This document is part of an archive of postings by John Ray 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. Backups from previous months accessible here
29 April, 2024
Australia’s manufacturing decline is a story of broken promises and failed industry welfare programs
Trying to make everything in your own country is called autarky. North Korea tries to be autarkic. Their average national income per head is about one tenth of what South Koreans earn. A pretty clear lesson that Albo seems not to have learned
NICK CATER
In his first speech to the National Press Club after the 2022 election, Anthony Albanese boasted that his reforming Labor government would transform Australia into a clean-energy superpower.
How so? asked a sceptical journalist from Bloomberg News. How would Australia compete against the US, Canada, China and other countries that are aspiring to be global leaders in green manufacturing? “By getting on with it,” replied the Prime Minister. Some 20 months later, the question remains unanswered: Getting on with what?
The two examples of promising green businesses the PM cited on that day have hardly stood the test of time. Sun Cable, Mike Cannon-Brookes’s proposal to build the world’s largest solar farm and link it by an undersea cable to Singapore, seems less likely to come to fruition than Clive Palmer’s plan to rebuild the Titanic. As for Tritium, the Australian company that promised to build the world’s fastest electric vehicle chargers in southeast Queensland, the less said the better. Tritium’s future won’t be built in Australia. It will be built in Tennessee, where the company has received generous assistance from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, securing a sweetheart deal to build a giant manufacturing plant.
The $15bn National Reconstruction Fund Albanese promised would kickstart the industries of the future has been in place for well over a year but has yet to issue a single grant.
The PM plans to break the impasse with the National Reconstruction Fund 2.0, optimistically named the Future Made in Australia Act. Underpinning the government’s green superpower ambition is a breathtaking complacency that assumes Australia’s natural advantages in the fossil fuel-based economy can be seamlessly swapped out for ascendancy in the brave new carbon-free world. They cannot be. Our primacy in resources was based on merely having stuff. Green manufacturing is about making stuff, which is a different game altogether.
The Albanese government has placed a speculative bet on green hydrogen as the key to our export success. It makes the fatuous claim that Australia has an abundance of sunshine that can be turned into cheap renewable energy.
In October 2022, Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced a $13.7m grant to Andrew Forrest’s company, Fortescue Future Industries, to scope the construction of a 500MW electrolyser at Gibson Island, near Brisbane. Bowen described the project’s success as “critical” to Australia’s ambition to be a green energy superpower.
Last month, Fortescue boss Mark Hutchinson reinforced the project’s importance, describing it as “a litmus test for the rest of the hydrogen industry in Australia”. Yet when Fortescue announced financial approval for a string of green hydrogen projects at the end of last year, Gibson Island was not one of them. “We’ve been working very, very hard on it,” Hutchinson told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit last month. “But it’s tough based on the current power prices when we’re looking at competing globally.”
To judge from Fortescue’s investment portfolio right now, the future may be built in Norway, northern Patagonia, Brazil and British Columbia before it is built in Australia. It may even be built in Kenya and Congo. The future is already being built in Buckeye, Arizona, where Fortescue is investing $US500m ($765m) in a green hydrogen plant it says will be up and running by 2026.
It turns out abundant sun was not such a competitive advantage in the manufacture of green hydrogen. Low taxes, fiscally responsible government and cheap and reliable carbon-free energy are far more appealing drawcards for investors.
In 2023, manufacturing in Arizona grew faster than in any other state. It includes energy and water-intensive industries such as silicon chip manufacturing, with Arizona coming from nowhere to fourth place among US states. Apologists for the Albanese government might look for excuses in the global subsidy arms race unleashed by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. They might claim Arizona has easy access to a much bigger market.
Superpower Institute Chair Rod Sims has highlighted his concerns with Labor’s Future Made in Australia Act and its lack of detail. Mr Sims questioned what the scheme aims to achieve and what its “guard rails” are. “If you don’t explain that, you can have people thinking it’s the worst of More
Yet Arizona’s hi-tech manufacturing boom started before Biden came to power and came at the expense of neighbouring California, where manufacturing is declining.
It isn’t hard to work out why. Arizona’s top state income tax rate is 2.98 per cent. California’s is 13.3 per cent. Corporate tax in Arizona is 6.96 per cent compared to 8.84 per cent in California. For energy-hungry industries such as hydrogen and the IT sector, however, the biggest attraction is the industrial electricity price: 7.47 cents a kWh in Arizona compared to 18 cents in California.
Albanese continues to talk a big game, promising jobs, industry and prosperity will flourish under the Future Made in Australia Act. Details are scarce, but the PM told ABC’s 7.30 this month there would be new government programs attached to the Act, as well as a recalibration of old ones.
Yet the long history of manufacturing decline in the past 50 years is a story of broken promises and failed industry welfare programs. The Hawke government’s generosity in granting $36m to the Kodak film factory in Victoria in 1988 (roughly $100m in today’s money) failed to stop the introduction of digital cameras or development of the smartphone. Hundreds of millions of dollars thrown at the car industry failed to save the Holden Commodore. Indeed, evidence that industry assistance programs work as intended is difficult to find.
It’s more than three decades since Bob Hawke’s Labor government eschewed industry protectionism as a means to make Australia globally competitive. Yet governments, state and federal of both political persuasions, have found it difficult to go cold turkey. The federal government’s guide to grants lists 330 different types of industry assistance. In 2019, the last year before Covid-19, the Productivity Commission calculated total government assistance to businesses at $13.9bn in tariff assistance, tax concessions and direct grants.
That is why we can say with some certainty that more government grants are no substitute for the economic discipline practised by the Republican administrations of governors Jan Brewer and Doug Ducey or the far-sighted decision of the Arizona government in the 1980s in overseeing the construction of the second-largest nuclear reactor in the US. The 3.9GW Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station remains the backbone of the Arizona electricity grid, producing some of the cheapest power in the country.
Albanese is hardly the first prime minister to enter office who has failed to learn from King Canute, instead suffering from the delusion that getting your hand on the levers of state gives you the power to alter the tides. The outgoing tide of deindustrialisation shows no sign of abating.
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Government Warned Against Alienating Men in Anti-Violence Campaign
Alienating men might produce exactly the anger you are trying to avoid
Independent MP for Fowler, Dai Le, has warned that any government campaign aimed at reducing the incidence of male-on-female violence must be “mindful of language ... because not all men are violent.”
In moving to address the increasing numbers of women losing their lives, she warned that Australia must not “alienate one group from another.”
“I’m a mother of a son. I know that we have to be mindful of our language because not all men are violent, but how we are portraying it is that men are violent against women,” she told ABC.
“How do we include the young men in our society? How do we make sure they’re educated to respect and to work alongside women? [So they] don’t feel like we are saying they’re the bad ones there.
“What language are we sending out to young men growing up in this day and age?”
She placed responsibility for the increase of violence on social media.
“We’re seeing increased violence in society, increased violence against women. And we wonder why. I think the content of social media, and I think that we need to make sure that our young people in particular are not exposed to this kind of violent content constantly because that is actually influencing them,” she said.
“In particular in this day and age whereby people are feeling so disconnected [from their] own communities, I support that kind of violent content not to be continually shared.”
Ms. Le supported the government’s position against holding a Royal Commission, saying it was not the answer.
“I don’t know if another Royal Commission would do any good. What I think the government needs to do is get the funding targeted to communities that are experiencing high domestic violence and get them implemented,” she said.
“And education to ensure that men, young boys and young girls work together to know that they respect one another as human beings.”
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Deadly nitazenes drugs spark testing centres push
I hate to sound hard-hearted about this but I am not sure that testing rooms do any good overall. They may encourage involvement with drugs and thus lead to MORE deaths rather than fewer
Drug decriminalisation advocates are pushing for more supervised drug taking centres and testing facilities to be established to curb deaths caused by a synthetic opioid up to one hundred times stronger than fentanyl.
Nitazenes, a family of synthetic opioids that can be more addictive and potent than heroin and morphine, is contributing to an epidemic of drug fatalities across North America, and is now on the rise in Australia, having been detected in Victoria, South Australia and NSW.
The drug is already having deadly effects in Victoria, with the Coroner’s Court warning the opioid had been involved in at least 16 overdose deaths in the state since 2021.
Evidence suggests that nitazenes are coming from labs in China, although its origin is not restricted to one country, and are being sold off the dark web.
Experts, including Monash Addiction Research Centre deputy director Suzanne Neilson, used the World Health Summit to call for supervised injecting facilities, drug checking sites and public education on the benefits of naloxone, a medication that can reverse overdose effects, to help battle the infiltration of the drug and its deadly impact.
“We understand that in most circumstances, people are not intentionally purchasing nitazenes, what is most common is that people are purchasing other drugs,” Ms Neilson told The Australian.
“We do have some early warning systems in place, for example nitazenes that are detected in some emergency department settings … but it is quite limited at the moment in terms of testing for nitazenes. And because we don’t have widely scaled-up drug testing, we do get sort of limited information about what’s out there at the moment.”
Ms Neilson said nitazenes can be made to be similar to fentanyl or even 50 to a hundred times stronger.
“In Australia we have had a massive increase in overdose deaths … I think there is a significant threat of a future epidemic if we do follow in the path that we’ve seen in North America and the UK,” she said.
“Once (synthetic opioids) start to enter the market, what we’ve seen is a dramatic rise in deaths. We’d really like to know what’s going on before that happens to prevent those deaths if possible.”
Global Commission on Drug Policy chair and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark endorsed the controversial medically supervised injecting rooms in Melbourne.
“This is the kind of service that people need to stay alive, to stay healthy,” Dr Clark said.
“When you go to a centre like the safe injecting room, people bring in the stuff they’ve bought on the street corner (and it’s) tested, no one is going to die.”
She voiced her support for a second supervised injecting room in the CBD to go ahead, a measure the Victorian government committed to in 2020 but that has been met with backlash from the community and local businesses.
“The bottom line is that people that are using drugs need to be safe, and that’s why the centre is so important,” Dr Clark said.
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Shareholders Reject Petroleum Giant Woodside’s Climate Plan
Shareholders of Australian petroleum giant Woodside Energy have turned down a climate plan proposed by the company’s management amid pressure from climate activists.
During Woodside’s annual general meeting on April 24, its shareholders voted on a number of issues, including the chairman position and an action plan to help the company transition to net zero.
While the incumbent chairman, Richard Goyder, was re-elected with 83.4 percent support, 58.4 percent of the shareholders turned down its climate plan.
Despite the vote on the climate plan being non-binding and purely advisory, it showed that most of Woodside’s shareholders disagreed with the company’s vision about its decarbonisation toward net zero emissions.
According to the most recent version of Woodside’s climate action plan (pdf), the company achieved a reduction in direct and indirect (scope one and two) emissions of 12.5 percent below the starting base in 2023.
The petroleum producer set targets to slash its scope one and two emissions by 15 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030.
It also planned to lift the amount of investment in new energy products and lower carbon services from $335 million (US$218 million) in 2023 to $5 billion by 2030.
After the vote, Mr. Goyder expressed his disappointment with the shareholders’ decision.
“Naturally, we’re disappointed, but respect the result,” he said.
“The vote reflects the challenges and complexities of the energy transition, and today’s outcome is one that we take very seriously.”
The chairman also noted that before the April 24 meeting, he had over 80 meetings with Woodside’s shareholders and proxy advisors in the past year where they had honest and open discussions on the climate action plan.
“We would love to be investing more money in renewable energy right now, if only we had the customers, and current customers were prepared to make the trade-offs, particularly financial,” he said during the meeting.
Nevertheless, Mr. Goyder acknowledged that many of Woodside’s customers were incurring substantial costs due to their energy transition.
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29 April, 2024
Greens want free IVF, label Liberals policy 'conservative and exclusionary'
This is a step in the right direction, given the falling birthrate. To support an ageing population, Australia needs all the babies it can get. And we know that IVF babies will be well treated and so fulfil their potential. It is however odd that the Greens support the idea. They used to be in favour of population reduction
The ACT Greens want assisted reproductive services to be free, condemning the Canberra Liberals policy as "conservative and exclusionary".
The Liberals announced this week they would pay up to $2000 towards IVF and certain fertility treatments for those who are deemed medically infertile.
The territory government has already fired back and said they are working on their own policy, after promising to explore options in late 2022. Labor is also expected to reveal a policy as part of its health commitments in the election campaign.
The Greens say they believe assisted reproductive services should be included in the public health system and it should be free.
"Assisted reproductive healthcare is expensive. Whether you have fertility issues, have a disability, are in an LGBTQIA+ relationship or no relationship at all, everyone should have choice and free access to start a family," ACT Greens health spokeswoman Emma Davidson said.
"The ACT Greens want a fairer public health system - where assisted reproductive services are available to everyone, for free, without the emotion toll that comes from fitting into an exclusionary definition of infertility."
Under the Liberals scheme, same-sex couples and individuals will only be able to access the rebates if they are medically infertile.
However, Ms Davidson said this would mean a person would be put through a distressing process and treatments such as IVF should be available to everyone.
"The ACT Liberals policy relies on a conservative and exclusionary view of what a family is. Canberra is incredibly diverse, and we need initiatives that reflect this to create a truly inclusive and fair community," she said.
"Not everyone can fall pregnant and it's not always because they are medically infertile. Under the Liberals policy, people will still need to go through a costly and lengthy process to be considered medically infertile which can be distressing on the individual, their partners and family."
The proposed rebates from the Liberals will cover out-of-pocket expenses of up to $2000 when undergoing IVF or certain assisted reproductive technology and up to $1000 for intra uterine insemination. The party says they are not considering a public service as part of their pitch to voters.
Opposition health spokeswoman Leanne Castley said the party had chosen to only open the scheme to those who were medically infertile as it was the biggest cohort in need of assistance.
"This is open for all Canberran families that have fertility challenges," she said this week.
"We hear from families who are struggling with infertility and believe that's the biggest cohort who do need assistance and it's just a small way we can help those families who are struggling with infertility."
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Financial Help for Uni Students on Placement Floated
Financial help might be offered to university students completing unpaid placements as part of their degrees, as unions warn failure to provide support will result in greater workforce shortages.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the federal government was considering relief for people with university debts and students undergoing required practical placements in their courses.
“We are looking at both of those things for the budget,” Mr. Chalmers told reporters on April 22.
Students studying nursing and teaching are among those required to complete unpaid placements to finish their degrees, and can be left struggling to pay bills especially during the cost of living crisis.
Last week, the prime minister suggested Labor was looking to reduce the rate of student debt indexation to stop money owed growing by more than four per cent in 2024.
Higher Education Loan Program (Help) debts are indexed to inflation, which resulted in a 7.1 percent jump in people’s debts in 2023.
Mr. Chalmers said the government acknowledged that students were under pressure.
“If we can afford to do something to help on that front, that’s obviously something we'll consider as we finalise the budget,” he said.
The Universities Accord report, released earlier in 2024, recommended the Commonwealth ensure student loans did not outpace wage growth.
NSW Nurses and Midwives Association assistant general secretary Michael Whaites said he strongly recommended paid placements for nursing and midwifery students.
They must carry out up to six months or 800 hours of unpaid clinical work in NSW, which carried immense financial pressure and at times placed students in poverty, he said.
“Failure to address this will continue to contribute to the workforce shortages that currently exist in nursing and midwifery, and this is untenable if we are to continue to deliver high quality health care in our health systems,” Mr. Whaites said.
“We hear a lot of stories of people having to ultimately drop out because they’re just not able to maintain the full amount of unpaid work, which can be as much as six to eight weeks in their final year of study, which is devastating after already having undertaken more than two years of study.”
The budget will be handed down on May 14.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/financial-help-for-uni-students-on-placement-floated-5634435
*********************************************************Ideology, education will not protect women from violent men
Only a Leftist with his childish belief in government as a cure-all would think that governments could reliably predict and stop men who kill their women
CLAIRE LEHMANN
A 28-year-old NSW woman, Molly Ticehurst, was found dead in her home last Monday. Two weeks prior, a man who had been charged with stalking and raping her appeared before court.
The police prosecutor charged him with a series of serious crimes and told the court his behaviour was “indicative of features in domestic violence offenders that we see often come to light after the most disturbing conclusions to their conduct”.
Despite this warning, he was released on bail.
Ticehurst is among 26 women who have been killed in the first 114 days of 2024. If the rate of violence continues, 2024 will be one of the worst years in recent memory for major crimes against women – with one woman murdered every four days. Despite the cries from the community to do more, and despite Anthony Albanese joining weekend rallies, there is a lack of leadership on what must be done. The current strategy isn’t working, and we need to understand why.
For the past decade or so, the focus of Australian governments has been on “primary prevention” – that is, preventing violence before it occurs. Ad campaigns that encourage boys and men not to slam doors or tell sexist jokes, as well as educational efforts in schools on “toxic masculinity”, are meant to have made a difference. But have they? It doesn’t look like it.
A recent essay co-authored by Walkley Award-winning journalist Jess Hill and UNSW criminology professor Michael Salter offers a sustained criticism of the primary prevention approach, arguing that our national strategy “outsources its results to future generations, and thus gives politicians the cover to adopt platitudes and evade accountability”.
Their central argument is a brave one: reducing inequality between men and women does nothing to reduce violence against women. The axiomatic claim that violence will disappear once inequality disappears is not supported by the evidence. They show that governments’ decades-long focus on gender equality has not moved the needle in terms of reducing violence against women. In fact, the opposite may be true.
The Nordic countries provide a warning. Those nations are all ranked higher in gender equality than Australia and other EU countries, yet also record higher rates of domestic violence and physical or sexual violence against women.
Through its National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032, the Albanese government has made the bold claim that it will work to end gendered violence in just one generation through attitude change, which is measured via surveys. But there are several problems with this plan. One of them, according to Hill and Salter, is its blanket focus on all boys and men – instead of identifying those most likely to offend.
Assigning guilt to the entire male sex may be a waste of time: “Situating all little boys as potential perpetrators not only risks diluting much-needed resources and effort, but it also invites confusion and potentially backlash from boys and young men who were never at risk of hurting their partners in the first place,” the authors write.
One reason it may be a waste of time is because the link between attitudes and behaviour is not clear-cut. We all know examples of high-profile figures (think Harvey Weinstein) whose public behaviour does not match how they act behind closed doors. Similarly, there is no good reason to think responses to a pencil-and-paper survey on attitudes will capture the future likelihood of violence.
To explain why this approach is inadequate, Hill and Salter draw attention to an alarming, yet under-reported trend. Young people aged between 16 and 24, are the most likely cohort to reject problematic attitudes regarding violence against women. Yet within this very age group there has been an alarming increase in sexual offending.
In the past, a child who had experienced sexual assault was most likely to have been targeted by an adult. Today, when a child is sexually assaulted, the perpetrator is most likely to be another child (or adolescent). If attitudes correlated directly with behaviour, we would not be seeing this trend.
Another failure of the strategy is to imagine everyone is equally capable of changing their behaviour as a result of changing their beliefs. “In our current prevention model, there does seem to be a default middle-class subject sitting at the centre of our interventions; a tabula rasa upon which we can imprint the right beliefs and attitudes,” write Hill and Salter.
Such an outlook disregards the harsh realities faced by many boys who later resort to violence. Boys who grow up to use violence are often raised in environments where violence, drug and alcohol abuse are commonplace, and where a general lack of impulse control means beliefs and attitudes are of secondary importance.
Much like teaching table manners to a person with no food, teaching proper attitudes to a person who has failed to develop self-control will be an exercise in futility. If we want to get serious about reducing violence against women, ideological attempts to assign collective guilt need to be discarded. Efforts should instead be redirected into identifying high-risk groups, and providing supports for drug, alcohol and trauma recovery. Perpetrators who have already offended, and who are at risk of reoffending, need to be locked up. They shouldn’t be let out on bail.
Believing educational materials alone can stop violence before it happens is naive. It’s unfair to victims who need governments to take real action to prevent future violence against women by perpetrators who have already been violent.
Commenting on the fact that Daniel Billings was released on bail after being charged with sexual intercourse without consent, stalking and intimidation, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said: “I’ll say from the outset that police share the sentiment of the community. This shouldn’t have happened. And sadly, it’s not an isolated case.”
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Payments for coal plants and urgent reform needed for renewables switch
Governments are facing the fact that they cannot do without coal power. Renewables have cut what coal generators can earn by selling electricity so they have to be subsidized to enable them to cover their costs and stay in business
Inadequate preparation for the energy transition and years of ad-hoc political interventions have badly damaged Australia’s electricity market, leaving governments little choice but to keep cutting deals to prop up coal-fired power plants to avoid price rises and blackouts.
When the National Electricity Market was created in 1998, coal generators dominated the energy mix, accounting for more than 80 per cent of the grid’s electricity. While the fossil fuel still makes up to two-thirds of the supply, the rollout of cheaper and cleaner renewable energy is increasingly undercutting the economics of ageing coal-fired power stations, which have been bringing forward their closure dates and are expected to have nearly disappeared from the grid by the first half of the 2030s, according to the most-likely energy market forecasts.
Governments are becoming increasingly nervous that not enough new renewable energy and storage projects are being built to keep power supplies and prices stable as the wave of coal generator closures draws closer.
The Grattan Institute’s Keeping the Lights On report warns that the energy transition is happening so quickly, and the preparation has been so haphazard, that state and federal governments must “accept this as a period of muddling through, with as many Band-Aid fixes as are necessary, to keep the lights on and prices down”.
“Australia’s great energy transition – from fossil fuels to renewables – is not going well,” said Tony Wood, the Grattan Institute’s energy director and the report’s lead author.
“Governments have lost faith in the market being able to deliver enough electricity to the right places at the right time, consumers are fuming about high power prices, and investors have been spooked by frequent and unpredictable government interventions.”
Across the eastern seaboard, officials are worried about a repeat of 2017, when the Hazelwood coal plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley gave just five months notice before it shut, citing unfavourable market conditions. The warning was too short for other companies to build replacement power generation, and a period of higher wholesale electricity prices followed.
Victoria has since struck secret financial deals with two other Latrobe Valley coal plants, Yallourn and Loy Yang A, to ensure they don’t close unexpectedly. NSW is in talks about doing the same with the Eraring plant in the Hunter Valley.
Wood expects both Victoria and NSW to cut at least one more deal to delay an impending coal closure but said governments should not continue Victoria’s practice of keeping the financial arrangements confidential. He nominated AGL’s Bayswater plant in the Hunter region, which has a scheduled closure date of no later than 2033, as a potential target for government support.
“I also wouldn’t be surprised if the government does something with Loy Yang B in Victoria,” he said.
Coal closure dates in Queensland can be directly controlled by the state government, which owns the generators in its jurisdiction.
To accelerate the build-out of vital new transmission infrastructure to link up often-remote wind and solar power regions to Australia’s major cities, Wood said governments must also urgently agree on “coordinated, pragmatic actions ... to remove roadblocks and bottlenecks to new projects proceeding”.
In addition to ensuring a smooth transition away from coal, adding more renewable energy to the grid is also a key plank of state and federal targets to reduce the output of planet-heating greenhouse gas emissions.
The Albanese government has set a legally binding target to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030. To do so, it aims to reach 82 per cent renewable electricity supply by the same deadline. Victoria is chasing 95 per cent renewables by 2035 and NSW is aiming for 70 per cent renewables by the same deadline.
However, Grattan argued that the seemingly counterintuitive move to prop up coal might help the clean energy switch in the long term, warning that public support for policies to cut emissions by reducing fossil fuels will wane if power prices rise and reliability falls.
Wood said the 2018 ditching of the National Energy Guarantee was a prime example of the energy chaos that contributed to the lack of preparation for coal plant closures.
The scheme was intended to coordinate the rise of renewable energy with dispatchable power from large-scale batteries, pumped hydro, or gas peaking plants, which can be deployed to rapidly fill gaps when solar and wind power aren’t available. However, the former Coalition government abandoned the policy after the party split over the role of fossil fuels.
The National Energy Guarantee followed a seismic policy shift in 2014 when the Abbott government abandoned the carbon pricing scheme imposed by the Gillard government in 2012.
Most recently, state and federal governments could not form a consensus on how to back up intermittent energy supplies from wind and solar farms, with Victoria agreeing to the use of gas-fired power in publicly funded schemes.
Wood said Australians would “not forgive our political leaders if they mess up the post-coal era”.
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Albo's Help to Buy home scheme Unrealistic
The proposed income tests for first-home buyers hoping to take advantage of Anthony Albanese’s shared equity scheme will significantly fall short of the price caps set for Australia’s two largest cities.
While new buyers could theoretically buy a home with the federal government’s Help to Buy scheme at $950,000 in Sydney and $850,000 in Melbourne, it would be near impossible for them to get a loan to cover the remaining mortgage if earning the scheme’s maximum eligible incomes of $90,000 for singles and $120,000 for couples.
Analysis by Loan Market for The Australian suggests those low to middle-income families would not meet banks’ stringent eligibility criteria to take on such high levels of debt.
The most expensive home a single on that income with no debts could purchase is no more than $408,163 in today’s interest rate environment. If they have the average university HECS debt of $24,700, their top price falls to $357,143.
Couples with a $120,000 household income and no kids were best placed to take advantage of the scheme, being able to purchase a property worth $524,490. But a family with two kids maxes out at $436,224.
The Help to Buy scheme will see the government offer a 30 or 40 per cent equity in the stake in the property, while the homeowners must be able to prove to their bank they can cover the remaining portion after providing a deposit of as little as 2 per cent.
Even after the government’s help, borrowers would have to prove to a bank they can support a loan of at least $570,000 in Sydney and $510,000 in Melbourne.
Analysis by PropTrack shows that while affordability for couples is fair, especially when compared to the rental market, the housing researcher’s senior economist Paul Ryan said it was a “moot point” if buyers simply can’t borrow those amounts.
“It might be touch and go for serviceability … I suspect that a lot of people will have to try and find homes at a lower price,” Mr Ryan said
“I mean, the median home price in Sydney is over $1m. Our Affordability Index shows there are increasingly fewer properties that you have to choose from.
“People looking to access the scheme are going to have to make concessions probably on property price and location. But, it is a very generous scheme from the government if you’re able to access it.”
Banks assess all new mortgage borrowers at the current interest rate with a 3 per cent buffer on top, to ensure repayments could still be made if interest rates were to rise. Brisbane-based Loan Market mortgage broker Mick O’Shea said this aspect would likely become the biggest challenge.
“It’s hard for first-home buyers to gather a deposit while they’re renting elsewhere,” Mr O’Shea said. “This (scheme) provides some relief there but doesn’t alleviate the challenge of borrowing capacity being where it is, when we were putting a 3 per cent buffer onto actual rates.
The Help to Buy scheme has enough spaces to facilitate 10,000 purchases annually over four years, with many in Sydney and Melbourne likely to only be able to afford units.
Promised by Labor during the last federal election, the scheme currently looks unlikely to pass the Senate without the support of the Coalition or the Greens.
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28 April, 2024
‘Climate denial’ ad pulled from "The Australian" after being labelled ‘deceptive’
Coverage of this bit of censorship appears to have been censored. I can find no mention of it other than in the article below from the Green/Left "Guardian", sometimes derisively known as the "Grauniad". Censoring censorship is of course truly troubling.
The Graham Readfearn mentioned below is a long time climate alarmist. The Institute of Public Affairs is a respectable conservative think tank. The Climate Study Group appears to be a loose grouping among IPA staffers. The Ad Standards community panel "is the centre piece of the advertising self-regulatory system."
The panel appears to have found the advertisements in error on the basis of a reference by Redfearn to "attribution studies" Attribution studies are proof of causation that you have when you have no proof of causation. They fly in the face of the most basic principles of science and logic. The only way of proving cause known to science is "before and after" studies but we have only one globe and no ability to time-travel so we cannot in principle prove what causes global warming
In 1972 I had an analytical philosophy paper on causation published in an academic journal so I have some awareness of the issues here. I found no fault with Humes's idea of constant conjunction but to have constant conjunction you have to have many examples of the event and that is precisely what we do not have with global warming
http://jonjayray.com/cause.html
It is of course much easier to prove a theory wrong than it is to prove it right. As Einstein once observed, it would take only one predictive failure of his theory to prove it wrong. And there have been many failures to correlate in the history of climate change research. So what the Guardian called a "Gish gallop" (a series of faulty claims) would more accurately be called a gallop of disproof. It is a pity that the Ad Standards body ignored so many facts in favour of a nonsensical theorySo the foundation of the conclusion that the IPA was wrong is built on sand. There was no scientific evidence to say that the IPA erred and much to say that they were right. Their withdrawal of their ads would appear to be a courtesy to a voluntary body probably underaken to avoid a legal ban
For almost a decade, "The Australian" has been running “climate science denial” ads from the Climate Study Group (CSG) that claim burning fossil fuels is hunky dory and even necessary for life on Earth.
But the latest ad has been “discontinued” after Ad Standards found it contained misleading or deceptive environmental information.
Way back in 2015, Graham Readfearn (then at DeSmog, now Guardian Australia’s environment reporter) was writing about CSG’s advertisements (and their links to the Institute of Public Affairs).
Last year, Readfearn took a forensic look at some of their claims about atmospheric carbon concentration.
Someone complained to Ad Standards that CSG had “published climate denial [and] disinformation in The Australian” and that it was “indistinguishable from editorial content”.
In its judgment, the Ad Standards community panel found the ad was sufficiently marked as an ad, but “considered that the advertisement was making the environmental claim that fossil fuels can be used without concern that they will have a negative impact on the environment”.
It found the claim was “misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive” and therefore breached the environmental code.
CSG, in its defence, dished out a gish gallop of claims – essentially repeating the claims it had initially made. But in the end it acquiesced and said it would discontinue the ad.
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Federal government to spend $161million on an Australia-wide gun register after two police officers were murdered on a remote property
What alot of tokenistic nonsense! Canada tried this and had to give it up as ineffective. And Australia already has strict gun control laws
The Albanese government is set to establish a National Firearms Register - a new countrywide database designed to bolster community safety - following the tragic Wieambilla shootings in 2022.
In the federal budget, scheduled for May 14, $161.3million will be invested over four years to establish the register, with state and territory firearms management systems upgraded to be compliant with the new Commonwealth database.
The commitment follows an agreement by national cabinet in December, though the funding arrangements had become a sticking point for the reform to progress.
It is understood that South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT could each require as much as $30million to connect to a new federal database.
The tragedy at Wieambilla, Queensland in December 2022 was the catalyst to making the reform, after it was originally recommended following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre response.
On April 28, 1996 Martin Bryant killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, and another 23 people were injured. At the time, it was considered one of the world's worst massacre.
Byrant is serving 35 life sentences and more than a thousand additional years' jail without parole.
Constables Rachel McCrow and Matthew Arnold, and neighbour Alan Dawe were shot and killed by three Christian extremists, Gareth, Nathaniel and Stacey Train, at their remote property in Wieambilla, 300km to Brisbane's west.
One of the perpetrators was a licensed firearms holder.
The register will allow law enforcement to assess firearms risks by providing frontline police officers across the country with near real-time information on firearms, parts and owners.
Firearms information will also be linked to other relevant police and government information, including data from the National Criminal Intelligence System.
'Once established, police will know where firearms are, who owns them, and what other risks to the community and police may exist,' a statement released by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13354197/Albanese-government-national-gun-register.html
**************************************************Do Fact-checkers Check The Facts?
Government should never have the power to determine what is or is not the truth, let alone silence dissenting views. However, what would be even worse is if unelected, unaccountable activists had this power instead.
But that is what the federal government is contemplating under its proposed internet censorship laws.
In private correspondence, released under a Freedom of Information request last year, Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland let slip to the Prime Minister how the government’s proposed ‘misinformation’ Bill would operate. The proposed law would empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority to impose huge fines on social media companies that do not censor ‘misinformation’ to the federal government’s satisfaction.
Minister Rowland confirmed that ‘fact-checking’ organisations are expected to play a central role in this new regime, so much so that Acma will be given the power to request information from ‘other persons such as fact-checkers and third-party platform contractors to monitor compliance with misinformation codes, standards and digital platform rules’. Rowland informed the Prime Minister that ‘the draft bill would give effect to this suggested change’.
The Minister has given the game away. It won’t be the social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube or X charged with the censoring. It won’t even be the faceless public servants at Acma. No, it will be these so-called ‘fact-checkers’.
Today, there are three main, self-appointed organisations in Australia claiming ‘fact-checker’ status; RMIT FactLab, AAP FactCheck, and RMIT ABC Fact Check. These organisations already have arrangements with social media companies in which they investigate ‘misinformation’ and if they render a ‘false’ verdict, the social media platforms will censor that content.
But based on Minister Rowland’s comments, ‘fact-checkers’ will in the future play an even more prominent role, as the enforcers of the government’s internet censorship laws. They, in effect, will be given the power of law to be the official arbiters of truth.
These ‘fact-checkers’ are signatories to a code of principles requiring them to be fair and neutral. This includes that they ‘not concentrate their fact-checking unduly on any one side’ of a debate. Last year, the Institute of Public Affairs investigated how well they complied with this requirement during the Voice referendum campaign. Not surprisingly, they failed miserably.
The IPA reviewed 187 fact-checking investigations which related to the Voice referendum, an enormous 91 per cent (i.e. 170) of which concerned the No campaign. 99 per cent of these were deemed ‘false’. Barely half of the other 17 investigations (concerning the Yes campaign) were deemed ‘false’. RMIT FactLab was the standout, worst offender with every one of its 41 investigations concerning the No campaign.
The IPA expanded its research to other policy areas, which revealed the Voice was not some aberration but, rather, confirmed the left-wing bias of these organisations is systemic and entrenched.
In respect to fact-checks about Australian politicians, there have been 249 investigations conducted over the past five years. 65 per cent of these investigations could be seen as favourable to the political left. Only 35 per cent could be seen as favourable to the political right. A 30 per cent margin of difference, in political terms, is enormous.
The research also looked at ‘fact checks’ into Covid-19, and climate change and energy policy. Of the 534 investigations into claims about Covid-19, a staggering 94 per cent targeted critics of official government responses, with just 6 per cent targeting advocates of the official line. So much for holding government to account!
Climate change and energy were no better. Of 153 investigations, 81 per cent were targeted against critics of the official climate change and energy agenda (that is, man-made carbon emissions are harming the planet, and we need to abolish fossil fuels and mandate alternatives in response). Every single one of these were deemed ‘false’, misleading, or missing context. Yet, remarkably, of the 20 investigations conducted by AAP FactCheck into advocates of the climate change agenda, 76 per cent were deemed ‘true’.
Again, RMIT FactLab was the worst. All of its Covid-19 and climate change investigations – 100 per cent – were targeted at critics. A level of consensus any North Korean dictator could be proud of!
It is clear Australia’s so-called, and self-appointed, fact-checkers have no interest in shining a spotlight on official government policies. Rather, they aim to attack critics and amplify official narratives.
This is not journalism. These are some of the most hotly debated and controversial areas of public policy, yet apparently to ‘fact-checkers’ only one side is worthy of investigation.
Predictably, the left-wing media have leapt to the defence of the ‘fact checkers’. An article that appeared in Crikey on 9 April claims that debunking a conspiracy theory doesn’t favour the political left or right but benefits the whole community. Miraculously, the enrichment of society so graciously offered by the ‘fact-checkers’ just so happens to involve targeting politicians on the political right, compared to the left, to the tune of two to one.
