hate Australia.

He said he was concerned the proposed history curriculum – particularly for years seven to 10 – “paints an overly negative view of Australia”. He cited the way Anzac Day was presented as one of the “things which I don’t like”.

In the proposed new curriculum, a portion of year 9 history dealing with the first world war includes “the commemoration of World War I, including different historical interpretations and contested debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend and the war”.

The content may include “debating the difference between commemoration and celebration of war”.

In the interview on the Hack current affairs program on Tuesday evening, Tudge said Anzac Day was “not a contested idea apart from an absolute fringe element in our society”.

“Instead of Anzac Day being presented as the most sacred of all days in Australia, where we stop, we reflect, we commemorate the hundred thousand people who have died for our freedoms … it’s presented as a contested idea,” Tudge said.

The existing version of the year 9 history curriculum already includes a similar form of words about “the commemoration of World War I, including debates about the nature and significance of the Anzac legend”, but without the word “contested”.

During the interview, Tudge said he accepted the curriculum “should be teaching accuracy”, adding that year 7 history “doesn’t even mention Captain James Cook – a very significant person in the history of the world and particularly significant for Australia”.

However, the draft curriculum documents do mention Cook earlier – in year 4 – during a section on the “causes for the establishment of the first British colony in Australia”.

Under questioning from Hack presenter Avani Dias, Tudge said there “should be opportunities to reflect from different perspectives, particularly from Indigenous perspectives” but “we’ve just got to get the balance right”.

“You know, this country, Avani, is a magnet for millions of people to want to come to, right? Now why is that? It’s not because we’re this horrible, terrible, racist, sexist country. It’s because we’re one of greatest egalitarian free countries in the world,” Tudge said.

Dias countered that “a lot of people, minister, would probably disagree with some of those things”, including First Nations people who “would argue that perhaps the balance has been in the opposite direction until now – that we’ve been teaching too much about post-1788 as opposed to what happened before that, or the effects of colonisation”.

Asked what he would say to any Indigenous Australians with such concerns, Tudge suggested the interviewer should name names.

“Well, (A) I’d want to know which individuals you’re referring to, but (B) I would ask you: name me a single country in the world at any time in the world’s history which is not as free and as egalitarian as Australia is today,” Tudge said.

The minister acknowledged there had been “some dreadful instances in our history, absolutely”. Tudge said that before entering parliament he had spent three years working with Indigenous leader Noel Pearson in Cape York and there was “still a lot of deep hurt and trauma”.

But he argued the balance of the proposed curriculum was “out of whack” and students needed to understand why “almost uniquely in the history of the world Australia is such a wealthy, liberal, free egalitarian society”.

“If you don’t understand that deeply, then you’re not going to protect it as a million Australians have through their military service and a hundred thousand people have died in the protection of those things and defending them.”

The curriculum review is yet to be completed, with final revisions due to be provided to Tudge and state and territory education ministers for approval by the end of 2021.

Tudge’s current campaign against elements of the proposal is the latest chapter in Australia’s so-called history wars, which included then prime minister John Howard saying in the 1990s that he rejected “the black armband view of Australian history”.

Julia Gillard, announcing the new national curriculum in 2010, said it presented neither a “black armband nor white blindfold” view of history.

In 2014 Tony Abbott’s government launched a curriculum review with a goal of removing “partisan bias”.

The then education minister, Christopher Pyne, called for more prominence to be given to Anzac Day and for the curriculum to “celebrate Australia” and said he didn’t mind “if the left want to have a fight with the Coalition about Australia’s history”

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/alan-tudge-says-he-doesnt-want-students-to-be-taught-hatred-of-australia-in-fiery-triple-j-interview/ar-AAOcqjC?ocid=chromentpnews

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Sweden v Australia — where would you rather be as COVID evolves and spreads?

James Baillieu 

Eighteen months into the COVID pandemic, the outcomes in my mother’s birthplace of Sweden and my birthplace of Australia could not be more stark.   

Sweden met the challenge of the virus threat guided by medical advice and a bipartisan and multidisciplinary panel of experts. It is clear its approach has delivered far better results. Today Sweden is thriving and is one of the freest, happiest and healthiest countries.

In comparison, Australia’s rolling lockdowns could be the most damaging public policy mistake since federation. Never has government policy so heartlessly transferred harm from the very elderly on to our children. 

Why did Sweden succeed so comprehensively where Australia has failed so dismally? My seven years working at McKinsey & Co taught me a fundamental truth: “What gets measured gets managed.”

In Sweden, policymakers identified what success for the whole of society would look like (short-, medium- and long-term) and then measured their actions. Policies had to be evidence-based and their full costs (societal as well as economic) expressly measured before implementation.

But Australian politicians have not clearly defined what success looks like and therefore have been measuring the wrong things. Narrow epidemiological medical advice has been followed without considering the broader costs and impacts. Politicians have been monomaniacally focused on daily case and death metrics.

Calamitous consequences have been inflicted on Australians.

The rolling lockdown policy is causing cruel trauma to millions of children who need to learn, socialise, play and burn off energy — with an increase in youth suicides, record hospitalisations for self-harm, depression, anguish and adverse educational outcomes. Closing schools is a perverse and unprecedented action with long-term damaging consequences. In Victoria even playgrounds were shut for a time.  

We have fought wars against totalitarian regimes for our freedoms, but we have become a dictatorship by stealth under lockdown. Basic liberties stripped away, arbitrary edicts issued, protests outlawed, curfews declared, a “ring of steel” imposed, and the military in NSW engaged to enforce decrees.

Australians are forbidden to leave the country. Society has become so Kafkaesque that Victorians were told not to remove masks when drinking alcohol outside the home.

Whole sectors of the economy have been gutted by the lockdowns causing bankruptcy, ruin and despair. The rest of the economy has been propped up by massive debt stimulus of hundreds of billions of dollars that our children will have to repay in the future.

COVID is not the Black Death that killed 50% of the population over four years in the 1350s. The mortality rate globally for COVID is about 0.1%-0.25% of the population.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says if we had done nothing at all in Australia we may have had 30,000 deaths. To put that in context, about 170,000 Australians die every year, and just under 85,000 hospitalisations are palliative care. The average age of a COVID death in Australia is 86 — four years higher than the average life expectancy — and most COVID deaths also have a serious illness, such as dementia or heart disease.  Many people who are infected never know they have it, and for healthy people under 50 it is often no more dangerous than the flu.  

In Sweden, COVID policy was under the leadership of epidemiologist Dr Anders Tegnell, the independent steward of the nation’s health. 

All of society’s well-being was considered in policy decisions, not just COVID.  Policy had to be evidence-based. No policy could be implemented without considering the broad costs. Mild physical distancing restrictions were introduced and Swedes were mostly allowed to decide what precautions to take.

There were no border closures; there were no lockdowns. ICU capacity was doubled; hospitals were stretched, but not overloaded. Sweden’s COVID death toll of 0.14% of the population was nearly all people who had a short time to live.  Deaths compare well with the UK (0.18%) and the US (0.21%).

The economy took a small hit but has rebounded and as the rest of the world experiences new surges, Sweden’s weekly average COVID deaths have been zero over the past month.  

But most importantly, Swedes maintained all their democratic rights and freedoms. Tegnell declared lockdowns anti-democratic and unsustainable and kept schools open. He was vociferously criticised by experts the world over and at one point even the king of Sweden despaired of his policies.

But his critics focused on COVID metrics only. He acknowledges some mistakes were made, but Tegnell has been vindicated. Sweden is the world’s success story managing the COVID policy trade-offs holistically.  

Australian politicians are addicted to tyranny and fearmongering. We must learn from Sweden. Our policies must always be measured by what is good for the whole of society.  

End the lockdowns immediately. Restore our rights and freedoms. Stop harming our children and instead protect them.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/sweden-v-australia-%e2%80%94-where-would-you-rather-be-as-covid-evolves-and-spreads/ar-AAOaoYN?ocid=chromentpnews

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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 September, 2021

Government hits back over coal phase-out

The federal government has hit back at a senior United Nations official's call for Australia to accept coal's days are numbered.

Selwin Hart, the UN's assistant secretary-general and special adviser on climate action, told the ANU's Crawford Leadership Forum the phasing out of coal is a prerequisite of limiting global warming to 1.5C.

"If the world does not rapidly phase out coal, climate change will wreak havoc right across the Australian economy: from agriculture to tourism, and right across the services sector," he said.

But he said coal workers and their communities were entitled to a "just transition" to new jobs.

Resources Minister Keith Pitt said coal would remain a significant contributor to the Australian economy well beyond 2030.

"The future of this crucial industry will be decided by the Australian government, not a foreign body that wants to shut it down costing thousands of jobs and billions of export dollars for our economy," Mr Pitt said on Monday.

He noted in the three months to July, coal exports soared to $12.5 billion - a 26 per cent increase on the previous quarter.

But while it was Australia's second largest export, the nation accounted for six per cent of the world's total annual production behind China, India and Indonesia. 

"Coal will continue to generate billions of dollars in royalties and taxes for state and federal governments, and directly employ over 50,000 Australians."

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the market was leading the energy industry away from coal-fired power toward cheaper renewables.

"This is an opportunity for Australia," he said.

Mr Hart said the region was looking to Australia for leadership, especially on the target of net zero emissions by 2050.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said it is the government's "preference" to get to net zero by mid-century, but has not formally committed to it.

"National governments responsible for 73 per cent of global emissions have now committed to net zero by mid-century, and we urge Australia to join them as a matter of urgency," Mr Hart said.

All countries have been encouraged by the UN to submit enhanced "nationally determined contributions" - or NDCs - before COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

Mr Albanese said he was committed to net zero emissions by 2050 as it was "good for jobs, good for lowering prices, as well as being good for lowering emissions and good for the environment".

A spokewoman for Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor said Australia had a strong 2030 target and a clear plan to meet and beat it.