It is no surprise that left-wing journalists will attack any criticisms of ‘fact-checkers’. The utopia of the elite class – one that celebrates the modern media, academia and politics – is a world run by experts. Whether dictating where you can move during the Covid-19 pandemic, or deciding what can be said on the internet, the experts know best. With zero self-awareness, the same Crikey article claims, ‘Everything is a team sport to the outlets and politicians waging a war on fact-checkers in which “truth” becomes a trophy to be awarded rather than a fact to be established’.
But hang on, isn’t it the political left which is advocating for a system in which a select group decides on what is, or is not, ‘misinformation’ for the purpose of censoring alternative viewpoints?
Of course, the defenders of ‘fact checking’ would feel differently if these organisations were populated by conservatives. But, proving yet again the modern left is beyond parody, the author of the Crikey article once worked for AAP Fact Check!
These will be the people who determine what is true or false, and what you can or cannot say on social media.
It will, of course, be mainstream Australians who are silenced online if the federal government gets its way.
https://ipa.org.au/research/rights-and-freedoms/do-fact-checkers-check-the-facts
**************************************************Supreme Court Win for Police Constable Who Refused the COVID-19 Jab
A senior constable in Victoria who faced charges for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine has won his battle in a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court. This decision could set a precedent for others impacted by vaccine mandates in the state and around Australia.
The case centered on whether the requirement to provide evidence of vaccination status necessitated receiving a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Constable Simon Peter Shearer had been charged with a breach of discipline for failing to comply with the COVID-19 vaccination requirements outlined in the Victoria Police Manual.
The officer’s decision not to receive any dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by Aug. 16, 2022, led to an internal disciplinary inquiry initiated by the Victorian Police chief commissioner.
However, Victorian Supreme Court Justice Michael McDonald concluded this charge was unjust and should be quashed.
“The plaintiff’s failure to receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine by 16 August 2022 did not constitute a breach of the Victorian Police Manual,” Judge McDonald said.
“Consequently, the DIO [disciplinary inquiry officer] did not have power to reprimand the plaintiff for a breach of discipline.”
In addition, the judge said the plaintiff was denied procedural fairness for two reasons.
“First, the charge did not provide adequate notice of the case the plaintiff was required to meet,” Judge McDonald found.
“Second, the DIO failed to disclose to the plaintiff issues critical to his decision to find the charge proven.”
Constable Shearer, who had been working in the legal services department of Victoria Police as a lawyer since 2013, had a medical exemption for vaccine requirements due to Graves’ disease, an autoimmune condition impacting the thyroid.
According to court documents, this exemption expired in 2021.
Further, the constable went on long service leave from December 2021 to July 2022. In July 2022, Victoria’s chief police commissioner issued a new policy manual on vaccine requirements.
The constable argued that he was not required to provide his vaccination status to the police or be vaccinated to perform his duties in order to return to work.
However, on September 21, 2022, he was charged with a breach of discipline for failing to comply with the vaccine requirements of the Victorian Police Manual.
The judge has now nullified the charge, and both parties will have the opportunity to make submissions on costs.
“My provisional view is that the defendant should pay plaintiff’s costs on a standard basis, to be taxed in default of agreement,” the judge stated.
Case ‘Reaffirms Our Faith in the Justice System’: Lawyer
Principal lawyer Irene Chrisopoulidis described the result as a significant win for the plaintiff and the individuals and families affected by such policies. She said many of these individuals were unfairly and unjustly treated during one of the most challenging times in our history.
“The lives of these employees and their families, impacted by such organisational policies and decisions, resulted in lifelong effects,” Ms. Chrisopoulidis added in a LinkedIn post.
“This case not only reaffirms our faith in the justice system, it reflects the courageous and tenacious character it takes to stand up for your rights in pursuing justice. It has been our honour to represent the Plaintiff in this matter.”
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25 April, 2024
ANZAC DAY
ANZAC DAY is the High Holy Day for the entire Australian people. The Left try to portray it as a celebration of militarism. All the troops marching through the streets can give that impression. But they overlook that on this day we actually celebrate a military DEFEAT. Pretty poor militarism. Two typical ANZAC day scenes below. Note the big crowd turnout.
What we are really doing on ANZAC day is remembering and thanking our war dead. And as demographer Berard Salt rightly notes, No family was untouched by the two world wars. Some of my relatives were among the dead.
The deaths among the ANZACS at Gallipoli were among the more insane of the military engagements of that war so we rightly praise the grit and endurance of those who participated.
I personally see war as the greatest of human follies. To have men marching into gunfire seems barely sane. Yet it happened and still is happening in Ukraine. Chapter 1 of the Bhagavad Gita makes most sense to me of any writing on the matter.
Yet I am not a pacifist I volunteered for service in tha Australian Army and reached the rank of Sergeant. I served in both the CMF and the ARA back in the 60s. I can see why some wars probably have to be fought, WWII, particularly. But WWI can be understood in the context of its times
http://jonjayray.com/short/ww1.html
I exist, however because both my grandfather and father never went to war. My grandfather was excused because he provided a highly skilled essential service. He was a bullocky. And transport is in huge demand during a war. My father volunteered but was rejected on medical grounds. He had a slight limp. I volunteered for the Vietnam war but failed to get a posting there. So here I am still kicking at age 80.
I think it is worth noting that the Gallipoli engagement was greatly marred by the cowardice of the British generals involved. The first landings were unopposed. The Turks were taken by surprise. But instead of charging to take advantage of surprise as any German general would gave done, they decided to wait in place for reinforcements to arrive. The Turks used that warning well. If only the British generals had studied Vom Kriege in their staff colleges
Below is a commentary on ANZAC day by somepone who is far better qualified to speak than I am: Heston Russell, a special forces combat veteran.
JR
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Let the ANZAC Spirit Unite Our Divided Country
You don’t have to revel or revere the ANZACs, that is your choice. But we should always remember and respect what they did for us and all of Australia.
Throughout World War I, at a time when the population of our nation wasn’t even five million strong, nearly half a million young Australians decided to volunteer and fight for the freedoms of our allies on shores far away.
To board boats and sail waters never before travelled by so many, who were so young, with almost a quarter of their number to never return.
They went to fight for what we still hold dearest today—freedom. To help those in need and in such a way that they left the fingerprints of our island nation on the great places of history.
From the famous charge of our light-horsemen to what is modern-day Jerusalem, to the great Arc du Triomphe in Paris, where they still commemorate our ANZACs every day.
Their ultimate example on display for all who were there, our ANZACs stormed the shores of Gallipoli in a battle that etched the “Cooee“ echo of our soldiers forever in the history pages of the world.
Our Australian soldiers fought with such spirit and inspiration that it caused monuments to be made to the men they were—through their actions and attitudes facing perils I pray we will never again see on this earth.
But sadly, our military might was again needed to defend our homeland in World War II.
Again it was their actions, not simply their words, that defined their identity and that of modern-day Australia. As they fought without fear for themselves, to protect each other and the lands of our allies we wanted to protect.
Selfless service is epitomised by the blood and lives lost too young. So many in number that it would literally impact the gene pool of Australia for generations to come.
Regardless of what you may think of the ANZACs—truth, myth or any other opinion—their spirit is real and carried by those who carry the standards for Australians today.
Will you do what it takes to be counted in this number?
The greatness of our great nation depends on the strength of all our people and tribes put together.
Australia was once overpowered, colonised by those stronger in weapons, united in purpose, and resourced to do so.
The greatest lesson we must carry forward from this time is to reflect upon the risks we expose ourselves to, as people and a nation, should we continue to become separate tribes in conflict here at home. To provide the potential for these fractures and fault lines in our society to be exploited by those with sinister or selfish intent.
It is our actions and attitudes each day that will be the true mark of respect for our nation and all our people.
Let us show a truer love for our sunburnt country, protect our land of the sweeping plain, and progress all of our people and tribes together—inspired by the blood and spirit of our ANZACs that courses through our veins.
This is the ANZAC day message I want to carry forward. The competence and character of our champions fought with fury and respect for all including their enemies. Their example has set the standard for us to remember, reflect, and lead with, from today and each day forward.
I ask all Australians to please RESPECT the ANZACs—and let this value be the measure for how we treat each other, and ourselves, each and every day we share together on this earth.
Lest we forget.
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Christian Bishop Wants Video of His Stabbing to Remain Online
This will put the cat among the pigeons. It will make the authoritarians of Left and Right who want to censor us explain WHY they want to ban this video. To my simple mind I cannot see any intelligent rationale for the ban. It happened so let us show it. People need to know what is going on, Not have it covered up. Bravo for the bishop
The Assyrian Christian bishop who was attacked during a live-streamed sermon has said he does not want footage of the incident removed from the internet.
The video of the multiple stabbing attack, is at the heart of an ongoing war of words and a legal battle between Australian authorities and X owner Elon Musk.
On April 22, lawyers for the eSafety Commission applied to the Federal Court for an injunction to compel the social media platform to block all videos of the incident across IPs globally—a request, X says, extends far beyond the jurisdiction of local authorities.
On April 24, during a case management hearing, X representative, Marcus Hoyne, provided an affidavit from injured Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel who said the video should not be censored.
“There’s recently been an affidavit … from the bishop, the victim of the attack, stating that he’s strongly of the view that the material should be available,” Mr. Hoyne said.
Mr. Hoyne also said the attempts by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant to implement a global ban on the spread of the video was “exorbitant.”
He further said the footage was now subject to the “Streisand effect”—the unintended consequence of attempting to hide, remove, or censor information—and instead, resulting in even more publicity.
Any move to remove the video would now be pointless because it had spread beyond the few dozen URLs initially identified by the eSafety commissioner.
The judge ordered the matter to be heard again on May 10 when X could supply more detailed arguments.
The attack occurred in the Western Sydney suburb of Wakeley with footage showing a 16-year-old walking up to the bishop during a live-streamed sermon, before the young man began repeatedly striking the church leader with a flick knife, which appeared to malfunction.
The incident occurred barely two days after a knife attack spree in the east of Sydney, at the sprawling Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre, that resulted in six deaths.
Both incidents have spurred authorities to crackdown on “misinformation” and related videos on social media.
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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price slams move to ban tourists from Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre after traditional owners' request - as she makes bombshell statement about Indigenous culture
Indigenous senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has slammed a proposal to ban visitors from Australia's biggest lake to protect its Aboriginal cultural significance.
Thousands of tourists flock to Lake Eyre in South Australia's far north every few years when flooding rains moving down from Queensland transform the normally arid lake bed into into a spectacular kaleidoscope of colours, and attracts animals from far and wide.
It's also a sacred site for the Arabana people, who have lived in the region for millennia and are the lake's native title holders.
Under a proposed management plan, all recreational access to the lake bed will be banned out of respect for Arabana culture.
Swimming, driving, boating and landing aircraft on the lake are already banned, but the new plan would prevent visitors setting foot on its bed without permission.
Senator Nampijinpa Price slammed the move claiming that Indigenous culture had become the 'new religion' and that Australia was 'locking up' tourist hotspots around the country.
The shadow minister for Indigenous Affairs is concerned that another of Australia's natural wonders may soon be put off limits, with access determined by race.
‘There’s this trend going on around our country, where we’re locking the place up from visitors being able to see our own backyard,' Senator Nampijinpa Price told 2GB's Ben Fordham on Wednesday.
'We all belong here as Australians, we all belong to this country, we all have a significant connection to this country, especially if we’re born here, regardless of racial heritage.
'We’re shooting ourselves in the foot if we continue down this path where we’re going to limit access for the potential for tourism, growth and all other things.'
The senator also referenced the tourist ban at Mount Warning (known as Wollumbin by Indigenous people) near Murwillumbah in northern NSW.
The tourist spot once welcomed more than 120,000 visitors every year, but it has been off limits since 2020 despite some Indigenous elders questioning its cultural significance.
In the Northern Territory, tourists have been banned from climbing Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, since October 2019.
Senator Nampijinpa Price believes Australian and international visitors should not be deprived access to such sites for no other reason than not possessing the right heritage.
'It opens the opportunity to for those who take advantage of the situation to create their own stories, control the narrative and control access to these places,' Senator Nampijinpa Price continued.
'I don't understand to what end really, why this has to take place.'
'It's almost become a new religion and everyone has to respect it.
'We've all got different cultural backgrounds as Australians and yes, we should respect it in our own way.
'But I was brought up that it was about sharing. It's about sharing understanding and knowledge and having something to be proud of.'
Lake Eyre is one of a number of culturally significant sites in SA to enforce strict rules around entry to visitors, including Koonalda Caves in the Nullarbor, Sacred Canyon in the Flinders Ranges, and Ngaut Ngaut Conservation Park.
The public can have their say on the proposed management plan until July 19 on the SA Department for Environment and Water website.
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24 April, 2024
Police failures, racial bias cited at inquest for Indigenous teenagers who died almost 37 years ago
Claims that Aborigines have been badly treatd are no doubt true in some cases but this case is a stretch. There is no doubt that what happened was a road accident but there is some possibility that the driver in some ways behaved badly. And in response to that accusation the police brought the driver to trial and he was found not guilty. So how is that a police failure? It looks to me that the police went out of their way to be fair in the matter. The girls died in a road crash. How did racial prejudice cause that?
And if the driver did behave badly after the crash what evidence do we have that he would not have behaved similarly if the girls had been white? If such behaviour matters
A state coroner has found that racial bias within the NSW police impacted on what was an “inexplicably deficient” investigation into two Indigenous girls found dead on a lonely stretch of highway in NSW’s outback more than 36 years ago.
State coroner Teresa O’Sullivan on Tuesday handed down her findings in the Bourke courthouse – the same court where the man accused of killing Jacinta Rose Smith, 15, and Mona-Lisa Smith, 16, in a devastating road crash, and of molesting Jacinta’s dead body, was acquitted in 1990.
He died in 2017 without ever having spent a day in jail over the girls’ deaths.
She said the concerns raised by the families “on a number of occasions over the last few decades” about the “inadequacy” of the police investigation, which were repeatedly dismissed, had been “entirely vindicated” by evidence received in this inquest.
Mona’s sister and mother, Fiona and June Smith, and Cindy’s sister and mother, Kerrie and Dawn Smith, were in attendance on Tuesday. The coroner acknowledged their “unrelenting advocacy” for their “inseparable” young girls, calling the inquest their “final hope” for answers about the circumstances of their deaths, “albeit decades too late”.
“The grief and anguish of their tragic passing remains raw for their families,” the coroner said.
On December 5, 1987, Jacinta, a Wangkumara girl known as Cindy, and her cousin, Mona-Lisa, a Murrawarri and Kunja girl, died hours after they accepted a lift from Alexander Ian Grant, a 40-year-old white excavator driver.
Mona and Cindy, described as “young, bright girls sparkling with life and excitement”, entered the vehicle sometime after 8pm hoping to get a lift a short distance to the levee, but were instead “plied” with alcohol by Mr Grant whose conduct was described as “predatory and disgraceful”.
Ms O’Sullivan found that both girls died in the early hours of December 6 after sustaining injuries caused when the ute, travelling north on the Mitchell Highway between Bourke and Enngonia, ran off the road, and rolled over. The girls weren’t wearing seatbelts and were ejected from the vehicle, which “rolled onto” them, causing critical injuries including severe internal bleeding.
She found that Mr Grant was driving the car despite his initial claims to officers, and by his lawyers at trial, that Mona had been driving the manual ute when it crashed. She said “contributing factors” of the single-vehicle crash included “intoxication, fatigue, road speed and lack of lighting”.
Ms O’Sullivan also found, “horrifyingly”, that there was “some form of sexual interference by Mr Grant” including touching Cindy’s breasts or genital area “after she had passed”.
In a 1990 trial, Grant was charged with indecently interfering with Cindy’s corpse and culpable driving causing the deaths of both girls but was acquitted by an all-white jury.
The coroner found that it was “clear beyond doubt” that the initial investigation “suffered very serious deficiencies” such that vital evidence, such as Mr Grant’s truck, was not secured at the scene.
She said these “failures” in the hours, days and weeks following the accident had an “irreparable impact” on the investigation and its use in any future criminal prosecution.
The coroner also found that there was racial bias within the NSW police force at the relevant time and that “impacted upon the investigation into the deaths”, saying she had “little hesitation” in making that finding.
She placed “great weight” on the evidence of June and Dawn Smith “of their treatment in the aftermath of the girls’ deaths, and the numerous distressing failings they endured, which started with the manner in which they became aware of the girls’ deaths from other family members, rather than being formally advised by police”.
An officer at the scene also blindly accepted Mr Grant’s account that Mona had been driving the vehicle, which she said “cannot be understood without imputing level of unconscious bias on his part”.
The charge of sexual interference with Cindy’s body had been withdrawn by prosecutors at the 1990 trial because of a technicality - that the precise time of a victim’s death cannot be ascertained - without the family’s knowledge.
Ms O’Sullivan said she would write to the Attorney-General to “draw this issue to his attention” as to whether legislative reform may be warranted.
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Unions’ vile anti-Israel diatribe
As Jewish families leave an empty place at their Passover tables in memory of the hostages still missing at the hands of Hamas, comments by ACTU president Michele O’Neil and secretary Sally McManus about Israel are ignorant. The pair have ignited a battle with Australia’s Jewish community, calling for the Albanese government to end military trade with Israel, enforce sanctions against Israeli government officials and inject a further $100m of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank. Bob Hawke, a former ACTU president who warned “If the bell tolls for Israel, it won’t just toll for Israel, it will toll for all mankind”, would be horrified.
In demanding immediate recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the union bosses do not appear to understand why a two-state solution is out of the question until Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation that controls Gaza, is defeated. Or does it not bother Ms O’Neil and Ms McManus that Iran is running a war to annihilate Israel through proxies, including Hamas, and is an implacable opponent of the US and its allies? The ACTU is living in “an alternative reality”, Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said.
The union bosses’ views are immoral in view of the brutality and values of Hamas, seen in the unprovoked attack that killed 1200 people in Israel on October 7 and in the terrorist group’s kidnappings of 250 Israelis. The comments are contrary to Australia’s strategic and economic interests, and could help fuel anti-Semitism that has reared its ugly head in the past six months.
Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy, has superior military technology and outstanding intelligence capabilities. It has been a staunch Australian ally for more than 75 years and has “shared intelligence with us and thwarted terrorist attacks against our own interests, including against members of the Australian Defence Force”, as Peter Dutton said in his Tom Hughes Oration in Sydney a fortnight ago. In July 2017, a tip from Israeli intelligence helped authorities stop a plot to blow up an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi with a bomb smuggled in a meat grinder. Two brothers behind the plot were sentenced to 40 and 36 years’ jail.
Nor is the ACTU’s opposition to Australian companies supplying parts used in supply chains for F-35 fighter jets legitimate. Doling out bad advice on foreign and strategic policy is not the ACTU’s role, which is promoting the pay and conditions of its members. Rank-and-file workers deserve better from highly paid leaders who are remote from the interests of the nation and its allies. The Albanese government should ignore these officials’ rantings.
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Peta Credlin slams Anthony Albanese over major problem with immigration after country reached worrying milestone
Sky News commentator Peta Credlin has taken aim at Anthony Albanese after a record number of immigrants were welcomed into Australia in just one month.
More than 100,000 immigrants came to Australia in February, after 765,900 arrived throughout last year, another all-time record.
The massive influx has raised fears it will strain the crippled housing and rental markets with new housing proposals being accepted at the lowest rate in 11 years.
This is despite the Albanese Government promising to bring immigration down to 300,000-per-year and build 250,000 homes.
Credlin said the inaction was also abetting social disharmony.
Ms Credlin, in her weekly column, said successive governments have 'increasingly sent signals to migrants that the culture of the country they’re coming to is built on a history of shame, illegitimacy, and racism'.
'Is it any wonder that some migrant communities become reluctant to integrate or insistent that Australia must change to accommodate their preferences, when weak officialdom will only fly our national flag apologetically, in company with two other flags representing people with a particular racial heritage?' she wrote.
'Or when our civic culture now seems to revolve around indigenous ancestor worship while denigrating the Judaeo-Christian basis of our fundamental institutions like the rule of law.'
She added that it is 'hardly the fault of immigrants' who chose to come to Australia, but that of governments who failed to 'insist on (them) joining Team Australia'.
'It’s way past time for governments at every level to start stressing unity over diversity, to rebuild a patriotic love of Australia, rather than to preside over the diminution of our national symbols, like Australia Day,' she wrote.
Credlin claimed the 100,000 migrants who came to Australia was 'significant'.
She compared the figure to the Howard government era where 110,000 migrants came on average every year during that period.
'It’s no secret then, why housing is unaffordable, wages are flat, and roads and public transport are clogged because that’s just what happens when you don’t have a population policy and instead, use migration as a way to make the budget bottom line look better than it really is,' she wrote.
Institute of Public Affairs deputy executive director Daniel Wild said high immigration rates with few properties being built is a recipe for a housing crisis.
'The data proves that the federal government’s unplanned mass migration program is unsustainable,' he said.
'It actively undermines Australians who are struggling to find a home as increasing demand and a lack of supply is pricing them out of the market.'
Australia's median capital city house price of $956,782, based on CoreLogic data, is well beyond the reach of an average, full-time worker on $98,218.
That's because banks are only able to lend 5.2 times their salary to someone with a steady job and a 20 per cent mortgage deposit.
The average wage would only be enough to buy a $639,000 home, which in greater Sydney would only buy a unit or a house 100km away from the city centre.
Renters are also suffering with 175,960 international student arriving in February, adding to competition for somewhere to live.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13332121/Anthony-Albanese-immigration-milestone.html
*************************************************Sims: don’t saddle nation with high cost solar panels, wind farms
Former competition tsar Rod Sims has warned that embracing an ad hoc “Made in Australia” approach to the net zero transition by 2050 could “destroy” the chances of Australia becoming a clean energy superpower.
In an address to the Melbourne Economic Forum, the former chair of the ACCC warned against the nation embracing flawed approaches to achieving net zero and took aim at those who belonged to the “Made in Australia” camp as well as those whom he regarded as “market fundamentalists.”
Mr Sims, the chair of the Superpower Institute – a body dedicated to helping the nation capitalise on the opportunities of the green energy transition – used the address to warn against saddling the nation with high cost solar panels and wind farms.
But he also made clear there was a role for government in helping the nation make the most of the coming green revolution. However, he said any government support needed to be finely geared towards areas where Australia had a comparative advantage – such as in green iron.
He also listed a series of conditions that would be needed to govern any taxpayer support for industry.
First, he said assistance should be aimed at the so-called “superpower industries” where Australia “has or will have a comparative advantage due to the net zero transition.”
READ MORE: ‘Made in Australia’ sets new, dangerous course for Labor | What’s the point of PM’s flagship policy? | Future budget deficits to be Made in Australia | PM ‘betraying Hawke reforms’ |
Second, the purpose of any assistance needed to be clearly defined to address well-understood problems.
Third, there should be clear “qualification rules” for assistance and, fourth, support needed to be fully funded to ensure the nation maintained a strong budget position.
Mr Sims used the address to take aim at the proponents of the Made in Australia philosophy, arguing it was unclear – at this stage – what the policy was about or how it would work.
“We have the ‘Made in Australia’ group. The problem here is that it is unclear what this group seeks. Make everything we need, import nothing? What is the framework in this slogan for deciding what Australia does, and does not, make in Australia?”
He expressed grave concerns that simply throwing money at any green energy project would “destroy the Superpower opportunity.”
“Should government support be provided to ensure we make our own computers, cars, clothing?” he asked. “Without a clear framework Australia will take a series of ad hoc measures that invite rent seeking by businesses, raise Australia’s cost structure and lower our productivity.”
“The government’s current rhetoric around “Made in Australia” suggests there is a focus on projects relevant to the net zero transition. But again, what does this suggest we do? Is it ‘any green project deserves taxpayer support?’”
Mr Sims asked how the nation could achieve “low cost renewable energy if we are saddled with high cost solar panels, wind farms and electrolysers through a ‘buy local’ imperative?”
“Under this form of “Made in Australia” approach, Australia will not achieve the lowest cost inputs to the supply of such goods, so Australia will not be cost competitive in their supply, and the green traded products will not be as cost competitive with existing fossil fuel-made products.”
Mr Sims said such an approach would be damaging for three reasons – it would remove Australia’s ability to make the most of its comparative advantage in making green energy-intensive exports, it would displace budget dollars that could be better allocated and force labour into unproductive areas of the economy during a worker shortage.
His preferred approach to making the transition to net zero would only allow for goods to be made in Australia “where the economics have ‘flipped’.”
For example, Mr Sims said Australia was a leading exporter of iron ore, coal and gas.
“The “Made in Australia” camp, as some are expressing it, would have us use all these Australian ingredients and make iron metal in Australia now,” he said.
“There is no logic to government intervening in the choices the market has made; it seems best for Australia in the fossil carbon world to do as we are.
“We would undermine the advantages of other industries and see lower wages by having workers in always struggling industries who would be constantly lobbying government for help.”
But Mr Sims said it was sensible to make green iron in Australia, because this was an area where the nation had a comparative advantage.
“Green iron will very likely need green hydrogen as the reductant that gets the iron ore into iron metal,” he said. “Green iron should be made in Australia because the economics flip.”
“All overseas studies that I am aware of suggest that Australia is likely the cheapest place in the world to make green iron. And those seeking to make green iron by importing hydrogen, those studies say, will be uncompetitive.”
Mr Sims concluded that the world needed Australia to make many green products because the nation had more low cost renewable energy resources than its needed. By contrast, Japan, Korea, most of Europe and China did not have sufficient renewable energy resources to make all the electricity they needed.
“They will need to either import renewable energy, ammonia as a derivative of hydrogen and/or use nuclear energy – all at great cost – to meet their domestic electricity needs,” he said.
He concluded by arguing the government had not clarified what it meant by its “Made in Australia” agenda.
If it amounted simply to a suite of ad hoc measures that invited rent seeking by businesses and raised Australia’s cost structure while lowering productivity, the Made in Australia vision would only “kill the superpower ambition.”
“Australia cannot afford to follow this lead. Nor will it suit the world for this to happen,” he said.
“If the government is ... targeting producing goods in which Australia now has a comparative advantage in the net zero world, through clear qualification mechanisms that address well defined market externalities, the government must be applauded.”
“We will wait and see on May 14, budget night, which group they are in.”
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23 April, 2024
Teachers’ group to focus on Palestine on Anzac Day
This is a lot of nonsense. The charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba and related action was against the army of the Ottoman Turks, not Palestinians. It was incidentally the last successful cavalry charge in history so is well worth remembering as an achievement of Australian troops. And there is no doubt that charging into the guns of 1,000 Turkish riflemen in an entrenched position was heroic, if heroism matters any more
A pro-Palestine teachers group has excoriated the Anzac legacy just two days before Australia commemorates its military history.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Teachers and School Staff for Palestine group called for the Anzac legend to be “dismantled” and linked a slaughter committed by World War One Anzac troops to the current war against Gaza.
Secondary schoolteacher Lucy Honan said it was important for students to understand Australia’s role in the Middle Eastern conflict.
“It is so important that students know that the Anzacs left a long and violent historical imprint in Palestine and in Sarafand al-’Amar in particular,” Ms Honan said.
“The British created a prison camp for Palestinian activists at Sarafand al-’Amar.
“The residents fled or were evacuated in the 1948 Nakba, and the site then became one of Israel’s largest military bases.
“This is a legacy to dismantle, not to glorify.”
The group has developed an educational resource for classrooms, aiming to redress current Anzac narratives and “enable rigorous, critical and empowering education”.
Primary schoolteacher Bill Abrahams said it was important to use objective teaching resources rather than relying on information from parties with vested interests in Israeli weaponry.
“Rather than depending on teaching resources published by the Australian War Memorial — which is funded in part by weapons companies implicated in the genocide in Gaza, like Boeing, Thales and Northrupp Grumman — we will use resources that help us and our students reflect critically on Australia’s military involvement in Palestine,” he said.
Teachers have been encouraged to foreground the massacre of as many as 137 people in the Palestinian village, Sarafand al-’Amar, committed by ANZACs in 1918.
The booklet is a 40-page resource featuring explanations about how Anzac Day relates to Palestine, the British Mandate, the Sarafand al-’Amar massacre, the 1948 Nakba, and many primary and secondary historical sources.
The group has connections within hundreds of schools around Australia.
Secondary schoolteacher Pippa Tandy, a member of TSSP, said the booklet was in line with curriculum requirements and was age-adaptable for different grades.
“People talk about Anzac Day as being about Australian identity, but a lot of people are feeling that we want an identity arising out of truth and honesty, rather than lies and obfuscation,” Ms Tandy said.
“We actually find by looking at the curriculum, looking at the outcomes we’re supposed to be achieving in school, we’re finding that talking about Palestine is actually not something we should be prevented from doing.
“It’s quite legitimate to talk about Palestine in the classroom.
“Obviously, we’re not promoting a particular point of view, but we are committed to the idea that there is no neutrality in genocide.”
She said while it was possible there could be backlash from parents, criticism had always been outweighed by support.
“If parents raise issues with us, we talk to them – and that’s the only way through,” she said. “Ultimately, by informing students about this piece of history, all we’re doing is educating them.”
An RSL Australia spokesman said the matter was “more for education authorities” but emphasised the importance of commemorating the lives of veterans.
“Whatever the political, constitutional and international treaty obligations prevailing at the time (WWI), the RSL’s role is to represent our veterans and remember and honour their service, commitment and bravery, and encourage all Australians to do the same,” they said.
“We do this continually, but particularly on Anzac Day, Remembrance Day and on other key commemoration dates.”
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Victorian senator shares banned footage of church stabbing
There is certainly a widespread view that this footage should be censored but nobody has said why. The event happened and it is surely important that people know that such things happen. Censoring vision of the event will not make it go away. It is some sort of ostrich effect and its wisdom is highly debatable. Kudos to Senator Babet for being a voice of reason and free speech in the matter. He is our libertarian voice in Federal parliament. He was elected as a voice of free speech and he is being true to his mandate
Communications minister Michelle Rowland has accused UAP Senator Ralph Babet of “appalling behaviour" after he reposted a video of the Wakeley church stabbing to X with the caption: “To the Australian government and the eSafety commissioner go f**k yourselves”.
Senator Babet uploaded the video – which is currently subject to an injunction order – alongside a six-minute monologue in which he vowed to keep the video up and called the Liberals, Labor, and the eSafety commissioner a “threat to democracy”.
In a statement to Guardian Australia, Ms Rowland had harsh words for the Victorian senator, who was elected under Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party banner in the 2022 election.
“The Albanese government supports efforts by the eSafety commissioner to have this content removed from digital platforms in Australia,” she said.
“This is appalling behaviour by a serving senator and he needs to explain why he’s sharing this harmful content.”
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WA Liberals to ban transgender drugs for kids
A pledge by Western Australia’s Liberal leader to ban the use of puberty blockers in children could be the start of a nationwide political battle on the issue, with party leaders in other states confirming they were scrutinising practices in the wake of a landmark United Kingdom review.
Libby Mettam on Monday declared that the Liberal Party, if elected, would ban the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments and surgical intervention for children under 16 for the purpose of gender transition.
She said her decision was based on the recent findings of the UK Cass Review – handed down this month – which recommended the National Health Service exercise “extreme caution” in prescribing masculinising or feminising hormones to under-18s.
The NHS England had already stopped the routine prescription of puberty blockers in the weeks leading up to the release of the Cass report, while two Scottish health boards have since said they were pausing the prescription of puberty blockers for children. The likes of Sweden and Finland had earlier introduced restrictions on the use of the drugs.
Ms Mettam said the Cass Review was the largest of its kind and had identified the long-term and permanent harm caused by interventions being used in WA.
“When experts are saying that the permanent side-effects can be liver disease, heart disease, obesity, infertility and other conditions, we must act,” she said.
“We owe it to the next generation of Western Australia to utilise and listen to the best evidence.”
Around 100 children a year are treated by WA’s Gender Diversity Service, according to data tabled in state parliament, and the youngest child to receive treatment last year was 10. There were 63 young people on puberty blockers in WA at the end of March, representing just 0.03 per cent of 12-17-year-olds in the state.
WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson accused Ms Mettam of politicising young people “to appease extremists in the Liberal Party”, and noted that a 2021 review of the state’s Gender Diversity Service found it to be sound and appropriate.
“The decision to use puberty blockers is rare and not made lightly. The decision is made between clinicians and families, after a comprehensive mental health and multidisciplinary team assessment,” Ms Sanderson said.
“It is not appropriate for politicians to interfere in clinical decisions.”
Ms Mettam denied the policy position was driven by ideology, instead arguing a precautionary approach was needed at a time when restrictions were being put in place in countries around the world.
Other opposition leaders on Monday echoed Ms Mettam’s concerns about the latest findings on gender treatments.
A spokesman for Queensland’s Liberal National Party said the party was very cognisant of the concerns around the “questionable practices” around gender services in the state.
The Queensland government earlier this year launched a review into the state’s Children’s Gender Service, which treats around 1000 patients a year, after several pediatricians called for a moratorium on gender treatments on children.
“We are awaiting the findings of the inquiry that the government promised would be completed by April,” the LNP spokesman said.
“We are calling on the government to release the terms of reference for the inquiry, and the inquiry report in full once it is completed.”
Victorian Liberal opposition health spokeswoman Georgie Crozier confirmed she too had been examining the findings out of the UK.
“The Cass Review is an important review that should not be dismissed,” Ms Crozier said.
“There are a range of medical views into this matter that need to be taken into consideration, and we will be guided by those medical and health professionals.” Dr Hilary Cass’s review this month found “remarkably weak” evidence around treatments such as puberty blockers, with results of studies either exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their views.
The reality, Dr Cass wrote, is that there was “no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress”.
The findings of the Cass Review and the election commitment by Ms Mettam have been criticised by advocacy groups.
Equality Australia chief executive Anna Brown said matters of gender transition were deeply personal decisions that should be left to young people and the doctors and parents who support them.
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Zombies cast fear across renewables dreamland
NICK CATER
Last Thursday, the Queensland parliament passed a law committing the state to reduce carbon emissions by 75 per cent by 2035. Debate resumed at 11.44am, and the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Bill was done and dusted in time for lunch. Back-slaps all round.
At 4.32pm on Friday, Ark Energy announced it was withdrawing its application to install 42 wind turbines at Chalumbin in far north Queensland following advice that the federal Department of Climate Change and Energy was about to reject it.
The meagre odds that Queensland can meet its legislated emissions target using renewable energy are now too small to be visible under a microscope.
For the wind industry, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s rejection of Chalumbin is its Franklin Dam moment. It was a test case of the federal government’s willingness to weigh the environmental cost of installing turbines against the assumed benefits of low-carbon electricity.
Last July, when I drew national attention to the Chalumbin proposal in The Australian, I opened my column by noting that it would destroy 1000 of the remaining 8000 hectares of wet sclerophyll forest, the buffer zone between the rainforests and the open plains to the south.
Nine months later, the minister reached the same conclusion, telling The Guardian at the weekend the forest “provides a vital habitat for many birds, plants and animals, including the spectacled flying fox and the northern greater glider”.
Her decision measures how far the wind industry’s fortunes have sunk since June 2022, when the Queensland government approved the Chalumbin proposal under the corner-cutting assessment process. It applies to anything with the word “renewable” attached.
Bulldozers were ripping swathes through hundreds of hectares of remnant native forest at nearby Kaban, blasting 330,000 tonnes of rock and dirt from the sides of hills to build access roads and turbine pads bigger than football fields.
All of this was occurring without a squeak from environmental groups, every one of which appeared to have swallowed the renewable energy Kool-Aid and, in some cases, its cash.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen set a target of installing a giant 7MW wind turbine every 18 hours until 2030. He boasted of the number of projects in the pipeline, the implication being they were just a short step away from approval.
Today, the renewable energy industry has a name for projects that slip off the back of the pipeline: zombie projects. Last year was the worst year for the financial approval of renewable energy projects since 2016 and the worst for wind since 2015. The latest Green Energy and Investment Markets Review reports the window is closing fast on the government’s 2030 target.
Assuming an average of two years for construction, 8GW of new projects must receive financial approval every year from 2024 until 2027. That is almost five times higher than the amount approved in 2023.
Bowen could ill-afford the 400MW Chalumbin project to fall into the zombie zone, particularly since it was backed by Korean Zinc, a cashed-up corporation keen to get a slice of Australia’s renewable energy action.
Chalumbin signals to renewable energy speculators that the Dirty Harry days are over. The environmental costs of wind, solar, hydro and transmission will no longer be overlooked because of their assumed noble goal.
Now Plibersek has knocked back Chalumbin, it is impossible to see how she can approve the Upper Burdekin project in an equally sensitive area 4.8km from the boundary of the Wet Tropics World Heritage area.Global tech giant Apple read the writing on the wall a year ago when it walked away from an agreement to buy power from the proposed plant. Andrew Forrest, whose WindLab company is behind the project, might as well throw the towel in today.
The odds must be rapidly closing against Mt Fox, a 350MW wind turbine project in mountainous remnant forest on the edge of the wet tropical Girringun National Park, 50km southwest of Ingham. From there, the ruler must be run through cascading proposals hugging the Great Dividing Range to the Darling Downs. Few, if any, will be situated in already degraded environments since developers seek ridge lines that are unprofitable and, in many cases, impossible to farm. The remnant bush line has provided sanctuary for enough vulnerable and endangered creatures to fill Noah’s ark.
The Chalumbin precedent subjects every proposal to potential trade-offs. How many hectares of bulldozed koala habitat are too many? Which species are so unlovely, small or insignificant that we are prepared to sacrifice them in order to save the planet? If the same rules that apply to mining were applied to wind, solar and pumped hydro, the jig would be up.
Plibersek will be aware of her decision’s taming effect on the animal spirits of renewable energy speculators. On Saturday, she issued a keep-calm-and-carry-on press release announcing she had approved 63 wind turbines at the aptly named Mt Hopeful in central Queensland. “I’ve now ticked off 46 renewable energy projects … and we have a record 130 renewables projects in the approval pipeline.”
Yet the minister’s tick does not make Mt Hopeful immune from zombification. The developer, Neoen, still struggles to make the numbers stack up. Costs are ballooning as it discovers that making a project work on a spreadsheet is very different from making it work on planet Earth.
Even the environmental movement is waking up to the realisation that wind turbines might not be the answer to their prayers. Bob Brown, the father of the green movement, led the campaign to stop turbines chewing up birds in his home state of Tasmania. In Victoria, wetland conservation groups opposed the proposed terminal for offshore wind construction at the Port of Hastings, which Plibersek blocked in January.
The Chalumbin decision brought Queensland conservationists scurrying out of the woodwork to make out as if they had opposed the proposal all along. A year ago, all the Queensland Conservation Council was prepared to say publicly was that the issue was “complicated”. On Friday, the Council declared the Chalumbin decision as “welcome”.
“Today, our community breathes a sigh of relief as those important bits of nature remain intact,” said Lucy Graham, director of the Cairns and Far North Environment Centre.
It is too early to declare that the renewable craze has peaked, but that moment is a step nearer in Queensland, where expectations rise of an LNP victory at the state election in October. LNP leader David Crisafulli’s decision not to oppose Labor’s legislated target invites an intriguing question.
Since the LNP has pledged to pull back Labor’s renewable excesses, might Crisafulli be the first Coalition leader to seek an electoral mandate for lifting the ban on nuclear?
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22 April, 2024
I own three properties and I'm sick of Aussies blaming landlords for the rental crisis. Here are the two things really driving our country into the ground
I can confirm that, by being careful with money, you can start off with nothing but still make money and own properties at a young age. I retired when I was 39 -- JR
A Gen-Z property investor who owns three properties has shut down claims landlords are at fault for Australia's current rental crisis.
Harley Giddings, 24, has worked hard since adolescence and in every job 'under the sun' to own a house and is now the proud owner of multiple investment properties.
The young investor posted a TikTok to his thousands of followers saying he often gets comments 'all the time' that blame investors for the housing shortage.
The savvy landlord said he can understand Aussies' frustrations but thinks this is 'misguided', firmly believing the sky-rocketing rents and housing shortage lie with high immigration and low building approvals.
'In 2022 and 2023 the government let in over a million migrants into the country,' he said.
'According the Australian Bureau of Statistics, this is the most amount of migrants Australia has ever let into the country since they started recording.
'These one million migrants were let in at a time when Australia already had a housing crisis.'
Mr Giddings said that when people arrive in Australia they are looking at renting and not buying, which is why so many people are at inspections for rental opens.
'Basic supply and demand,' he said.
The second reason the young property investor gave for the housing shortage in Australia was the low amount of homes being built.
'We are simply not building enough properties,' he said.
'In Victoria, my home state, we currently have the lowest amount of building approvals that we've had in the last decade.
'This issue is Australia-wide.'
The 24-year-old quoted research from the Institute of Public Affairs that by 2028 Australia's housing supply will be short by 252,800 homes.
Many Australians agreed with the young investor, also blaming the government.
'Absolute master stroke by the government,' one wrote.
'Not to mention all of Victoria's new tax laws on investments, landlords are getting rid of them,' one said.
'If you can't keep up with supply reduce the demand,' another wrote.
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The flat-earth economics of a future made in Australia
With the government peddling economic nostrums from the 1940s, it is bit rich of Anthony Albanese to call Gary Banks a “flat-earther”. Thursday’s labour market figures could have been better, a 2.6 per cent annual growth rate needs lifting, but they could have been way worse – key indicators were stable or improving. So why does the government want to chance the economy on a new version of an old and failed idea – a state-led strategy based on picking winners with public money?
The Prime Minister spent the past week selling what is less a plan and more a platform for the next election, “a future made in Australia”. The idea is that because governments of other nations are investing in hi-tech industries we should do the same – whether or not Australia has a comparative advantage, whether or not it takes resources away from the industries that produced Thursday’s growth statistics. “This is about how Australia supports industries, which will be able to stand on their own two feet,” Mr Albanese said on Thursday in an interview in Adelaide. Professor Banks, the inaugural head of the Productivity Commission, is not convinced. Neither are his successors, up to and including the government’s hand-picked appointment, Danielle Wood, who was quick to warn there was a risk to “a whole class of businesses whose livelihoods depend on ongoing support” to survive.
Professor Banks’s response to Mr Albanese’s proposal is that it looks like more of the same old protectionism. “Import displacement is at the heart of both. Seeking to obtain benefits to society through subsidies for particular firms or industries, including in the form of tax concessions, has proven a fool’s errand, particularly where the competitive fundamentals are lacking,” he said in a Wednesday speech. To which Mr Albanese replied, when asked why Professor Banks was incorrect: “The world is round, not flat. That is why he is wrong.” It was not a response to inspire confidence among voters familiar with the decay of the old Australian economy, based on import taxes and public subsidies, for four decades from the end of World War II, which prime ministers Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard worked so hard to deconstruct. And it is not a response likely to inspire Jim Chalmers, who knows more than a bit about Mr Keating’s work. “We want to incentivise more private investment, not just replace it … a lot of the heavy lifting will be done by the private sector,” the Treasurer said on Wednesday.
The problem so far with “a future made in Australia” is that the incentivising will be done with public money. On Wednesday Mr Albanese announced $400m in loans for an aluminium processing plant in Gladstone. Also on Wednesday, Health Minister Mark Butler and Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic released the government’s medical science co-investment plan, which it wants the National Reconstruction Fund to support with $1.5bn. This is not so much a plan as a list of potential products and services Australian researchers are good at that may or may not make money. As such, it appears the outcome of political-economy enthusiasm, which assumes Australian research expertise merits reward for effort regardless of what the international competition is up to. Or, as the Prime Minister put it in Gladstone, “if we have confidence, if we have optimism and move forward, we can make things here”.
Mr Albanese said last week his plan to respond to “strategic competition” around the world “is not old-fashioned protectionism or isolationism – it is the new competition”. Maybe, but if it reads like protectionism, and appeals to protectionists, it’s more than probably misplaced protectionism. As Professor Banks warns: “Australia is in danger of repeating the wrong history.”
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Queensland Introduces Bill to Set 75 Percent Emissions Reduction Target Into Law
Silly dream
Queensland Premier Steven Miles has introduced legislation into the state’s Parliament to cut climate change emissions by 75 percent.
The bill sets out emissions reduction targets in Queensland and also commits the minister to making 2040 and 2045 targets in the future.
The premier said he first became interested in climate change in 2007 when his wife Kim was expecting their son, Sam.
“Now, as the state’s premier, I think it is important to protect not just my children’s future but the future of all Queenslanders,” he said.
“Queensland is already the most disaster-affected state. We have experienced more than 100 disasters since 2011. They are the kinds of disasters that we know will be more regular and more intense as average temperatures increase.”
An explanatory note on the bill states the legislation aims to “support jobs and secure Queensland’s economic future by enshrining the state’s emission reduction commitments into law.”
The bill (pdf) sets out emissions reduction targets for Queensland of 75 percent below 2005 levels by June 30, 2035, as well as 30 percent below 2005 levels by June 30, 2030. In 2050, the law sets an emissions reduction target of zero.
“The Clean Economy Jobs Bill 2024 sets a clear emissions reduction target of 75 percent on 2005 levels by 2035—a responsible, credible, and critical target on the path to net zero emissions by 2050,” Mr. Miles said.
“The 75 by 35 emissions reduction target positions Queensland as a world leader on the pathway to net zero—a target that continues Queensland’s record of having reduced more tonnes of emissions than any other state or territory.”
In addition, the bill states that the minister must decide a target for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions in Queensland for 2040, along with a target for reducing net greenhouse gas emissions in Queensland for 2045.
“The minister must decide the 2040 interim target by Dec. 31, 2030, and the 2045 interim target by Dec. 31, 2035,” the bill says.
Reaction from Political Opponents
The Queensland opposition Liberal National Party has yet to announce an official position on the legislation, according to media reports, as leader David Crisafulli continues focussing on youth crime issues.
In response to the announcement, One Nation Australia, however, raised concerns the policy would drive up electricity prices.
“Don’t look now but Queensland Labor has just announced their new policy to drive up electricity prices, drive away industry, destroy jobs, and make the cost of living crisis worse,” the party said in a post to X.
James Ashby, One Nation’s candidate for Keppel at the state election, said, “Be upfront Miles, are you planning on ruining our beaches and reefs, our farmers, or both?”
Mr. Ashby drew on a Victorian Legislative Council report that said meeting net zero targets with renewables could result in 70 percent of Victoria’s agricultural land being repurposed for wind turbines and solar farms.
“So why don’t you tell the people how much of Queensland’s land and sea you are planning to deface for your climate alarmist agenda,” Mr. Ashby said on X.
A Queensland state election is due to be held on Oct. 26, 2024. By-elections will also be held in the seats of Ipswich West and Inala on March 16, 2024.
Demonstrating ‘Queensland’s environmental, social and governance credentials’: government
Explanatory notes on the Clean Economy jobs Bill 2024 state the legislation will help attract investment to Queensland and decarbonise the state’s existing industries.
The Queensland government said achieving the 75 percent emissions target is dependent on the state and federal governments working together.
The government said (pdf) legislating the state’s credible targets would “send an important signal to investors and demonstrate Queensland’s environmental, social and governance credentials.”
“Policy certainty will enable businesses and communities to make effective plans to secure their economic futures.
“It will enable industry to invest in innovation and new technologies in sectors like agriculture, resources, and manufacturing as well as leveraging Queensland’s world-leading solar and wind resources, new economy minerals, and proven workforce capability.”
The government said the bill will “protect Queensland communities” and “mitigate the impacts of climate change,” including for “Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples.”
“Coordinated and early climate action will support the creation of more job opportunities in Queensland’s emerging clean economy industries like hydrogen, critical metals and minerals, and advanced manufacturing, especially in Queensland’s regions. It will help to support jobs in existing industries by ensuring they remain competitive and meet market expectations in a decarbonising world.”
Australian Institute for Progress executive director, Graham Young, said, “As Anthony Albanese has just demonstrated, it’s easy to legislate, and it’s almost as easy to repeal. Which is just as well as they will never meet these targets in this time frame,” in a post to X.
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In maths, truth and knowledge can’t be mere matters of opinion
From an analytical philosophy viewpoint, mathematics is a set of conventions with useful properties. If you break those conventions, you destroy its usefulness
In universities across the world, humanities departments have, over time, come to reject the notion that there is such a thing as objective truth.
This nihilistic outlook was originally promoted by a small group of academics in the mid-20th century, but is now the dominant philosophy in a range of disciplines from literary criticism to gender and cultural studies. And while the doctrine has quietly swallowed the humanities, many thought it would never infiltrate the hard sciences. If one is engineering a bridge, for example, it would be reckless to reject the objective truth of gravity. If one is studying mathematics it would be foolish to deny that 2 + 2 = 4.
Yet the notion that postmodernism would stop at the walls of the hard sciences looks naive in retrospect. In recent years, efforts to “decolonise” the sciences have been successful in New Zealand with Maori “ways of knowing” to be taught alongside chemistry, physics and biology in science classrooms. Commenting on the New Zealand policy, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has described it as “pernicious nonsense”.
To understand Dawkins’ ire, it’s worth digging a little deeper into what “decolonising science” actually means. It is an outgrowth of a larger push to “decolonise knowledge” inside the universities. Academics leading this movement explicitly reject the notion there are objective facts that can be discovered via rational or scientific inquiry.
And, rather than being a method to discover how the world works, such theorists argue Western science has been used as a tool to subjugate others. Efforts to “decolonise” science are therefore efforts to undo this subjugation, by bringing into the fold other “ways of knowing” that exist outside scientific methodology. These might include local knowledge about land management, religious knowledge about cosmology, or traditional ways of healing.
Writing in The Conversation, academic Alex Broadbent, of the University of Johannesburg, argues: “There is African belief, and European belief, and your belief, and mine – but none of us have the right to assert that something is true, is a fact, or works, contrary to anyone else’s belief.”
But if we are to treat this claim seriously it takes us to some interesting destinations. It would mean ignoring modern medicine in favour of traditional healing practices when treating cancer or heart disease. It would mean denying the laws of physics that allow planes to fly safely, based on myths about human flight. And it would mean disregarding engineering standards for building safe bridges, roads and buildings, because such standards derive from colonial methods.
Of course, this would be highly impractical. In the real world, we do not recognise the opinions of flat-earthers are equal to those of astronauts, or the knowledge of a psychic is equivalent to an oncologist. We recognise that while everyone is deserving of respect and dignity, not all opinions – or indeed “ways of knowing” – are equal in standing. But recognising the validity of science does not mean we cannot respect or study Indigenous culture. A deeper understanding of non-Western cultures is important – and we have an entire academic discipline devoted to just that. Anthropology exists to study the practices, cosmologies and knowledge systems of Indigenous populations.
Yet decolonial thinkers will argue that by isolating the study of Indigenous ways of knowing the anthropology department is itself a form of oppression.
From their perspective, knowledge grounded in spirituality and folklore should not be seen as mere cultural artefacts, but as being equal to physics, chemistry and biology. Decolonial activists reject the hierarchy that places scientific rationality above superstition and intuition.
Australia is not immune to this line of thinking, and neither are the hard sciences at our most prestigious institutions. The Australian National University’s Mathematical Sciences Institute this month released a press statement about a special topics course in Indigenous mathematics. Course convener Rowena Ball is quoted as saying “Indigenous and First Nations peoples around the world are standing up and saying: ‘Our knowledge is just as good as anybody else’s ? why can’t we teach it to our children in our schools, and in our own way?’.” The press release also states that “Numbers and arithmetic and accounting often are of secondary importance in Indigenous mathematics”.
What are some forms of Indigenous mathematics? The example given by Ball is directions in smoke signalling. “One interesting example that we are currently investigating is the use of chiral symmetry to engineer a long-distance smoke signalling technology in real time,” she says. Theory and mathematics in Mithaka society were systematised and taught intergenerationally. You don’t just somehow pop up and suddenly start a chiral signalling technology. It has been taught and developed and practised by many people through the generations.”
Commenting on her assertion that smoke signalling is a sophisticated form of mathematics, Jerry Coyne, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago, said bluntly: “I don’t find this at all convincing … patterns of smoke, like drumbeats, is a kind of language, and how to make the patterns and get them understood correctly is based on trial and error. Where does the math come in?”
In establishing a special topics course for Indigenous mathematics, the ANU is trying to serve two masters. On the one hand, universities such as ANU want to portray themselves as vanguards of social justice, in an attempt to attract students and placate activist staff. Yet on the other hand, these same institutions seek to justify collecting public funding and student fees on the premise that they provide a rigorous and substantive education.
But herein lies the irony – by indulging the decolonial activist agenda that rejects the existence of objective truths or a hierarchy of knowledge, universities undermine the very premise on which society deems them worthy of public funding. If we accept the decolonial notion that no form of knowledge can be deemed superior to any other, then what exactly are students paying for? What specialised skills or benefits do university graduates gain that non-graduates lack?
The contradiction is that the university as an institution exists solely because certain forms of systematised knowledge were historically elevated above others and deemed worthy of dedicated study, preservation and expansion. So why should the public continue to fund these multibillion-dollar organisations if the knowledge they offer is just as valid as any other “way of knowing”?
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21 April, 2024
Suicide of 10-year-old Aboriginal boy in the care of Aboriginal relatives described as 'unimaginable'
The "stolen generation" myth put about by Leftist historians means that social workers trying to help a neglected Aboriginal child are obliged to rehouse the child with other Aborigines, who are often as feckless as the neglectful families.
If the old custom of fostering the endangered child into a white family had been followed, the boy would almost certainly still be alive. Attention-seeking Leftist lies can kill
A suicide prevention advocate says a 10-year-old Indigenous boy who took his own life in Western Australia is the youngest child to have died by suicide in child protection on record.
The boy, who cannot be named, died on Saturday night while living with a relative while under the care of WA's Department of Communities.
Veteran advocate Gerry Georgatos said there were "high categorical risks" of suicide in child protection.
"One so young it should be unimaginable, particularly in care under the state," Mr Georgatos said. "He's the youngest recorded suicide in child protection custody in any form of out-of-home care."
The boy was found by his carer in the back room of the home.
The 10-year-old's parents had not seen him for eight months and had been working towards being reunited with him.
Mr Georgatos has been offering support to the boy's family in the wake of the tragedy. He said the family was "distressed" and "devastated". "The father described to me that he just collapsed in front of the police, the mother was distraught. They couldn't believe it," he said.
The boy has been in child protection custody for several years, according to Mr Georgatos.
"There are laws that prohibit a family from speaking out. And that is actually a tragedy in itself. Because the families want to speak, they want to say his name," Ms Krakouer said.
"He's this beautiful little boy, 10 years old." She said the "angelic-faced boy" was taken into state care in 2020.
"The father and the mother, they couldn't pay their rent. It is a poverty narrative across the country," Ms Krakouer said.
Ms Krakouer urged the Department of Child Protection to give custody of the parents' remaining children back to them.
"In terms of the mum and dad, they're beautiful, strong, solid people. They're kind," she said. "There is no reason for them not to have their children returned."
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Aussies ‘locked out’ of national parks to protect cultural heritage
A growing number of Australia’s most beautiful natural environments are being closed off to the public for opaque cultural heritage reasons, with one commentator labelling it a “crazy” trend that’s creating “bad vibes” between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
In NSW, the four-year closure of Mount Warning in the Northern Rivers region’s Wollumbin National Park has been a long-simmering controversy.
The breathtaking mountain, which once attracted more than 100,000 people a year, was initially closed to the public amid Covid restrictions in 2020 and in 2021, the local Aboriginal owners requested the track be closed permanently.
The Wollumbin Aboriginal Place Management plan stated that the mountain was considered a “men’s site” and that the “sanctity” of Wollumbin Aboriginal Place “may also manifest physically”, making people sick or putting women in “physical danger”.
“For example, if women access areas that are restricted to men, women are in physical danger and likewise for men,” the plan stated.
The closure sparked protests as some people defied the ban to climb the peak. It was revealed earlier this year that the private security guards had been hired to the tune of $7000 per week to keep people away from the mountain.
NSW parliament is now preparing to debate whether Mount Warning should be reopened after a petition, sponsored by Libertarian MP John Ruddick, gained more than 10,000 signatures.
“The petitioners of New South Wales state that Mt Warning, which has been walked by visitors young and old for generations, has been closed to all but select Indigenous males by the National Parks and Wildlife Service, in violation of liberal democratic principles,” the petition said.
“The petitioners request that the House call upon the Minister for the Environment to reopen Mt Warning’s summit track so it can be enjoyed by all, regardless of race or gender.”
Mr Ruddick told 2GB’s Ben Fordham earlier this week that it was about time the issue was properly debated.
“Mount Warning is one of the biggest reasons people come to NSW,” he said. “Mount Warning is the most beautiful national park NSW has. Mount Warning is a warning to all of our other national parks. We’ve got to draw a line in the sand here.”
NSW Environment and Heritage Minister Penny Sharpe has indicated she no plans to reopen the mountain, however.
Speaking on his Friday program, Fordham said “if you think this is an isolated case, think again”, as he outlined several similar examples.
In 2019, climbing was banned on Uluru, ending a decades-old tradition for visitors to the Red Centre, in recognition of the rock’s cultural significance to the Anangu people.
Fordham argued that the while “most Australians accepted it” at the time, “it was just the thin edge of the wedge”.
“Then it was the Grampians in Victoria, many iconic rock climbing routes were closed to the public in 2020,” he said.
“The shutdown was allegedly to protect rock art, including some art that is invisible to the naked eye — let that sink in. Then they came after the Glass House Mountains in Queensland. Restrictions have been proposed on three summits in that area, including Mount Beerwah.”
And in South Australia’s Flinders Rangers, St Mary Peak, the highest point which “people have been climbing for decades” was also now closed.
“Now there are signs requesting visitors stay away from the summit,” Fordham said.
“But wait, there’s more. In Alice Springs, Mount Gillen has been shut, walking tracks have been closed. Are you starting to see what’s happening here? Australians are being locked out of more parts of their own country, and in many cases Indigenous people can’t agree on the reasons why.”
He added: “Make no mistake, we are damaging tourism with this, we’re punishing people who’ve done nothing wrong, and we’re essentially creating bad vibes between Indigenous communities and other communities. I reckon future generations will think we’re crazy.”
Last year, a section of rock at Mount Beerwah, considered a sacred Indigenous site to the Jinibara people, was defaced with a message reading “Jesus saves just ask him”.
Jinibara elder Kenny Murphy told The Guardian at the time that he believed the vandalism was “clearly payback” for efforts by traditional owners to stop people climbing the mountain.
“The mountain is very important, it’s like our St John’s Cathedral, it’s a special mountain to us,” he said.
“Why can’t we have that respected? It’s just bulls**t what they’ve done, this is a birthing site, it has a special meaning to us, but Jesus is clearly the only spiritual thing this person understands.”
He added, “They want to show that there isn’t anything significant to the mountain, they would’ve cried if it was their cathedral. They can’t just leave us alone, they’ve killed our way of life, killed all the animals, poisoned our waters, and now this. It’s a big insult to us.”
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Schools have been ordered to use this teaching method. Will staff comply?
This should be a non-issue. A good teacher will do both things: Get the kids thinking first then tell them what they need to know
Last month, every public school teacher across the state was told they would be getting some training.
On their first day back from the autumn holidays, a professional learning session would cover explicit teaching.
For some veteran educators, it meant revisiting what they had known for decades and covered in teachers’ college. For their younger colleagues, explicit teaching – where students are given clear, step-by-step instructions – represents the industrial-era model of schooling their university lecturers taught them to fear.
Explicit teaching typically involves telling students sitting in rows the steps required to perform a skill or task at the start of the lesson before allowing them to practice it. In contrast, inquiry learning means confronting students with a problem and asking them to try and work out the answers for themselves, similar to how a scientist might. Advocates say inquiry-based learning fosters more in-depth understanding and deep thinking. Explicit teaching adherents believe inquiry learning is ineffective, wastes time and unnecessarily confuses students.
While schools in NSW over the past two decades have adopted inquiry-based learning, conservative voices in the education sector have been increasingly agitating for the use of explicit teaching.
Backed by academics who had studied the science of learning, The Australian Education Research Organisation reviewed more than 328 studies and found explicit instruction was an effective teaching practice across a variety of contexts for different subgroups of students.
In the wake of that evidence, the NSW Department of Education told staff this month that teachers would be supported “to ensure explicit teaching strategies are embedded in every classroom”.
“Explicit teaching is effective when learning is new or complex because it is responsive to how the brain processes, stores and retrieves information,” an email sent earlier this month said.
At a recent meeting in Sydney’s CBD at the headquarters of the conservative think tank, The Centre for Independent Studies, University of Texas education researcher Sarah Powell gave a talk alongside Australian maths teacher Toni Hatten-Roberts. Both are explicit teaching proponents and believe students should rote learn certain facts, such as multiplication tables, in primary school.
Powell said when schools prioritised inquiry-based learning, they missed out on opportunities for children to learn their times tables.
“It ends up a lot of the time related to socioeconomic status – parents who have the time and the knowledge and the wherewithal are practising their [multiplication] facts, they’re doing flashcards, they’re singing the songs, and they’re doing this in the car as they go to soccer practice,” she said.
“There are other parents who don’t have the time. They’re working two shifts at the hospital and they maybe don’t even know that they should be practising [times tables] in the home. It ends up being the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.”
Like the decades-long reading wars or the maths wars that have gripped US educators, the debate between explicit and inquiry learning has morphed into a kind of culture war in Australia, where academics’ views are pitted against right-wing think tanks.
While those who adhere to the inquiry ideology believe more in-depth learning happens when students work things out for themselves, those who see the value in explicit teaching believe students must have the ability to perform mathematical calculations using well-rehearsed procedures quickly and accurately.
Students should also be able to recall some facts, like times tables, to the point of automaticity. Doing so, they say, provides a strong foundation for higher-level mathematics skills needed for problem-solving, reasoning, and critical thinking, as well as real-world problem-solving.
In response to the department’s explicit teaching focus, university academics across the country rose into action to criticise it for overemphasising explicit instruction. They described it as unproven by research while undermining teachers’ professional authority.
Western Sydney University senior lecturer Dr Lynde Tan acknowledged a variety of skills could be taught and improved through explicit teaching, but research found the method was laden with inherent risks and required precautions.
The teaching style behind the state’s top-performing schools
“These risks include: students’ over-reliance on the teacher as the knowledge provider inhibits self-directed learning, which is a key 21st-century skill in today’s fast-paced, ever-changing world. The rigidity inherent in explicit teaching prioritises recall of facts and rote learning over critical thinking,” she said.
Associate Professor Jorge Knijnik said the edict undermined teachers’ professional autonomy. He said explicit teaching, which was centred around the teacher who does most of the talking, could complement more contemporary approaches to maximise learning.
NSW Mathematical Association president Katherin Cartwright told the Herald that explicit teaching and inquiry-based learning were not mutually exclusive.
“It is not free-for-all when you see inquiry-based learning. It is a joy to see kids understand how something works and why it works,” she said.
“Death by PowerPoint seems to be returning. Now all these teachers are making PowerPoints for every single lesson. You might get immediate results on tests, but it is not giving them deep knowledge and skills in how to reason.”
But Dr Greg Ashman, a maths teacher, author and long-time proponent of explicit teaching said occasionally explaining a concept or skill to students was not the same as using explicit instruction in every lesson.
“As long as I have been arguing about explicit teaching versus inquiry learning, I have had people respond that their version of inquiry learning includes a lot of explicit instruction. What they mean is that they occasionally explain things to students,” he said.
“However, that’s quite different to a systematic approach where all concepts are explained, and all procedures demonstrated before students are asked to use these concepts and procedures. That’s what I mean by explicit teaching.
“I honestly have no idea how NSW is going to train all its teachers in explicit teaching in a day, especially given the entrenched inquiry ideology.”
The push towards explicit teaching is part of the NSW Department of Education’s plan for public education, which has a focus on reducing gaps in student outcomes, due to structural inequities.
NSW Teachers Federation deputy president Amber Flohm said explicit teaching was a valuable methodology but cautioned against making it mandatory.
“Explicit teaching must not be mandated. Ultimately, teachers will adapt and adopt when explicit teaching is critical, but there are other times when students demonstrate understanding of a concept, the teacher should be able to use their judgment.”
The Herald asked the department how it planned to monitor whether teachers were actually using explicit teaching in light of opposition from proponents of other methods. A spokesman did not directly answer that question, but said it could survey students and parents to ask them about their experiences of explicit teaching.
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Appalling official censorship
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18 April, 2024
Australia's Olympic uniforms were unveiled on Wednesday, with big changes
A number of hopefuls took to Clovelly Beach in Sydney to pose in their new outfits - which a global audience of over one billion people will see - while morning swimmers took to the waves.
The biggest twist of them all is the colouring of the uniform.
The classic green has made way for a trendy teal for the games in France
'We're on the fashion stage and we wanted to make our athletes proud, as well as putting a contemporary feel into the uniforms,' said Elisha Hopkinson, chief executive of APG & Co, owner of official uniform supplier Sportscraft.
'We have to use the green and gold. For us, the priority is making sure that the colours sing and feel contemporary.'
'Over the years, the shades of green have changed, and in Sydney 2000 we had the ochre blazers, but I think the green is beautiful,' added Olympic gold medallist and former senator Nova Peris. 'Just as important is having Indigenous identity and culture embedded in the uniforms.'
'It helps athletes understand that when you represent this country you don't just represent 250 years, you represent 65,000 years.'
The blazers will be worn over tank tops or white T-shirts, while stone chino shorts also feature teal and gold details.
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What to do with a queer Iranian illegal immigrant?
He is right to think he would be hanged if he returned to Iran but the "refoulement" regulation says you cannot send him to any other place where he might be persecuted. That rules out the Muslim world and Africa. So where do you send him? Who else would want a queer Iranian?
And you cannot give him permission to live in Australia as both major parties have a policy that illegal arrivals will not be resettled. And any wavering on that policy would restart the flow of parasitical Muslim illegals
An Iranian asylum seeker's indefinite detention is not punitive, Australia's solicitor-general has argued, because he would be freed if he co-operated with attempts to deport him to his home country, despite his fears of the death penalty.
The detained 37-year-old man, known as ASF17, has taken his legal bid for freedom to the High Court in a case that could determine the fates of hundreds of immigrants and government policy.
Authorities have attempted to deport him to Iran every six months since 2018, when his asylum seeker visa was refused.
But as a bisexual man, ASF17 could face the death penalty upon return.
As a result, he has refused to co-operate and Solicitor-General Stephen Donaghue KC says this means his detention is not punitive.
"Where a person can be removed with their co-operation, that can't be characterised as punitive, whether or not the reason for non-co-operation was a genuine fear of harm," he told the court on Wednesday.
ASF17 had previously urged the government to remove him to any country other than Iran.
"Take me back to where you picked me up in the high seas, even take me to Gaza," the asylum seeker said during a Federal Court cross-examination, his lawyers recalled on Wednesday.
"I have a better chance there of not being killed than if you take me to Iran."
Dr Donaghue argued refugee applicants can genuinely fear what may happen on return to their home countries, but this may not be "objectively well-founded".
The government had investigated the possibility of deportation to a third country, but this could inflame diplomatic tensions or lead to the risk of refoulement, Dr Donaghue said.
ASF17's barrister Lisa De Ferrari SC said without being offered other deportation options, her client remained indefinitely detained.
"They've straitjacketed themselves and now they're turning the table on my client, saying 'you've been very unreasonable by not helping us get you to Iran'.
"How can it not be punitive (when) there's never any end point?"
His case springs from a November High Court ruling, which found it was unlawful to indefinitely detain people with no prospect of deportation. About 150 immigration detainees were released as a result.
The appellant wants this expanded to cover people who refuse to co-operate with authorities on their deportation.
The Federal Circuit Court previously ruled the continued immigration detention of a Baha'i man from Iran was unlawful and he was immediately released.
"This is another case that says, whatever has been happening to people who are vulnerable and have come to Australia for protection, they cannot be indefinitely detained," his lawyer Alison Battisson told AAP.
"It creates a precedent that somebody has non-refoulement obligations owed to them."
Baha'is are a persecuted religious minority in Iran and Australia has signed international human rights treaties which include the principle of non-refoulement, meaning refugees cannot be sent back to countries where they face persecution.
ASF17, who is not Baha'i, first arrived on Australian shores by boat in 2013 and has been in detention for a decade.
There are about 200 other people in a similar situation, and Human Rights Law Centre legal director Sanmati Verma said the government was using indefinite detention as a way to "coerce people into returning to danger".
In an attempt to pre-empt ASF17's hearing, the government tried to ram through laws to prevent a release of people from immigration detention.
Under the proposed laws, which could affect more than 4000 people, those who refuse to co-operate with the government over their deportation could spend up to five years in prison.
The legislation would also give the home affairs minister power to ban visa classes of relatives of asylum seekers who come from blacklisted countries that do not accept deportees.
But it was blocked in parliament and sent to a senate inquiry.
The High Court has adjourned and is yet to decide when it will hand down its decision.
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Australia has reached a new immigration milestone with more than 100,000 foreigners arriving in just one month for the first time ever
The landmark total is eight times the number of new homes approved and is set to further fuel the worsening housing crisis.
February's net intake of permanent and long-term arrivals was 105,460 - almost double January's 55,330 level, new Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed.
This occurred as a large number of international students moved to Australia for the first semester of the university year.
Australia's capital cities also have rental vacancy rates under one per cent as construction activity fails to keep pace with booming population growth.
The 12,520 houses, apartments and government units approved in February was only one-eighth the monthly net immigration arrival figure, with capital city rents surging by double-digit percentage figures during the past year.
Institute of Public Affairs deputy executive director Daniel Wild said this was a recipe for a housing crisis. 'Australia's migration intake remains out of control, with promises to "normalise" arrivals in tatters,' he said. 'Combined with plummeting housing construction approvals, Australia is being set up for a disaster.'
Treasury's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook forecast Australia's annual net overseas migration figure would moderate to 375,000 in the 2023-24 financial year.
But that is hardly happening, with 498,270 net arrivals in the year to February, covering permanent skilled migrants and long-term arrivals like international students.
A record 548,800 migrants arrived in the year to September, with the foreign influx making up 83.2 per cent of Australia's population increase.
The population growth pace of 2.5 per cent, with births included, was the fastest since 1952.
Mr Wild said high immigration was locking Australians out of the housing market.
'The data proves that the federal government’s unplanned mass migration program is unsustainable,' he said.
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Another attack on housing
It had to happen in Victoria. With property investors already hit with a range of new land taxes from the state government, a shire council in the prosperous Mornington Peninsula region has now broken ranks with a plan for a levy on new property builds.