British high commissioner Victoria Treadell said a higher level of ambition for the 2030 and 2050 targets was needed from all countries.

"We are very much hoping we will see that new level of ambition and I know it is something your prime minister is looking at, working hard to try to find a position in time for Glasgow," she told Sky News.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/government-hits-back-over-coal-phase-out/ar-AAO7LfJ?ocid=chromentpnews

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Promising drug a new weapon in curbing COVID’s worst effects

Yesterday 1281 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in NSW. By October many of these will be seriously ill in hospital, some in intensive care, and a few will die. Others will progress to indefinite multifaceted illness called “Long COVID”.

Can this miserable trajectory be modified, while we wait for the vaccination drive to “stop the spread”?

Clinical trials and overseas experience with a class of therapeutic drugs called monoclonal antibodies suggests that it can – but only when they are given early. COVID-19 patients treated in a trial of one such drug called Sotrovimab exhibited an 79 per cent relative reduction in hospitalisation and deaths. In March, the independent regulator halted patient recruitment because of “profound efficacy”. Even with small numbers, before the Delta outbreak, the statistics were persuasive.

The first of 7700 doses of Sotrovimab quietly slipped into Australia three weeks ago. We have waited some time. It now has Therapeutics Goods Administration provisional approval for vulnerable patients, such as the elderly and immunocompromised. It is being used in Shepparton, Victoria. What are the plans for NSW?

Sotrovimab is the latest and, possibly, best therapeutic monoclonal antibody to inhibit the COVID-19 virus attaching to human tissue. The US Federal Drug Authority authorised its emergency use in May. The headline cost is $US2100 a dose, and it’s free to vulnerable Americans.

President Trump was treated with, among other drugs, a duo of anti-COVID monoclonal antibodies labelled Regeneron, similarly authorised in America last November. The US National Institute of Health recommends either drug for vulnerable patients. Don’t mention them in the same breath as ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine.

With COVID on the march in America, antibody distribution has massively scaled up. The Texas state government has just established public antibody infusion centres.

Intravenous antibody infusions take an hour, in infectious patients. No small short-term imposition on overstretched health systems. Yet, one which could prevent a much greater hospital overload in the months which follow. Perhaps a treatment centre on an oval near a hospital should be considered. Like the precautionary Surge Centre in Canberra.

The United Arab Emirates, where Delta is prevalent, and logistics are military-grade, announced striking results, with no deaths among 6175 COVID-19 patients treated in July.

Nevertheless, and crucially, immunologists worry that indiscriminate use of a single antibody such as Sotrovimab might cause resistant variants to emerge and leak into the community. It is no substitute for vaccination. The ethical issues are obvious.

Monoclonal antibodies attack and disable unwanted targets. Think Herceptin for breast cancer, Keytruda for melanoma , Emgality for migraine and Humira for arthritis - all monoclonals, each created or modified for a very specific target. Each is a feat of structural molecular engineering.

It was Britain’s Cambridge scientist, Sir Gregory Winter, who devised and developed the generic technology that underpins monoclonal antibodies. At first, business failed to see their potential. And so, as he recounted in his 2018 Nobel address and at Sydney University in 2019, it was seed-funding from the Australian racing industry which launched monoclonal antibodies to market. The deal was done on a boat on Sydney Harbour. He overheard a whispered comment “Let’s give Greg the money. Let’s see how the boffin trots”. Annual monoclonal revenues now well exceed $100 billion, to untold human benefit.

The Australian perspective has come full circle. Professor Daniel Christ is a former PhD student of Winter’s and is now at the Garvan Institute. He sees a way around this antibody resistance problem. And he looks to the experience in treating HIV infection with three different drugs which curbed that epidemic.

Since early 2020, his team has worked flat out to create monoclonals against COVID-19. They now have three antibodies which are more potent than Sotrovimab in vitro, When used together, they should be very resistant to mutation escape.

If these ventures succeed, Australians will have good reason to be thankful for investment in science.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/promising-drug-a-new-weapon-in-curbing-covid-s-worst-effects-20210906-p58p7n.html

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‘Critical step’: NSW commits to religious discrimination bill

The state government has committed to outlawing religious discrimination in NSW but will not act until the Commonwealth’s own promised religious freedoms bill has passed Federal Parliament.

NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the Coalition was ensuring its laws “reflect modern community values” by introducing a bill to add religion to the state’s anti-discrimination legislation, joining most other states and territories in providing faith-based protections.

“NSW is a proudly multicultural and multi-faith society. We’re pleased to be taking this critical step to protect people of faith and of no faith from discrimination and to support freedom of religion,” Mr Speakman said.

It is already unlawful to discriminate against a person because of a range of other attributes, including sex, homosexuality and transgender status.

The announcement follows a parliamentary inquiry spurred by amendments to the state’s Anti-Discrimination Act proposed by One Nation NSW leader Mark Latham, which in March resulted in a majority of the 14-person committee concluding his bill was mostly a useful template for reform.

As well as explicitly outlawing discrimination of a person based on religion, Mr Latham’s bill also protects people such as former Wallaby Israel Folau from action by employers and professional bodies for comments made outside the workplace that are motivated by religious belief.

Mr Folau settled an unlawful dismissal case with Rugby Australia in 2019 after his contract was terminated for repeatedly posting on social media that homosexuals were destined for hell unless they repented their sins.

The majority of the committee said the bill had attracted support from peak Christian, Islamic and Jewish bodies, however Uniting Church NSW and ACT Moderator Simon Hansford put himself at odds with other denominations in slamming the bill as heavy-handed against minorities.

“Christians are not victims in Australia because of our faith, and we should not seek freedoms that are self-serving and come at the detriment of others in the community,” he said last year.

Greens MP Jenny Leong, one of three committee members to dissent from the majority view, urged Mr Speakman to disregard the majority’s findings, saying the need to protect people because of their religion wasn’t the same as “enshrining protections for people to engage in wholesale discrimination against women and the LGBTIQ+ community under the guise of religious freedoms”.

However, the substance of the proposed law change will remain up in the air for the near future.

To ensure constitutional consistency, the state plans to wait until the federal government’s religious discrimination bill passes before finalising the details of its legislation.

Independent MP Alex Greenwich, another of the dissenters, said it was irresponsible of the government to commit to a bill with “no detail, that could adversely impact the LGBTIQA+ community at a time of great anxiety.”

“If we are seeking to protect religion in the Anti-Discrimination Act, I use that as an opportunity to end the ability of religious education institutions to discriminate against LGBTIQA+ students and teachers,” Mr Greenwich said.

In June, the Commonwealth announced a plan to introduce a religious discrimination bill by the end of the year, with church groups lobbying to have legislation enacted before the federal election.

That bill, which arose from recommendations of Howard-era attorney-general Philip Ruddock’s 2018 religious freedom review, applies limitations on employers to prohibit individuals from expressing religious views outside work, as well as changing existing discrimination protections in schools and service settings.

Ghassan Kassisieh, legal director, of LGBTIQA+ national organisation Equality Australia, said the NSW government would be “well advised to avoid the mistakes of the federal government in this area.”

“Rather than only protecting people of faith from discrimination, previous iterations of the federal bill allowed people to discriminate on the basis of religion,” he said.

NSW Minister for Multiculturalism Natalie Ward said the proposed changes would support people facing religious discrimination through state agency Anti-Discrimination NSW.

“We have a harmonious multi-faith community in NSW which is grounded in respect. It deserves recognition and protection to thrive,” she said.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/critical-step-nsw-commits-to-religious-discrimination-bill-20210906-p58p91.html

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Suicide a bigger problem than Covid

One-in-four Australians say they know someone who died by suicide or attempted to take their own life in the past year – equivalent to five million adults – a new survey has found.

Suicide Prevention Australia chief executive officer Nieves Murray said major social and economic events had historically influenced suicide rates.

“We know social and economic isolation are the biggest drivers of suicide rates and Covid-19 has seen Australians subject to 18 months of rolling lockdowns and disruption to their personal lives, employment and businesses,” she said.

“We’ve seen how quickly Covid-19 cases can get out of hand and we need to have the same national policy focus and vigilance to stop suicide rates doing the same.”

The survey commissioned by Suicide Prevention Australia and completed by YouGov in August, found 25 per cent of adult Australians surveyed knew someone who had died by suicide or attempted to take their own life in the previous 12 months. About 15 per cent knew the person directly, while another 11 per cent knew them indirectly.

About 16 per cent said they had sought help or searched for advice from a suicide prevention service in the past 12 months, about 16 per cent said they had indirectly sought help.

Most people thought “social isolation and loneliness” was the biggest risk to suicide in the next 12 months, with 64 per cent rating it as an issue.

This was followed by unemployment and job security (58 per cent); family and relationship breakdowns (57 per cent); cost of living and personal debt (55 per cent); and drugs and alcohol (53 per cent).

While the latest data from suicide registers in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland do not show an increase in suspected suicide deaths in 2020, or since the Covid-19 pandemic began, Ms Murray said the number of deaths in 2019 had been the highest recorded in Australia, growing from 3093 in 2015, to 3318 in 2019.

“There have never been more lives lost to suicide in this country,” Ms Murray said.

Those surveyed were particularly worried about the suicide risk among young people aged 12-25 years old (42 per cent), followed by middle aged Australians aged 25-55 years old (29 per cent) and men (29 per cent).

Other people thought to be at risk were those living in regional and rural areas (24 per cent), LGBTQI Australians (21 per cent), Indigenous Australians (18 per cent) and those aged over 55 (18 per cent).

The survey also supported a stand-alone national suicide prevention act, similar to one introduced in Japan, which would require the Federal Government to consider and mitigate suicide risks when making all decisions, not just ones related to health.

About 66 per cent thought Australia should introduce similar legislation.

Ms Murray said legislation was the best prevention against suicide rates increasing.

“The heightened economic and social threat posed by Covid-19 means we cannot afford to wait to legislate,” Ms Murray said.