Awash with retirees, holiday homes and a rising population of one-time CBD workers who now operate from home – the expensive region, just 40km south of Melbourne, has little room for low-income housing.
Earlier this week the Mornington Peninsula Shire, which covers wealthy enclaves including Portseas, Sorrento and Flinders, put forward a plan to impose a social housing levy of 3.3 per cent on all new developments.
Despite recent activity, Victoria continues to have the lowest proportion of total housing stock allocated to social housing in the country.
As a new property tax, the Mornington move could become a test case – it has the potential to cover everyone from big time developers to “mums and dads” who want to build a home for themselves.
Cate Bakos, the director of the Property Investment Professionals Association, says: “This is a dangerous play, it is out of the blue and we have seen no consultation on it. Social housing needs to be funded, but not by a narrow segment of the population.
“This region became much more expensive after the pandemic – but a tax like this ignores the ‘permanents’ in the district who want to live in their home area.”
The levy proposal – which would add around $35,000 on average to new homes – is now out for community consultation.
The move will be watched closely by councils across Australia, especially in popular sea-change districts where social and low-income housing is an acute issue. The Queensland state government has already made a short-lived attempt to introduce new property taxes in 2022.
Across Victoria weak returns and high taxes have combined to offer mounting evidence that investors are already quitting the regional market.
A survey from the PIPA late last year of more than 1700 investors found the exodus was particularly pronounced in Melbourne, where a quarter of property investors who responded sold at least one rental home in the past year.
Melbourne is the weakest performing of the larger cities with price gains of just 11 per cent since 2020, against double that return in Sydney.
More broadly, the city is tracking at just one-third of the 33 per cent price increase seen nationwide since mid-2020, according to research group CoreLogic.
Just a year ago, the Victorian government put the property sector firmly on the front line when the state budget introduced taxes on property development windfalls and short-term rentals where an “Airbnb tax” was introduced at 7.5 per cent of annual revenue.
As The Australian reported at the time: “Just as the property sector was trying to digest these changes, Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas announced a few more tax moves for good measure. In October, the government announced it would widen a vacant residential land tax (that included holiday homes) from a handful of inner-city suburbs to include the entire state.”
The Mornington proposal will ultimately need to be signed off the Victorian state government.
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17 April, 2024
Another limit to Australia's electric vehicle revolution
If you are towing something with an EV, you can't just drive onto a forecourt and fill up as you would with a combustion-powered vehicle. Anybody who ever tows a trailer of any kind would be mad to buy an EV. EVs are just a rich man's toy
I have financed an older couple to travel around Australia towing a long and very well-appointed caravan. A diesel Toyota Prado does an effortless and untroubled job of towing it. They pass through many country areas so would just not be able to do the trip with an EV.
The photo of a grey Tesla hooked up to a BP Pulse charging station at an undisclosed location was shared in a Facebook group on Thursday, captioned: 'I'm aware they don't have a spare tyre, I wasn't aware that they don't have reverse.'
Clearly well beyond the bay's perimeters, the majority of the car had mounted the kerb in front.
Social media users were quick to criticise the car's position, questioning why the driver didn't reverse into the spot to make it easier for the charging cable to reach the outlet.
But it soon became apparent why the Tesla was across the boundaries of the parking bay when the original image, which had been cropped, resurfaced and revealed the Tesla was towing a trailer.
It highlights yet another glaring issue with the government's plans to drastically grow the country's EV network by 2030.
Of the 3,000 electric vehicle charging stations currently available nationwide, none of them are equipped for cars towing caravans.
The current infrastructure means drivers often have to unhitch the trailer to effectively charge their vehicle or risk blocking other vehicles.
Carola Jonas, CEO and Founder of Everty, said it's something charging station owners and operators must 'pay close attention to'.
As well as having a lot of catching up to do in terms of having ample charging stations both roadside and in buildings, Jonas argued 'a balance' must be found with the types of bays available for drivers.
'If you look at the charging stations in Wilson or Secure car parks in the city CBDs the parking bays there are limited, but you also wouldn't use these ones with a trailer,' she told Yahoo News Australia.
'But then when you look at highway charging or charging in more public open locations, it would definitely be good if the charging networks start implementing a mix [of suitable bays].'
Some charging networks are currently installed in the 'trucking areas' of some petrol stations so trucks and longer EV vehicles can still use them, Jonas continued.
'So even if you come there with a normal passenger car, you can just drive into the trucking parking area and use the charger. The other way around, it wouldn't have been possible.
'So there are solutions, but it's really for the infrastructure providers to make sure they're for the right mix.'
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Pauline gets it right on Muslim Immigrants
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has accused the Albanese government of importing people who do not adopt the laws and values of the countries they settle in.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was allegedly attacked by a knife-wielding terrorist on Monday evening while the clergyman was delivering a sermon at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the western Sydney suburb of Wakeley.
The teenager who allegedly stabbed the bishop justified his actions by telling police the Christian leader had 'sworn' at 'my prophet', and reportedly screamed the Islamic phrase 'Allahu Akbar'.
The Australian National Imams Council and other individual Muslims have condemned the attack on Bishop Emmanuel.
'These attacks are horrifying and have no place in Australia, particularly at places of worship and toward religious leaders,' the Imams Council said in a statement.
Senator Hanson claims the viscous stabbing, which police are treating as a terror attack, was the result of importing people with an 'Islamist ideology' who 'do not adopt the laws and values of the countries they settle in'.
'Instead they demand their fundamentalism is simply accepted and adopted in their new countries, and they employ violence or radicalise young people into violence in perverse attempts to achieve this end or attack those who oppose them,' she said.
'Islamist ideology, which seeks to impose fundamentalist Islam across the world, is completely incompatible with Australian values of freedom, democracy and religious tolerance.'
Senator Hanson argued Australia was seeing a rise in radical Islam with 'extremist Islamic preachers in Australia calling for jihad and death – and getting away with it' and 'the intimidation and violence we’ve seen directed at Jewish Australians'.
She contended the 'most effective solution' to this problem is 'people with such ideology are never permitted to come here' but the opposite was happening under the Albanese government.
'Labor doesn’t care about the threat they represent and continues to import this ideology to Australia to shore up support for its western Sydney MPs,' she said.
'The Albanese government has fallen over itself to hand out visas so people who overwhelmingly support the terror group Hamas can escape the consequences of Hamas’s terror attacks on Israel.
'When will the major parties wake up and stop importing people and ideologies that are completely incompatible with Australia and its way of life?'
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Queensland Backtracks on Homeschool Curriculum Mandate
Under proposed education reforms in Queensland, home-schooled children will not have to follow the national curriculum but will instead have their progress checked by a new government advisory group.
Currently, there is no set homeschooling curriculum, but parents or caregivers are required to develop an educational program based on the eight core learning set out in the Australian National Curriculum, which includes English, maths, science, humanities and social science, arts, technology, physical education, and language learning.
In March, the government attempted to mandate the curriculum via a Queensland parliamentary committee tasked with drafting the Education General Provisions Amendment (EGPA) Bill, which proposed changes to homeschooling.
However, after consultation with education stakeholders, doubts were cast over whether such a mandate would alienate the stay-at-home students and their families.
As a result, Education Minister Di Farmer has announced that a new Home School Advisory Group will be established.
The government said it respects the right of parents to home-school, but the advisory group will check on whether children are receiving comparable learning.
“I will also be establishing a Home Education Advisory Group to consider in detail how we ensure children being homeschooled are receiving the high-quality education,” Ms. Farmer said.
“Additionally, a review will commence into the role of the Home Education Unit to how best it can help not only better regulate, but provide important support to families who choose to home school.
“All Queensland children are entitled to be safe wherever they live and learn and as a former child safety minister, I understand too well that this is not always the case.”
Homeschooling in Australia has been steadily growing in popularity as an alternative to traditional schooling, initially taking hold during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of children now staying home from the traditional classroom surged by nearly 300 percent in 2023.
Families choose homeschooling for a variety of reasons, including a desire for more flexibility in their children’s education, dissatisfaction with the schooling system, or a wish to provide a tailored education that meets their child’s individual needs.
Proponents of the method say one of the key benefits of homeschooling is the ability to customise the educational experience to suit the child’s learning style, interests, and pace.
Homeschooled children often have more freedom to explore subjects in depth and pursue areas of passion. Additionally, homeschooling can provide a more flexible schedule, allowing for travel, family commitments, or other activities.
Critics of homeschooling often point towards potential issues with a lack of social interaction with children the same age, hampering adult development, and failing to maintain a consistent schedule required when entering the workforce.
Response to the Homeschool Changes
Free2Homeschool campaign manager Patricia Fitzgerald, who is hosting a “peaceful picnic” at Parliament House in Brisbane to celebrate the withdrawal of the national curriculum, said parents and caregivers should be kept in the loop.
“Queensland Home Educators want to ensure they are recognised, supported and are consulted appropriately so that any legislation reflects the actual needs of home education in the community,” Ms. Fitzgerald said.
Shadow education minister Christian Rowan saw the backdown as a failure for Labor.
“Labor has descended into a government in chaos and crisis which utterly failed to consult and listen to Queenslanders on this issue and now has been forced to abandon its reckless plans,” Mr. Rowan said on April 15.
Queensland Premier Steven Miles disagreed with Mr. Rowan’s sentiment.
“I have always said I will listen to Queenslanders and act when I need to, which is why I worked with Minister Farmer to ensure we heard the concerns of teachers.”
“I look forward to seeing updated consultation proceed,” he said
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/queensland-backtracks-on-homeschool-curriculum-mandate-5630088
********************************************Senator Claims TGA ‘Overriding’ Experts While Processing Vaccine Injury Claims
Senator Gerard Rennick has alleged—under parliamentary privilege in the Senate—that the Therapeutic Goods Administration is “overriding the decision of the specialists” in refusing claims for vaccine injury from people who received COVID-19 vaccinations.
Services Australia administers the scheme, which offers people a way to seek a one-off compensation payment, instead of going through legal proceedings, if they experienced harm from a vaccine.
The Scheme was designed to “compensate for losses due to the harm ... suffered” and not for “pain and suffering.” The compensation covers lost earnings, out-of-pocket expenses, paid attendant care services, and “deceased ... vaccine recipient payments and funeral costs.”
To meet the criteria for the payment, Services Australia’s website says a person must have:
received an approved COVID-19 vaccine.
met the definition of harm, for example, an administration-related injury or one of the clinical conditions listed in the policy.
been admitted to hospital as an inpatient, or seen in an outpatient setting for an eligible clinical condition.
been admitted to hospital as an inpatient for an administration-related injury.
experienced losses or expenses of $1,000 or more.
The site also lists the eligible conditions including myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and the autoimmune disorder Guillain Barre Syndrome.
A claimant must have their condition verified by “a medical specialist in the relevant field of practice” (for instance, a cardiologist for myocarditis), and then send the medical report and evidence of the expenses being claimed for assessment by Services Australia.
Senator Claims to Have ‘Insider’ Informant
Mr. Rennick told the Senate that he had spoken to “an insider from the TGA” who had since resigned, and who “played a big role in designing this scheme.”
“The whole point of that scheme was that once the injured person got a specialist to say that the person was injured by the vaccine, he or she would be entitled to compensation. Now that is not happening,” the senator said.
“What is happening is Services Australia make these people wait [on average] 297 days to get a decision. Many of them can no longer work. They are seriously ill. They have to do all the legwork of trying ... see a specialist, a cardiologist or a rheumatologist, and that takes a lot of work. It’s very expensive. You’ve got to go and get MRIs or something to back [it] up. And then they’ve basically been neglected.”
He alleged that, once the claim came up for a decision, “what they do is [refer it] back to the TGA, [and the] TGA is a turning around and saying ‘we are overriding the decision of the specialists who actually examined the patient.’”
“Now my insider tells me these doctors at the TGA are not qualified to be overriding specialists. And I believe that if you haven’t examined the patient who you decide this isn’t actually a vaccine injury, how would you know?”
Mr. Rennick said he had talked to scientists—whom he did not name—who told him that “you will never know while a person’s leaving because you can’t take tissue samples from living people. So we are operating in the dark here in regards to our ability to examine what’s really going on as a result of these vaccine injuries.”
Only 14 Deaths Recognised as Vaccine-Related
Senator Rennick claimed there were 1,000 reports of suspected deaths due to the vaccines in the country.
“And how many have the TGA recognised? 14,” he said.
“When you press the TGA and you say to them, ‘Can you actually prove this wasn’t a vaccine?’ They say, ‘No, we can’t.’
He also claimed there were 10,000 unexplained excess deaths during the period between May and December 2021 when the vaccines were being administered.
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16 April, 2024
Love thy neighbour? What to do when you can’t stand who’s next door
It's generally good advice below but having a dog in a small unit is generally unfortunate, including for the dog.
When it comes to loud music I have a better idea than any mentioned below. I once had some young people move in next door and they liked their music loud. I called on them and asked them to tone it down. I also mentioned smilingly that we both had equal rights about playing music.
When nothing changed, I dealt with it promptly. I put my HiFi speakers on the window sill nearest to them and promptly played Janacek's Sinfonietta through them -- loudly. Within minutes the kids came streaming out of the house and into their cars. They couldn't stand it.
The Sinformietta is brass-heavy avant garde classical music which to most people sounds like scratching your finger-nails on a blackboard . Even some classical music fans don't like it. But I do. It was a very simple lesson in human diversity that some young people needed to learn.
I must mention some day how I dealt kindly with an incessantly-barking dog. I am a psychologist and ever since Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, psychologists have modified animal behaviour
When Sabrina Damiano bought her first home – a one-bedroom apartment in Sydney’s eastern suburbs – the possibility of not getting along with her neighbours didn’t cross her mind.
“I’ve rented for the last 10 years and never had any issues,” she says. “When I moved in, I even went around and introduced myself with cupcakes and cookies.”
But just over a month later, Damiano received a breach notice saying her dog, Rufus – a 15-year-old pug-cross-maltese with dementia – was disturbing the peace by "occasionally" barking.
Damiano says she took every measure to improve the situation. She got Rufus new medication, worked from home more frequently, and hired a dog-sitter when she had to leave the house. But the breach notices kept coming. Now, the case may go to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
“Things got really nasty,” she says. “They stuck the rude finger up at me. They threatened to call the RSPCA … They took my washing off the [communal] line.”
After less than a year Damiano’s situation became so toxic that she decided to sell her apartment.
Whether faced with seemingly unreasonable complaints, or suffering at the hands of someone who blasts music at 4am every weeknight, neighbour disputes have arguably become part and parcel of community living.
According to a Relationships Australia survey conducted in 2019, over 60 per cent of women and 68 per cent of men said they had experienced conflict with neighbours.
“I’m seeing a rise in noise complaints in strata [including apartments],” says strata lawyer Amanda Farmer.
“More people are living in strata, many different types of people, like families with kids, multi-generational families, those with pets, people who are adding value by renovating … But then you also have more people working from home, so it’s the perfect storm.”
Talk it out
Let’s say your neighbour blasts the trombone at 2am every Wednesday. If this interferes with your household’s sleep (and you feel safe enough to do so), etiquette expert Amanda King recommends calmly and respectfully approaching them to communicate how the issue affects you.
“If you begin with an aggressive reaction, you may only be met with more aggression, and the issue escalates,” Sydney-based King says. “Make sure to treat your neighbour with courtesy and respect and listen to what they have to say. Keep a record of all contact you have regarding the problem.”
Face-to-face is always preferable as it comes across as more sincere, King says. However, if this isn’t possible, a carefully worded letter would suffice.
It’s possible to get ahead of any issues by establishing a positive dynamic with your neighbours from the beginning, says Sydney-based social etiquette expert Anna Musson.
“Getting along with neighbours is a thermostat for your life. We should get to know who lives near us and build a community, whether for our own loneliness, neighbourhood security or to build that sense of belonging. When we know who’s crying, whose dog is barking, who’s building a deck, it reduces how annoying we find that sound.”
Mediate
If tension persists, it’s often possible to resolve the dispute by inviting a knowledgeable and impartial third party to the conversation, says strata and community titles lawyer Allison Benson.
However, official mediation is the next step. “Owning a property in a strata or community title scheme is like a marriage, a long-term relationship with the other lot owners. It’s generally to everyone’s benefit to try to resolve the matter before it gets to the litigation stage.”
Most mediation services are free, such as via NSW Fair Trading and Community Justice Centres. Elsewhere, the Dispute Settlement Centre of Victoria also offers free mediation; however, matters referred by VCAT are generally prioritised due to high demand.
Tribunal: a worst-case scenario?
Legal action is generally considered a last resort, Benson says, as it’s time-consuming, expensive and stressful. If your case does end up before a tribunal or court, she strongly recommends seeking legal advice.
“You need to understand not just your legal rights and obligations but what’s required during the litigation process. I’ve seen many people with good claims fail because they didn’t understand what they needed to prove or the time limits that may apply to their claim.”
During a tribunal, it will be up to the complainant to prove their peace was unfairly disturbed, Farmer says. This is a rather subjective process, which largely depends on the amount of verifiable evidence each neighbour recorded throughout the dispute.
The Protection of the Environment Operations (Noise Control) Regulation will govern most neighbourhood noise, including the use of air conditioners and musical instruments. It sets out timeframes for noisy activities and their duration.
Defining “unreasonable noise”
This will depend on it’s volume and intensity, what type of noise it is, time and place, its duration and its frequency.
When to let it go
Not every grievance is worth the battle. As the Australian population grows and apartment living booms, noise and other minor annoyances are almost inevitable.
“People are all around you,” Farmer says. “You have to come to terms with this if you’re going to live in these spaces. Noise also travels in older buildings in Australia. So, you must temper expectations.”
If something is only mildly annoying and relatively infrequent, such as a Saturday night party or someone leaving their bin in the parking bay, Benson says it’s probably best to ignore it and preserve the relationship.
President of the Australian Psychological Society, Dr Catriona Davis-McCabe, says though you can’t control how you feel about something, you can control your response.
“Not letting go and moving on from small things that annoy you compounds over time, making your life harder and less enjoyable than it needs to be. Remember that you only have a finite amount of mental capacity to deal with stress each day, so it’s better to save it for the most important issues you’re facing.”
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So-called security guards
Most security personnel in Australia aren't armed and industry experts say current rules mean they "don't stand a chance" against attackers with dangerous weapons.
What's next? Security guards say they should be allowed to be armed, but some worry that would mean "going down a pretty dangerous road".
The horrific stabbing deaths of six people at a busy shopping centre in Sydney on the weekend has sent shockwaves across the nation.
Two victims — including one of the deceased, Faraz Tahir — were security guards.
It comes two months after the fatal stabbing of a 70-year-old grandmother at a shopping centre in Ipswich, Queensland.
In February, a 30-year-old security guard died after allegedly being punched in the head outside a pub in Sydney's south.
Now, there's debate about whether security guards have enough protection and powers to keep themselves, and the public, safe across the country.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns and Scentre Group, the company that operates Westfield shopping centres, have both flagged reviewing the measures in place around security personnel.
But for some security guards, it's too little too late — and they say lives could have been saved on the weekend if policy settings were different.
They're the people we expect to keep us safe in public spaces, but most security personnel in Australia aren't armed.
The award rate for security officers in Australia is about $25 an hour, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman.
And while they may look like law enforcement in some ways, security consultant Scott Taylor said they were not given the same tools to protect themselves and others in the face of danger.
"We have the same powers of arrest and use of force guidelines as any general citizen," the founder of Praesidium Risk and Resilience said.
Essentially, unarmed security guards can prevent you from entering certain places, remove you from a premises, make a citizen's arrest and use force if reasonable and necessary.
"[The general public] don't think of them as ... first responders to incidents, offering first aid, jumping in and going towards situations while others go the opposite way," Mr Taylor said.
Mr Taylor said he had long been advocating for security guards to be armed with capsicum sprays, stab-proof vests, batons and handcuffs.
"They're often going around with a small first aid kit, a torch and a radio," he said.
"For unarmed security personnel to be dealing with someone with an edged weapon like that ... sadly they had nothing else at their disposal — they don't stand a chance."
Samuel*, a security manager with more than 17 years experience in the industry, said people didn't understand the limitations placed on security guards.
He said Mr Tahir's death could have been prevented if he had proper protective gear.
"[He] did not have to lose his life ... no-one should have had to lose their lives over that."
Another security guard, Felix*, said greater access to stab-proof vests would better protect security guards against stabbings.
He said some employers didn't like security guards wearing extra protective equipment because it made them look unfriendly.
"A lot of clients want security to appear more as a friendly concierge. They get their panties in a twist that we look too intimidating or tactical. They believe it leaves their patrons with an uneasy feeling."
'A dangerous road'
Though it would require additional regulation, training, and likely, pay, Mr Taylor said it was time to give security guards better access to things like batons, protective equipment and capsicum sprays.
He said going so far as to arm security guards with guns, like they do in the United States, was not the solution.
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10,000 Sign Petition to Re-Open Mountain Track Closed Due to Indigenous Claim
These claims are mostly just Leftist mischief making
Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition to re-open the summit track of New South Wales’ (NSW) Mount Warning (Wollumbin), which has been closed to the general population by local indigenous guardians since 2020.
The 1,156-metre eroded shield volcano in the Northern Rivers region of the Tweed Coast is a popular destination for hikers and nature enthusiasts, and there is evidence of indigenous habitation over the past 6,000 years.
Aboriginals believe it is the place where their creator spirit Nguthungulli, ascended to the sky. Before the ban, 120,000 visitors annually would frequent the mountain’s summit track and its surroundings.
In 2020, the mountain was closed due to COVID protocols but was kept shut post-pandemic by safety concerns and by the Wollumbin Consultative Group, a consortium of Aboriginal elders from the Bundjalung people.
They requested that visitors, including women of indigenous heritage, refrain from climbing it out of respect for their beliefs, saying their presence would negatively impact its cultural significance.
However, NSW Libertarian Party MP John Ruddick has raised a petition to have the mountain reopened to the public and is approaching the 10,000 signatures required to instigate a parliamentary debate.
MP Doubts Cultural Significance
Mr. Ruddick has been vocal over what he views as the “hocus pocus” inventions of “left-wing extremists” who want to sow the seeds of racial division by keeping the mountain off limits to anyone except male members of the Wollumbin people.
He said he doubted evidence existed that the site was culturally significant to the Bundjalung, and believed the exclusion of park users was a result of extremists exploiting the situation for political gain.
“I don’t believe it is the Aboriginal version of Jerusalem or Mecca or St Peters,” Mr. Ruddick told the Daily Mail on Friday. “I am convinced these claims are recent inventions of white left-wing extremists who are exploiting Aborigines and I don’t believe there is any documentary evidence for them.
“If it was sacred, of course, we respect those holy sites and we don’t want to upset people if they have genuine belief in a spiritual thing.”
Mr. Ruddick said the extremists “don’t care about the negative impacts that will have on the Aboriginal people. This is just a tool left-wing white academics use to make Australians feel bad about themselves.”
He compared the current argument with Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, which closed its summit to public use in 2019.
“That’s why we have to push back now because it started with Uluru and now there is this and there will just be more and more. And it’s not helping the Aboriginal people, it is actually making things worse,” he said.
“It means the white academics have got in the ears of some them and the others say this is BS and we are going to publicly call it out as BS. It happens every single time and that shows you how much credibility there is that it is a sacred site.
“Up until this century, there’s not one document from the 19th century or the 20th century of Aborigines saying, ‘This is a sacred mountain, you are not allowed to climb here.’”
Despite the ban being supported by the state government, the Wollumbin Consultative Group’s legitimacy to enforce it was questioned by other Aboriginal groups, and in-fighting occurred between the group and the Ngarakbal Githabul and Yoocum Yoocum people—who disputed their claim.
“Aborigines are not a monolith, there is always conflict among the local Aborigines,” Mr Ruddick said.
Petition Gathers Steam
The petition is sponsored, along with Mr. Ruddick, by Marc Hendrickx, who in 2023, wrote a book titled “A Guide to Climbing Mount Warning: the fight for awe and wonder.”
The petition, which has reached 9,972 signatures by publication time, calls for the reopening of Mt Warning’s summit track so it can be “enjoyed by all, regardless of race or gender.”
https://www2.theepochtimes.com/world/petition-to-re-open-mt-warning-approaches-10000-names-5629117
************************************************"Low cost" renewable energy is an impossible dream
The amusing claim that wind and sunshine are "free" still sounds relevant to some. But converting wind and sunshine into electricity and and delivering it to peple's homes is VERY costly. Coal is free too -- until you start digging it out of the ground
The pre-eminent figure in political economy at Sydney during Albanese’s time at university was red-ragger Ted Wheelwright. Never a fan of the invisible hand, Wheelwright believed in something called “balanced economic development” while disparaging the role of multinational companies and foreign investment. He was a true believer in government intervention and big government, both key convictions of Albanese.
But here’s the thing: while the Prime Minister may sadly remember a lot of what he was taught all those years ago – he probably doesn’t sign up to the evils of foreign investment like Wheelwright did – he failed to come to grips with some ironclad laws of economics. These include the fact that price results from the interaction of supply and demand and that there is a difference between marginal and average costs.
I mention this because of his incorrect assertion that “investment in renewables will lead to cheaper power, because that’s what every economist tells us”.
Not this little black duck, aka an economist, I’m afraid. Virtually all my pals in the economics profession also take the view that renewable energy as a source of 24/7 power is actually more expensive than other sources after accounting for overbuild, additional transmission, the need for back-up/storage and frequency and voltage controls. By the way, economists need their friends in the engineering profession to get to the bottom of the issue.
It’s worth going through the issues because our Prime Minister needs to come to his senses: if he really believes renewable energy is cheaper power, we are heading for the economic rocks and quite quickly.
The most common (but deficient) way of looking at this issue is using levelised cost of electricity according to the source of generation. This is done for many countries but actually falls into the trap of confusing marginal and average costs. Marginal costs are the additional costs of generating an extra unit whereas average costs are the total costs divided by all the units generated.
LCOE takes into account the cost of installation as well as the expected lifetime of the asset. (Wind and solar last half as long as coal and nuclear). A key variable is the capacity factor of the different sources: nuclear has the highest and wind and solar the lowest (around 25 to 33 per cent).
By rights, extended wind droughts and cloudy periods should be taken into account but this rarely occurs. The cost of the feeder stock is then added – which is zero in the case of wind and solar, and meaningful in other cases
The end result is the net present value of electricity generation over the lifetime of the asset in question. Note here that the results are highly assumption-dependent and relate only to wholesale electricity costs, which make up less than one-third of retail costs in the National Electricity Market.
The reality is that LCOE estimates don’t tell us very much because we need electricity 24/7 and wind and solar, by definition, cannot provide this. Moreover, because wind and solar are decentralised assets, they require very expensive and substantial transmission lines to connect to the grid.
These lines have to be paid for and are becoming increasingly expensive to build. There is also a great deal of local resistance to their construction. In addition, ancillary services – frequency and voltage control – have to be paid for. The point here is that when you consider the issue in a holistic way, electricity generation dominated by renewable energy cannot provide the 24/7 power we need or offer affordable prices.
We only need to look at the countries that have pushed a great deal of renewable energy – leaving hydro to one side – into their systems through regulation and subsidies – think Denmark, Germany, the UK and the states of California and South Australia. They all have very high electricity prices with their attendant problems for households and businesses.
It might even pique the interest of our Prime Minister to observe Victoria, which is currently subsidising two brown coal-fired electricity plants having embarked on a headlong campaign to promote renewable energy installations across the state as well as offshore. Astonishingly, its government has also rejected the use of gas; gas peaking plants are the best fit with renewables.
If renewable energy really is cheaper, why would it be necessary to subsidise the investors? And if renewable energy is the best form of electricity generation, how is it the case that two coal plants are now being incentivised to continue? The Eraring plant in NSW is next in line.
The reality is that pushing renewable energy into the system undermines the business models of 24/7 coal-fired generators, but these generators become crucial to pick up the inevitable slack created by the intermittency of wind and solar. Expensive batteries can make a bit of difference but only for short periods. The number of large-scale batteries we would need to firm wind and solar renders this route completely impractical.
In other words, it’s not good economics, notwithstanding the naive view of the Prime Minister. It is also unacceptable to simply expect those in rural and regional communities to bear the external costs of having these installations littered in their backyards.
Over time, it is easy to predict that the owners of the last standing reliable plants will be able to hold the federal and state governments to ransom, thereby driving up electricity prices even further. It’s a perfectly rational business response.
You wouldn’t buy a fridge that only works a third of the time or a stove that only works a third of the time. But we are expected to believe renewable energy is the route to cheaper electricity and economic prosperity. Albanese’s assertion that “climate action is good for our economy” is simply not borne out by the figures.
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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)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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15 April, 2024
Duck hunting season begins in Victoria despite inquiry recommending it be outlawed
This is of course an emotional issue rather than a logical one. If you kill animals for food what does it matter which animal you kill? And poultry are a very widespread source of food. The KFC and Nando's chains would not exist otherwise.
Hunting any animal is not for me but we have in fact evolved to kill animals for food. So hunters are doing a very human thing. One can only hope that the people "rescuing" ducks are also kind to their fellow human beings.
I do myself rather like ducks both in the environment and on my plate but they are a very capable creature so there is never going to be any scarcity of them. Quacking creatures in ponds are very common
In wetlands across Victoria, camouflaged hunters waded into the water on Wednesday, turned their shotguns to the sky and began to bring down ducks.
At Lake Lyndger, near the wheat-growing town of Boort, Danny Ryan is waiting waist-deep in water at 8am — the moment Victoria's 2024 duck hunting season commenced.
Mr Ryan, a longtime hunter and spokesperson for the Victorian Duck Hunters Association, points to several dead tree stumps and marks an imaginary line.
This is the distance within which he will shoot ducks, he says, as it is more likely to lead to an accurate shot and an ethical kill.
Under mounting pressure and increased regulations, duck hunters like Mr Ryan are keen to stress their efforts to hunt humanely.
In a little over an hour, Mr Ryan kills three grey teal, one black duck and one wood duck. His haul is one short of the daily limit of six ducks.
It takes skill to identify from the silhouette, size and movement of the duck whether it's a species that can legally be hunted, and as birds come and go, frenzied gunfire gives way to the natural sounds of the wetlands and moments of peace.
"You get to be at one with nature, but at the same time you're interacting with nature and you're harvesting wild game birds," Mr Ryan says.
Some of the ducks the hunter shoots are killed instantly and some fall to the water injured and need to be shot again.
Some he will he eat, he says, and some will be shared with family.
Is it crueller than eating an animal raised in captivity?
"I think the majority of people if they sat down and had a really good think about that, I think that they would come on the side of 'No, the duck's had a better life'," Mr Ryan says.
Last year, a parliamentary inquiry recommended outlawing duck hunting, and many thought the 2023 season would be Victoria's last.
The inquiry cited long-term decline of native birds, animal welfare concerns regarding wounding rates, the unacceptable wounding and death rates of threatened species, and the inability to enforce compliance, as the major factors leading to its recommendation.
But the hunters are back for another season this year, after the Labor state government declined to implement the ban.
And a polarised debate continues over whether the pursuit is a noble way to stay connected to where our food comes from, or the sport of bloodthirsty killers.
The duck rescuers
On the shores of a lake near Charlton, a dozen or so Coalition Against Duck Shooting (CADS) volunteers wait to retrieve injured birds from the water.
Without a hunting license they risk a fine if they enter the water before 10am or get within 10 metres of a hunter.
Some members do enter the water, dressed in high-vis vests, and paddle kayaks with flags and whistles to shepherd ducks away from hunters.
Leading the team is David Evans, who darts around the other volunteers, his head slightly bowed and a walkie-talkie in hand, perpetually in motion.
For 28 years he has spent his autumns scouting wetlands, plucking injured birds from the water, documenting illegal killings and antagonising hunters..
Gone are the days of 8,000 shooters with pump action shotguns, standing shoulder-to-shoulder, he says.
"I think we're lucky to have 50 here in this wetland [today]," he says.
The decline in hunters gives him hope, and he believes public opinion is on his side.
This year, on the opening day of the season, interactions between hunters and those who oppose them are relatively calm, and Mr Evans says it has been that way ever since the proliferation of digital cameras.
But the rescuers say they are often verbally abused and threatened by the hunters, while shooters complain of CADS volunteers rescuing injured birds from the water before they can be killed and collected.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-13/victoria-duck-hunting-season-begins-despite-inquiry/103699988
******************************************************Daniel Martinez, who spent eight months in jail for a rape he didn't commit, readies to sue the state - as Judge Robert Newlinds attacks his trial as 'lazy'
Corrupt feminist "Believe the woman" doctrine at work again. The story below is only one of the false rape accusations that some women make, showing how blind and evil feminist influence can be. "Believe the evidence" is the only just dictum. There was quite a spate of false rape allegations in Britain some years back with some of the false accusers ending up in jail over it. We need that here
A man who spent eight months in jail over a rape he did not commit is preparing to sue the state after a judge suggested 'political expediency' stopped him from being 'acquitted within minutes'.
Daniel Martinez is seeking compensation after he spent eight months in prison on remand before he was acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman at a jury trial where her previous history of near identical false allegations against other men was not heard by the jury.
Mr Martinez could win damages over $400,000 if he sues for malicious prosecution, false imprisonment or even assault and battery.
The state of NSW could also be up for hundreds of thousands in legal costs if it goes to court and the state loses.
Mr Martinez's case has raised questions about whether those accused of sexual crimes are being fully accorded the presumption of innocence in the wake of the MeToo movement.
After a judge stated he believed there were 'secret policies' leading to 'seriously flawed evidence' being used to justify sexual assault prosecutions, an audit was announced of 400 such cases by the office of NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Sally Dowling.
Five NSW District Court judges have criticised the office of Ms Dowling for bringing 'hopeless' sexual assault cases to court.
NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley has also faced questions in state parliament about whether prosecutions are being launched without any reasonable prospect of conviction on the basis of secret internal policies informed by recent law changes.
Mr Daley said he was advised prosecutors stick to 'the publicly available prosecution guidelines'.
He refused to comment on the audit being undertaken and said 'the specific details of the review are a matter for the Director of Public Prosecutions'.
In reviewing the case of Mr Martinez to certify costs, Judge Robert Newlinds said had the jury known about five near identical accusations made about other man by the complainant, the accused man would have been 'acquitted within minutes'.
'I think the prosecution took the lazy and perhaps politically expedient course of identifying that the complainant alleged she had been sexually assaulted and without properly considering the question of whether there was any evidence to support that allegation,' Judge Newlinds said.
Judge Newlinds stated the jury should have been allowed to decide on the basis of all pertinent information.
'This must stop. Justice has not been served and will not be served by repeated cases being prosecuted based on obviously flawed evidence,' he said.
The complainant alleged she was blacked out due to drunkenness before Mr Martinez sexually assaulted her.
However, the trial heard she 'enthusiastically participated' in sex and consent was obtained every step of the way.
The case has raised concerns over NSW legislation that does not allow juries to hear tendency evidence that would expose patterns of behaviour in prior sexual history.
Those accused of sexual crimes are also now denied a committal hearing and must show there was 'affirmative consent' for sexual acts.
Lawyer Ben Willcox, who acted for Mr Martinez, said the cumulative changes were changing the way sex crimes were being treated by prosecutors, reported The Australian.
'The introduction of the affirmative consent provisions challenge the presumption of innocence,' he said.
'This, in my view, has had an impact in terms of how the ODPP approach their assessment of sexual assault allegations and the prosecutorial guidelines for which they are bound.'
Following his judgment on the wrongful imprisonment of Mr Martinez, Ms Dowling made a complaint against Judge Newlinds to the NSW Judicial Commission but the outcome of this has not been made public.
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Premier Steven Miles tells nurses, teachers to not be concerned about cushy construction sector conditions
Premier Steven Miles has told Queensland nurses, teachers and paramedics they have “some of the best conditions in the country” and not to be concerned about the extraordinary perks to those in the construction sector.
It comes after The Courier-Mail revealed some of the deals the state government has gifted the unions and locked in on taxpayer projects worth over $100m – a policy the industry says has crippled productivity and made private housing developments uneconomic.
Double time when it rains, a full month of rostered days off each year, and an extra $1000 a week when working away from home are just some of the sweetheart conditions the state government has struck with the construction unions under its controversial Best Practice Industry Conditions policy.
Mr Miles was grilled over the policy on Wednesday and doubled down, rejecting claims the cushy conditions were contributing to cost blowouts.
When asked how frontline workers will feel when seeing the extraordinary benefits offered to those in the construction industry, Mr Miles insisted Queensland offered some of the best conditions in the country.
“If they look at their conditions compared with the conditions of similar workers in every other state and territory, they’ll acknowledge that we have some of the best wages and conditions for all of our frontline staff,” Mr Miles said.
“Our nurses, our teachers, our ambos – they have among the best conditions in the country.
“That’s not something that we’re ashamed of, it’s something we’re very proud of.”
The Premier repeatedly claimed the conditions were in line with enterprise bargaining agreement rates and stood firm by the stunning measures offered to the workforce.
“The department takes what EBAs the unions and companies are negotiating in the industry and incorporates those into the BPICs,” he said.
“Our construction workers work very hard, often under difficult circumstances, and it’s important that there are conditions related to wet weather and to heat.”
The boss of the CFMEU has lashed out at reports the government’s BPIC policy was slashing productivity and driving up costs, declaring he “makes no apologies” for the extraordinary conditions he says is “backing Queensland construction and manufacturing workers’.
CFMEU State Secretary Michael Ravbar claimed there was not a “shred of evidence” BPICs were leading to cost escalations of up to 30 per cent - despite multiple industry heavyweights repeatedly saying it does exactly that.
He also hit out at the Masters Builders Association, saying it was “outrageous for the (MBA) Association to complain about regional workers having an opportunity to earn better pay and conditions on government construction projects.”
“During a skills shortage and a cost-of-living crisis, they expect Queensland workers to suffer wage restraint to pay for their failures,” Mr Ravbar said.
“Their race to the bottom only ever leads to less safety, lower wages, more exploited visa workers and cheap imported building products on the job.
“As this state’s largest blue-collar union, we make no apologies for backing Queensland construction and manufacturing workers.”
The CFMEU also claimed BPIC projects are “better regulated and deliver bang for buck for taxpayers”.
“Blue collar unions are on a unity ticket in support of the State Government’s Best Practice Industry Conditions policy because it puts Queensland first by backing local workers and manufacturers,” a statement read.
“Where it is implemented properly, the BPIC policy has resulted in greater investment in local suppliers and better conditions for local workers – including apprentices, women and First Nations workers.”
When grilled about the extraordinary conditions, the Premier repeatedly claimed the conditions “represent the prevailing EBA rates in the industry”.
“These are real people too and people with families and people who deserve a decent wage deserve to be able to provide for their families, deserve to be able to come home safe from work,” he said.
“I know there are people out there criticising the wages and conditions of working people but I won’t be one of them because I know that there are two sides to cost of living – there’s what it costs to buy things and then what you earn for going to work.”
Mr Miles rejected claims the costly conditions were driving up the cost of construction and forcing cost blowouts on major projects, declaring: “I’m not going to apologise for ensuring we fund the projects sufficiently so that workers are paid decent wages”.
“Those conditions have been in place for some time, in fact the best part of the time that we have been in government,” he said.
When quizzed if the conditions had been artificially created by the government’s policies, Mr Miles said: “No.”
National’s Leader David Littleproud has also weighed in on the debate, telling Sky News the government’s BPIC conditions were driving up costs “and someone’s going to pay for it”.
“And that’s going to be you, whether it be with you directly, (when you) buy or build or construct a dwelling, or whether it’s for the actual public infrastructure that’s being built by the Australian taxpayer,” he said.
“Now I’m not against fair and reasonable work conditions, but we have to be realistic about what we can afford and under what conditions.
“And you know, when you’re talking about because it’s raining they get an extra loading, or when it hits a certain (temperature) - I think it’s 29 degrees and 75% humidity in Brisbane - I mean that’s most days in summer.”
Mr Littleproud said the conditions would likely mean “people are going to have to pay a lot more, particularly in a cost-of-living crisis”.
“I think we’ve got to be realistic and I think unfortunately this government is just empowering unions to get high up in the stirrups, but that cost has to be passed on,” he said.
“So whether you’re a taxpayer or you’re directly building, you are going to pay and you’re going to pay a lot more because of the ideology of this government.”
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Labor’s interventionist industry policy aims big. But how can Australia compete with the US and China?
Governments have a long record of abject failure at picking winners in business and industry
The head of local sales for solar giant Trina, was slightly taken aback when asked at a recent briefing in Sydney whether his firm might shift any of its panel manufacturing to Australia.
After all, wasn’t Australia among the Chinese company’s top markets in the Asia-Pacific, on a par with Japan with a total demand heading towards 6 gigawatts a year?
Trina had plants outside China in the US, the United Arab Emirates and south-east Asia but just 12 employees in Australia. With an annual capacity of 95GW – or more than Australia’s total fleet of generators – perhaps there was scope to bring some here?
Zhou said his bosses in eastern China might “study such a possibility”, implying they haven’t done so yet. Compared with markets such as China’s – now nudging 220GW a year – Australia is “not quite big to us”, he told Guardian Australia.
Trina’s reticence underscores the challenges facing the government’s Future Made in Australia policy. Unveiled this week by the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, it aims to “seize the opportunities of the next decade, for our nation to generate the energy, skills, jobs, technology and investment that will power our future prosperity”.
The size of the programs is gaining heft – including a $15bn National Reconstruction Fund, $4bn for critical minerals and $2bn for green hydrogen – with more likely in next month’s federal budget.
But should Australia bother competing in industries such as solar when Chinese firms have such gargantuan scale? And, as for joining what the Australian Financial Review dismissed as a “worldwide race to the bottom”, how can Canberra ever stump up more than a fraction of the US’s $600bn Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and equivalents in the European Union and elsewhere?
The answers, though, aren’t as simple as “let the market decide”.
To the government’s credit, its interventionist efforts – including laying the groundwork for a shadow carbon price on energy – mostly seek to promote decarbonisation. Tackling the climate crisis, arguably the biggest market failure in history, wasn’t made easier when the Abbott government culled the carbon price.
We also ignore economics when it comes to, say, building nuclear submarines in Australia. National security concerns about China presumably trump market concerns.
And, as it happens, the design and odds of success for industry policy hinge on how we think about China.
Renate Egan, the executive director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics and an author of a recent report on solar’s prospects in the country, said “the natural outcome” would be to work with Chinese companies.
Rather than recreate the whole supply chain, Australia had a relative edge in refining silicon dug up locally and assembling the final modules from imported components. Chinese firms may see it in their interests to diversify risks.
Australia’s annual solar market could reach 15GW or more, potentially large enough to entice Chinese investment especially if governments set local content requirements, Egan said.
If, however, the policy aim was to compete with China or prepare for a future breakdown of relations, then Australia “had a comparative advantage with the rest of the world” on much more of the solar supply chain, she said.
Albanese and his ministers have so far shed little light on how the largesse will be divvied up. Mariana Mazzucato, the founding director of the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at the University College London, might provide some of the illumination.
Dubbed the treasurer Jim Chalmers’ “favourite economist” by the AFR, Mazzucato recently held a week of meetings in Australia, including with senior heads from departments such as finance and industry, and a commissioner from the Productivity Commission. (Chalmers himself described her as “influential” in a 6,000-word essay published in the Monthly last year.)
Mazzucato is a strong backer of government intervention to “catalyse” change, highlighting the “mission economy” derived from America’s Moonshot program. (The government dubbing its solar scheme “Sunshot” hints at a familiarity with her work.)
Cameraphones, foil blankets and baby formula were among spin-offs from the push to send astronauts to the moon, she notes. A reminder that not all nice things come from canny entrepreneurs tooling around in garages.
Policymakers should design their program based on an “objective orientation”, rather than fixing a market failure, Mazzucato told Guardian Australia last month from an airport lounge as she prepared to jet back to Europe.
The key is to ensure companies receiving support are encouraged if not required to make investments on their own so innovations take on lives of their own.
“If you’re just giving out subsidies and guarantees, in a problem-oriented way, that might actually just increase costs for companies and not catalyse that investment,” she said.
Mazzucato also drew a distinction between the IRA and the US$280bn (A$430bn) Chips and Science Act. (The latter scheme also has a national security element, with the US aiming to reduce reliance on semiconductors from Taiwan should it get invaded by China.)
Apart from the relatively standard sharing of risks and rewards, transparency and accountability, the Chips Act imposed other conditions. Recipients had to commit to reinvesting profits not just using proceeds on share buybacks, as has been the case with similar schemes in the past. Energy efficiency and working conditions also had to be improved, she said.
And there’s a warning the Albanese government and others should heed.
“Government programs should be focusing on transformational change, not just giving billionaires and their industries a subsidy,” Mazzucato said. “That would be stupid.”
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14 April, 2024
The brutal new class division appearing in Australia
This is not a new division at all. There have always been those who inherited significantly and those who did not. And being a "not" is far from a life sentence. Those who pass down wealth often started off poor themselves. I did. Nobody ever gave me a penny -- or even a cent for that matter. I earned it all.
And I remember that. I now provide heavily discounted rental accommodation to five people and give half my disposable income to a charitable education cause. So the rigid class lines described below are a myth. There are such lines but they are not all due to inheritance and are not fixed or permanent. And inherited wealth is often squandered anyway, which makes it very impermanent. It is squandering that I find contemptible
Inheritocracy – a term recently heard. Our lucky country is careering towards a great generational divide; a landed gentry of property owners on one side and renters on the other. A brutal new class division, flippant about educational attainment as the great equaliser. Rules are upended in the new order; degree holders may well be losing out. Indeed, among certain writers it’s now de rigueur to put “renter” in your social media bio. Blazing contempt and coolness, the brazen political stance of the othered. But as a nation we’re heading into uncharted waters, as resentments grow and younger voters cleave to whatever political party can do something about this vexed housing situation. If it can. The challenges are immense, the population restive.
That silky game of inheritocracy is playing out all around me. In one corner, a succession of friends and acquaintances stepping into enormous wealth as their parents pass away and family dwellings are inherited. The talk is of clearing parents’ houses for sale, upsizing into better places, holiday homes on the coast, paying off mortgages, extensive travel. They’re living their best lives, free of the corrosiveness of money worries. That’s a heady liberation. And during a cost-of-living crisis, no less.
In another corner, the dumping of building waste in a local car park. A council man clearing it up tells me people can’t afford the tipping fees anymore, so they drive all over the city to find car parks and secluded roads without CCTV to deposit their waste, which sometimes contains asbestos. A tiny snapshot of the other side. Of despairing Australians forgoing three solid meals a day because they can’t afford it. Of putting off the doctor visit because it’s too expensive. Of holidays as a distant memory. And many younger Australians work within a new order of employment – they’re immersed in all the stresses and indignities of the gig economy; the sheer, craven callousness of a system not on their side.
The stark reality: vast numbers cannot afford to live the life their parents had. For a 34-year-old in 1990, the average mortage in Australia was roughly three times their yearly wage – now it’s eight times. Many have given up on that great Australian dream of home ownership, a situation likely to reverberate through the generations. It’ll never happen for them now, nor, quite possibly, their children. Thus disadvantage rolls down through the years. What is bequeathed is all the uncertainties of the rental market – and a fundamental stress in life is instability. When it comes to property, we want to feel safe, in our own place, in a dwelling no one is going to take away from us. In the lucky country, the Great Australian Dream is now denied to a vast tranche of the unlucky.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey has warned that if we don’t act sharpish on housing affordability then Sydney may well be heading down the path of San Francisco, where you can see middle-class workers in suits and ties lining up for food banks and living in homeless shelters. The natural order of things, upended. The consequence of an obscene property market. Mookhey believes there’s only a five- to 10-year window to act.
“How one grudges the life and energy and spirit that money steals from one,” writer Katherine Mansfield wrote during a stretch of poverty. “I long to spend and have a horror of spending: money has corrupted me these last years.” The dream, for all of us, is to not be held hostage by a lack of money. To be free of the endless scrabble to obtain it, because how exhausting, stressful, consuming that is. What an extraordinary moment in time in Australia. We’re heading towards a new class order. It’s called a “propertocracy”, and it’s a tragedy for our nation.
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Students choose arts degrees in droves despite huge rise in fees under Morrison government
I took an Arts degree and enjoyed it but whether the taxpayer should be funding it is another question
Owen Magee knew how high his student loan would be if he enrolled in an arts degree – he saw the headlines in 2020, when he was still in early adolescence.
But measures introduced by the former Morrison government that doubled the price of some degrees to incentivise students into other courses didn’t dissuade him, nor did recent cost-of-living increases.
“I decided I’d prefer doing something I’m interested in,” the 18-year-old says of his decision to study a media and arts degree at the University of New South Wales.
“A lot of young people are moving away from conventional ideas of education and the workforce to pursuing things we genuinely enjoy in life.
“We know what’s best for us – we’re willing to stand up and say ‘this is our future, we’re not going to allow our lives to be dictated’.”
Data provided to Guardian Australia shows Magee is not alone. Students are flocking to arts degrees in record numbers despite a 113% rise in student contributions for communications, humanities and society and culture degrees, implemented as part of the widely condemned Job-ready Graduates (JRG) scheme.
It’s equivalent to $16,323 a year, or about $50,000 for a three-year degree.
Despite the spike, Australia’s largest universities including UNSW, the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and Monash have all experienced a jump in applications for arts degrees, leading to higher enrolments.
At the University of Melbourne, demand for its Bachelor of Arts degree is higher in 2024 than any time in the past five years.
It’s had a 14% surge in the number of first preferences for the bachelor program since 2022, while enrolments have also jumped since 2021, rising from 1,597 to 1,641 this year.
Monash University has seen first preferences for arts degrees rise by 11% since 2021. Enrolments jumped almost 2% this year, at the same rate as the University of Sydney, which has consistently grown its arts enrolments since the JRG reforms were introduced.
Prof Claire Annesley, dean of arts, design and architecture at UNSW, says there has been a “massive swell” of students choosing degrees in her faculty.
First preferences for arts degrees surged by 14% at UNSW this year, while the student course load was also up.
“I think they can see the future better than we can,” she says. “This generation of young people will be creating jobs you and I can’t imagine – and industry knows that as well.”
The latest graduate outcomes survey reported the largest increase in employment rates in the field of humanities (up from 81.7% in 2021 to 86.6% in 2022).
Median graduate salaries also jumped, sitting at $66,700 compared with sciences and mathematics at $66,000 and business and management $65,000.
In the unknown future of AI, Annesley says humanities offer skillsets that can’t be replaced by emerging technology. Complex societal problems – from the climate emergency to the pandemic – need effective communicators and policymakers.
“AI can reproduce what we already know, but creativity is an innately human skill,” she says.
“Right now we’re penalising people we need to be part of the business of innovation and core solutions. There’s an urgency here.”
The CEO of Universities Australia, Luke Sheehy, says JRG “failed” to encourage students into certain disciplines and instead shifted additional costs on to students and universities.
According to the University Admissions Centre (UAC), which manages applications for New South Wales universities, 21% of first preferences were directed to society and culture degrees in the most recent intake, with roughly the same number of offers provided.
The most popular courses were a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Sydney and a Bachelor of Double Law at UNSW.
The figures are nearly identical to 2021. Yet in the same period, first preferences to health, historically the most popular study area, have reduced (28% to 25%), as year 12 applicants have turned to arts degrees in higher numbers.
“We’ve already called and will continue to call on government to prioritise student support measures in the forthcoming budget,” he says.
The Universities Accord final report recommended JRG needed “urgent remediation”, adding it had “significantly and unfairly increased what students repay”.
The education minister, Jason Clare, told Guardian Australia the government would respond to the recommendations in the accord “shortly”.
But to Magee, the further into his course he gets, the more concerned about his economic future he becomes.
“Down the road, my student debt will take a lot of my income … it worries me,” he says.
“The government should be encouraging students to find paths they enjoy, not restricting it.”
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Living paycheck to paycheck and crammed into Chinese-style high rise apartments: Dick Smith predicts a future Australia that NO-ONE wants to see...
Dick Smith fears today's young people will have no savings and be forced to live in Chinese-style high-rise apartments unless immigration is urgently slashed.
Younger voters are the group least likely to criticise record-high immigration, even though they are the most likely to be locked out of the housing market, unable to buy or even now rent.
Mr Smith, who has nine grandchildren, said 'woke' young voters are more likely to back the Greens and believe all critics of high immigration are racists.
But the veteran businessman and philanthropist says they need to understand the connection between a surging population and climate change.
The entrepreneur, who turned 80 last month, fears homes with a backyard in Australia's capital cities will no longer exist by 2050.
He said the national population will have almost doubled to 50 million by then - and housing will have become even more 'catastrophically' unaffordable.
For young people now, that would mean a future living in overcrowded conditions like China, even if Australia's annual population growth pace slowed to 1.6 per cent, down from 2.5 per cent now which is the highest levels since the early 1950s.
'Basically, we're doomed; we're going to increase our population to staggering numbers,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'Jammed into high-rise like China, many very poor and who just live pay packet to pay packet and have no savings at all.
'Mainly capital cities, basically, will be like Shanghai.
'The beautiful houses with a block of land for the kids to play in the front yard and have a cubby house, that will go forever.
'Every house will be knocked down and replaced with high rises.'
Mr Smith has also blamed the ABC for young people being less likely to criticise high immigration, even though they are suffering in the housing market as a result.
'The people at the ABC, being a bit lefty, you would think would support having a population plan,' he said.
'The ABC never, ever suggests we should have a population plan because then you'd have to talk about our high immigration levels, and in the ABC, if you talk about limiting immigration, you must clearly be racist.'
Mr Smith argued most young voters, obsessed with climate change, had failed to make the connection between a surging population and unaffordable housing - because of the ABC.
'We have one great hope, and that's the ABC; it's independent, it should be able to tell young people that you can't have endless growth and we need to have a plan,' he said.
'But they don't say it. I can understand why the young people wouldn't link population growth to unaffordable housing because they're never told about it.'
Mr Smith suggested young campaigners against high immigration could make the link between rapid population growth and higher carbon emissions, with Labor and the Greens both committed to a 43 per cent reduction by 2030.
'Younger people have been so frightened by what could happen with climate change,' he said.
'But there's no leader out there saying, "If climate change is caused by human beings, if we double the number of humans in our country, we're going to have double the problem".'
Unaffordable housing
Sydney's median house price of $1.4million is so expensive, someone would need to earn $293,578 a year, and be among the nation's top 1.5 per cent of income earners, to be able to buy on their own and avoid mortgage stress.
'It's a catastrophe,' Mr Smith said.
The Greens had commissioned those figures from the Parliamentary Library but the party's 32-year-old housing spokesman Max Chandler-Mather last month told the ABC's Q+A program criticism of high immigration was a 'distraction'.
Mr Smith revealed his friend Bob Brown, a former Greens leader, admitted his party was reluctant to advocate lower immigration because it didn't want to be regarded as racist.
'It's quite incredible, the Greens have no population policy at all,' said Mr Smith.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13295455/Dick-Smith-immigration.html
*******************************************************Discrimination against men can be toxic too
On one reading, Jason Lau, the man who successfully challenged the discriminatory sexism of the “Ladies Only” lounge at the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart, is a massive sook. But on another reading, Lau is a paladin for modern men.
He is the victor in a small but significant fight against an increasingly aggressive feminist agenda that portrays all masculinity as “toxic” but doesn’t bother to define for boys what “non-toxic” masculinity might look like.
Lau paid full entry price for MONA but, like all male visitors, was refused entry to the lounge, which is a women-only space full of plush sofas and exquisite artworks cordoned off from the male gaze. The curator of the lounge, Kirsha Kaechele, says the discrimination is the point of the artwork – it is a comment on the historical exclusion of women from male spaces for centuries.
So piqued was Lau at being bounced from the lounge that he instigated a legal challenge against the museum. He made a complaint with Tasmania’s anti-discrimination commissioner, who escalated it to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
This week the tribunal found in his favour, with deputy president Richard Grueber stating that the relevant legislation “does not permit discrimination for good faith artistic purpose per se”. The museum is considering its options regarding an appeal.
The case was a literal example of what some men’s rights activists say is the new discrimination against men that post #MeToo feminism has enabled. It’s a hard contention for many women to stomach, to put it mildly.
We still face discrimination in the form of violence from men, pay inequity, and in the household labour we disproportionately take on. That’s not to mention the fact that in the United States – supposed a beacon of freedom – women’s rights over their own bodies are being stripped away at a pace that would please the Taliban.
This week the state of Arizona was the latest to outlaw abortion care. Control over female reproduction and sexuality is a well-recognised marker of ultra-right, nationalist and fascist governments. So long as they’re not facing all of that, what have men got to complain about?
Plenty, according to a growing number of sensible voices in the United States. They caution that if the left demonises men, particularly young men, in the process of pushing a gender-equality agenda, it leaves a vacuum for boys to be scooped up by misogynistic influencer-jerks like the notorious Andrew Tate.
Richard Reeves is one such voice. He is a British-American author and commentator who used to work for the former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, he of the “radical-centrist” Liberal Democrats. Reeves now works at the Brookings Institution, a non-partisan social sciences think-tank in Washington DC, where he is president of the American Institute for Boys and Men.
In 2022, he published a book called Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male is Struggling, Why It Matters and What To Do About It. In it, Reeves argued that young men feel displaced by advancing women’s rights and a changing jobs market, where traditional, working-class “men’s work” is shrinking and less valued than it used to be.
Overall, boys now perform less well in school than girls (a trend replicated in Australia), and more young women go to university than young men (again, this is the same in Australia). Men are less likely to have close friends than women, and they take their own lives at a much higher rate.
In the United States, these problems are amplified for black men, who are overall poorer, more susceptible to family disruption, and incarcerated at a much higher rate than non-black men. Reeves argues that it’s wrong for progressives to dismiss the hostility of some young men to feminism as a sexist backlash against ideals of equal opportunity.
He says that “young men see feminism as having metastasized [sic] from a movement for equality for women into a movement against men, or at least against masculinity”. This is especially galling for young men when they are struggling on a number of fronts (not least in terms of their mental health), but these struggles are ignored or even mocked in mainstream discourse.
This, in turn, leaves them susceptible to the overtures of nasty misogynists like Tate, and the masculinist “philosopher” Jordan Peterson. The latter, in particular, affects understanding and empathy with struggling young men, and helps them turn their energies outward rather than retreating inwards.
Jonathan Haidt is a New York University academic and author who has recently published a book on the ills of smartphones combined with childhood – The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. He told the New York Times recently that there is plenty of evidence that social media is very bad for girls.
But for boys, the internet presents different dangers. While girls might be too invested online, for boys, the internet is a pathway to opting out. They do this through pornography and video games, which facilitate “the gradual withdrawal of boys from effort in the real world”. “We’re not seeing boys really applying themselves in the real world — we’re seeing them apply themselves in the virtual world,” Haidt says.
“They’re investing their time, their efforts into things that don’t pay off in the long run.” The appeal is obvious – porn and gaming are virtual opiates where your mastery is complete. In both, you are in control, or your male avatar is, and you can construct a fantasy-reality without having to consult, or please, the people around you – the women around you.
This male disaffection is mirrored in the growing political divide between young men and young women, a phenomenon across the OECD, including in Australia, on which I have written before. Sometimes the news can read like a litany of power abuses by men, from the geo-political to the interpersonal. But as we advance towards gender equality, we also need to consider how those stories are perceived by boys.
They need role models who can show them how to keep their innate sweetness, and pick a path towards being the sort of decent, kind men we all know in our families and communities.
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Jacinta Nampijinpa Price attacks state premiers over 'racist agenda' promoting treaties with Indigenous groups
Senator is scathing about state treaties
It's just amazing how the Left ignore the fact that racial discrimination is always harmful. They are deeply hypocritical about it. They are a brilliant example of deeds not matching words. Sad that a black lady has to call them out
Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says state premiers are failing to heed the message of the Voice referendum and promoting a racist agenda pushed by an Indigenous minority - as NSW begins paving the way for an Indigenous treaty.
The NSW government led by Labor Premier Chris Minns announced yesterday it was seeking to appoint three three commissioners as part of a $5million commitment to exploring the possibilities of a treaty with Indigenous communities.
LNP Senator Price said Mr Minns was ignoring the result of last year's federal Voice referendum and instead listening to an urbanised activist class who did not reflect the wider Indigenous community.
Indigenous elder calls for land tax exemption, free uni and interest-free loans as part of upcoming treaty negotiations in Victoria
'Not only did Australians and particularly NSW Australians vote no to The Voice but they voted No to concepts that were attached to the Voice, that were treaty and truth,' Senator Price, who is Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, said.
The Indigenous Voice to Parliament, which is described as one leg of a process towards truth-telling and treaty in its foundation document, the Uluru Statement from the Heart, was rejected by over 60 per cent of voters last October.
Senator Price also pointed out that a recent vote for a Voice to the South Australian parliament only saw a 10 per cent turnout of those eligible to vote.
In the areas where the most marginalised Indigenous people live, only around 300 voted out of 2,000 eligible electors.
'Those premiers that think they know what’s best for their constituents are pushing ahead with separatism in our country,' she told Sydney radio station 2GB on Friday.
'It is dangerous, it is unhelpful and in a democratic nation such as ours, in 2024, this is going to put us backward.'
Senator Price said the poor turnout in South Australia as well as in an election to elect Victoria's First Peoples' Assembly showed that only a minority of urbanised Indigenous activists were pushing concepts such as voice and treaty.
'It’s this ridiculous notion, it’s a racist notion to say we all think the same as a race of people,' Senator Price said.
'We don’t treat any other race of people in this manner but we continue with progressive, leftist leaders to push that notion, which is a racist stereotype.
'We know that when you stand up and call yourself a victim and you attack anyone who listens with this notion, there are those in power who will fall at your feet and give you what you want.
'Just because we are Indigenous doesn’t mean we are all marginalised. In fact only 20 per cent of the three per cent or us are marginalised and our efforts should be focused on the marginalised.'
Senator Price joined Warren Mundine, her fellow No vote campaigner at the Voice referendum, in condemning the push for Indigenous people to be exempt from land tax as well as interest on loans and university fees as part of a Victorian treaty.
'It’s absolutely outrageous. It’s more rent-seeking,' she said.
'To suggest that the rest of Victoria, non-indigenous Victoria have to put their hand in their pocket, pay their taxes so it goes towards people of a certain racial heritage and of mixed heritage, is just utterly ridiculous.
'It is separatism, it causes angst, it causes a divide within communities.'
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has not ruled out the race-based financial advantages being included in a treaty with the state's Indigenous population, with negotiations to be held later this year.
Prominent Indigenous Elder Aunty Jill Gallagher AO has pushed the case for an array of financial benefits the government should consider for the treaty, which also included exempting Indigenous people from stamp tax and council rates.
Appearing on Sky News, Mr Mundine labelled these demands a 'brain fart' and said they would not make a practical difference to the major issues facing Indigenous people.
On Friday Senator Price was also asked by 2GB's Mark Levy about her hometown of Alice Springs, which following a riot has seen a curfew imposed on youths.
Senator Price said this had provided some welcome respite for the crime-wracked town but she feared what would happen when the curfew is lifted next Tuesday.
'We can’t live like this long-term,' she said. 'We need to have our community back to what it used to be instead of normalising this kind of behaviour because we don’t get it anywhere else.'
She said the Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney needed to step up and 'get serious with policy that is going to improve the lives of marginalised indigenous Australians'.
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11 April, 2024
"Married at First Sight" TV show is a cry for help about the state of gender relations in Australia
Rubbish! The participants are picked for drama potential, not representativeness
Each relationship was not so much the beginning of two people’s happily ever after as it was project management for the brides of their of grooms.
Take Cass – an admin officer from Queensland – who was bubbly, outgoing and optimistic while also mourning the death of her first boyfriend and mother. She was matched with Tristan – a 30-year-old events officer from NSW – who at one stage told the experts and his co-stars that he “hates himself” as he has always struggled with his weight and finding connections with women.
Sneaky editing and the splicing and dicing of footage amplified everything, but it was difficult to watch how both individuals grappled with these issues, and each other, while trying to build a romantic connection. Tristan then threw a tantrum when Cass asked to leave.
Another star, Lucinda – a compassionate wedding celebrant from Byron Bay – was matched with Tim, a convicted drug smuggler, who wouldn’t touch or open up to her until midway through the season. He proudly proclaimed he was “like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz” and didn’t like to talk about feelings (or his criminal past) until the final credits rolled.
Lucinda cracked.
“Am I signing up for minimum affection? Am I signing up for someone who can’t share their emotions?”
The silver lining was witnessing both Tristan and Tim acknowledge their troubles. But the excessive emotional labour required by their partners should be something the Fair Work Commission should look into.
The highlights of the season was not the salacious scenes and sound bites, it was the way it held up a mirror to how far we have to go when it comes to breaking down the barriers men face.
There are still oceans of difference between how men and women interact and seek help.
Women are talkers. Men – if this MAFS sample size is anything to go by – are unable to shake off conditioning to not seek external help from friends and professionals when it comes to “hidden” issues like emotional pain and mental turmoil.
MAFS cops a lot of criticism. Rightly so. It’s got about as much depth as a paddling pool. Yet if it continues to help shine a light on how we can help bridge the gender divide to stop women being the carers and men being closed off, sign me up for another serving of this televisual junk food.
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Calls for Australian review of gender services as rigour questioned
A senior Australian psychiatrist has called for a complete overhaul of gender services is to prevent Australia from replicating the UK systems, which were found to have “let down” young people questioning their identities.
Dr Andrew Amos, who is the Queensland chair of Rural Psychiatry a the RANZ College of Psychiatrists, believes the treatment of people under 18 who are reporting gender dysmorphia is not being put under the same scrutiny as other medical practices, putting them at risk of overtreatment and detrimental, long-lasting health outcomes.
“There is no question that in order to have high quality medical services, you need to be doing adequate oversight,” Dr Amos told The Australian.
“We call it clinical evidence and the first step is to record what you’re doing, report what you’re doing, and then review what the results have been. None of that’s happening with gender services in Australia.
“A lot of patients are going to be harmed.
“If the federal government doesn’t implement a review similar to a case review, we’ll continue on this path … it’s absolutely needed.”
The findings of the UK’s four-year-long Cass review into gender services found the entire field of medicine aimed at enabling children to change gender was “built on shaky foundations”.
The number of children under 18, particularly young girls, reporting gender dysmorphia in Australia is rising exponentially, says Dr Amos. A similar spike in the number of children being referred to England’s National Health Service for gender treatments sparked the controversial review in 2020.
In response to the interim findings of pediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, which offered an extensive examination of the care being provided to children at London’s Tavistock clinic, the associated Gender Identity and Development Service (Gids) was closed in March after being deemed “inadequate” by inspectors.
British health authorities last month announced a ban on the routine prescription of puberty blockers to young teens – a treatment that “pauses” development prior to cross-sex hormones to transition sex.
Monash University Associate Professor Gemma Sharp, who leads the Body Image and Eating Disorders Research in the Department of Neuroscience at Monash University, endorsed the use of puberty blockers for children on a case-by-case basis, but acknowledged the need for greater rigour to ensure children were achieving appropriate levels of care.
“Obviously, we shouldn’t be handing out puberty blockers without absolutely comprehensive assessments,” she said
“But honestly, if we didn’t have gender affirming care, I think we’d lose a lot of people to suicide.”
In response to the UK review, Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman has stood by the state’s Gender Services, which she said “continually reviews” care models based-off the best available evidence.
“All trans young people deserve access to high quality and timely healthcare, and that is something we are committed to continue providing,” Ms Fentiman.
NSW Health Minister Ryan Park acknowledging that gender treatment is a “complex and evolving practice area.” Meanwhile, Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital stood by its “multi-disciplinary model of care with a strong emphasis on supporting mental health and wellbeing.”
Dr Amos said activist doctors have hijacked the treatment of children – a sentiment echoed in the Cass Review – and that young people who choose to de-transition and revert to their birth gender being dropped from services.
“It’s really the responsibility of the medical profession to protect all of our patients and by allowing this small group of clinician activists, to go beyond the evidence, we’ve allowed their patients to be put at enormous risk,” he said
“People get trapped into what I’ve called “a transgender treadmill”, where basically, they are rewarded for continuing to report these experiences, and they are punished for stopping.
“I think this is going to be a blot on the reputation of the medical profession because I think we’ve really sort of dropped the ball on this.”
Assoc. Professor Sharp said doctors who are working in gender services nationally have patients top of mind and are offering the best services possible with current academic knowledge.
“I know that the people who work in those services have nothing but goodwill and they are doing their best with the evidence they have,” she said.
“They really want to help these young people.”
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No transition from gender reality, app boss Sall Grover tells court
The founder of a women's-only social media app says she does not accept that a person who transitions from male to female surgically, socially and legally is a woman, and removed her from the app as she does with “all males”.
The view, held by Giggle for Girls app founder and CEO Sall Grover was described in court on Wednesday by Roxanne Tickle’s legal team as being at the “heart” of the discrimination case.
Ms Tickle, who underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2019 and is now designated as female on her birth certificate, argues she was discriminated against on the grounds of gender identity by Giggle for Girls and Ms Grover when she was denied access to the app. Ms Tickle claims she was initially accepted into the app in February 2021 when she submitted a “selfie” through Giggle’s third-party artificial intelligence tool but was later blocked by Ms Grover.
Barrister Bridie Nolan, for Ms Grover, says the app was designed “for the purpose of achieving equality between men and women in public life by providing an online refuge”, and so does not amount to discrimination as it is a “special measure”.
But Georgina Costello KC, acting for Ms Tickle, said: “The critical issue in this case, your honour, is that the first and second respondents, Ms Grover and the company Giggle for Girls, have persisted in misgendering the applicant for years. That’s the heart of this case – that there’s been a discrimination on the basis of gender in excluding her from the app and persisting in misgendering her subsequently.”
It is the first time a case alleging gender identity discrimination has been heard by the Federal Court following changes to the Sex Discrimination Act in 2013, which made it unlawful to discriminate against a person on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or intersex status.
Ms Costello asked Ms Grover in cross-examination whether “even where a person who was assigned male gender at birth has transitioned to being a woman” by having gender-affirming surgery, taking hormones to make them grow breasts, removing their facial hair, wearing female clothing and using female changing rooms, “you don’t accept that that person is a woman, do you?”
“No,” Ms Grover replied.
Ms Costello continued: “I suggest to you that in Australian society, the natural meaning of, the ordinary, contemporary meaning of woman, includes women whose gender is dated to be a woman on their birth certificate, having transitioned from man to woman?”