“Australia needs a national suicide prevention act and we need to act now. “We all have a role to play in preventing suicide. An act will legislate a whole-of-government priority to prevent suicide and focus the attention of every agency to address the risk of suicide across our community.

“Suicide prevention isn’t limited to health portfolios. Housing is suicide prevention, employment is suicide prevention, finance is suicide prevention, and education is suicide prevention.”

The organisation noted that more than three times the amount of people died from suicide in 2019 (3318 people) than have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic began (1019 people as of September 2).

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/mental-health/five-million-australians-impacted-by-suicide-survey-shows/news-story/b2189ee7415cde1b549bdc36ea24b3a4

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Ozone recovery is offsetting Southern Hemisphere climate change trends in summer

<i>Cooler summers in Australia despite high CO2 levels!</i>

If the latest climate report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) made anything clear, it was that much more needs to be done to reverse the impacts of climate change.

But buried in the 1,000-page document of mostly alarming reading there was one positive gem.

Our action in reducing ozone depletion is, in the short term, offsetting some of the impacts greenhouse gases are having on summer rainfall systems in the Southern Hemisphere.

What does that mean?

It's all to do with a major climate driver known as the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), a belt of strong westerly winds linked to rainfall in the Southern Hemisphere.

The SAM's position — either moving further north or south — can influence which latitudes see the impacts of storm systems and cold fronts, and can also have an influence on temperature.

Without ozone depletion and greenhouse gas emissions, its position over the southern ocean has a natural variability both north and south.

But with those things occurring, the SAM has been trending further south toward Antarctica, research has shown.

With the SAM further south, storm tracks also shift south, away from Australia — changing which areas recieve rainfall.

Australian Antarctic Division principle research scientist Andrew Klekociuk said in the last 20 years however, ozone recovery has been turning that trend around during the summer months, pushing back on the influence of greenhouse gases.

"[Ozone recovery] is starting to relax the change that we’ve seen [in the SAM]," Dr Kelkociuk said.

"For a period now, we have this tug-of-war between ozone recovery and the effects of greenhouse gas increases."

The weakening of the pole-ward trend during the summer months was referenced in the latest IPCC report, released last month.

It's an element of the report climate science professor Julie Arblaster, from Monash University, described as a "really good news story".

"We, as humans, are doing a big chemistry experiment on our planet at the moment and anything we can do to reduce our impact on the climate system has to be of benefit," she said.

"Bringing the [rainfall and storm systems] back equator-ward would certainly help return some of the rainfall patterns to their normal location."

What could this mean for rainfall?

The position of the SAM has different rainfall outcomes for different parts of the Southern Hemisphere and Australia.

Some regions, including eastern Australia, actually experience wetter conditions in summer when the wind-belt is further towards Antarctica.

That means for eastern Australia, a reversal of that trend could mean less rainfall during the summer months, according to Professor Arblaster.

Regions like western Tasmania and New Zealand, however, could see rainfall increase.

But Professor Arblaster said it was hard to say exactly what the pushback means for Australian summer rainfall, because the SAM was not the only factor influencing the weather.

"Different regions have influences from many things and not just the SAM trend," she said.

"For example, the El Nino Southern Oscillation.

"So there is a strong understanding of how the ozone hole has affected the SAM, but how much influence ozone depletion has had on Australian rainfall trends is still a question."

Impact to temperatures

When it comes to temperatures, Professor Arblaster said there was evidence international efforts to limit ozone depletion had also gone a long way in "avoiding" larger temperature rises across the globe.

"The ozone-depleting substances are really strong greenhouse gasses," she said.

"So if we had continued emitting CFCs, then a study by Goyal and co-authors found that would have led to an additional warming of 0.5 and 1 degree up to now in some regions, and additional warming after."

Short-term buffer only

Both the IPCC report, Professor Arblaster and Dr Klekociuk made one thing clear.

The buffer that ozone recovery was providing to the pole-ward shift of the SAM would not last if greenhouse gas emissions were not reduced.

"If we don’t reduce emissions soon, the greenhouse gases will overwhelm any impact from ozone recovery by the end of the 21st Century," Professor Arblaster said.

The Antarctic ozone hole has recently started to show signs of recovering since The Montreal Protocol was signed in the late 1980's — an international agreement to phase out the use of ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

It is currently on track to have recovered by the mid to late 21st Century.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/ozone-recovery-is-offsetting-southern-hemisphere-climate-change-trends-in-summer/ar-AAO2ppB

************************************

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 September, 2021

Horror as Muslim driver Gazwa Elniz allegedly ploughs her white Audi into a man after 'road rage row over a PARKING SPOT dramatically escalated

<i>The Elniz family are prolific criminals of Muslim origin, apparently Lebanese</i>

A young mother has faced court after allegedly driving her Audi into a group of people following what police say was a wild brawl over a KFC car parking space.

Footage uploaded to social media shows a white car collide into two people and a Ford Explorer at a parking lot on Hoxton Park Road in Liverpool, Sydney's southwest, on Saturday.

Police allege the Audi was driven by Gazwa Elniz, 26, and that she 'kicked and spat' at an officer while being arrested. 

A 30-year-old woman who allegedly hit the outside of the Audi was also charged over the incident.

Three people can be seen in the video trying to block the path the Audi's path as it attempts to drive away.

Ms Elniz spent the night behind bars but was later granted strict conditional bail when she appeared before Parramatta Local Court.

She is now facing five charges including driving with a disqualified licence and assaulting a police officer.

The 30-year-old, who was charged with affray and property-related offences, was granted bail and will face Liverpool Local Court on Thursday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9959567/Young-mum-allegedly-drove-white-Audi-people-row-PARKING-SPOT-outside-KFC.html

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China’s economic pressure not working, impact less than predicted: Treasurer

IT is “no secret” China has been targeting Australia through trade but the impact has been far less than what was expected, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will say in a frank address regarding the rising superpower.

He will urge Australian businesses who have worked hard to crack the lucrative Chinese market to move towards a “China plus” plan by diversifying and not relying on one nation.

Mr Frydenberg will make the comments in a pointed speech delivered to the Australian National University Crawford Leadership Forum on Monday.

He will call out China for being “willing to use its economic weight as a source of political pressure”, offering carrots through its Belt and Road Imitative while threatening consequences for “perceived misdeeds”.

“Australia is facing this pressure more sharply than most other countries. However, it is no secret that China has recently sought to target Australia’s economy,” Mr Frydenberg will say.

“They have targeted our agricultural and resources sector, with measures affecting a range of products, including wine, seafood, barley and coal.

“We have remained steadfast in defending our sovereignty and our core values. And we always will.”

But despite the Australian goods targeted by Beijing’s sanctions suffering $5.4 billion drop in exports to China in the year to the June quarter, Mr Frydenberg will say the same products saw exports rise $4.4 billion to the rest of the world.

“Despite China’s wide-ranging actions, our economy has continued to perform very strongly,” he said.

“They have hurt specific industries and regions, significantly in some cases. Nevertheless, the overall impact on our economy has, to date, been relatively modest.”

The relationship between Australia and China is at one of its lowest ebb in decades.

Tensions present before Covid-19, with Australia introducing anti-foreign interference laws perceived as having Beijing in mind, have escalated significantly in the past 18 months.

It includes China’s Australian embassy releasing a list of 14 grievances, including speaking out of human rights issues in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang, calling for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and blocking Huawei’s bid to build the 5G network on national security grounds.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/chinas-economic-pressure-not-working-impact-less-than-predicted-treasurer/news-story/32e6b6c351f3018f87660bd91ec04915

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‘Frankly ridiculous’: Sky News CEO Paul Whittaker hits out at YouTube over ban

Sky News CEO Paul Whittaker has blasted YouTube in his opening statement to the Senate Inquiry Into Media Diversity, rejecting suggestions the network ever denied the existence of Covid-19 and accusing the social media platform of censoring “certain views”.

In a strongly-worded six-minute statement, Mr Whittaker said YouTube’s assertion Sky had peddled Covid-denialist theories was “frankly ridiculous,” as the network had provided 24/7 coronavirus coverage since March 2020, covering “all angles of this evolving national and global public health and policy debate”.

Last month, YouTube took the unprecedented step of removing 23 Sky News videos from the platform and suspending the network for a week. Sky News Australia has nearly two million subscribers to its YouTube channel and has uploaded in excess of 50,000 pieces of content.

“Sky News Australia strongly supports vaccination. Any claims to the contrary are false and a blatant attempt to discredit and harm our news service,” Mr Whittaker said.

All the network’s hosts “continue to speak strongly in support of vaccination as the only way forward for the nation,” he added.

But YouTube’s own editorial policies regarding Covid-19 were inconsistent and impossible to apply, Mr Whittaker said, as they mandated adherence to ever-shifting World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, and these guidelines were sometimes at odds with health advice from government.

“YouTube’s actions make clear that it is not a neutral platform, but a publisher selectively broadcasting content and censoring certain views, while allowing videos that are patently false, misogynistic, and racist to proliferate,” Mr Whittaker said.

While the Sky News videos were removed, videos on drug taking, gang violence and “crackpot conspiracy theories” were all widely available on YouTube, he added.

The Sky News CEO also blasted the platform for editorial policies that lacked transparency and not giving operators the opportunity to remove offending content before a suspension order.

With no assurance from YouTube that video take-downs or suspensions would not occur in future, Sky had removed a number of its own clips in an attempt to navigate YouTube’s “opaque policies,” Mr Whittaker said.

New terms of service should be applicable to YouTube as it was clearly a publisher in its own right, he said.

“Why does a tech giant, YouTube, and faceless, nameless individuals backed by an algorithm, based in California, get to decide that holding governments and decision makers to account is ‘misinformation’? Why do they get to decide what is and isn’t allowed to be news?” Mr Whittaker asked.

Sky News was for “the open debate of all issues by a wide range of people,” Mr Whittaker said, and this was a “fundamental tenet of our society that should be upheld and protected”.