“I don’t agree,” Ms Grover replied.
Ms Costello also questioned Ms Grover about the alleged hurt caused to Ms Tickle through interviews and tweets referring to her as a man.
The court heard Ms Tickle said in an affidavit Ms Grover’s public statements about the case had been “distressing, demoralising, draining and hurtful” and claimed the “scale of online hate” towards her, as a result, was “enormous”.
Ms Grover agreed she would have done about 20 to 50 interviews about the case, most recently travelling to the UK for press, and that she frequently described Ms Tickle as a man, and as a “man wanting access to female spaces”.
Ms Grover also said she had told interviewers she was “harassed by the applicant” and “afraid of the applicant”.
Ms Costello put to her that it was “not kind” to refer to Ms Tickle as a man. “I don’t think it’s kind to expect a woman to see a man as a woman,” Ms Grover responded.
In her opening address on Tuesday, Ms Nolan argued “sex” is a biological and binary concept, while Ms Tickle’s legal team argued it is partly psychological and social.
On Wednesday afternoon, barrister Zelie Heger, on behalf of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner submitted that “sex” for the purpose of the Sexual Discrimination Act is “changeable” and “non-binary” and as a result not “only” biological.
The Commissioner is assisting the Court by providing submissions about the meaning, scope and validity of relevant provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth).
Ms Heger also said a person can be of the “female sex” as per the Act “if they are registered as such” and “had gender affirming surgery”.
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How come it took so long to lock up this menace?
A magistrate has revoked the bail of a 16-year-old stabbing accused, saying tough sentencing is available and courts must consider where community safety ‘trumps’ keeping juveniles out of jail. And he has the Premier’s support.
Redcliffe magistrate Mark Bucknall had on Monday backed the state’s courts to tackle the mounting youth crime crisis as he revoked the teen’s bail, quoting legislation as he said it was up to the courts to decide whether a juvenile offender posed a risk to community safety and if a tough sentence should be imposed.
Mr Bucknall said courts were “armed with significant powers through section 48AAA of the Youth Justice Act” as he revoked bail of the teen boy for posing an unacceptable risk to the community.
Mr Bucknall had granted an application by The Courier-Mail to report on the case of the 16-year-old who allegedly stabbed another boy, 17, in the face, hand and neck at a Deception Bay McDonald’s on Saturday night.
It was revealed the accused had been in court three times this year, with Mr Bucknall deeming the child, who could not be identified, an unacceptable risk to the community.
The 16-year-old, who was already on bail at the time of the alleged offence, had been convicted of eight breach of bail offences and six finalised breaches of bail.
Senior police prosecutor Spicer referred to the teen’s action as a “massive escalation” in violence.
“His history simply speaks volumes,” she said.
“I don’t think there is any other submissions I can put on the record, other than the fact that the charge before the court today is of an extremely serious nature, it is a massive escalation in his offending.
“This is the third time that the accused has been subjected to revoke bail in 2024 alone.”
Included in the long list of offences related to the matter, the teen is accused of grievous bodily harm after the 17-year-old was left with several gashes following the McDonald’s incident.
The teen’s mother admitted that she had lost “all control” over her son in the lead-up to the alleged offence and also admitted that his father was no longer in the picture.
“There comes a point in time where the interests of the community and the safety of the community trumps the specific interests of the community in treating juveniles with care and avoiding their incarceration, particularly whilst awaiting sentence,” Mr Bucknall said.
The 16-year-old will remain behind bars until May 20, when he is next scheduled to appear before court.
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10 April, 2024
Aboriginal self-sabotage
How can you provide facilites for them when their young people behave like this? It certainly validates the McElwain & Kearney findings about low average Aboriginal IQ
The Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council has condemned the actions of vandals who broke into the Cherbourg Sports Complex, setting fire to equipment, flooding the basketball court, setting off powder fire extinguishers and damaging offices.
The council said the community worked hard to acquire the equipment and facilities which were damaged or destroyed by the vandalism.
“(They) are destroying our community, tearing apart the infrastructure and breaking down the services vital to our community that have taken years of effort by our elders before us to bring here,” it said.
The council said the people who vandalised the complex had brought “shame to their families and their community,” and the physical damage done to the complex was only part of the harm caused.
“The hurt and mental anguish to our elders, the workers, families and community as a whole is real.”
Photos released by the council show offices ransacked and weight training benches burnt.
A professional grade wooden basketball court was “basically destroyed” by water damage from a fire hose being turned on.
Outraged locals and South Burnett residents expressed frustration with the vandalism. Debbie West said it was “disgusting for the community”.
“Put curfews in place and get them doing a community clean-up,” she said.
The council said the people doing this were “not heroes”.
“This must stop and it must stop now … That’s our home, stop destroying it.”
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Penny Wong tilt to Palestine state ‘would reward Hamas attack’
The opposition says Labor’s plan to “preemptively recognise a Palestinian state” would reward Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel and risks bipartisan consensus on foreign policy.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said Penny Wong’s speech setting out a case for Palestinian statehood ignored the reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict - “that a two-state solution will only be possible with security and confidence that the right of each party to exist will be respected by the other”.
Senator Wong told the ANU’s National Security College on Tuesday that peace could only come with a two-state solution, with “a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel”.
But Senator Birmingham said it was “downright dangerous to reward such barbaric conduct with a fast track to recognition of statehood.”
“To give the greatest chance for a sustainable ceasefire, that leads to prospects for stability and security, Labor should instead be applying maximum pressure on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all hostages and surrender all terrorist capabilities,” he added.
Senator Birmingham said Labor’s policy shift raised more questions than answers, given Senator Wong’s declaration that Hamas had no role in a future Palestinian state, that such a state could not threaten Israel, and would require a reformed Palestinian Authority.
“The Albanese government needs to urgently clarify whether these are preconditions to any recognition by their government of a Palestinian state,” he said.
“Prime Minister Albanese must guarantee not to undertake recognition while Hamas still commands the capacity to attack, Israel’s security remains threatened by those who promote violence, and the Palestinian Authority is crippled by incompetence.
“Labor is threatening to break decades of bipartisan Australian foreign policy that recognition of a Palestinian state should only occur as part of a negotiated solution which gives Israel and a future Palestinian state security within internationally recognised borders.”
Senator Birmingham accused Labor of violating its 2022 election campaign pledge that there would be no difference between the parties on Middle East policy.
Provocative tilt towards Palestine state by Wong
As the UN Security Council considers a new application for Palestinian statehood, Senator Wong said it was in Israel’s interests to respond to the demands of the international community.
“We need to build the pathway out of the endless cycle of violence. We need to build the pathway to a peace that is enduring, and just,” she said. “Because the simple truth is that a secure and prosperous future for both Israelis and Palestinians will only come with a two-state solution; recognition of each other’s right to exist; a Palestinian state alongside the state of Israel.”
The move comes as the Greens increasingly target pro-Palestine supporters in Labor’s inner-city seats, prompting a warning from Senator Wong that the party was stoking community division.
The government’s policy has driven a further wedge between Labor and Australian supporters of Israel. Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said any talk of recognising Palestinian statehood so soon after the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel would be seen as “a reward for those attacks”.
“Before any talk of statehood is credible, Hamas must be removed and a new generation of Palestinian leadership must emerge, which isn’t corrupt, doesn’t condone violence and recognises Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish State,” he said.
Australia-Israel and Jewish Affairs Council director Colin Rubenstein said Palestinians would see any near-term recognition of statehood “as a major national achievement made possible by Hamas’ wave of barbaric mass violence”.
Senator Wong pointed to British Foreign Secretary David Cameron’s comment in January that the UK would “look at the issue of recognising a Palestinian state, including at the United Nations”.
She said the normalisation of Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbours, which began prior to the October 7 Hamas attack, was doomed to failure without progress on Palestinian statehood.
“Recognising a Palestinian state – one that can only exist side by side with a secure Israel – doesn’t just offer the Palestinian people an opportunity to realise their aspirations,” she said.
“It also strengthens the forces for peace, and undermines extremism. It undermines Hamas, Iran and Iran’s other destructive proxies in the region.”
Senator Wong reiterated the government’s position that there was no role for Hamas in a future Palestinian state and said a reformed Palestinian Authority would be required to ensure Palestinian statehood did not threaten Israel’s security.
But she offered no prescription for removing Hamas from Gaza.
If Australia recognised a Palestinian state, it would join 140 of 193 UN member states to do so. But no major Western democracy, including Australia’s closest Five Eyes allies, has done so.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected international calls for Palestinian statehood, warning it would “endanger the state of Israel”, and blasting “attempts to coerce us”.
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No home building because all the tradesmen are busy on lush government constrction projects
Developers are calling on the state Labor government to act now or “there will be no cranes left in the sky” as new figures reveal a staggering jump in construction costs and time blowouts across South East Queensland.
One of the state’s peak industry bodies has revealed there has been a 96 per cent rise in construction costs compared to pre-Covid (2019) rates, and a 73 per cent increase in the time taken to complete a project.
The research by the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) also found South East Queensland apartment numbers will fall short by almost 150,000 by the end of the Labor government’s ShapingSEQ plan.
UDIA Queensland CEO Kirsty Chessher-Brown said apartment developers were facing the most severe construction conditions ever, with new apartment project prospects dwindling as projects failed to stack up.
“With the Queensland housing crisis already severe, we need all levels of government to act now,” Ms Chessher-Brown said in an email to members.
“Nobody wants to believe the housing crisis could get worse, but these figures say it will.”
The UDIA report found that on average since 2020, South East Queensland has produced about 4,764 apartments a year, which is 5,946 fewer than required under ShapingSEQ. If this shortfall continues for the life of the plan, there will be a shortfall of 148,660 apartments, the research found.
Max Panettiere of Panettiere Developments said the city’s ‘tier one’ builders and labourers were tied up with government infrastructure, leaving residential projects financially unviable.
“All the tier ones are not taking on residential work because they’ve got an open chequebook with the government,” Mr Panettiere said.
“If you’re a traditional developer where you tender for a builder, they’re not even returning calls.
“Basically, you have EBA workers on tier one jobs, and with their rates and site allowance, they’re earning more than $200,000 a year. The bigger the project, the bigger the site allowance.”
Mr Panettiere, who has just lodged an application with Brisbane City Council for a 1000-unit development in Newstead, said the state government needed to step in or the housing crisis would worsen.
“The government needs to get involved by incentivising developers and builders, otherwise nothing will be built,” he said.
“We used to build units for between $650,000 and $800,000 per unit. Now, you’re looking at $1.2 to $1.4 million for the same unit. The numbers don’t work.
“In six months, there won’t be a crane in the inner city skyline unless things change.”
Property Council Queensland executive director Jess Caire said it “has never been harder to get projects to stack up here in Queensland”.
Ms Caire said Property Council figures showed residential projects were taking about 30 per cent longer and costing 30 to 40 per cent more.
“The targets set in the recently released Housing Plan are ambitious but necessary, so we need to clear all barriers that block the delivery of homes to Queenslanders,” she said.
“For industry that’s a holistic review of the regulatory and taxation settings that obstruct new supply to market.”
It comes as new report by Master Builders Association says the Queensland government’s $92bn Big Build pipeline of projects across health, energy and transport over the next five years is making high-rise residential projects economically unviable due to a lack of workers and supply constraints.
The report also warned the state’s pro-union “best practice industry conditions” — which apply to major government projects — would be a challenge, as it ties up labour on builds that take longer to complete due to falls in productivity.
But Master Builders’ latest building and construction forecast shows Queensland will not hit the estimated yearly target until mid-2026.
It means the state will be nearly 5000 homes short of 246,000 dwellings.
Ms Chessher-Brown said the UDIA was working with bodies such as Master Builders to put to government solutions, ranging from increased levels of inter and intra-government co-operation with industry, investment in trades and skilling, and a productivity reset involving a review of the impact of government red tape on the cost of housing.
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Queensland Education: Stark new figures showing Qld’s loss of teachers outstripping recruitment
The elephant in the room is the chaotic state of many classrooms -- with little no effective discipline. So what is our genius government about to do? Make discipline even harder. No wonder teachers are giving up where they can
Queensland’s loss of teachers and teacher aides is outstripping the recruitment of new staff by 50 per cent, new figures reveal.
In response to a Sunday Mail report on a record exodus of educators from the state department, government frontbencher Meaghan Scanlon said that to date, the state government had hired more than 5900 new teachers and 2300 new teacher aides.
“The retention rate of teachers and of all teacher aides is around 95 per cent,” she said.
While the government was on track to meet its four-year teacher recruitment target, the new figures revealed a worsening resignation rate over four years.
Teacher and teacher aide resignations increased by more than 60 per cent from 2020-23.
Teacher resignations have spiked 54 per cent since 2020, with more than 2600 state school teachers ditching the profession last year, compared with about 1600 three years prior.
The number of teacher aides quitting is even more stark, with 1142 resignations last year compared with just 637 in 2020.
In total, 8646 teachers and 3729 teacher aides quit from state schools in four years.
This overshadowed the state government being on track to fulfil its 2020 promise to hire more than 6100 new teachers and 1100 new teacher aides by the end of this year.
Ms Scanlon said: “There’s a whole range of factors at the moment that are pushing people from all different industries to look at other types of jobs that are available.
“We also know there are teacher aides who are actually getting qualifications to basically become teachers as well.
“We are trying to attract our key workers to regional Queensland and there are a whole range of incentives out there.”
Education Minister Di Farmer said earlier there were various reasons why teaching staff resign including transitioning to a departmental role, returning to study, or family commitments.
“Queensland’s universities continue to deliver a pipeline of new teachers and help teacher aides transition to Registered Teacher positions,” a spokesman for Ms Farmer’s office said.
“We will continue to monitor trends in resignations within the Department of Education to ensure support services and training opportunities are fit for purpose.”
It comes as tensions remain high over the proposed amendments to the state’s Education Act, which were introduced last month, including changes to suspensions and exclusions.
They would see new appeal rights for students who had accumulated 11 days of short suspensions within a year.
They would also require student support plans for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students with a disability, and Prep students who were suspended or excluded.
The powerful Queensland Teachers Union said its members were appalled.
“The Bill fails to contribute to the good order and management of state schools because it undermines the professional decision-making powers of school principals and will exacerbate excessive workload pressures on school leaders,” the QTU submission said.
Teachers’ Professional Association of Queensland state secretary Edward Schuller said it would take decisions away from school leaders and give the power to bureaucrats.
“Beyond a basic question of functionality, the attempt to introduce a Department of Education managed appeals process is a slap in the face to principals and their schooling communities, and serves to worsen the issue of student discipline,” TPAQ’s submission said.
Ms Scanlon said the government had listened to the QTU and other organisations and taken on board the feedback from the parliamentary committee hearings.
“Of course, we’ll take on board any of (the parliamentary committee’s) recommendations, our principals’ powers in regards to suspensions haven’t changed,” she said.
“I think everyone expects that it’s reasonable that we ensure that young people who are facing suspensions get the support they need, but it’s important that we also support our teachers.
“We have increased some funding and started to do dedicated programs, particularly for young people who have seen a number of suspensions.
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9 April, 2024
Albanese government trying to put prices UP
If they make supermarkets pay more for what they supply, from whom do you think that extra money will come? Santa Claus?
Large Australian supermarkets could face fines of up to $10 million (US$6.57 million) for misconduct under a proposal to impose a mandatory code of conduct on the sector.
It comes as supermarkets bear the brunt of criticism for alleged price gouging amid the country’s cost of living crisis.
On April 8, the Labor government released its interim report (pdf) amid a review of the voluntary Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, which governs the relationship between supermarkets and suppliers.
Former Labor Minister Craig Emerson, who led the review, stated that the current code was ineffective in managing the behaviour of supermarkets.
“It contains no penalties for breaches, and supermarkets can opt out of important provisions by overriding them in their grocery supply agreements,” he said in the report.
Mr. Emerson then recommended the government impose a mandatory code on all supermarkets with annual turnovers of above $5 billion, effectively covering major companies such as Woolworths, Aldi, Coles, and wholesaler Metcash.
Under the mandatory code, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) would have the power to enforce penalties on entities that breach the code.
The interim report proposed lifting the maximum penalty to $10 million, three times the value of the benefit from the breach, or 10 percent of the annual turnover of the company for serious breaches and 600 penalty units (around $187,800) for lesser violations.
“I hope and expect that wouldn’t be activated as a matter of routine but it would really focus the attention of management,” Mr. Emerson told ABC Radio.
‘Code Mediators’ to Resolve Disputes Between Supermarkets and Suppliers
The proposed mandatory code will also grant new tools for the ACCC to enforce the rules while introducing a new mechanism–Code Mediators–to help resolve disputes between supermarkets and suppliers.
At the same time, the report said the mandatory code would enhance protection against retribution from supermarkets on suppliers who have complained about their business practices.
After the report was released, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government wanted “a fair go for families and a fair go for farmers.”
“This work is all about how do we make our supermarkets as competitive as they can be, so that Australians get the best deal possible, whether they be the providers or of course, the consumers at the checkout,” he said.
“What is happening at the moment is that the power of the supermarkets with just a voluntary code of conduct has seen a lack of confidence in the system.”
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Black ban this!
In a bid to help you get through the week without offending anyone’s sensitivities, no easy task I know, allow me to bring you up to speed on your use of pronouns as promoted by posters that have appeared around the University of Queensland campus heralding the arrival of the neopronoun.
Forget he/him, she/her and they/them and, enter the neopronouns. These, students are told, are a new category of pronoun such as “ze, hir, hirs, xe, xem and xyr”.
“Neopronouns,” they are told, “can be used by anyone.
“They don’t hold a specific meaning and are a way for someone to best represent themselves like they would through clothing or their name.”
Obviously, if someone introduces themselves to you as an “xe” or a “hirs”, there is always the chance that simple-minded souls such as us might presume that they are suffering from a speech impediment or have hosed down a couple of coldies before leaving home.
This confusion is understandable, but rather than muttering something about having left the iron on and hurrying away, the correct response is to listen carefully.
Did they say they were a “ze” or an “xe” or an “xem’” or an “xyr”?
If you make a mistake, the correct response is to “give a brief but genuine apology, then correct yourself and move on. If someone makes a mistake with other people’s pronouns, politely and without shaming, correct them”.
I’m tempted to say that in simpler times before victimhood and self-obsession took hold, things were more black and white, but that could cause offence and I wouldn’t want that.
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Thousands furious as popular holiday destination quietly bans cash
This is perhaps understandable. How do you get an Armaguard truck onto an island? But it is part of a very troubling process
Popular tourist hot spot Hamilton Island is facing scrutiny after it was revealed it has quietly banned the use of cash.
It comes as the nation’s biggest banks close down hundreds of branch locations, citing a rapid decline in cash withdrawal services and a preference for digital banking.
Members of the Facebook group Cash Is King Australia – which boasts almost 148,000 members – have expressed their anger once again this week after it was revealed one of the country’s most popular holiday destinations has decided to go completely cashless.
“No trips to Hamilton Island I’m afraid,” a member wrote in a post two weeks ago. “Thousands of people should share this!”
The island located in Queensland’s idyllic Whitsundays', near the Great Barrier Reef, has quietly kept in place a pandemic era decision to stop using cash on its island.
A short paragraph tucked away in the “Pre Arrival Information” page of the island’s website explains the island is now a “cashless environment”.
“We do not accept cash at any of our outlets,” the site reads.
“Cash deposits and withdrawals can be made using the Bank@Post service at the Australia Post office on Front Street, where cash can also be exchanged for prepaid or top-up Mastercards.
The decision has sparked a fury in the comments of the social media post, with members threatening to boycott the island.
“Crossing Hamilton Island off places to visit if they won’t accept cash,” one person wrote.
“If that’s the case then I won’t be going to Hamilton Island ever,” another said.
“If they want more visitors and to prosper they better return to cash. I personally would not go there until cash is used,” a third wrote.
The island joins a growing number of Australian businesses that have phased out cash in recent months.
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Some Questions Australia’s COVID-19 Inquiries Must Ask
The Australian Senate will soon release its report on the proper terms of reference for a COVID Royal Commission to be established in 2024.
During the inquiry, held by the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, a large volume of submissions were submitted, while the government’s own COVID-19 Response Inquiry received over 2,000 submissions.
This indicates high public interest in getting to the truth of what happened, why particular decisions were made, and what the right lessons for the future.
This is especially important so Australia can be better prepared next time and also to put the WHO’s new pandemic accords in perspective.
Contrary to dire warnings, there have been only five pandemics in the last 105 years: the Spanish, Asian, Hong Kong, swine flus, and COVID-19.
In that time, great strides in medical knowledge, training, and technology have expanded disease response toolkits along the spectrum of prevention, treatment, and palliative care.
Average life expectancy has improved dramatically as a result. Countries have exchanged best practices on disease prevention and management.
Despite these gains in understanding and treatment protocols, when COVID-19 struck, many countries including Australia abandoned existing well-prepared plans to deal with pandemics, and instead, reacted with panic.
This is never a good basis on which to make either individual or public policy decisions.
Yet the public health messaging deliberately tried to spread panic to the population to increase compliance with pandemic management measures.
The herd panic of early 2020 led to an abandonment of good process, an abandonment of preparedness plans, and a centralisation of decision-making in a narrow circle of heads of government, ministers, and health experts.
The damage to physical health, mental health, social, educational, and economic problems will continue to impact public life for many years into the future.
Did Australia’s COVID-19 policy interventions represent the greatest triumph of public policy, with an unprecedentedly high number of lives saved as a result of timely, decisive, and appropriate measures instituted by governments acting on the science- and evidence-based advice of experts?
Or will they prove to be the biggest public policy disaster of all time?
Why Were Established Practices Swept Aside?
These are big questions that deserve a rigorous, independent, and impartial inquiry.
The first question is: why exactly were the existing pandemic preparedness plans and medical decision-making practices abandoned?
Suspect data from one city, Wuhan, in one country should not have been deemed sufficient to overturn a century of data, experience, and scientific research.
In particular, rather than responding to herd panic elsewhere to order mass house arrests for the entire population, did Australian scientists and public health officials test overseas claims against hard data locally on the extent, virulence, and lethality (the infection and case fatality rates) of the new virus?
Until these facts, as they apply to Australia, are authoritatively and credibly elucidated by a duly-empowered independent inquiry, public trust in health experts and institutions is unlikely to be restored to pre-pandemic levels.
How Was the Threat Level Assessed?
Another set of questions is about assessing the threat of a disease outbreak against other killer diseases, and the opportunity costs of allocating human, financial, and hospital resources to the different health risks.
The standard metric used to assess one side of this equation is the quality-adjusted life years (QALY) measure that, logically and sensibly, holds that the death of a healthy child, adolescent or young person is a greater tragedy and loss to society than that of someone above the average life expectancy.
From the start, it was known that the average death of those dying with COVID was higher than the average life expectancy.
That being the case, were standard cost-benefit analyses undertaken of the different policy interventions, including the risks of side effects and collateral harms?
If so, why were they not published? If not, why not?
What About the Use of Medicines?
Another area of investigation is the lack of treatment in the period between being infected and severe illness requiring in-patient hospital and ICU care.
In particular, why did Australian authorities not undertake high-quality randomised control trials of repurposed drugs, with well-established safety profiles, like ivermectin?
A group of doctors who wanted the freedom to be able to prescribe ivermectin to their COVID patients have recently won their case against the FDA that had banned them from doing so.
Related to this, the doctor-patient relationship in Western societies has long been governed by four important principles:
(i) the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship;
(ii) first, do no harm or, alternatively, avoid doing more harm than good;
(iii) informed consent; and
(iv) prioritising the health outcomes of the patient over that of any collective group.
Why did professional colleges and regulators insist that this should be overturned in favour of directives from a centralised bureaucracy with no knowledge of individual patients? Does this mean they do not trust the existing training, knowledge, and skills of Australian doctors?
The resort to coercion to enforce compliance with public health was especially egregious against established science that had never accepted their effectiveness.
Almost certainly, this contributed to rising public distrust of public institutions and cross-vaccine hesitancy.
The inquiries should demand the science, data (including quality and reliability), and decision-making behind universal mask and vaccine mandates, especially in the context of the steep age gradient of people at risk of severe and fatal infection.
Bearing in mind the history of false claims of benefits and concealment of risks and harms in the pharmaceutical industry, why did the Australian regulator(s) not require local trials to establish safety and efficacy?
Have Harms Exceeded Benefits?
Finally, of course, we need an authoritative answer to the most critically important question of all: on balance, did the totality of Australian pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions to manage COVID-19 as a public health challenge, do more good than harm?
On balance, it seems likely that over the long term, the harms to health, society, and the economy from the radical experiments of mass lockdowns, population-wide mask mandates, and the push for compulsory universal vaccination will exceed the benefits claimed using dubious assumptions and flawed modelling.
In the United States, Scott Atlas and Steve Hanke estimate that “The number of lockdowns and societal-disruption deaths since 2020 is likely around 400,000, as much as 100 times the number of COVID deaths the lockdowns prevented.”
What lessons must be drawn for courses of action that are recommended and not recommended? Was the national cabinet helpful or harmful as the central coordinating body? Do we need a sharper delineation of responsibilities between the federal and state governments?
What principles, procedures, structures, and institutional safeguards must be put in place firstly to ensure optimal health and public policy outcomes in future pandemic outbreaks, and secondly to act as effective checks against abuses of power by those given the solemn responsibility to balance all relevant considerations in public policy?
https://www.theepochtimes.com/opinion/some-questions-australias-covid-19-inquiries-must-ask-5623457
************************************8 April, 2024
Sam Mostyn: Yet another awkward tweet comes back to haunt Australia's new Governor General
Having a political extremist as GG is totally inapeopriate. Albo should have stuck to retired generals
The businesswoman chosen to be the King's representative in Australia once tweeted in support of the republican movement.
Sam Mostyn, 59, wiped her social media presence clean before Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the gender and climate activist as General David Hurley's replacement as Governor-General last week.
But in a since deleted tweet on December 7, 2015, Ms Mostyn praised the former chairman of the Republic Movement Peter FitzSimmons, for his work to sever ties with the British monarchy, The Australian reported.
'Passionate advocacy for Australian republic @Peter-Fitz in Sydney today #ARM #AustralianRepublic #Australia #auspol,' she wrote.
Mr FitzSimmons served was chairman of the Republic Movement, an organisation which advocates for an Australian Head of State, from 2015 until he stepped down in 2022.
The revelation comes after Daily Mail Australia uncovered other deleted social media posts which shed light on Ms Mostyn's political views.
Ms Mostyn was a leading advocate for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament, hosting and participating in panels about the referendum alongside Yes campaigner Thomas Mayo.
She advocated for a Yes vote online, took part in Michael Long's 'Long Walk Oz' to Canberra, promoting the Indigenous advisory panel, and joined virtual yarning circles with Pat Anderson AO and Professor Megan Davis.
The banner picture of her X account was, for a lengthy period of time, a poster which declared, 'We support the Uluru Statement'.
And on January 25, 2020, Ms Mostyn wrote: 'This 26 January, NITV Sunrise Ceremony cleansing ceremonies, 80,000 yrs Australian history, wonderful panel discussing survival, truth, #invasionday & the future.'
She then included another hashtag which stated: '#AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe.'
Reconciliation Australia, a foundation focused upon healing the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, celebrated her appointment on Wednesday, revealing - in addition to the long list of qualifications touted by the PM in his statement - she also served on their board.
'Sam is a former board member of Reconciliation Australia (2007-2010) & has been a dedicated advocate for reconciliation, First Nations rights, climate change & many other causes during her career,' the organisation said.
Ms Mostyn made another post on July 30, 2022 after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese committed to the referendum into the Voice to Parliament, and in the wake of Aboriginal activist and singer Archie Roach's death.
She said: 'Cannot think of a more bittersweet day - from the exhilaration & hope for a Voice to be enshrined in our Constitution to the devastating, deep sadness on the loss of Archie Roach.
'Australia cannot waste a moment in accepting the Uluru Statement from the Heart.'
Ms Mostyn also appeared to celebrate the election of the Teal independents at the 2022 federal election.
'Just in case you hadn't already heard them roar,' she tweeted - sharing an article about the 'pro-climate women who took on the Liberal Party and won.
These were all removed by the time she was announced as the incoming Governor-General on Wednesday.
Speaking of her appointment, Mr Albanese said: 'Ms Mostyn has had an extensive career in the Australian business community, including working at senior levels in telecommunications and insurance companies in Australia and globally.
'She has also held senior non-executive roles on boards including Transurban, Virgin Australia, and has been chair of Citibank Australia. She currently chairs AWARE Super and Alberts Music Group and is on the board of Mirvac.
'Ms Mostyn has been a Commissioner with the Australian Football League (AFL) and a driving force behind the AFL Women's (AFLW).' Her tweets show she is an AFL nut - posting repeatedly about the league.
It was widely expected Mr Albanese would appoint an Indigenous Australian to the role of Governor-General, and Ms Mostyn's announcement came as a surprise.
She and Mr Albanese have a longstanding professional relationship due to her high-level roles chairing the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce and on the Climate Change Authority board.
Back in September 2023, when the PM was facing scrutiny over his friendship with embattled Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, Ms Mostyn was named in a manifest for Mr Albanese's VIP flight.
She joined Mr Joyce and Mr Albanese on a private flight back to Sydney following the Jobs and Skills Summit, along with other VIPs including the CEO of Rio Tinto and chair of Telstra.
Mr Albanese said at the time: 'They were sent a bill, they paid their own way and that they sat together whilst I had a meeting about the Jobs and Skills Summit in a different section of the plane.'
She was also seen at the PM's victory party after winning the 2022 election.
Ms Mostyn has long been outspoken in her ambitions to see positive change in Canberra after working as a policy advisor to two ministers and prime minister Paul Keating.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13280887/sam-mostyn-tweet-republic-Peter-FitzSimmons.html
*******************************************************Anthony Albanese vows no turnback on Operation Sovereign Borders as third boat arrives
People who arrive by boat seeking a better life or even asylum “won’t be settled in Australia”, Anthony Albanese has said as he doubles down on his government’s commitment to the Coalition’s Operation Sovereign Borders policy following another undetected mainland arrival.
The latest illegal maritime arrivals to reach Western Australia’s far north Kimberley coastline were the third known group since November and the first Chinese to reach Australia by boat since 2012. All but one of the group was put on a charter jet to Nauru on Sunday.
There were varying reports about the size of the group but late on Sunday The Australian was told a total of 10 men, all believed to be Chinese, were delivered to the mainland near Truscott.
The group wandered into the airbase about 4pm on Friday. On Saturday, WA police confirmed they were looking for one of the men. It was not clear if he had arrived at Truscott with the group then absconded or if he got lost before the group arrived at the airstrip. A massive land search using drones ended on Sunday morning when the man was found standing on a track nearby.
WA police reported he was in “relatively good condition”. He, too, was expected to be flown to Nauru late on Sunday or on Monday morning.
Speaking to reporters at a Sikh community event in Melbourne on Sunday, the Prime Minister was adamant that the border control principles established by the Abbott government remained in place. “We will deal with any unauthorised arrivals consistent with Operation Sovereign Borders, and that’s what we’ve done,” Mr Albanese said.
“(T)here’s been no change in policy since 2013. We’ll use all avenues at our disposal to make sure that the borders are protected and make sure we respond in accordance with the principles of Operation Sovereign Borders. And that’s what we have, again, done on this occasion.”
Mr Albanese made the statements as the Coalition’s home affairs spokesman, James Paterson, lashed the government for “demonstrable failures on their watch”. “Three boats through to the Australian mainland, 13 attempted since the election, hundreds of attempted asylum-seekers coming to our country as a direct result of the government’s attempts to undermine our successful border protection policies,” Senator Paterson said.
“We warned them before they abolished temporary protection visas that that would give people an incentive to get on the boats again to try and come again.
“And lo and behold, that’s exactly what’s happened.
“If this government had followed our advice, kept in place our successful policies, this wouldn’t be happening.”
Operation Sovereign Borders commander Rear Admiral Brett Sonter told The Australian last month he had re-positioned key personnel and hardware on land, in the air and at sea to detect and disrupt criminal people-smugglers and illegal fishers amid increased threats in Australia’s northwest.
Rear Admiral Sonter, who replaced Justin Jones as OSB commander in January, ordered an “enhanced posture” after a series of people-smuggling ventures linked with faster fishing boats and new tactics to breach maritime borders.
For decades, smugglers in Indonesia have put paying customers on rickety, slow boats and instructed crew to drive the vessels towards locations where they were likely to be intercepted, mainly Christmas Island but also Ashmore Reef and Cocos (Keeling) Islands.
On each occasion, a cheap boat was used because Australia’s border authorities always burn vessels after interception. However, recent ventures have evaded detection and no boats from any of the last three known ventures have been found.
A group of Chinese asylum seekers are believed to have arrived on the Australian mainland. Sources have told… Sky News an estimated 13 Chinese nationals walked on to the Truscott airbase around 1pm on Friday. The base is in an extremely remote part of the Kimberley region, in the far More
The Australian has been told the ABF is aware smugglers have recently switched to valuable boats that can travel up to 20 knots.
They may also be instructing their passengers to hide in the bush for a few days after being dropped off before seeking help.
This gives the people-smugglers a better chance of getting their vessel into international waters before the alarm is raised.
“Well, people-smugglers will always try to change their methods in order to ply what is the dangerous trade,” Mr Albanese said.
“But there is no change to Operation Sovereign Borders. It’s important that that message be sent.
“And once again, through the response of the Australian government, that message will be sent very clearly again to the region.”
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Stop demonising profits or face economic pain, business leaders warn Labor
Business chiefs have launched a fightback against the demonisation of corporate profits and the Albanese government’s “anti-business” policies, as Jim Chalmers this week unveils a key plank of Labor’s competition overhaul centred on sweeping merger reforms.
Amid flatlining economic growth, surging insolvencies and rising investment pressures, the Business Council of Australia and private sector leaders have warned jobs “aren’t safe” and that super fund investment could flow offshore if Labor continues on its current path.
The Treasurer will move to allay concerns of big business ahead of the May 14 budget by unveiling Australia’s biggest merger reforms in decades and dousing Coalition and Greens’ calls for divestiture laws targeting supermarket giants.
Former Labor minister Craig Emerson’s food and grocery code of conduct interim review, released on Monday, “does not support a forced divestiture power to address market power issues in the supermarket industry”.
The review recommends a mandatory code for supermarkets with annual revenues exceeding $5bn, including Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and wholesaler Metcash, and penalties of up to $10m, 10 per cent of a company’s annual turnover or three-times the benefit it gained from breaching rules.
Dr Chalmers on Wednesday will deliver the Bannerman Competition Lecture, hosted by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and Law Council of Australia, to announce the government’s merger reform plans. The Australian understands the merger reform plan, which the government believes will be welcomed by big business, is one of a suite of competition changes aimed at boosting economic dynamism that will be rolled out before the budget.
Despite attempts by Anthony Albanese to ease tensions with the private sector after telling a small business summit last week that his government was “pro-business”, the BCA is demanding stronger support for employers and private sector profitability from all sides of politics.
The pre-budget BCA campaign comes after industry groups and members cosied-up to Labor ahead of the 2022 election. Since the election, BCA members including BHP, Rio Tinto, Qantas, Woolworths, Coles, Woodside and Santos have been targeted by government industrial relations, energy and competition crackdowns.
Writing in The Australian, BCA chief executive Bran Black says corporate Australia “has become the national punching bag … we are dangerously close to making it taboo to run a business well and turn a profit”.
“Large businesses employ more than four million Australians – almost one-in-three workers. Those jobs matter. When you squeeze an employer, it is harder for them to operate, and at the end of the day jobs aren’t as safe,” Mr Black says.
“In an analysis from the RBA last year, it was shown that businesses with profit margins under 5 per cent had significantly worse employment outcomes. What that tells us should be common sense – you need decent, dependable profit to create and maintain secure jobs.”
With 80 per cent of the workforce employed in the private sector and $153bn being paid in company tax, the BCA warned the demonisation of profitable businesses was resulting in bad policies and putting the economy at risk.
Mr Black said Australia’s major supermarkets were “currently being investigated for price gouging when they are making less than 3c in every one dollar spent at the checkout”. “Do we want a situation where bureaucrats are setting profit margins for businesses or price controls for products? Thankfully the Prime Minister and Craig Emerson have pointed out this didn’t work for Soviet Russia. It certainly won’t work here,” he wrote.
In a joint statement, Dr Chalmers and Assistant Competition Minister Andrew Leigh said Dr Emerson’s food and grocery review “is all about making our supermarkets as competitive as they can be so Australians get the best prices possible”. “The interim report recommends the code be made mandatory, with heavy penalties for major breaches,” the statement said.
Since the ACCC in February outlined what business leaders described as a “radical” reshaping of merger rules, the Albanese government has consulted with the private sector to secure a middle ground. Company bosses want mergers to be processed faster and for new rules to consider the economic argument alongside regulation demands.
The ACCC in February said out of an estimated 1000-1500 mergers annually, only 330 were reported to it under the existing voluntary merger regime. Around half of mergers are made by the largest 1 per cent of businesses.
Lindsay Partridge has reflected on his time as Brickworks CEO after announcing his plans to retire. Mr Partridge has been the chief executive of Australia's biggest brickmaker for 25 years. The board acknowledged him by saying when he started the company had an asset base of $500 million, now More
The competition watchdog has pushed for mandatory notification of mergers above certain thresholds and a requirement to not complete the transaction until approval is granted.
Former GWS Giants chair and BCA president Tony Shepherd, a NSW Racing director who has served on major company and public boards across Australia, said the welfare and wellbeing of the community relied on a strong economy driven by a profitable private sector.
“Some of the current latent socialist discussion misses this point. If the ecosystem of business small, medium or large aren’t doing well, that means jobs go, taxes aren’t paid and critical infrastructure such as roads, rail, schools and hospitals cannot be built,” he Shepherd said. “We should be celebrating and encouraging companies which are doing well and not be seeking to tear them down.”
Mr Shepherd, who chaired Tony Abbott’s national commission of audit, said “governments do not create wealth – they spend the revenue they take from hard-working people and business who pay so much in taxes and charges”.
NAB board member and former national KPMG chair Alison Kitchen said it would be a “travesty if the retirement savings of hardworking Australians are increasingly invested offshore” in the event commercial returns can’t be generated domestically.
“Business must be allowed to operate at a reasonable commercial return, it benefits us all,” Ms Kitchen said.
Ms Kitchen, who is a BCA director, said Australian businesses must be profitable to ensure workers can benefit through their super funds, which are “generating an enormous pool of investment funds which will allow people to live in greater comfort in their retirement”. “Professionals manage those funds to generate the best returns for their customers,” she said.
BCA president and former Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said “when businesses succeed, our whole country succeeds”. “We need companies to do more than break even. We need companies to grow to keep jobs and create jobs. I worked for a US company for 15 years and I was always fascinated by the difference in culture between the US and Australia,” he said.
“In the US they celebrate their successful companies and hold them up as icons to be admired. It creates an aspirational environment that promotes innovation and growth. There’s a lot that Australia does better than the US, but it’s no coincidence that the US consistently produces the world’s most innovative and successful companies.”
Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief executive Luke Achterstraat said “we need to see real action – not just talk – and better recognition of the unique operating environment facing small business”.
“Without meaningful action to address rising energy costs and slowing productivity, we face the alarming prospect of sustained small business closures. Whilst small and big business won’t agree on everything, there are many common areas to work together to lift the tide for all boats such as improving our IR system,” Mr Achterstraat said.
“Let’s nurture rather than neglect, or worse yet, demonise Australia’s job creators.”
**********************************************
A penalty for being good-looking
An element of jealousy involved, I suspect
More on the interesting Ms Hatherall below:
https://brainstatesinc.com/
Jodie Hatherall, TOGA’s former general manager of risk and compliance, is suing her employer in the Federal Circuit and Family Court over her termination.
She claims she endured several instances of “derogatory verbal comments questioning (her) qualifications and suitability for her role”, “sabotage” and “unwanted advances of an inappropriate, intimatory and/or tacitly sexualised nature” under boss and TOGA CFO Alex Collinson.
Ms Hatherall, who was on a $382,000 renumeration package, says Mr Collinson questioned in a performance review why she wanted a pay increase when she was on good money and “doesn’t have a mortgage or kids to look after”, and said “most people have a problem” with a “young, female in a senior position”, according to court documents.
Ms Hatherall, who joined the company in September 2017, claims the sudden and aggressive termination means she now faces considerable emotional and financial hardship, “especially given the current economic climate”.
But in its letter of termination to Ms Hatherall in November last year, TOGA said she was acting improperly by working for several start-up companies and claimed she was “spending substantial amounts of time” on university studies and “personal care” activities such as laser, nails, “cobbler consignment”, cosmetic medicine, facials, lashes and hair appointments. This, an HR executive said, amounted to “serious and wilful misconduct” and “gross neglect” of her duties.
She denied this, and said the start-up was not a conflict of interest and her numerous “praise-filled performance reviews” and “financial bonuses” were inconsistent with her termination.
Ms Hatherall claims she was doing well at TOGA until the appointment of Mr Collison as her boss, and alleges a number of “harassment” and “discrimination” events. In a statement, legal firm Hamilton Locke said: “The respondents (TOGA and Mr Collinson) reject the claims and will be filing a defence in due course.”
As early as his handover meeting in April last year, Mr Collison questioned her qualifications and suitability for the role, which she found “humiliating”.
In another one-on-one meeting, he made comments like “You need to understand that construction is a different operation than what you are used to in hospitality”, which she took to be “dismissive and belittling” because she had not worked in hospitality and had 15 years’ experience in construction and project management.
In a performance review with Mr Collison, she claims he made several remarks like “On top of being young and female, you also look like that, so it is hard for people to take you seriously”, “I want to help you but this isn’t a conversation for the office, it needs to be at the pub over a wine”, and “We need to get you a mentor or put you on a training course to manage the gender problem”.
He later told her she ought to address all communication through him, due to alleged “gender” issues with the other directors, and that the new executive manager would also “likely have a problem with your age and being a woman too”, she wrote in her statement of claim.
In another meeting, she said Mr Collinson “berated” her team’s performance and then “made a point of standing uncomfortably close” to her, calling it “an apparent show of intimidation”.
Ms Hatherall also says Mr Collinson invited her a couple of times to meet at a bar after work, claiming the “ongoing advances” were “inappropriate and threatening”.
He also “frequently visited” her LinkedIn page, and Ms Hatherall told her colleague in a text message “Seriously … He’s on it EVERY day”. She eventually blocked him, saying she felt “threatened and harassed”. In her termination letter, TOGA claimed she blocked him because her LinkedIn page contained reference to a start-up she founded.
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7 April, 2024
1 in 3 Australian Jobs in Past Year Created by Taxpayer-Funded NDIS
Extraordinary
New research has found that the taxpayer-funded National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was the main driver of employment in the Australian economy in the past year, creating approximately one-third of the new jobs.
This comes as the federal Labor government is struggling to contain the growth of NDIS, which is expanding by over 14 percent each year.
The NDIS is a government-funded program that aims to help improve the quality of life of people with disability by providing a wide range of services, including education, employment, social participation, independence, living arrangements and health and wellbeing.
At present, over half a million Australians participate in the program.
A study by investment bank Jarden revealed that around 130,000 of the 437,000 jobs generated in the year to February 2024 were in industries related to the NDIS, as reported by the Australian Financial Review newspaper.
Despite accounting for one-third of the new employment in the past year, NDIS-related work only represented around six percent of the total jobs, raising concerns about the stability of the job market.
Jarden economist Carlos Cacho said the blowout in NDIS funding was mainly responsible for the job growth.
At the same time, he and his colleague, Anthony Malouf, noted that the rise in the public job sector, which NDIS is a part of, had masked the slowdown of the private job sector, including the hospitality and construction industries.
According to the latest employment data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the unemployment rate dropped from 4.1 percent in January to 3.7 percent in February.
“All else being equal, without jobs growth in NDIS-related areas, the unemployment rate would be 4.6 percent ... whilst this is unrealistic, given some workers would have moved into other jobs, it illustrates how much support the program is providing to the labour market and economy,” Mr. Cacho said.
“Consumer-exposed retail and hospitality employment is now falling, whilst construction employment has slowed to flat.”
Government Struggles to Contain NDIS Growth
Jarden’s research comes as NDIS expenditures are becoming increasingly bloated.
In the recent federal budget paper, the cost of NDIS was forecasted to reach $42 billion (US$27.3 billion) in the 2023-2024 financial year before soaring to $97 billion by 2032-2033.
In addition, the forecast showed that the scheme had blown out by about $978 million a month compared to the previous Coalition government’s budget.
Amid the cost pressure, the Labor government announced a plan to save more than $74 billion in NDIS funding over the next decade by reducing its annual funding target in May 2023.
The government aimed to reduce NDIS’s annual growth rate from the current 14 percent to 8 percent.
Amid the cost-cutting measures, Treasurer Jim Chalmers assured the public that the government would not tighten eligibility for the NDIS and would remain committed to the future of the disability scheme.
Following a recent review of the program, the government has introduced legislation to pave the way for an NDIS overhaul, raising fears among states and territories about potential impacts on their budgets.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/ndis-created-1-in-3-australian-jobs-in-past-year-5620675
****************************************There has never been a worse time to invest in solar panel production. But we’re wasting $1b on it
Leftist site "Crikey" gets some things right
As we’ve been writing for a while now, the last thing Australia needs is to invent new industries to employ workers, who are becoming an increasingly scarce commodity. Both sides of politics want us to get into building and crewing nuclear submarines. Peter Dutton wants a whole new nuclear power industry. And Labor is now throwing $1 billion at manufacturing solar panels — all part of our effort to be a “renewable superpower”, and also because, apparently, Australia invented the solar panels before losing control of the technology, so we’re really just bringing solar panels “home”.
The $1 billion price tag is small compared to the tens of billions Dutton’s nuclear fantasy will cost and insignificant compared to the waste of money involved in AUKUS, but Albanese’s solar panel investment might be the dumbest of the lot.
Why? Because other, much bigger governments, especially China, are also subsidising solar panel production — resulting in a huge production glut right at the time when Australia, belatedly, is joining in the stupidity.
A fortnight ago there was a rush of reports about massive job cuts at the world’s biggest solar panel maker, LONGi Green Energy Technology of China — perhaps up to one-third of its workforce. LONGi rejected the reports and said it was only planning to cut 5% of its total headcount of 80,000. The reason is the surge in global supplies of solar energy cells.
As the Financial Times noted, LONGi was part of Xi Jinping’s quest for self-sufficiency and even mastery of crucial renewable technology sectors. As protectionism always does, that has prompted China’s competitors, the European Union and the United States, to hit back both with their own subsidies and with blocks on Chinese exports, although these appear to be doing little to curb China’s growing dominance of the solar panel sector. But there is now a massive global oversupply of solar panels.
As a result, there’s never been a better time to buy solar panels — and never been a worse time to get into the production of them.
If, as Albanese says, the expenditure in solar panel manufacturing is about securing supply chains, that could easily be accomplished by redirecting that $1 billion to buying up Chinese solar panels so cheap they’re now being used as garden features, and storing them for use on Australian rooftops. But that lacks the political appeal of last week’s announcement in the Hunter Valley.
So what will we do with all the Australian-manufactured solar panels? Force the local industry to use them, pushing up the costs of renewables at a time when they should be falling?
Labor’s obsession with manufacturing — one that the Coalition for the most part shares, despite Tony Abbott chasing the car industry out of Australia — continues to reflect both the power of the (climate denialist) Australian Workers Union on the right of the party, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union on the left. It also reflects the mindset of many not just within the union movement or Labor, but more broadly, that manufacturing is somehow a more real economic activity than services industries or extractive industries.
The story of the Australian economy over the past 30 years has been the rise and rise of extractive industries and service industries. Our mining industry is very, very efficient, and the iron ore industry is cutting edge technologically: it is far advanced in areas like remote-controlled trains and autonomous vehicles compared to other countries — though that doesn’t stop it from being derided as merely “ripping dirt out of the ground”. Our agricultural industry, while not producing anywhere near as much in terms of export values, has enjoyed massive productivity growth and now exports and produces far more, with far fewer workers and less water per unit of production, than it ever used to.
And our services industries in areas like education and tourism are also massive export earners, reflecting Australia’s natural advantages in education and lifestyle.
Meanwhile, like every other western country, the proportion of the economy and workforce devoted to services has grown massively, with the new frontier of employment being caring services, from early childhood to old age and everywhere in between — all heavily feminised workforces.
But ignore all that, Labor is saying let’s invest more in traditional male-dominated manufacturing, despite Australia being hopelessly uncompetitive in production costs and scale, and not having enough workers for the rest of the economy let alone new industries.
And all of this, despite this being literally the worst time in history to invest in solar panel production. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/04/04/solar-panel-investment-albanese-waste-money/#:~:text=But%20there%20is%20now%20a,into%20the%20production%20of%20them .
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Experts call for more research into long COVID, as study reveals high prevalence in W.A.
Researchers say more support is needed for patients suffering from long-term illness associated with a COVID-19 infection, with new data showing a large number of West Australians have been left unable to work due to their crippling symptoms.
The Australian National University (ANU) study surveyed 11,000 people who tested positive to COVID during a significant outbreak of the Omicron variant in WA in 2022.
The study published in March found almost 20 per cent of those patients were still suffering symptoms of fatigue, memory loss and concentration difficulties three months after they first became sick.
Lead researcher Mulu Woldegiorgis said there was little pre-existing data available on the topic, but that the new research suggested there was a high rate of long-term COVID-19 symptoms in WA.
"It is more than double the prevalence reported in a review of Australia data from earlier in the pandemic, and higher than similar studies done in the UK and Canada," she said.
In their report, Dr Woldegiorgis and her colleagues acknowledged one of the limitations of the ANU survey was that it relied on subjective symptom descriptions from patients, and the reported impact of their symptoms on work or study was not independently verified.
Dr Woldegiorgis said it was important for patients' symptoms to be taken seriously. "I think it's real and it needs more investigation," she said.
"When we see its impact on work or study, more than one in six of those who used to work before their infection were not able to fully return to work or study due to their ongoing symptoms."
'Life has become small'
Joanna Lewis caught COVID almost two years to the day. When she still had symptoms weeks later she thought she might have contracted Ross River virus again. "I could be standing at the kitchen bench and I'd feel short of breath," she said.
"It was almost like my body had forgotten to breathe, which is really bizarre."
She experienced tachycardia and POTS – postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome – which meant her heart rate shot up more than 30 beats a minute when she sat or stood up.
She had to take leave from work and suffered financially, burning through her savings and taking on students as boarders to bring in enough money to survive.
These days the 42-year-old is most afflicted by fatigue.
"I do have, I've found, about six hours on average … upright, I do have to spend probably most of my day lying down and resting," she said. "It just means life becomes very small."
Government urged to do more
Rural GP Michael Livingston said he was seeing large numbers of people through his practice in Narembeen, in WA's Wheatbelt, with unexplained fatigue and brain fog. "I'm seeing younger people who just aren't bouncing back the way they thought they would do," he said.
"Some people think they have dementia, such is their concern about their memory and ability to recall simple tasks."
Dr Livingston suspects long COVID could be to blame and urged people not become complacent about COVID prevention. "We really need to be questioning the why of this and what personal choices we're making and how complicit we are being around this," he said.
Dr Livingston said authorities should develop a "clean air policy", and could consider fitting classrooms, workplaces and public transport with specialised air filters.
WA Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said the government was keeping a close eye on any evidence relating to long COVID. "I think there's some conflicting views globally around the impact of long COVID but we continue to watch it closely," she said at a press conference on Tuesday.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-03/research-finds-long-covid-rates-high-in-wa/103647042
***********************************************Rights groups welcome review of NSW 'anti-protest' laws
Laws that threaten jail time for unauthorised protests on major roads will undergo fresh scrutiny in NSW, pleasing civil libertarians.
The two-year-old laws criticised by rights groups including Amnesty International were introduced with bipartisan support following a series of environmental protests that disrupted traffic and Sydney's main port.
Two elements of the changes have since been invalidated by the NSW Supreme Court for interfering with the implied right to political communication.
NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley has confirmed a review would occur to determine whether the laws remained fit for purpose.
The statutory review led by the justice department will involve public consultation.
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties was among the 37 organisations and 1000 individuals who wrote to the attorney-general this week demanding the review.
"These laws create a chilling effect on civil movements and social progress," president Lydia Shelly said on Friday.
"Whilst we haven't yet overturned the laws, we have achieved a major milestone today and it is worth a pause to celebrate."
Extensive disruptions to ports and roads including a three-day blockage of Port Botany prompted the rapid passing of the laws carrying penalties of up to two years in jail and fines of up to $22,000.
"Enough is enough," Police Minister Paul Toole said in 2022.
"These kinds of acts are just disgraceful."
Critics say the laws are being used to excessively police peaceful protests including those at Port Botany related to the Gaza conflict.
"This review will provide an opportunity for people at the grassroots to share their experiences and record the disproportionate response from the frankly ridiculous bail conditions and charges resulting from these unjust and unnecessary laws," Australian Democracy Network protest rights campaigner Anastasia Radievska said on Friday.
The results of the review will be tabled in parliament in October.
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4 April, 2024
Truth Telling, circular arguments, and the wrongful conviction of colonialism
The breast-beating about Australia's colonial past is just a pathetic Leftist attempt to make their fellow citizens feel guilty. It is a basic precept of natural justice that we are not responsible for what others do. And that includes our ancestors. So individuals today should feel no guilt about what some people did in the past.
If the past is to be judged by modern standards, I would have a good claim to have been affected by injustice. Two of my ancestors came out to Australia chained up in the holds of little wooden ships. They were convicts whose offences would be treated as trivial today.
So do I feel aggrieved and complain about how they were treated? To the contrary, Australians with convict ancestry usually feel proud about it these days: Proud to be descended from tough survivors.
Just when you thought Australians had voted firmly against the Voice to Parliament and its entire grievance baggage, Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney says she is in active discussions with Cabinet to develop a model for a ‘Truth Telling’ process, flagging that it could be included in the school curriculum.
The phrase ‘Truth Telling’ is, I believe, code for weaponising the past. The Burney-preferred meaning of the phrase matches the Oxford Dictionary (Woke edition):
‘Recognition or acknowledgement of historical injustices affecting Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people following the colonisation of Australia, and re-evaluation of the impact of the discrimination and often violent treatment they have faced since that time.’
As a guide, look to the purpose of the Yoorrook Justice Commission which former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews green-lit in 2020. It exists to ‘investigate historical and ongoing injustices committed against Aboriginal Victorians since colonisation, across all areas of social, political, and economic life’. This is a circular argument that starts with the conclusion it is trying to prove.
That rings a bell. The original mandate from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for the IPCC did not seek to explore possible reasons for any warming; it was to address ‘dangerous human-caused climate change’. That set the agenda, which became the ruling orthodoxy – a circular argument that starts with the conclusion it is trying to prove.
A circular argument is a useful device when evidence is absent or too weak to prove an allegation.
A good (bad) example of this is the prosecution’s case against Robert Xie, tried for the murder of five members of his wife’s family.
‘The Crown does not know exactly what time it was that the murders occurred,’ said prosecutor Tanya Smith, in her opening address in trial 4 (the final one). ‘But our case is that it must have occurred after 2 o’clock in the morning, because you will hear that it is accepted that the accused had been at home with his wife using the internet until around this time. So it is at some point after 2 o’clock and before 5.30 am.’
In other words, the murders must have been committed after 2 am because ‘we accept he was busy on his computer until then’.
The prosecutor didn’t say ‘we will show you evidence that the murders occurred after 2 o’clock in the morning’. That was not possible, as there was no such evidence. In my opinion, there was no direct evidence against Xie. The Crown’s case had been built around Robert Xie’s computer-proven alibi but challenging his after-2 am alibi of being in bed asleep beside his wife.
Indeed, the forensic pathologist agreed with defence counsel that it was possible that at least one of the victims (Min) could have been killed well before 2 am. With the jury absent, the judge recognised evidence to that effect. And the jury bought the Crown’s circular argument. (Xie was sentenced to life imprisonment.)
Like the IPCC taking as proven the ‘dangerous human-caused climate change’, and the Yoorook Commission taking as proven ‘historical and ongoing injustices committed against Aboriginal Victorians’, Linda Burney’s Truth Telling will likely consist not so much of ‘truth telling’ but of grievance gathering, a regurgitation of how evil the white settlers were – and are. Apologies and atonement not accepted.
The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth should be the mantra, as in court. For if Truth Telling is merely another example of evidence-free, biased ‘Blak’ history, it will be as catastrophic as a wrongful conviction. In this case, perhaps the wrongful conviction of colonialism.
As Ramesh Thakur observes, ‘The colonial legacy is mixed rather than uniformly evil or virtuous. Every culture and civilisation has stains in its history.’
The controversial Canadian-American author, Bruce Gilley, professor of political science at Portland State University, argues extensively in his recent book, The Case for Colonialism, that colonialism was not always harmful and had significant benefits, such as the enabling of human flowering through ‘expanded education, improved public health, the abolition of slavery, widened employment opportunities, improved administration, the creation of basic infrastructure, female rights, the enfranchisement of untouchable or historically excluded communities, fair taxation, access to capital, and the generation of historical and cultural knowledge…’ Some of these apply to the Australian experience.
He says:
‘The origins of anti-colonial thought were political and ideological. The purpose was not historical accuracy but contemporaneous advocacy. Today, activists associate “decolonisation” (or “postcolonialism”) with all manner of radical social transformation, which unintentionally ties historic conclusions to present-day endeavours. One failure of anti-colonial critique is perhaps most damaging. It is not just an obstacle to historical truth, which itself is a grave disservice. Even as a means of contemporary advocacy, it is self-wounding. For it essentially weaponises the colonial past…’
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Easter silence: corporations, councils, and governments bury another Christian festival
Despite no longer being a believer, I used to go to church at Easter. It seemed the right thing to do. I get about only with difficulty these days however so I stayed home this year. I did however put on some early Christian music during our family gathering on Easter Saturday so I did show some respect for the occasion
Last year, swathes of my local area spent time swaddled in trans flags, rainbow flags, and Welcome to Country messaging.
Residents of the overwhelmingly conservative local community were forced to duck and weave around aggressive activist propaganda – no doubt in the hope that if they politely smiled and went along with all the nonsense, they would be repaid during Christmas, Australia Day, Easter, and Anzac Day with equally enthusiastic decorations.
After all, is that not what we were promised with a ‘multicultural society’?
Nowhere did elected officials and ESG regulations for companies mention that ‘including’ minority issues would also mean snuffing out mainstream and greatly-loved community events.
The Upper North Shore is a traditional area. While it might be temporarily in danger of falling under the spell of the Teals in a fleeting stupor of misguided green ‘virtue’, it remains an area thick with Christian churches, private schools, traditionally-minded public schools, and a community that describes itself as Christian – even if only in the loose spiritual sense.
It is an area whose parks frequently brim with Christmas and Easter celebrations and small businesses who look forward to community events every year. These celebrations are important, not only for individuals, but to preserve the culture and heritage of the area. And yes, Australia has a culture. We have a heritage. What we have is deeply special.
Culture is something the modern world pretends to care about when it comes to the demands of the newly arrived minority, but for the majority, there are powerful and well-funded political movements that spend their days plotting to destroy Australia’s culture through silence. Erasing Easter by failing to celebrate it with the same gusto as Pride Week is one way that activists can ‘pretend’ that there is no demand to continue on with the show.
Last year, the steps of the newly built train station at Hornsby were covered in a trans/rainbow flag. Every day, commuters had to trudge up the propaganda on their way to an unreliable rail service, wondering why the money wasn’t spent on cleaning the trains instead of painting the concrete. Reaching Town Hall, those same commuters had to duck under a sea of trans bunting and ‘Pride’ signs making it clear that City Rail was on its knees, bowing to the gods of rainbow activism. What do they get in return for this? Who knows. They won’t tell us. Instead, parents like me have to explain the situation to our children who are enticed by the pretty colours like candy offered by the creepy stranger at the park.
Over the Easter weekend, the train stations did not contain a single scrap of Easter cheer. Not an egg in sight. No bunny ears hiding behind the arrival board. Nothing. Easter isn’t on City Rail’s ‘Woke’ virtue list and as for the station steps, they remain barren and grey.
When it comes to council boards at the base of the station, they aggressively demand subservience to their ‘Welcome to Country’ messages, declaring that all of the trappings of a free and prosperous civilisation are actually built on ‘stolen land’. Land the council is happy to sit there collecting taxes for, puffing up their personal salaries instead of fixing potholes and building footpaths. Would it kill them to mow the lawn and weed the sidewalks instead of spending thousands on signs trying to guilt people about their race? Perhaps they could try writing, ‘Happy Easter’ on these boards once in a while.
And when you make it beyond the council’s nastiness, you get to a Westfield shopping centre.
For weeks, perhaps a month, last year, its giant entrance pillars were wallpapered with trans and rainbow paper to ‘celebrate’ Pride Whatever. Every spare surface held a message of ‘Pride’. Even the areas dedicated to children were covered in rainbows which now hold a sinister activist threat instead of the Christian promise of redemption.
Westfield suffocated its shoppers with Pride and yet here we are, over the Easter weekend, I look around and there is not a single Easter message. No sign. No decorations. Nothing. Decades ago, the shopping centres looked forward to Easter, dressing their businesses up to celebrate the complex twin festival of Pagan rebirth and Christian resurrection. It was a beautiful and complimentary culture forged over thousands of years.
This Easter, Westfield is as barren as the activist message.
There is no love in activism, only a wasteland of propaganda.
Shame on them all for trying to erase our cherished heritage. We can see what you are doing.
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Australian wine back on the menu after China ends crippling tariffs
Australian wine will retake its place among Chinese supermarkets, restaurant wine lists and banquet tables after Beijing announced the end of crippling tariffs that should see China return to being the Australian wine industry’s biggest export market.
Late on Thursday afternoon, just before the Easter break, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced the end of the politically-motivated tariffs that had all but wiped out what was once a $1.2bn export trade for Australia.
“The Ministry of Commerce ruled that in view of the changes in the relevant wine market conditions in China, it is no longer necessary to impose anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties on imported relevant wines originating in Australia,” the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.
The Beijing ministry said the tariffs would be lifted on March 29, Good Friday.
Anthony Albanese welcomed Beijing’s decision, which he said came “at a critical time for the Australian wine industry”.
“This outcome affirms the calm and consistent approach taken by the Albanese Labor government and follows the success of the similar approach taken to remove duties on Australian barley,” the Prime Minister said, in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Trade Minister Don Farrell and Agriculture Minister Murray Watt.
Although Australian winemakers remain cautious about re-entering the Chinese market, with many caught out by the imposition of the whopping tariffs almost four years ago that destroyed their business in the Asian giant, there will be celebrations in the $45bn wine sector as a once billion-dollar market is back open for business.
Ending the tariffs has been a top priority for the Albanese government, which agreed to halt a WTO case against China’s impost in an attempt to quicken the return of Australia’s trade. That face-saving arrangement for China was made to create an off-ramp for the nearly 200 per cent tariffs that were imposed by Beijing in November 2020 as one of the centrepieces of its sweeping trade coercion campaign against the Morrison government.
Mr Albanese said Australia would end those WTO proceedings now that Beijing had agreed to lift the duties.
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Solar Panel Waste Predicted to Hit 1 Million Tonnes by 2030: Australian Research
The volume of solar panel waste is rising rapidly in Australia, predicted to reach 280,000 tonnes within one year and one million tonnes within a decade.
According to a new study by the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, led by experts from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), the challenge of dealing with significant levels of solar PV waste would come within the next two or three years.
A photovoltaic (PV) cell, also called a solar cell, is a non-mechanical device that converts sunlight into electricity. It is the basic building block of a PV system and typically produces one to two watts of power.
The study showed that the cumulative volume of end-of-life solar panels would reach 280,000 tonnes by 2025, 680,000 tonnes by 2030, and a “significant milestone” of 1 million tonnes between 2034 and 2035.
“This finding contradicts earlier forecasts, which predicted significant volumes of PV waste would not appear until post-2030,” the researchers said.
Researchers also noted that by 2030, more than 80 percent of the discarded solar panels will come from small-scale distributed PV systems, due to the earlier evolution of Australia’s residential PV market.
Meanwhile, on an annual scale, the waste volume in Australia is expected to exceed 50,000 tonnes in one year, and reach 100,000 tonnes from 2030 to 2035.
“This projection is four times higher than earlier predictions because it accounts for the pre-mature decommission of residential solar panel systems,” the study noted.
The solar panel waste is predicted to mainly concentrate in major Australian cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
However, from 2030, the waste volume of PV is expected to accelerate in regional and remote areas as large-scale PV systems reach their mid- or end-of-life cycle.
The Challenge Of Recycling Solar Panel Waste
Like most electronic waste, solar panels are made from potentially reusable materials such as glass, aluminium, and copper. However, due to the amounts of heavy metals it contains, solar panel waste could become hazardous waste and contaminate the environment if left in landfills to degrade.
The UNSW researchers noted that there is a lack of financial incentive to recycle solar panels. For example, it costs about $20 to recycle a typical 20-kilogram solar panel, and about $2 to send a panel to a landfill.
“Recyclers face slim margins due to intricate technology, insufficient material returns to offset costs, especially when operating at a small scale,” the study noted.
Finding markets for recycled solar panel materials is also a challenge, as up to 70 percent of solar panels are made of glass—an extremely low-value material.
“The challenge extends beyond glass, as the highly mixed nature of the components makes it challenging to find markets for their use.”
The researchers also noted the logistical difficulties of transporting separated materials to distant waste management infrastructures.
“This includes utility-scale solar farms in regional and remote areas. Coordinating collection points and recycling facilities to take into account the widespread distribution of panels across the country will be a significant barrier.”
The paper proposed a 12-year industry roadmap to tackle the challenges. This includes building a “national product stewardship scheme” that defines management structures, optimising waste logistics by creating a streamlined network to transport waste efficiently, investing in full-recycling technologies, and establishing large-scale PV waste treatment in major Australian cities.
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Australian School Principals Report Record Near 50 Percent Jump in Student Attacks
Australian school principals are experiencing a record-high surge in physical attacks from students, driving many perilously close to the brink of self-harm.
A survey conducted by the Australian Catholic University (ACU) of 2,300 school principals found 48.2 percent experienced physical violence in 2023, up 76.5 percent from 2011.
Students perpetrated almost all (96.3 percent) of the attacks, followed by parents (65.6 percent).
“It is deeply concerning that offensive behaviour towards school leaders and teachers persist and appears to be on the rise,” ACU co-lead investigator Professor Herb Marsh said.
Nearly all principals who were attacked (42.6 percent) triggered a “red flag” email, indicating they were at risk of self-harm, occupational health issues, or a significant impact on their quality of life.
One in five school leaders reported moderate to severe depression, particularly among early career leaders, with others facing risks of serious mental health issues such as anxiety, burnout, stress, and sleep problems.
Growing Teacher Shortage
Around 60 percent of those with six to ten years of experience want to exit the profession, and experienced school leaders with over 15 years of experience are at the forefront of the impending departure.
“Assuming only half of those who agreed or strongly agreed to quit acted on this response, there would be an exodus of more than 500 school leaders—the data strongly suggests this would be experienced school leaders,” Ms. Marsh said.
The upcoming departure would add to the existing shortage of teachers nationwide.
Education Minister Jason Clare recently mentioned that while there are around 300,000 teachers currently working in our schools, there are an additional 100,000 registered teachers with qualifications who have chosen not to teach but maintain their registration.
Urgent Call for Action
Despite challenges, the survey revealed that some school leaders still exhibit strong dedication, commitment, and commendable resilience.
Their grit was independent of state education department policies or other regulatory body policies, indicating that these entities’ formal policies or guidelines failed to aid their ability to cope.
Paul Kidson, ACU investigator, and former principal, called on education ministers to urgently take collective action to address the significant threats facing principals.
“We’ve had a national spotlight on teacher education and workloads, disruptions in the classroom, campaigns to boost the profession’s status, and a continued focus on students’ mental health and academic outcomes—all noble and necessary,” Mr. Kidson said.
However, he said, “Principals are being asked to do more with less.”
“It’s been over a decade since the Gonski Review, and we still do not have full funding based on student needs. It is naïve to think this does not translate into the increasing stress among school leaders today,” he explained.
The Australian government commissioned the Gonski Review in 2010 to comprehensively review school funding in the country.
Businessman David Gonski led the review to address inequalities in school funding.
The review’s final report, released in 2011, recommended reforms to improve the quality and equity of education across the country.
A new funding model was proposed called the “Gonski model,” which advocated for needs-based funding to ensure that all students, regardless of their socio-economic background, receive the support they need to succeed in school.
However, leading school wellbeing expert Associate Professor Theresa Dicke said there is an urgency for education ministers to make a priority of responding to the data in this report.
She proposed a national summit to coordinate strategies and resources, warning that failure to address these issues could lead to a mass exodus of school leaders.
“Many of them will act on their intention to leave and it will make achieving important policy initiatives very unlikely,” she said.
Since 2011, this survey has aimed to understand and support the health and well-being of school leaders by providing personalised reports based on data collected from a large sample of participants.
This year’s report categorises data by different career stages and represents nearly a quarter of all Australian school leaders.
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3 April, 2024
Inland rail at risk of becoming a white elephant if infrastructure is not linked, Barnaby Joyce warns
This has always been an uneconomic idea by virtue of its huge construction and other costs. It is best understood as a love of trains. And Barnaby is right. If it does not get to Brisbane it loses all rationale.
Because of its 4'8.5" gauge, the link from NSW into Brisbane makes most sense but that seems to be the stretch least likely to be built
We have been something similar once before. John Howard's push to link Adelaide to Darwin by rail was at least completed but has resulted in a line that is barely used and does not even recover the cost of its maintenance. Nice for a passenger trip on the "Ghan" but not much else. A spur line into the Queensland or NSW rail network might have helped but no such was ever built
The $31bn inland rail project between Melbourne and Brisbane is at risk of becoming a white elephant if parts of the line remain isolated from one another, Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce has warned.
Touted as a nation-building project necessary to meet Australia’s growing freight task when first announced in 2015, the project has since been beset by major cost blowouts, delays and political infighting with doubts it will ever reach the end of the line.
When construction started in 2018, the train line was due to be completed by 2027 and was going to run 1600km, from Tottenham in Melbourne to Acacia Ridge in Brisbane.