Mr Whittaker also said it was the decision of Sky News hosts not to appear before the committee, firmly rejecting suggestions from Committee Chair Senator Sarah Hanson-Young that they may have been pressured not to appear.

In a testy exchange, he rejected a suggestion from Senator Hanson-Young that Sky promoted “disinformation” and “Covid lies”.

Mr Whittaker said YouTube had “overreached” in taking down the 23 Covid-19 videos. “There were no complaints from the public about them,” he said.  He also said he didn’t believe Sky News had even breached YouTube editorial policies.

Sky did not appeal a warning issued from YouTube in December 2020, about two videos uploaded in October 2020, because the network needed clarification about the reasons for the warning, Mr Whittaker said.

Sky News was accountable to the Australian people but YouTube was not, Mr Whittaker stated.  “They take no responsibility, yet they want to take decisions on what is published,” he said.

Labor Senator Kim Carr said 500,000 Australians had petitioned the parliament asking for a Royal Commission into media diversity, and asked Mr Whittaker for his views. “We’ve never had more media diversity in this country,” Mr Whittaker said.

“People have never had so much choice for news. We’ve got new brands that have entered the market in recent years.”

Asked by Senator Carr about a report in Nine Newspapers about forthcoming News Corp coverage on climate change policies, Mr Whittaker said Sky’s focus would be on Australia’s potential energy pathways to get to net zero.

Climate change was “one of the biggest issues in the world,” he said. “We are looking at the net zero issue. We are seeking to explore the solutions.”

Sky News and News Corp did not deny climate change, Mr Whittaker said.

Grilled about the influence of News Corp non-executive Chairman Lachlan Murdoch, Mr Whittaker said he had little influence over Sky News coverage, and the two spoke “infrequently”.

YouTube has removed more than one million videos worldwide, including 23 from Sky News, most of which relate to alleged Covid-19 misinformation, a senate inquiry into media diversity has heard.

Google-owned YouTube in August suspended Sky News Australia – which has 1.88 million YouTube subscribers – for a seven-day ­period.

On Monday, Google Australia and New Zealand director of public policy Lucinda Longcroft fronted the inquiry and defended the company’s actions.

Ms Longcroft told the committee that YouTube made “difficult decisions” about what was permissible online, particularly regarding the “harmful misinformation” about Covid-19.

“We are not an anything goes platform,” she said. “The guidelines provide public guidance on content that is not allowed on our platform.”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/media/media-diversity-inquiry-google-sky-news-acma-giving-evidence/news-story/046c4f2905f710018a2c9542b2b0c0a7

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Covid treatment improving as doctors learn to fight the disease and access new drugs

Australia’s treatment of Covid-19 patients has improved with doctors claiming new drug options and increased experience with the virus may help ease the burden on hospitals.

In August, Australia’s drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, approved a novel antibody treatment called sotrovimab. The drug will prevent those most at risk from developing severe disease.

Director of infectious diseases at Mater Health Services, Prof Paul Griffin, said it is the first treatment for people that have mild Covid, with other treatments to date focused on those with critical disease in hospital.

“Sotrovimab is an antibody treatment, and one that’s been shown in good clinical trials to have a dramatic impact in reducing people’s probability of progressing to severe disease,” Griffin said. “If there’s someone who’s high risk at developing severe symptoms, it can be given to them. It does need to be given early, before people are very unwell, but in those people it stops very significant progression through to severe disease.”

The drug works by binding to the virus’s spike protein. This protein is essential to the virus’s ability to enter cells and continue to replicate and spread throughout the body. Sotrovimab blocks this process.

Griffin said sotrovimab is already being given in Australia to vulnerable people with health risks aged over 55, or those under 55 with significant comorbidities like diabetes or kidney disease.

“Those people obviously are at very significant risk of getting severely unwell with Covid,” he said. “In the first five days, before they get very sick and before they need oxygen, that antibody can reduce their chance of progressing to needing hospitalisation.

“It is being used now, and is modifying the disease trajectory in the highest risk people. Unfortunately there are still some supply constraints around this medication, but it will help a lot, as until now we haven’t had any highly effective, specifically antiviral medications.”

It will have the flow-on effect of reducing the strain on hospitals, especially intensive care units, he said.

“This drug will mean even if we have a lot of Covid cases, if we target the drug at those most at risk we’ll have fewer people clogging up the hospital system and utilising those precious limited resources and so it could, potentially, make the virus much more manageable.”

Griffin said nurses and physicians were also now much more experienced at treating severe cases. Since last year, most critically ill people on a ventilator have been given a corticosteroid called dexamethasone, as it appears to reduce the risk of death. There is now enough evidence to indicate the benefits of using it to treat Covid almost always outweigh the risk of harm.

It is not recommended for those with mild or moderate disease. The drug appears to dampen the over-active immune response seen in some patients that causes excessive inflammation and severe symptoms. It can also be used in ventilated children.

Other sophisticated anti-inflammatory medicines are being trialled in ventilated patients, such as tocilizumab and baricitinib, though there is a critical shortage of the former in Australia. These drugs “probably” reduce the risk of death in critical patients, but more research is needed, Australian clinical care guidelines say.

The guidelines also conditionally support use of the antiviral remdesivir in hospitalised adults with moderate to severe Covid-19, who do not require ventilation as it “probably” reduces the risk of death. The guidelines do not recommend it be used in adults who do require ventilation.

This differs to the World Health Organization guidelines, which recommends against the use of remdesivir in hospitalised patients, irrespective of disease severity. The difference in recommendations comes down to differences in how WHO and Australian regulators analyse data, but Griffin said clinical experience with remdesivir shows it has overall underwhelming results.

“But the addition of anti inflammatory medicines like dexamethasone and tocilizumab have certainly made a difference,” he said.

“Over time though, I think there will be lots more treatments added for Covid-19. We would like to see a highly-active, Covid-19-specific antiviral that could be used orally. That would be a highly desirable tool which we don’t have yet. But lots of promising research is happening and in the near future, I expect we will have a larger range of treatments available.

“In the meantime we have already come a long way in our understanding how the disease progresses, and with more people vaccinated combined and the addition of sotrovimab, the situation is being helped a lot. ”

With health professionals becoming more adept at treating Covid and treatments being approved, Griffin said it was distressing to hear about people using and advocating unproven treatments such as ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medication currently only being given to Covid-19 patients in Australia as part of tightly controlled clinical trials.

A man was hospitalised in Sydney after self-administering ivermectin, and the TGA reported concern over increased importation and prescribing of the drug.

“I’m certainly aware of the strong push to get ivermectin, and it’s frustrating,” Griffin said. “It’s not a risk-free medication and people are often using sub-standard preparations designed for animals. It also means potentially those people are less likely to seek out evidence-based care, and they’re less likely to present for testing or come to hospital for the treatments we now have.

“I think people want to believe there’s some kind of conspiracy that we’re concealing or withholding effective treatments when in fact there is a lot of work going into research.”

The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Karen Price, said the attraction of unproven and potentially harmful treatments was unsurprising.

“In times of heightened anxiety, people want a fast solution that will keep them and their loved ones safe,” she said.

“They may suspend any doubt they have and be lured in by false promises via social media or prominent public figures doing all they can to draw attention to themselves. I wish I could tell them that ivermectin will protect them from Covid-19 but that simply isn’t the case.”

She said medical treatments require high levels of testing and retesting.

“Ivermectin has not passed this standard, she said. “In contrast, sotrovimab is an example of a new drug for the treatment of Covid-19 that has passed through the rigorous testing safety procedures of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.”

Price said even more so than treatments, the best protection against the virus is vaccination.

“Tell your friends and family to get vaccinated too, abide by any Covid-19 restrictions in place and remember that your GP is always there to help,” she said. “We won’t offer untested treatments featured on your Facebook news feed, but we will be there to give you your Covid-19 vaccine and treat you for any other health concerns you may have.”

https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/covid-treatment-improving-as-doctors-learn-to-fight-the-disease-and-access-new-drugs/ar-AAO4Ael

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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 September, 2021

Resurgent coal market hits new high as Chinese, Indian economies gather steam

Soaring demand for electricity in China and India has put a rocket under the coal market with prices for the fossil fuel hitting a record high despite efforts to de-carbonise the global economy.

The resurgence comes despite China's informal ban on Australian imports and de-carbonisation efforts

Australian miners have been fetching up to $US180 a tonne for their benchmark thermal coal deliveries this week, setting a new high of more than $240/t in Australian dollar terms.

The record comes barely six months since prices plumbed lows of just $US50/t as miners dealt with the twin blows of a COVID-induced economic downturn and China's unofficial decision to ban Australian imports.

Viktor Tanevski, the principle coal research analyst at consultancy Wood Mackenzie, said there had been a surge in power use — which was closely tied to coal consumption — as major Asian economies reopened.

Mr Tanevski said the market had been further propelled by problems among major coal producers such as Indonesia, starving supply and driving prices higher.

"Consequently, we've had fireworks in the thermal coal pricing indices," Mr Tanevski said.

The resurgent coal market stands in stark contrast to last year when Beijing added coal to its list of Australian products hit with trade strikes.

While the decision was a blow to producers initially, Mr Tanevski said they had since been able to find other markets as global trade "rebalanced".

Chief among them was India, which Mr Tanevski said was on track to take up to 20 million tonnes of Australian coal in 2021.

Established markets such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were also buying significant amounts of coal from Australia.

And in a sign of the times, Mr Tanevski said there had been several shipments of Australian coal to Indonesia, despite the fact it was one of the world's biggest suppliers in its own right.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-09-05/resurgent-coal-market-hits-new-high/100431418

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Barnaby Joyce snaps at reporter over climate change question

Barnaby Joyce has snapped at a reporter after being asked if he accepted Australia is at a greater risk of extreme weather events due to global warming.

A landmark UN climate change report last month warned temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5 degrees, bringing widespread extreme weather.

The deputy prime minister was addressing the National Press Club for the first time since his return to the Nationals’ leadership when he was asked if he accepted the science of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

But Mr Joyce, who was elevated back to the Nationals’ leadership partially due to his stance on climate change, seemingly likened the question to being forced to denounce satan at a baptism.

“I really don‘t like when questions are presented like that, because it sounds like you’re out of baptism, on behalf of your child, denouncing Satan,” the deputy prime minister said.

A back and forth between the reporter and Mr Joyce ensued, and ended when the deputy prime minister snapped and accused the journalist of being “part of the problem”.

“Your emissions went up. You are part of the problem, regional Australia was part of the solutions,” he said.

“With respect, Mr Joyce, you‘re the Government. This is an IPCC statement in the latest science. So I want to know whether the starting point is that factual summation of the science?” the reporter continued.

“I've told you I’m not going to stand here and sort of be berated into complying with the thing that sounds awfully like the statements that one gives in regards to a child of a baptism,” Mr Joyce sniped back.

“Do I agree humans have had an influence in the climate? Yes, but I’m not going to participate in some sort of kangaroo court of, ‘Now you will agree to every statement I say, because the IPCC said it.’”

At the time of its release, United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres declared the climate report card was a “code red for humanity” and urged nations to take greater action.

Mr Joyce last month sensationally claimed it was not the job of the government to come up with the blueprint to reach net-zero emissions.

The deputy prime minister’s comments were part of a wide ranging address to the National Press Club, where he announced the North Queensland Water Infrastructure Authority would shift north from Canberra to Bowen.

“The North Queensland Water Authority, currently based here in Canberra, is moving to North Queensland. Adjacent to where we are building a dam. And the same region where we are building Hells Gate dam, where we will start on a long-term nation-building task of expanding irrigated agriculture by moving a proportion of the abundant resource of water west,” he said.

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/barnaby-joyce-snaps-at-reporter-over-climate-change-question/news-story/a35ebcc9cf7e35eeaff02262a1997986

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Another one of our charming Muslim immigrants

A 'violent extremist' who was 'inspired by ISIS' and on a terror watchlist has been shot dead by police in an Auckland supermarket after stabbing at least six people in an 'out of control' rampage.

Six people have been left fighting for life in hospitals across New Zealand's north island on Friday afternoon while the knifeman died inside the Countdown supermarket in New Lynn, in the city's south.  

Three of the victims were described as 'critical' with neck and chest wounds. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed the 32-year-old Sri Lankan national, known only as 'S' for legal reasons, was considered one of the nation's most dangerous extremists and was watched 24/7 since 2016. He arrived in New Zealand in 2011.

'What happened today was despicable, hateful and wrong,' she said. 'It was carried out by an individual, not a faith or religion. He was gripped by violent and ISIS inspired ideology that is not supported here.'

A surveillance team and special tactics group monitored the man at all times and plain clothes officers were able to respond in 60 seconds when he launched his attack on Friday afternoon. 

It is understood the man obtained a knife from within the store, and detectives were so close they 'heard' the commotion.

Due to suppression orders that are already in place, the prime minister says there is information about the man's identity and details of his past criminal history that cannot yet be revealed.

She vowed to share any further details 'within the confines of the law' if the court lifted suppression orders in the wake of his death.

'He was known to our national security agencies, was of concern and was being monitored constantly. There are very few people that fall into this category,' Ms Ardern said.

She reiterated that if the offender had commit a crime in the past that would have allowed authorities to put him in prison, 'that's where he would have been'. 

'The reason he was in the community is because within the law we could not put him anywhere else. His past behaviour was, within the threshold of the law, not enough to put him in prison.' 

The 32-year-old offender reportedly landed himself on terror watchlists after twice buying hunting knives and being found to possess Islamic State propaganda videos, NZHerald reported. 

Just last month, he was sentenced to a one year supervision order for possessing propaganda videos created by the Islamic State that promoted terrorism. 

He had reportedly performed internet searches asking about the guidelines of 'lone-wolf mujahideen', knife attacks and prison conditions in New Zealand.

After receiving a formal warning from police, 'S' reportedly made a social media post which read: 'One day I will go back to my country and I will find Kiwi scums in my country... and I will show them... what will happen when you mess with S while I'm in their country. If you're tough in your country... we are tougher in our country scums.' 

'S' had reportedly told worshipers in his mosque that he intended to join ISIS and was arrested at Auckland Airport in May 2017 after booking a one-way ticket to Singapore. 

The outlet revealed he had only recently been released from prison after a High Court judge ruled preparing a terrorist attack was not equitable to performing a terrorist act and sentenced him on a lesser charge.

The day after he walked free from prison, 'S' purchased yet another hunting knife. He was arrested again, but was not prosecuted under the strict terrorism laws.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9953917/Auckland-supermarket-shooting-Knifeman-shot-dead-police-knife-rampage.html

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Sussan Ley approves first coal project since court rules she owes children duty of care

<i>But there's no such thing as a happy Greenie</i>

The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, has granted her first approval to a coalmining project since the federal court found she has a duty of care to protect young people from the climate crisis.

In a decision published late on Friday, Ley approved Wollongong Coal’s application to expand existing underground coalmining at its Russell Vale colliery north of Wollongong.

The project will extract approximately 3.7m tonnes of extra coal over a five-year period.

The decision was criticised by the anti-mining group Lock the Gate, which said the project threatened Sydney’s drinking water catchment and put the health of children, who will face the worst of the climate crisis, at risk.

“This is a terrible decision for Australian children, for the environment and for more than 5 million people who rely on drinking water in the greater Sydney catchment area,” the group’s spokesperson Nic Clyde said. “Sussan Ley has knowingly subjected Australian children to catastrophic climate risks.”

In May, the federal court ruled the environment minister had a common law duty of care to protect younger people against future harm from climate change.

The ruling was made after eight teenagers, led by Melbourne student Anj Sharma and supported by Sister Brigid Arthur, an 86-year-old nun and former teacher, sought an injunction to prevent Ley from approving a proposal by Whitehaven Coal to expand the Vickery coalmine in northern New South Wales.

The case has become known as the Sharma case and Ley has lodged an appeal.

The court did not grant the injunction, but its finding that the minister had a duty of care to not act in a way that would cause future harm to young people was praised as an “amazing decision” with potentially significant consequences.

In a statement of reasons for her decision to approve Wollongong Coal’s project, the minister said the environment department had sought further information from the company about what actions it would take to reduce emissions at the mine and at the steel-making plant in India where the coal would be used.

The statement said Ley considered the federal court’s findings and had given “human safety-elevated weight in making my decision”.

Ley wrote that she had found the mine’s expansion was unlikely to lead to an increase in global average surface temperatures, based on advice she received from the department. She said this was because the mine was unlikely to cause more coal to be consumed globally than would be consumed if she refused the project.

She also found the project was unlikely to cause harm to human safety because it was likely that a comparable amount of coal would be consumed in its place if she rejected the development. She concluded that this meant the project would not result in an increase in global greenhouse gas emissions – a finding Lock the Gate labelled “bizarre”.

In response to questions on Friday, Ley said she was carrying out her responsibilities under national environmental laws.

“This approval follows a rigorous assessment process, includes strict environmental protection and has been approved by NSW,” her spokesman said. “The project will make an important contribution to the economy.”

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/sussan-ley-approves-first-coal-project-since-court-rules-she-owes-children-duty-of-care/ar-AAO3IEc?ocid=chromentpnews

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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 September, 2021

Un-co-operative Muslims cause quarantine problems in Qld.

<i>Muslims think they are better than us</i>

Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said the Australian International Islamic College at Carrara was closed after it appeared a family of five returned to Queensland from Melbourne. 

Ms D'Ath told parliament early indications were the family evaded detection by travelling to the Gold Coast via an inland route.

She said the family was in hotel quarantine but is "refusing to be tested and so far is not cooperating with authorities".

The school has been closed and students sent home.  "This is a difficult situation," Ms D'Ath said. 

The Carrara campus of the Australian International Islamic College has closed after a family of five linked to the school ­– which has about 200 students - appeared to have recently returned to Queensland from Melbourne.

Principal Christine Harman told parents she had been working closely with Queensland Health on the emerging situation. “Our College became aware that members of our Carrara campus community may have returned from a Covid-19 hotspot,” she said.

“Based on our initial inquiries and the early information that we received we were unable to determine whether they had undertaken the mandatory hotel quarantine period of the manner by which they entered the state

“As a result, we immediately took proactive and precautionary steps to safeguard our school community and contacted the appropriate authorities to investigate our concerns.”

Ms Harman went on to “reassure all families” that the school was not currently dealing with a confirmed Covid-19 case, “but rather a potential quarantine or border entry issue”.

Earlier Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called for the family, which has been forced into quarantine, to "cooperate with authorities".

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/premier-to-face-questions-over-plea-for-investigation-of-impacts-of-covid19-on-children/live-coverage/803d560d687054466976898dca41a761

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University rankings again

Australia has maintained six universities in the world top 100 with Melbourne University the top local contender, and Australian National University and the University of Queensland tying for second position.

Monash and Queensland University both lifted their positions, pushing Sydney University down the ranking by seven places in the 2022 Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings.

More than one-third of Australia’s 37 ranked universities improved their standing since last year, while just seven lost ground.

Times Higher Education’s chief knowledge officer, Phil Baty, said the full effects of the pandemic on Australian higher education, which has probably been hit worse than most other nations due to the impact of closed borders and the drying up of international student revenue, would take some time to filter through.

“The knock-on effects of reduced revenues could be seen for years,” Mr Baty said.

However, Australian vice-chancellors downplayed the importance of the ranking with Duncan Maskell, vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, saying only that he was “content” with his institution’s performance in this year’s ranking.

“I am more proud of the fact that, despite the very serious challenges of the past 12 months, the university has continued to perform at an incredibly high level in the things that really matter: educating our students and doing excellent research that makes a difference in the world,” Professor Maskell said.

Brian Schmidt, vice-chancellor of Australian National University, noted that rankings were not “what drives our mission as a university”.

We exist to serve the nation and all Australians, as well as our region and the wider world, through truly transformational research and teaching,”

The University of Queensland said it was “an exceptional result” and that the institution’s “ambitious” agenda in engaging with industry partners as part of the story behind its rise.

Western Sydney University leapfrogged seven local rivals and broke into the global top 250 for the first time.

The top five universities globally were: Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, California Institute of Technology and Massachussetts Institute of Technology. Cambridge was the only other non-US university in the top 10.

https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/education/melbourne-ranked-best-in-australia-again-20210902-p58o3v

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Strawberry farmers' issue SOS as prices below cost of production force them to spray out fields

Fields of beautiful ripe fruit are being killed off in Queensland as the price of strawberries drops below the cost of production.

Some growers have started spraying out blocks four to six weeks ahead of schedule, slammed by the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on sales in New South Wales and Victoria.

Queensland Strawberry Growers' Association president Adrian Schultz estimated that demand was down as much as 50 per cent as Queensland farmers enter the usual peak of their growing season.

"They're a touch-and-feel product. People like to pick them up and look at them and so we need that foot traffic. We need people going through the major stores, fruit and veggie shops," Mr Schultz said.

"Not having restaurants, cafes, bakeries, cake shops as outlets is also having a pretty massive impact."

Queensland growers' average cost of production is estimated to be around $1.30 for 250 grams. Some supermarkets are selling strawberries for $1 a punnet to move their backlog of fruit.

"I'm just hoping that the impact of this [reduced demand] doesn't result in more strawberry farmers going to the wall," Mr Schultz said.

"We can not operate — getting a return of $1 a punnet — and not lose money, so that's why, on our farm, we've decided that we're going to spray out some blocks next week."

Growers have sent out an SOS, pleading with Australians to take advantage of the low prices and buy them by the basketful for healthy snacking and try them oven-roasted with a baked brie or in a spicy strawberry salsa. 

"The best thing that people could do to help us at the moment is go and grab a couple of punnets while they're at such a good price," Mr Schultz said.

In 2020, Australia's strawberry production was valued at $435 million, with 82,310 tonnes of fruit grown nationally. Around 42 per cent of of that yield comes from the Sunshine State.

The practice of spraying out crops usually only occurs at the end of the growing season and prevents the spread of disease from rotting fruit.

All spraying meets food safety standards and is not done on fruit that is for consumption.

New South Wales grower Asaf Bar Shalom hopes restrictions will end by the time Berrylicious starts its picking season in mid-October so that customers can visit his greenhouses at Thirlmere.

Many smaller growers are relying on diversification and a "pick your own" offering for survival.

Lillian McMartin has been growing strawberries for 35 years. Four years ago, her family made the decision to reduce their number of strawberry plants from 700,000 to 34,000 and focus on "pick your own".

The family also grows lychees, custard apples, figs and sugarcane on their Bli Bli property that Graham McMartin's parents bought in 1945. Their farm cafe sells award-winning ice cream and sorbet loaded with fresh fruit.

"We started off with jam and we found that wasn't utilising enough fruit. So then we started making the ice cream as well and we do strawberry sundaes and loaded pancakes with fresh strawberries and strawberry sauce. It's very good and very popular," Ms McMartin said.

Visitors are charged $15/kg to pick beautiful, super ripe, red strawberries straight from the field. "People are prepared to pay. They only pick what they want and a lot of them don't like to buy from the supermarket," Ms McMartin said.

Most of the nation's export crop is grown in Western Australia. 

Jamie Michael is one of the state's largest strawberry growers, supplying fruit into the domestic, interstate and international markets. He said Western Australia's crop size was reduced by 25 per cent going into this season in anticipation of lower international exports, but the cutback was not enough to buffer producers from reduced prices.

At the peak of his season, Mr Michael stopped sending fruit to markets in New South Wales and Victoria after his agent told him he was "struggling to give them away".

"At the moment, I know there are quite a few Queensland growers who are already spraying out either some or all of their crops and that is around four weeks early for those guys. So, we are hoping that is going to help with the [market] situation on the east coast," Mr Michael said.

"A lot of farms are starting to open for 'pick your own' … the price is fairly low and they can get a good bulk amount of product and make some use of stuff that there is really no point picking."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/strawberry-farmers-issue-sos-as-prices-below-cost-of-production-force-them-to-spray-out-fields/ar-AAO02SL

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Kids as young as THREE should be asked which pronoun they want to be called, says NSW government guide

Children as young as three should be asked which pronoun they prefer, a government guide has suggested.

The guide, produced by the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian, was first introduced in a bid to help schools and junior sporting clubs keep kids 'safe' in new environments away from the home. 

Gender pronouns refer to people as he/him/his or she/her/hers, while those who see themselves outside of binary gender may prefer to be referred to with 'they/them'. 

But critics have warned asking a preschool-aged child about their gender identity could be confusing and detrimental to personal development.

They also believe it could be distressing for young children because it will leave them confused as they haven't yet grasped the concept of gender.

The controversial government publication, titled Empowerment and Participation, was released this year. It states adults and parents looking after children aged between three and eight must never assume gender identities.  'Ask for their preferred pronouns and (then) res­pectfully use them,' the guide reads. 

Dr Bella d'Abrera, from the Institute of Public Affairs Foundations of Western Civilisation Program, believes questioning a child's preferred gender pronoun is wildly inappropriate.

'Asking children this question is ridiculous. Three-year-olds have no idea what a pronoun is, let alone which one they would prefer adults to use,' she told the Daily Telegraph.

'As a society, we need to let children be children. They should not be forced to participate in something which is scientifically false, which is that there are more than two genders.'

She added that 'woke bur­eaucrats' should never look to introduce radical gender theories on young children.

A spokesman from the NSW ­Office of the Children's Guardian argued the potential use of pronouns could be beneficial. 'The advice is about being polite and not making assumptions. Knowing how a child prefers to be addressed avoids confusion and establishes trust,' he said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9951319/Kids-aged-THREE-asked-pronoun-want-called-says-NSW-government-guide.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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2 September, 2021

An African horror in Brisbane

Ten youths aged 15 to 19 have been charged with attempted murder following an alleged gang assault that has left a Brisbane boy on life support and triggered fears of retaliation attack.

The boy, 17, remains on life support in hospital after the assault at the weekend in Railway Terrace, Milton.

Detective Superintendent Tony Fleming said the victim was of African heritage and was gravely ill in hospital.

“He is unconscious, he is in a coma, he has life threatening head injuries,” he said.

Police allege the boy was assaulted while he slept by up to 12 people about 3am last Saturday.

Det Supt Fleming said there were 12 people of interest in the investigation, who he said were also African, with their ages ranging from 15 to 19.

Police say a group of people rented an apartment at a Milton apartment last Friday and there was a social gathering before many left.

At 3.15 the following morning a group of 12 people arrived and were let into the apartment.

“We will allege that while in the apartment this group of young men violently and viciously assaulted the victim,” Det Supt Fleming said.

“We will allege the incident was a cowardly attack by a group upon a young defenceless man.”

Most of the alleged offenders lived in western suburbs in Brisbane, near the border with Ipswich, and some in central south Brisbane.

“These young people, we will allege identify with that geographic western suburbs of south Brisbane,” he said.

Supt Fleming described the alleged attack as abhorrent.

“In terms of motive, the reasons for the crime on Saturday morning are still to be determined,” Supt Fleming said.

“But we suspect there is some form of potential retaliation between two groups of these young people.

“But the reason for that could never justify what has been done to the victim.”

Det Supt Fleming said some of the people allegedly involved had labelled themselves as members of a gang.

“Some of the young people involved label themselves as being members of a gang and in any common language demonstrating the attributes of a gang,” he said.

Det Supt Fleming said “some people had spoken on the quiet” to police that they feared there could be retaliation.

“It looks like the people we will allege are involved in this are part of a group, a gang,” he said.

“I’m not going to name the gang. And the reason I’m not going to name the gang is because we know from experience overseas, particularly in the United States, is that once you start doing that you risk this becoming tit-for-tat and some sort of notoriety for these young people.”

He said there were was no organisation or structure to the group.

But police will allege they came together and committed the assault before leaving together.

“I encourage people if that (thoughts of retaliation) is happening, to stop,” Det Supt Fleming said.

“We will work hand in hand with the African community if that is happening.

“A young man through no fault of his own lies in ICU in a critical condition.”

Police have set up an incident centre at the Brisbane City police station.

Det Supt Fleming said there is no threat to the community.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-qld/police-launch-raids-across-brisbane-after-pack-assault-in-milton-leaves-teen-on-life-support/news-story/baa48c2798546b9bdb1f04baac495c30

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Children as young as three developing nervous tics during lockdown, doctors say

There are growing concerns for the toll lockdowns are having on teenagers, but those as young as three are also developing symptoms of anxiety.

Australians are more concerned about job losses and their mental health than the health implications of COVID-19, according to a landmark survey. The survey conducted by YouGov and News Corp reveals Australians’ attitudes towards the pandemics and lockdowns are shifting. Associate Editor at The Australian…

Children as young as three are developing nervous tics and sleep apnoea during Melbourne’s sixth Covid-19 lockdown, according to doctors.

Clinical psychologist Andy Prodromidis said he had noticed at least a 50 per cent jump in the number of parents struggling with the latest lockdown.

He said there was an increased risk of children experiencing “vicarious trauma” this time around, with many as young as three wetting the bed more frequently and developing nervous tics such as twitching, eye blinking and lip biting.

“Limited social contact can impair children’s development and, in some cases, contribute to significant emotional and behavioural problems that may require professional help,” he said.

“Many parents have reported struggling with a variety of issues including reduced income, job losses and uncertainty about the future.”

“This can have a negative impact on young children who are exposed to significant stress and anxiety in their parents.”

Dr Prodromidis said the true impact of lockdowns on children would not be known for “many years to come”. “What kids need now, more than ever, is social connection, and anything that can help in this regard is a positive thing,” he said.

“It’s very important for families to try and stay connected and for kids to keep in touch with family and friends, be physically active and get a good night’s sleep.”

Children have been particularly hit by the latest swath of lockdown restrictions, with health officials enforcing a ban on playgrounds as the Covid-19 Delta variant sweeps through the younger population.

Of the state’s 841 active Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, 182 were aged up to nine, 125 were aged between 10-19 years and 177 were aged between 20-29.

Paediatrician Dr Luke Sammartino has also noticed an uptick in toddler-aged children suffering during this lockdown, which has been in place since August 5 and has just been extended beyond September 2. “I have seen many children with symptoms of acute anxiety and especially the onset of nervous tics,” he said.

“Our kids are becoming increasingly distressed. Our children know that something is going on even if we are not talking with them about Covid. “They miss their friends and extended family, they see the news and other screens and they are frustrated.”

There are growing concerns of the toll the lockdowns are having on teenagers, with chief psychiatrist Neil Coventry reporting hospitals are dealing with a significant increase in the number and severity of young people self-harming.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to make announcements on Wednesday about a plan that would ease lockdown rules modestly once “new thresholds” of low case numbers are met.

The Premier hinted that VCE students and “senior cohorts” would be included in upcoming restriction changes, but schools would not resume classroom learning.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/children-as-young-as-three-developing-nervous-tics-during-lockdown-doctors-say/news-story/0a3a37c6bb47a79efc1f5ec83975f260

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Delay to removal of flammable cladding from NSW apartment buildings

A state government project to remove flammable cladding from apartment towers has been put on hold until next year, with the NSW Building Commissioner blaming the COVID-19 lockdown for the delay.

Some 239 apartment buildings – most of which are in Sydney – housing thousands of residents have been deemed high-risk and are under orders to remove combustible cladding.

The government originally planned for work to start on removing cladding from the first building late this year, as part of a remediation project it wants to be completed by late 2023.

Smoke billows from a 20-storey apartment building on fire in Milan in northern Italy on Sunday.

Smoke billows from a 20-storey apartment building on fire in Milan in northern Italy on Sunday.CREDIT:AP

NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler, however, has told industry groups the regulator expects work to start on remediating the first buildings in February.

Mr Chandler, whose office is overseeing Project Remediate, said design work, and deciding the order of the first buildings to have cladding removed, was expected to begin as soon as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

“We estimate the project is between four and six weeks behind schedule. But we are on track to begin assessment and triage works in the coming months, and remediation works will commence straight after the traditional summer break in the trades industries,” he said.

There are no reports of anybody injured in the fire in a 20-story residential building.

“COVID-19 has impacted the construction industry and how we can operate through lockdown.”

The government’s timeline for replacing dangerous cladding from buildings deemed at high risk has come under attack from Labor and the Greens, which have accused it of acting too slowly.

The latest delay comes almost seven years after a fire in Melbourne’s Lacrosse apartment tower, which was fuelled by combustible cladding, revealed the dangers of materials used on high-rise buildings across the country.

The Grenfell Tower blaze in London in 2017, which claimed the lives of 72 people, further heightened concerns worldwide.

Greens MP David Shoebridge, who is chairing another parliamentary inquiry into building standards, said the program had been “under funded and under prioritised” by the Coalition government.

“More than four years on from Grenfell, we still don’t have a single piece of cladding removed as part of Project Remediate,” he said.

Mr Chandler said flammable cladding was a worldwide challenge, and it was hard to “go a month without hearing that there is some event around cladding”.

On Sunday, a fire quickly engulfed cladding on the facade of a 20-storey apartment tower in Milan in northern Italy, destroying the building. No one was seriously injured.

Mr Chandler said he had met many owners of apartment buildings with flammable cladding who were “feeling very stressed about the experience that they’ve found themselves in”.

“We know that a lot of apartment owners who bought their projects some years back didn’t see this coming,” he said.

But he said he was hopeful the project would “relieve some of those stresses” and the building watchdog would provide a high level of oversight of it.

Owners will be able to apply for interest-free loans to pay for the cost of removing and replacing dangerous cladding. The government has estimated the average cost to remove cladding from the buildings deemed high risk at $4 million each.

Better Regulation Minister Kevin Anderson said the owners of more than 60 buildings had registered interest in the project, and he expected the number to “grow considerably” by the end of the month.

Hansen Yuncken, the company managing the project, said it was scheduling buildings for cladding removal based on risk, complexity and readiness. That included the size and scale of the work, and operational risks assessed by Fire and Rescue NSW.

“Typically, triage, design and construction work will take around 12 months for the average building,” Nick Jacobs from Hansen Yuncken said.

“Some buildings will have longer or shorter durations, depending on the scale and complexity.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/delay-to-removal-of-flammable-cladding-from-nsw-apartment-buildings-20210901-p58nre.html

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Analysts are tearing up coking coal forecasts as prices soar

Metallurgical coal prices in China have soared to record highs in recent weeks, in turn raising the floor for Australian product that has been directed to other markets since an unofficial ban started last year.

The self-destructive nature of China’s decision was laid bare by BHP recently in a market outlook, which described the Australia-China coal trade as the sun around which the solar system of the world’s heliocentric seaborne coal trade relied.

Without the benefit of this predictable supply and price-setting relationship China has been scraping for product elsewhere. 

Steelmakers have run into further roadblocks as Covid restrictions have shut the border between China and its biggest supplier Mongolia.

Australian producers are only getting a fraction of the surely unsustainable US$$414.55/t being paid for tight supplies in China. But the US$251.25/t quoted Tuesday by Fastmarkets for premium hard coking coal from Dalrymple Bay is nothing to sneeze at, and battered coal producers are now licking their lips at the prospect of elevated prices and returns between now and 2023.

RBC Capital Markets today updated its second half met coal forecast average from US$145/t to US$190/t.

Good news for holders of South32 (ASX:S32) and BHP (ASX:BHP) who should see an 8 and 2% increase to their 2021-22 earnings per share on RBC’s estimates as a result.

RBC analysts Kaan Peker and Paul Wiggers de Vries estimate average prices of US$200/t for Australian coking coal across the September Quarter, falling to US$180/t in the December Quarter, up US$60 and US$25 respectively.

They have kept the investment bank’s long-term post 2022 target of US$150/t, which is still pretty good going for most met coal producers.

Impacts on iron ore?

As iron ore prices have fallen from record highs, Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) has seen the return of significant grade discounts for its lower grade iron ore. Around 28-30% of that product RBC says is made up of a ~56% super special fines mix with high levels of impurities like alumina and silica.

After cutting its discount to 84% of the benchmark 62% fines price in the June Quarter, FMG has seen discounts blow out to more than 20% in August. There are additional concerns for lower grade iron ore producers, Peker and de Vries said, as lower grade ores require more of the increasingly pricey coking coal to produce crude steel in the blast furnace refining process.

“The met coal price impacts purchasing behaviors of steelmakers, especially iron ore. Over the last quarter, Chinese steel mills have become more concerned with coking coal prices; the ratio of HCC to iron ore prices has significantly increased and is now well above historic average,” they said.

“While met coal prices are one of many factors that drive the premium for the different ore products, we expect elevated Chinese met coal prices to benefit pellet and fines over lump, and be a detriment to low grade ore with higher impurities.

“We see risk that lower grade iron ore with higher impurities trade at a larger discount, and discounts remain elevated even if steel margins weaken.”

BHP is expected to be best off of the majors in this scenario, with the introduction of its South Flank mine meaning high grade lump now accounts for around 33% of its product mix, making it the largest lump producer in the world.

The Samarco JV with Vale in Brazil, which produces a premium grade product, is also ramping up years on from its tragic dam collapse.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/monsters-of-rock-analysts-are-tearing-up-coking-coal-forecasts-as-prices-soar/ar-AANXQXr

 

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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 September, 2021

‘I got the AZ’: the peculiar second life of the disdained AstraZeneca vaccine

<i>Since I was one of those who chose to get the AZ, I am rather pleased to read this.  I am not usually fashionable -- JR</i>

As the Pfizer vaccine rollout extends to younger age brackets and many holdouts finally come forward for a jab, the under-40s who had already received AstraZeneca are sitting on their high horses.

a hand holding a toothbrush: AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine© Provided by Crikey AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine

A subtle sense of perceived moral superiority can be seen among those who signed up for the out-of-favour vax counter to health advice. You could even say AZ is trendy among young people. 

How does a vaccine become cool? Like most things in life, when you tell someone not to do something they’ll want to do it more. If you tell someone a behaviour is risky, they’ll want to prove they’re not afraid. 

Getting AZ carries with it a number of subtle, but desirable, messages. The recipient is highly rational and able to assess risks without succumbing to fear mongering. They’re happy to accept risk and even go against official health advice. Essentially they’re bold, independent thinkers — and a little edgy. And, finally, they care about the public good and doing their bit. This selflessness permits them a “humble brag” on social media in the name of spreading messages of vaccine confidence. 

This newfound status is a rather humorous pivot, given that not so long ago the name AstraZeneca equalled blood clots and death. Even once the minuscule risks were explained and contextualised, the older generation still wasn’t biting, and it looked like the AZ campaign was tainted beyond recovery.

But when under-40s were given the go-ahead to request the AZ from their GPs, counter to the government’s vaccine advisory group ATAGI’s advice at the time, a new wave of youth-driven AZ support was born. The “vaxxie” took off in Australia, with young journos on Twitter being among the first to share selfies receiving the AZ jab. 

And soon enough the AZ bandwagon gained a sense of moral authority; its ample supply made it the more ethical choice, and the vaccine that was once shunned was now the subject of bragging rights for its recipients. The 20-somethings who managed to get their hands on Pfizer were soon looked at with thinly veiled disdain — they’d taken the easy route. I’ve heard someone describe a Pfizer recipient as “too chicken” to get AZ. 

This all sounds rather negative, but I’ll confess I am one of the young ’uns who got their first shot of AZ in July and, yes, I did post about it on Instagram. 

I think it’s the right thing to do, but I have to acknowledge that this perceived trendiness may have encouraged my decision. When I told a friend I was writing this article, he agreed the trend was real. He even changed his Facebook display picture to tell the world he had taken the plunge with the AZ. 

There’s no such thing as a selfless good deed, but if this unlikely trend is what it took to get uptake of the AZ vaccine, then so be it.  Whatever gets the job done.  

As for how the vaccine that is most commonly accepted across the globe became a “fringe” vaccine in Australia is a question for ATAGI, government officials and the media, but I suspect that “I got the AZ” will be a statement that holds some weight for at least a few years. 

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/i-got-the-az-the-peculiar-second-life-of-the-disdained-astrazeneca-vaccine/ar-AANUNpD?ocid=chromentpnews

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Court backs academics’ free speech in swastika dismissal case

A controversial University of Sydney lecturer who was sacked after superimposing a swastika on an Israeli flag has won a key victory in his battle to be reinstated, with the federal court declaring academics at the institution are entitled to convey even offensive views in their area of expertise.

The decision reverses a previous court ruling that had suggested academic freedom was merely an aspirational goal with no legal force and bolsters academics’ free speech rights nationally amid a focus on censorship on campuses

But it does not mean the lecturer, Tim Anderson, will ultimately win his legal campaign to get his job back because another judge now has to examine whether his conduct was within the bounds of academic freedom or went too far.

Dr Anderson, who came to national prominence when he was acquitted of planning the 1978 Hilton Hotel bombing in Sydney, taught political economy from an “anti-imperialist” perspective at the university from 1998 until 2019, when he was fired after a string of online incidents from 2017.

They included calling Republican Senator John McCain an “al Qaeda supporter”, suggested a News Corp journalist was a “traitor” to his ethnicity and posting a photo of friends at lunch, one of whom was wearing a patch in Arabic that read in part “curse the Jews”.

After several warnings, Dr Anderson published slides including an infographic, which two of the appeal judges said was “an expression of a legitimate view, open to debate, about the relative morality of the actions of Israel and Palestinian people”. The infographic argued Israel’s conduct was much worse but also included an Israeli flag with a Swastika in the middle. By January 2019 he was fired.

Initially, a federal court judge found Dr Anderson was not protected by the academic freedom clause the university had negotiated because it “does not create any enforceable obligation”. Three judges of the federal court, including chief justice James Allsop, overturned that.

“No matter what view is taken of Dr Anderson’s conduct, this case concerns his livelihood and profession,” two said. “He is no more and no less entitled than anyone else to a fair determination of his application in accordance with law.”

All three ruled that a right to academic freedom bound the University of Sydney, so long as academics conducted themselves in accordance with high ethical, professional and legal standards and did not harass, vilify or intimidate anyone.

“The right would be meaningless if it is subject to qualifications such as not involving offence to others, not being discourteous to others, or not involving insensitivity to others,” Justices Jayne Jagot and Darryl Rangiah held.

A university spokeswoman said the institution was disappointed by the decision, which it would review before deciding what to do.

Dr Anderson said in a post on his website that the court had recognised his infographic was tied to a discussion about morality in the Israel-Palestine conflict, in contrast to how it was “falsely depicted” by the university and media “simply as a ‘Swastika Image’, offensive to Jewish people”.

However, Justices Jagot and Rangiah said the swastika flag image was “deeply offensive and insensitive to Jewish people” and could suggest a “false moral equivalence comparing Israel to Nazi Germany”.

The libertarian Institute of Public Affairs’ police director Gideon Rozner said while Dr Anderson’s views were misguided, mean-spirited and borderline delusional, he should not have been censored.

“In a liberal democracy, the price of free speech is that the worst of human thought has as much a chance of being expressed as the best,” Mr Rozner said. “We cannot make intellectual freedom contingent on whether we like the speech being aired.”

Matthew McGowan, the national secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union, said it had brought the case alongside Dr Anderson not because it defended his comments but because it believed in academic freedom.

“Universities should embrace this decision and work with the union to ensure we have legally enforceable protections for academic freedom, which is fundamental to the sector and the work that we do,” he said.

Enterprise agreements, which at the University of Sydney contained the academic freedom clauses Dr Anderson relied on in this case, vary from campus to campus and Mr McGowan said the union would push to strengthen them.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/court-backs-academics-free-speech-in-swastika-dismissal-case-20210831-p58ngf.html

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A tribunal decision has opened the door for owners corporations to hit pet owners with a $300 fee 

While pet lovers can no longer be banned from bringing their dog or cat into their apartment building to live, they can still be slugged as much as $300 for the privilege, a NSW tribunal has ruled.

They can also be forbidden from stopping to pick up their mail while in the lobby with their pet and from having a friend with a pet visit them – unless they’ve already applied for, and been given, permission by their owners corporation.

The landmark judgment by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) means that other apartment buildings throughout the state will be free to impose similar strict conditions on pet owners.

“But I feel those kind of rules are just unnecessary and show over-zealous management of a building [by] imposing such rules on pet owners,” said retired businessman Bob Roden, who unsuccessfully brought the action against his Kings Cross apartment tower, The Elan, protesting against the introduction of the slather of strict rules.

“Charging owners $300 for permission to keep a pet isn’t any benefit at all to an owners corporation, which has a budget of millions and millions of dollars. I argued that such rules were harsh, unconscionable or oppressive, but the tribunal ruled against me.”

The NCAT verdict could have repercussions for all the apartment buildings that are now being forced to allow pets after a change in the state law on August 24 made it illegal to unreasonably forbid the keeping of pets in strata buildings. That followed the Court of Appeal decision in the case of Jo Cooper, who successfully pushed for the overturning of a blanket ban on pets at her Darlinghurst building, Horizon.

Many could now introduce similarly onerous rules on pet ownership. Barrister Richard Gration, who acted for The Elan owners corporation, said: “It’s going to be quite an important precedent for other strata schemes.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/pets-in-apartments-can-be-slugged-with-costs-and-restrictions-1084524/?utm_campaign=strap-masthead&utm_source=smh&utm_medium=link&utm_content=pos4&ref=pos1

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Native title body concern over traditional place names on SA driver's licences

South Australians are now able to add Indigenous place names to their driver's licences, but the change comes with a warning from the state's peak native title body.

About 300 residents have already chosen to have a First Nations name added to their residential address and identification.

The director of ServiceSA, Shannon Smith, said the organisation took inspiration from Australia Post, which worked with Gomeroi woman Rachel McPhail to include First Nations country names on envelopes and packages.

"We started getting some customer inquiries about this during the year and NAIDOC week culminated in a few more," Mr Smith said.

"We thought this would be us doing our small part in recognising the traditional owners of the land.

"We provided the capability for customers to add the traditional place name to their licence for the area in which they reside — it's purely customer choice."

Mr Smith said so far all the feedback had been positive.

What's in a name? 

SA Native Title Services (SANTS) chief executive Keith Thomas said the initiative was a move in the right direction but he had questions about its execution.

Mr Thomas said choosing an Indigenous place name to use could be complicated.

Many areas are subject to native title determinations, where particular Aboriginal nations have legal rights over the land.

Some places are not subject to native title, but are still known to be the traditional lands of one or more nations.

And across Australia, where the Indigenous name for many specific towns, cities or places is known, or is even in common use, it can still be ambiguous.

"There are numerous maps, but they're not all accurate," Mr Thomas said.

"In the future … we would be keen to be involved in establishing a map that clearly identifies who the groups in certain areas are."

SANTS uses the federal government's National Native Title Tribunal map to advise people whose land they are on.

ServiceSA, however, said it referred customers to a different map on the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies website, which showed traditional land ownership but not native title claims.

"If you look at a native title map it can be very confusing," Mr Thomas said.

He said there could even be situations in which the local native title group would have to verify land names themselves to avoid confusion or mislabeling.

Consultation limited

ServiceSA did not consult with Aboriginal organisations or groups about the inclusion of traditional land names on drivers licences.

Mr Smith said it listened to the "groundswell" in the community.

"We did engage with Aboriginal staff members within ServiceSA to provide advice on the way forward," he said.

But Mr Thomas said SANTS should have been consulted and suggested a liaison officer within ServiceSA could work with SANTS and other native title groups to help ensure the initiative was successful.

"We could give them certainty around the Aboriginal group names," Mr Thomas said.

"There are some groups that have boundaries that run halfway through a town.

"It can be quite confusing if you're not aware of those sorts of intricacies that come from looking at a native title map."

Improvements likely

Mr Smith said he was open to changes.

"We are currently looking [to improve] our forms to make it obvious you can include the place name if you wish," he said.

"Also, whether we can put in any checks to verify the residential address or suburb to the traditional place name — we think there might be a way through that but we are still investigating."

He said ServiceSA may consider whether to allow Indigenous customers to include the nation they belong to, in addition to the land they live on, in the future.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/native-title-body-concern-over-traditional-place-names-on-sa-driver-s-licences/ar-AANUxUp?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

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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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For the notes appearing at the side of the original blog see HERE


Pictures put up on a blog sometimes do not last long. They stay up only as long as the original host keeps them up. I therefore keep archives of all the pictures that I use. The recent archives are online and are in two parts:

Archive of side pictures here

Most pictures that I use in the body of the blog should stay up throughout the year. But how long they stay up after that is uncertain. At the end of every year therefore I intend to put up a collection of all pictures used on the blog in that year. That should enable missing pictures to be replaced. The archive of last year's pictures on this blog is therefore now up. Note that the filename of the picture is clickable and reflects the date on which the picture was posted. See here



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