Two disjointed sections, totalling about 300km, between Parkes, west of Sydney, and North Star, near the Queensland border, are effectively completed, but sit isolated from the rest of the upgraded line further south.
Further funding is locked in for a 650km stretch from Beveridge, 40km north of Melbourne, to Parkes, with an estimated completion date of 2027.
Mr Joyce, who championed the project when the Coalition was in government,said better governance was crucial to getting the project back on track.
“We have this ridiculous scenario where we have the Parkes to Melbourne inland rail, and then the Newcastle to North Star inland rail, but they’re not actually connected to one another. And I don’t know whether Melbourne to North Star works as a business plan. I thought it was supposed to go to the city of Brisbane, not the village of North Star,” he said.
“It doesn’t work, it’s like saying well I’ve got a ship and a quarter of a ship … the thing won’t float if you get the rest of it and stick it together.”
There are no guarantees the line will even cross into Queensland, with the $14.6bn in confirmed funding now restricted to south of the border.
Mr Joyce questioned the point of the project if Brisbane and Melbourne were not connected, and said if political infighting continued, the line would not be built.
“I was saying to so many people that if you keep arguing about the route, in the end the whole thing will fall over,” he said.
“Well guess what? You are now reaping what you sow, you argued about where it was supposed to go and you never took into account that if there is a change of government it might not go anywhere at all.”
Liberal MP Garth Hamilton, whose federal electorate of Groom covers Toowoomba, said the Nationals failed to deliver inland rail when they had the chance and accused the Labor government of now “taking advantage”.
Mr Hamilton, a backbencher, said he would seek reassurances before the next federal election that the Coalition would commit to funding the project into Queensland.
“I’ll be making hell,” he told The Australian.
“This project could be finished if we hadn’t engaged in the ridiculous conversations about changing the route so many times – foolish proposals like putting it through Warwick.”
Mr Hamilton said Toowoomba residents were “absolutely distraught” at the prospect that the line may not make it into Queensland.
“My local community is going to suffer as a result of (political infighting), not just farmers but there’s huge transport opportunities off the back of this … young kids coming through getting a job.
“I am very unhappy that we didn’t deliver this when we were in government … despite the opposition from the Queensland Labor government, we could have got this thing done.”
Queensland’s Liberal National Party leader David Crisafulli also accused the state Labor government of “dragging its heels” on the project, after it was initially reluctant to sign off on a 2019 agreement with the federal government citing community concern about the loss of agricultural land, flood plain issues, noise and social impacts.
“The Queensland government was the reason why the project didn’t start two and a half years earlier,” Mr Crisafulli said.
“The whole idea of this was being a generational bit of infrastructure across multiple states and can you imagine what happens if the state that is the engine room of the economy … was left off.”
A Queensland government spokeswoman said the former federal government had “botched” inland rail and said the state did not control funding, tenders or contracts for the project.
“Nine years in power and they couldn’t even get the line to enter Queensland,” she said.
“David Crisafulli had plenty of opportunity to take this up with his former colleagues when they were in power.”
A spokeswoman for federal Infrastructure and Transport Minister Catherine King said the commonwealth “agrees in principle that inland rail should extend at least to Ebenezer in Queensland” after work is complete north of Narromine in NSW.
National Farmers Federation president David Jochinke said: “It’s disappointing to hear the project is facing further setbacks and we are unlikely to see trains on tracks anytime soon. It’s time now (for) the government to get serious and invest in our supply chains so farmers and all Australians can benefit.”
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Sydney's One Central Park 'green' skyscraper pulled up over defects which could risk 'death or serious injury' to pedestrians
Sydney's One Central Park building, which is adorned by vertical gardens, has 'serious defects' that pose a 'risk of death or serious injury' to pedestrians because its external planter boxes fail to meet building standards, NSW Fair Trading said.
The building in the inner Sydney suburb of Chippendale is owned by Frasers Property, which was served with a building rectification order by Building Commission NSW director Matt Press on January 16.
This followed an emergency order issued on December 11 after the property was inspected on December 6.
A temporary rope support system has been put in to support the planter boxes.
Frasers Property must submit a structural engineering report and rectify the defects by March 2026.
An inspection found that the T-Bolts securing the planter boxes were randomly distributed, with some fracturing and failing.
The inspector also said the planter boxes failed to drain storm water sufficiently and would fill and overflow.
'This dramatically increases the weight of the planter boxes and the treated planter box water consequently damages glass windows and awnings,' Fair Trading stated, according to the Daily Telegraph.
It also posed the risk an overloaded planter box could fall on pedestrians below with potentially serious consequences.
Construction of the building finished in 2013.
The building also houses Central Park Mall as well as featuring the world's highest floating garden.
The landmark was given a a five-star green rating, which made it the largest multi-residential building at the time to receive the top mark for being environmentally friendly.
Under the modification order the developer has been directed to erect either hoarding or a temporary structure on the north-east and west of the building while work is being done.
The planter boxes must be redesigned by a 'registered structural and hydraulic engineer'.
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Amusing: Single picture of queuing Teslas perfectly illustrates the problem Australia will face ditching petrol cars
At least 10 electric vehicles were seen lined up in the rural town of Keith, in South Australia, with drivers waiting to use public charging stations.
One TikTok user shared a video which showed the cars lined up with the caption: 'Buy a Tesla they said.'
Bernhard Conoplia, head of public charging at charging company Evie, told Yahoo News the charging stations would have been up to four time as busy over the long weekend versus a normal weekend.
She said that simple steps, such as leaving home with a full battery, would go a long way, but it seems these Tesla owners may have learned the hard way.
For a Tesla Model 3 sedan it takes at least 20 minutes to fully charge at a Supercharger station, meaning some owners could have potentially waited hours before they were able to hit the road again.
There are around 198,000 electric vehicles driving on Australian roads, but currently only 3,000 public charging stations nationwide.
The government claims it is working quickly to increase the availability of fast chargers, with the number of sites forecast to double this year.
A report by consulting firm Next System also found that even though Tesla dominated electric vehicle sales it was Chargefox that provided the greatest share of charging sites.
The findings came after record sales of electric vehicles, and despite concerns from some potential buyers that Australia's charging network was not large enough to support the technology.
The Public Fast Charger Network Report found Australia had seen another 397 car-charging sites and 755 new charging points built during 2023, but predicted that number would rise significantly higher in 2024.
Next System founder Daniel Bleakley said the analysis showed charging stations were already planned for another 470 locations throughout Australia and a total of 900 new charging sites could be expected during the year.
'After a slow start, growth in Australia's public EV fast charger network is clearly accelerating,' Mr Bleakley said.
'Lack of public fast-charging infrastructure is often quoted to be a major barrier to electric vehicle uptake in Australia, however our report shows the EV-charging network is actually now growing faster than the Australian EV fleet.'
The report found local firm Chargefox had installed the greatest number of electric chargers in Australia, operating more than one in three charging sites, followed by Evie Networks with 23 per cent of the market, and Tesla with 10 per cent.
Jolt and NRMA followed in fourth and fifth spot, while electric car charging stations from traditional petrol retailers BP and Ampol claimed sixth and seventh positions as their national rollout ramped up.
US automaker Tesla offered the greatest power through its electric chargers, however, with its Supercharger network representing almost half of Australia's charging network's capacity, according to the report.
The findings come after Australians purchased more than 87,000 electric cars in 2023, according to the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, representing more than seven per cent of all new vehicles and more than double the number sold in 2022.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13262449/Tesla-charging-que-Australia.html
*************************************************Who is Samantha Mostyn? Meet Australia's new governor general
The appointment of a highly political person to a viceroy role is totally inappropriate. Gough Whitlam tried something similar once so it is rather reassuring that it totally backfired on him. Who can forget Sir John Kerr if you were there at the time?
A climate change and gender equity advocate has been appointed Australia's new Governor-General.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced David Hurley's replacement on Wednesday morning after months of intense speculation, naming Samantha Mostyn for the role.
He said: 'His Majesty King Charles III, on my recommendation, has approved the appointment of Ms Samantha Mostyn AO as Australia’s next Governor?General.'
Ms Mostyn will be sworn into the role on July 1, 2024.
She is 'a businesswoman and community leader with a long history in executive and governance roles across diverse sectors'.
Ms Mostyn was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for distinguished service to business, the community and women in 2021 and is also a lawyer.
Most recently, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the Australian National University.
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2 April, 2024
Attacks on Coles and Woolworths are poorly conceived
It is an unusual duopoly but they keep one-another on their toes. And any idea that competition is lacking is nonsense. Aldi, IGA and Harris Farms give them plenty of competition -- as do various small players
And their dividends in relation to capital employed are modest. There is little "fat" that regulation could remove. But moves to regulation would probly be politically popular with the Green/Left and embattled farmers, even if it achieves nothing
Big business is up to its ears in pricing inquiries, some of which are populist political plays, while others are deep dives to find out why key product markets seem to be failing – delivering poor outcomes for consumers, workers and the country itself. Coles and Woolworths, with their two-thirds market share in groceries and immense buying power at the farm gate, are under scrutiny.
The Greens, with support from the Nationals, want new divestiture powers allowing the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to seek court orders to force companies in energy, banking and retail to sell assets if they abuse their market power to inflate prices, exploit supply chains or keep out competition.
“Consumers, farmers and workers are at breaking point, Greens senator Nick McKim said while introducing a divestiture bill this week. The Greens want to “smash the supermarket duopoly”.
Labor opposes divestiture, which Anthony Albanese labelled an approach you might see in the old Soviet Union. Writing in our pages this week, Business Council chief executive Bran Black described the approach as “extremist” and argued it would cause a plunge in jobs and investment.
Former Labor minister Craig Emerson is reviewing the voluntary Food and Grocery Code of Conduct, which is meant to keep the big two, Aldi, and Metcash on the straight and narrow in dealings with suppliers; an interim report is expected in April. But it’s the year-long supermarkets inquiry by the ACCC that will, with the watchdog’s compulsory information gathering powers, break open the black box on pricing and profits.
Coles and Woolworths can defend themselves; their chiefs, prepped and pepped, will soon be fronting McKim’s supermarket inquiry. Profits here are chunky, but the giants’ after-tax margins are not way out of kilter with the retail industry, here or overseas.
Australians enjoy an amenity from these merchants. For 98 per cent of a population with a continent to itself, there’s vast choice, year-round supply and near ubiquity of product wherever you roam. It’s akin to horizontal retail equalisation. But, as the former Member for Cook (Scott Morrison) once said of the big banks when he slugged them with a new tax, “no one likes you”.
If you’re looking for dominance this Easter long weekend, go to the pub, fridge or Esky. Carlton & United Breweries and Lion, both Japanese owned, hold 85 per cent of the beer market. A parliamentary committee found margins of 40 per cent “may indicate excessive market power” and, no kidding, “would contribute to the high cost of beer for consumers”.
McKim’s assaults on capitalism sound like a tutor in first-year politics; he’s getting traction among young voters confronted with their first episode of “cozzie livs”, due to hikes in the cost of food, energy and housing. The failings of corporates such as Qantas and Optus also bring home the very limited choices in some markets.
The Tasmanian Green should broaden his attention. Gen Z and millennials probably have the most exposure to digital platforms; they are, of course, the product for these oligopolies that, pretty much, wield far more cultural and economic power and do as they please to businesses such as the one that produces this newspaper.
Amid a cost-of-living squeeze, the politics of blame are easy. But it’s a prime opportunity for the Albanese government to make bold policy moves where theory and timing are in accord: competition policy is the killer app to lower household costs, revive the nation’s dire productivity growth and raise material living standards.
Jim Chalmers caught the vibe early in his tenure; the Treasurer and his department are alive in this space, with a rolling review run by its Competition Taskforce and a modern approach to data to get a clearer picture of the play. It’s looking at mergers and developing a whole-of-economy approach to tracking deals, allowing officials and researchers to examine the impact of takeovers on wages, productivity and market share.
ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb is calling for a new merger regime, in line with other major economies, including mandatory notification of mergers above certain thresholds and a requirement to not complete the transaction until approval is granted. Of the 1000 to 1500 mergers each year (with half of those made by the largest 1 per cent of businesses), the watchdog says about 330 are notified to the ACCC under the existing voluntary merger regime.
Cass-Gottlieb says the big plays are in manufacturing, retail, professional services, and health and social services, which are markets that directly impact consumers as they go about their lives.
“Without effective merger control, we are all likely to face higher prices, lower quality, less innovation, less choice and lower productivity across the economy,” the ACCC chair said in February.
As well, Treasury’s taskforce is investigating non-compete clauses and looking at ways to increase competition in domestic aviation. In December, Labor signed up the states and territories to revitalise National Competition Policy and commit to developing an agenda for pro-competitive reforms.
Labor’s point man on all this toil is Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh. He argues the research shows that in recent decades there are worrying signs the intensity of competition has weakened, with evidence of increased market concentration and mark-ups in several industries, as well as a lack of economic dynamism – a concept often difficult to grasp.
But Treasury official Jason McDonald put it well when he said dynamism is about the “elasticity of the economy”. “Whether it’s subject to shocks, how well it responds, how quickly it shifts resources to new opportunities, and how quickly wages rise because more productive workers move to more productive firms,” McDonald told parliament in September. “I think you don’t get that without competition, so the words are quite synonymous.”
Leigh tells Inquirer Australia is at a crossroads. “This really is the moment to pursue competition reform,” he says, given the improved data, tools and theory guiding the process. Leigh says competition is about fairness and squarely in Labor’s pro-productivity push; it is crucial if we are to make the most of the big shifts around digitalisation, growth in the care economy and the net-zero transformation.
In January last year, Chalmers asked the House of Representatives standing committee on economics to inquire into promoting economic dynamism, competition and business formation. On Wednesday, the committee, chaired by Victorian Labor MP Daniel Mulino, tabled its hefty report, Better Competition, Better Prices.
NSW One Nation Leader Tania Mihailuk has called for supermarket executives to be held accountable. Ms…
Among 44 proposals, the report supports the ACCC’s merger notification position for deals above a threshold, as well as the direction Labor is taking on non-compete clauses for workers. It says banks should offer customers mortgages that track the Reserve Bank’s cash rate, while also notifying depositors they are about to miss out on their “bonus” interest rate. As well, it calls for better use of government procurement to help small businesses win contracts.
“If we don’t improve the level of competition and dynamism within our economy, today’s consumers will get a raw deal, while future generations will be far poorer than they might have been,” Mulino declares in the foreword.
Nerdy as it invariably is and must be, this vital area of corporate and market regulation is Labor’s low-risk, consumer-friendly reform road – up to the point where it runs into the sharp elbows of the tech titans, supermarkets, banks, brewers and the Spirit of Australia.
Can Chalmers crash through?
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The Australian taxpayer is supporting neo-Marxism
The Australian reported last month that Elsa Tuet-Rosenberg, one of the activists involved in the doxxing of 600 Australian Jewish creatives, has a contract with the Australian Human Rights Commission with her company, Hue.
Given this company is in receipt of public funds, and produces materials to be used in Australian schools, it is worth examining its work and overarching philosophy, and whether it is compatible with the AHRC’s remit.
The first thing one notices about Hue’s website is that it does not limit itself to anti-racism. “Too often conversations about ‘Inclusion & Diversity’ are tokenistic and one dimensional,” the website reads. “The systemic nature of power & oppression is ignored, and there is no real investment in meaningful change.”
Clicking through to Hue’s online shop, one can find an Anti-Racism Policy template for $300, a NAIDOC Week participation leave policy for $300 and a Gender Affirmation Leave Policy template for $300.
If someone wants to go all out and purchase a Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Survey Licence and Support Package, they can expect to pay the handsome price of $4150.
These documents are to be used in the workplace as guides in dealing with employees who might be “gender diverse”, Indigenous or a person of colour. Like other forms of social justice activism, the primary concern is to influence social norms through the introduction of workplace policies, speech codes and other forms of bureaucratic oversight.
At first glance, one might wonder what gender affirmation has to do with racism. Why would a consulting agency dedicated to issues of race be in the business of transgenderism? It’s an important question because the answer sheds light on the all-encompassing nature of modern progressive activism.
Today’s activism is shaped by a philosophical worldview known as critical theory. Developed by post-WWII academics such as Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse, critical theory is an analytical framework that aims to identify and dismantle systems of power. It takes Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism and extends it into other domains, including race, gender, sexuality, nationality and indigeneity. Systems of power that need to be dismantled include white supremacy, patriarchy, cis-heteronormativity, colonialism and capitalism.
This preoccupation with power is why social justice activism today comes in a package. The civil rights movements of the past focused on tangible results, such as making changes to legislation that would promote dignity and equality for all.
But since racial, gender and, later, marriage equality have become formally enshrined by law, the focus of activists has shifted from the concrete to the abstract, with the goal now being to “dismantle power”.
From the critical theory worldview, dismantling one system of power works towards dismantling other systems. This is why students carrying banners that read “Queers for Palestine” see no contradiction: it’s power that needs to be dismantled, not rights that need to be won.
This gets us back to the AHRC. The AHRC’s remit is not to dismantle power. It is a statutory body funded by the Australian government and is tasked with ensuring compliance with Australian law, namely the Racial Discrimination Act. As an instrument of power itself, any attempt to “dismantle power” would become self-contradictory. The clash of worldviews doesn’t stop there, however.
The Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 states: “It is unlawful for a person: (a) to refuse to allow another person access to or use of any place, by reason of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of that other person or of any relative or associate of that other person.”
But a visit to Hue’s website, (which is linked to by the AHRC) suggests this rule has been superseded. Hue offers events and workshops for “people of colour only”. One event, titled “Power & Resilience (People of Colour only)” purportedly “creates a safe space for people of colour at your organisation to share, reflect, connect and learn without the impact of the white gaze … the session also explores strategies for coping and wellbeing under oppressive and racist systems”.
Yet the Racial Discrimination Act does not include carve-outs allowing certain groups of people to be exclusionary or racist towards other groups of people because they feel they are living under “systems of oppression”. The legislation itself is blind to race – it simply prohibits discrimination. It’s worthwhile asking: does Hue – and the AHRC more broadly – see itself as above the law?
Unlike the Racial Discrimination Act, the critical theory definition of racism is not colourblind. Any condemnation of racism is determined by the identity of the actors engaged in it, rather than by the racism itself. And this selective condemnation also applies to rape, torture and murder.
On Hue’s LinkedIn page, an article in reference to October 7 states: “Whiteness culture is … hyper-individual, emphasising harm that takes place on an individual level, and disguising the violent systems that give rise to that harm in the first place. This culture erases ongoing ‘israeli’ (sic) violence from our conversations and highlights and demonises the violence of resistance efforts and land defence.”
In the critical theory worldview “land defence” now outranks prohibitions against mass rape and mass murder. The mistaken notion that today’s social justice activists are passionate advocates of equality and dignity for all, rather than the carriers of a radically sectarian moral framework, has allowed establishment institutions such as the AHRC to be duped into giving them access and influence.
Activists with Tuet-Rosenberg’s worldview have effectively taken over institutions across corporate, non-profit and government sectors. Centre-leftists have no match for their zeal, and quickly find themselves defenestrated whenever there is conflict.
With companies such as Hue in receipt of public subsidy, the Australian taxpayer is now funding a revolution.
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Australians living in caravans could be slapped with onerous restrictions following a push from the NSW government
They seem to want more people living on the street
Under the planned changes, people living in caravans on private property will need to gain council approval if their vehicle exceeds 20 sqm or if it is connected to electricity and water for more than six months.
Current legislation allows people to live in caravans on private property indefinitely if it is used by someone in the main household.
Eryn Norris lives in a caravan at the back of her parents’ property in Kariong on the NSW Central Coast.
The 23-year-old said the proposed reforms would discourage people from pursuing the affordable housing option.
“It would be drastic for so many people, even just people my age but also say like my grandparents’ sort of age, it would be detrimental to so many people’s ability to have a house that’s safe,” Ms Norris said.
“I looked into renting and renting was just way out of the picture while I was at university. It’s way too expensive so we looked into different sorts of living situations, something that would work for us and this – without council approval – just changed everything.
“We would all eventually like to own our own homes but to be able to even think about doing that you’d have to earn over $100,000 a year which … coming out of university is next to impossible,” she said.
She said she was afraid she would never own her own home and hoped she and her three sisters could live in the caravan together as they grew up.
VanHomes chief executive Vito Russo said the change was unnecessary, particularly during a housing crisis.
“We are not against updating legislation but definitely a lot more work needs to be done,” he told Sky News Australia.
“As the current proposal is, it will exacerbate the housing crisis.
“It is almost contradictive to be announcing all these initiatives to provide more housing, more affordable housing then on the other hand … change the legislation.”
A large proportion of VanHomes'’s customers include young people trying to save money, grandparents who want to be closer to grandchildren, people with mental health issues and domestic violence survivors.
“Some councils still want you to go through a development application process and once you go through that DA process, you could be looking at an up to 12-month delay and another $25,000, $30,000 to the cost,” Mr Russo said.
Minister for Planning Paul Scully said in a statement to Sky News the proposed reforms aimed to ensure greater safety with installations.
“It’s been 30 years since the current regulation for regulations around caravan parks, manufactured home estates and movable dwellings were reviewed,” the statement said.
“A lot of the industry has changed, some good and some bad. We’re wanting to focus on what’s working well and build on it.
“In a time where we are increasingly seeing tiny homes and movable dwellings becoming permanent secondary residencies, we also want to provide our councils with peace of mind when planning for local amenities and infrastructure.”
Those impacted by natural disasters would have special dispensation to live in an installed caravan in a backyard – without council approval – for up to two years.
A second package of proposed reforms will be considered later this year.
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String of failed sex assault cases sparks claims of #MeToo overkill
Drumgold's folly in the ACT has many similar examples in NSW
There was once a story of boy meets girl or, in this case, man meets woman. He had been out drinking with friends, and met the young woman at a bar near the border of NSW and Queensland. They went back to his apartment in Tweed Heads, and they had sex.
When she tried to re-enter Queensland without a border pass, the woman appeared distressed and told officers she had been raped.
The matter went to court, with the man, in his late 20s, maintaining the sex was consensual. After just 25 minutes of deliberation, the jury agreed.
At the time, Judge Penelope Wass criticised state prosecutors for shepherding “incredible and dishonest allegations of sexual assault” through the courtroom.
A second, similar story unfolded with a different couple in inner-west Sydney. The man and woman had been out for drinks at a neighbouring pub. They went back to his house and engaged in oral sex before she woke up angrily, stormed out of the apartment and later reported the matter to police.
At trial, the prosecution formed a circumstantial case, relying predominantly on a DNA match from the man found in the woman’s vagina and the evidence of a blood alcohol expert.
That case, too, was thrown out by a jury that deliberated for less than an hour. This time, Judge Peter Whitford blasted the prosecution for bringing a “meritless” matter before the court.
A third story unfolded in a regional town. The pair met at a gym in Wagga Wagga. The man, a trainer, offered to help the woman improve her form. She accepted. They had sex.
What followed, though, was a classic case of he said, she said after the woman claimed their numerous sexual encounters were non-consensual.
The matter was brought before a judge, with the man’s lawyers insisting that due to a lengthy paper trail of text messages between the pair, the sex must have been lawful. Judge Gordon Lerve agreed, and deemed the case “doomed to failure” from the outset.
Such is the tension some believe is gripping the criminal justice system, resulting in a bitter war between prosecutors and judges.
The judges say the office of NSW chief prosecutor Sally Dowling consistently puts accused rapists on trial for crimes that will never secure a conviction. Some in the legal fraternity put this down to a deep fear on the part of prosecutors that they won’t be seen to be taking rape cases seriously enough.
NSW District Court judge Robert Newlinds, who presided over another case featuring a woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted because she was so drunk she had a blackout and could not remember the events, summed up the judges’ gripes when he said cases were repeatedly being prosecuted “based on obviously flawed evidence”.
“I do wish to record that I am left with a deep level of concern that there is some sort of unwritten policy or expectation in place in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of this state to the effect that if any person alleges that they have been the subject of some sort of sexual assault then that case is prosecuted without a sensible and rational interrogation of that complainant so as to at least be satisfied that they have a reasonable basis for making that allegation, which would include to at least being satisfied that the complainant has a correct understanding of the legal definition of sexual assault or sexual intercourse without consent,” Judge Newlinds said.
His comments are echoed by judges Wass, Lerve, Whitford and acting judge Paul Conlon, all of whom have criticised various prosecutors for bringing unviable cases before the court.
However, Dowling and senior staff in her office “unequivocally” refute the accusations, labelling some of the comments as “unfounded and inflammatory”.
This week, in a last-minute staff meeting, Dowling encouraged solicitors in her office for applying published guidelines “in a diligent fashion”, and told them that other judges had expressed faith in her office.
She has lodged a judicial complaint against Judge Newlinds for his comments, rejecting “any suggestion that (her office) makes prosecution decisions lazily or on the basis of political expedience, or that it operates according to ‘some sort of unwritten policy’ ”.
The feud has sent Australian legal corners into a spin.
Members of Dowling’s own staff have started speaking out, with some telling Inquirer the judges are completely correct in their criticism of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. They have said it is incredibly difficult to have a case discontinued, and they are often shut down by senior members of staff when they try to do so.
So, how did we get here?
We have come a long way from a horrifying time in the 1970s, when rapists could only be men, and victims could only be women. When rape within marriage was legal, and sexual assault was considered a crime only if penile vaginal intercourse occurred.
Age immunities were embedded in the law, and boys under the age of 14 were deemed “unable” to rape somebody. So-called “rape shields” had not yet been introduced, which meant complainants could be grilled in the witness box about the full extent of their past sexual experiences, and have this weaponised against them.
That all changed in 1981 with huge amendments to the NSW Crimes Act. Feminist advocacy argued the law addressed sexual assault in discriminatory ways, and perpetuated well-debunked myths, such as that rapes are most likely committed by strangers.
Nationally, we’ve had affirmative consent laws introduced in five jurisdictions, broadly requiring someone who wants to engage in a sexual act with another person to actively gain consent. Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory are the final jurisdictions to adopt new laws, with reviews under way and many believing the reforms are now imminent.
Snuggled in between the legal reforms have been social movements encouraging the uptake of accusations on face value, and the integration of a “believe the victim” mentality.
The Hollywood-born #MeToo movement spurred on thousands of women to come forward with allegations of harassment and assault. Rape advocacy came front and centre in Australia in 2021 when Grace Tame was appointed Australian of the Year and the interview with Brittany Higgins was aired on The Project.
The #March4Justice and Scott Morrison’s beyond-mediocre response to the pleas of Australian women forced a colossal shift in the dialogue around sexual assault, ultimately manifesting in the demise of his prime ministership. Or at least contributing to it.
The aborted rape trial of Bruce Lehrmann in 2022 sparked further discussion about trial by media, an individual’s right to a presumption of innocence, and the great responsibility held by a prosecutor when deciding whether or not to proceed to trial.
During the subsequent Sofronoff inquiry into former ACT chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold’s handling of Lehrmann’s rape case, counsel assisting the inquiry and senior police officers submitted the #MeToo movement and “intense public discussions” about low conviction rates affected the decisions made to prosecute Lehrmann.
And now, it seems, similar accusations are arising in the neighbouring jurisdiction of NSW.
University of Wollongong criminal law professor Julia Quilter says society has long progressed past the concept of the “ideal victim” and now many “different types of complainants are coming forward”.
“I think that’s a really good thing because in the past there was very much a perception that you had to have an ideal victim. The ideal victim who was attacked by a stranger in a dark place, she was quote unquote chaste,” she says. “We no longer ascribe simply to that concept of the ‘real rape’ but that has produced the capacity for matters to be charged and investigated and trials to be run that don’t have those central features of the complainant.
“For example, in the past it would be uncommon for a complainant to have been heavily intoxicated.”
Professor Quilter takes issue with a causation being drawn between an increase in women reporting complaints and the criticism being dished out by judges. She says it is a small number of judges criticising the ODPP and that there is a “gap in reasoning” between an uptick in reporting and baseless prosecutions being brought to court.
However, if you ask criminal defence lawyer David Barron, he would disagree. Barron was the solicitor acting for the Wagga Wagga gym trainer who was accused of sexually assaulting a client. The case was eventually thrown out – with costs awarded to Barron’s client – after Judge Lerve found the ODPP failed properly to consider dozens of messages sent between the pair after they had sex.
“It’s something that has become an issue ever since the #MeToo movement took effect,” Barron, who has been practising for about 30 years, tells Inquirer.
“It seems as if the authorities are more inclined to believe every complaint that comes across their desk.
“In relation to the gym instructor case, the authorities had the complaint and really looked no further. It was incumbent on us to properly investigate. We obtained a long chat history through messenger … and as the trial judge said, once you read that material, there was no prosecution case.”
Barron made two separate “no bill” applications to try to have the case thrown out, claiming there were unreasonable prospects of a conviction. Both were dismissed by Dowling’s chambers, and the matter proceeded through trial.
“We are not optimistic when filing no bill applications, but we still do so in the interest of our clients,” he says. “In fact, sometimes the no bill has been lodged at the suggestion of local prosecutors, but Sydney still knocks them back.”
Barron says the issue is indicative of a distrust between senior staff in Dowling’s office and prosecutors on the ground.
“Prosecutors used to be trusted to make judgment calls and decisions on whether to proceed with cases or how to proceed with cases to a much greater extent than they are now,” he says.
“These days it seems like the powers-that-be don’t trust the people in the courtrooms to make decisions on the evidence they have got in front of them.
“The solicitors who actually run the cases should have more say in whether or not they proceed,” he says. “They are the person who acknowledges the case. So, really, there should be more autonomy for prosecutors.”
Criminal barrister Megan Cusack, who acted for the accused in the Tweed Heads matter, agrees.
At the time, Judge Wass ripped into the prosecution, saying they must do more than “shepherd incredible and dishonest allegations of sexual assault through the criminal justice system, leaving it to the jury to carry the burden of decision making that ought to have been made by the prosecutor”.
Cusack says the attitude towards sexual assault “has been shifting for a while”, citing a case in which a wife accused her husband of rape because he did not explicitly ask her whether she wished to have sex or not.
“I said to the jury: ‘How many times, while you’ve been married, have you asked if they want to have sex?’” she said, adding that the jury took about five minutes to return a not guilty verdict.
Not only does it have a colossal impact on the accused, it can also devastate a complainant, Cusack says.
“This whole thing about having your day in court is ridiculous,” she tells Inquirer. “They should be told realistically what is going to happen. If you’ve got a weak case because there’s all this evidence against them, they should be told what they are in for; that their credit is going to be run through the mud.”
This saga is far from over.
The Australian Law Reform Commission has undertaken an inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence and is due to deliver a report early next year.
Meanwhile, The Australian this week revealed up to 400 rape cases in NSW will be reviewed by crown prosecutors in an audit announced by Dowling following judges’ criticism.
The results of the audit are expected to be made public once it is completed.
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1 April, 2024
Private hospitals on life support amid funding woes
This is rather alarming. Private hospitals are often the only way to get prompt medical treatment. For that I have top hosital cover and do use it. I normally go to the Wesley and get appropriate treatment there within hours of arriving
I have also used a public hospital specialist department for a non-urgent matter and got very impresive treatment: Ample staff and good organization. But I had to wait weeks to get in. And that was with a referral from a GP whe seemed to have an "in" with the department concerned. For many problems that wait would be distressing and possibly dangerous
More private hospitals will close in coming months without government intervention to address private health insurance payouts, says Neale Fong, former director-general of Western Australia Health.
Now running the not-for-profit operator Bethesda, which in February announced the closure of a near-new private mental health hospital in Perth’s south, he said growing pressures on private hospitals would ultimately spill over into the public health system.
“The outcome is that the public system will hit a crisis point,” Dr Fong told The Weekend Australian. “If there’s only one other place for the patients to go, which is the public system, then emergency departments get clogged up with mental health patients who, if the private mental health hospitals were operating, we would have cared for some of those people.
“But because they can’t be cared for, they get sicker and end up in emergency departments.”
The Australian this month revealed that several private hospital providers had briefed Health Minister Mark Butler on their increasingly difficult financial positions.
A report by consultancy EY on behalf of the private hospital sector spelt out those pressures and warned that more hospitals, health clinics and dental surgeries could close.
ASX-listed Healthscope, which operates dozens of private hospitals across Australia, has been under growing pressure to restructure its debt amid growing concerns over its liquidity.
Bethesda suspended services at its $60m Cockburn clinic in February after nine months of operations, with Dr Fong pinning the blame on private health insurer rebates that fell well short of what was needed to sustain the hospital.
Occupancy of the 75-bed facility had been ramping up slowly and had peaked at 27 before the decision to close it.
Dr Fong said the occupancy had been growing steadily, but it would have been losing millions of dollars a year regardless of demand.
“Even if it was at full capacity, we would have made the decision to shut because the reimbursement rates were just insufficient,” he said.
Reimbursement increases across the private health space, he said, were growing by 1 to 3 per cent a year – well below the rate of inflation in the sector.
“Wage costs have gone up, supply costs have gone up, interest rates have gone up, everything’s gone up, and yet we get offered just 1-3 per cent,” Dr Fong said.
“More private hospitals will go to the wall.”
Rachel David, chief executive of the health insurers industry body Private Healthcare Australia, pinned Bethesda’s issues on the excess number of empty beds and a shift towards treating more mental health patients in the community rather than in hospitals.
“If a hospital has introduced a certain number of beds and they’ve radically miscalculated demand, there’s not much that a health fund can do to address that,” Dr David told The Weekend Australian.
She said none of the private health insurers she had spoken to in WA were paying below market rates for mental health services.
“They are attempting to give private hospitals what they need, but they can’t compensate for a hospital with no patients,” she said.
Health funds around Australia, Dr David said, had paid out more in claims last year than ever before in an indication that payments were keeping up with inflation.
Bethesda, meanwhile, last week secured a deal that will see the WA government take a lease over the Cockburn clinic for the next three years.
State Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said she shared Dr Fong’s concerns about the outlook for private hospital operators and called for a review of funding arrangements for the sector.
“It is an incongruous position that private health funds have significant profits but many private health facilities are on the brink of falling over,” Ms Sanderson said.
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‘A Dystopian Digital Future’: Senator Responds to Passing of Digital ID Bill
Liberal Senator Alex Antic has warned Australia is a step closer to a dystopian digital future after the Digital ID bill passed the Senate.
Mr. Antic is one of multiple parliamentarians who were alarmed about the legislation passing through the Senate chamber without debate on March 27.
“The Labor government rammed through their digital ID Bill without debate. An absolutely extraordinary thing to do given the ramifications of this Bill for all Australians,” Mr. Antic posted to X.
“The Bill will now pass to the House of Representatives for ‘debate.’”
The Digital ID Bill 2023 (pdf) provides a legal framework for the Australian Government Digital ID system, and also sets up an accreditation scheme for entities to provide digital ID services.
However, the government moved amendments in the Senate to confirm the digital ID will be “voluntary” for individuals accessing government services.
Minister for Public Service Katy Gallagher said Digital ID is a “secure, convenient and voluntary” way to verify identity without having to repeatedly share sensitive documents like passports and birth certificates.
“The Bill strengthens privacy and security safeguards and provides stronger regulation and governance of Digital ID services,” Ms. Gallagher said. “‘Australians will be sharing less personal information, which is held by fewer organisations, that are subject to stronger regulation—reducing the chance of identity theft online.”
However, Mr. Antic expressed reservations about the voluntary nature of the legislation and warned about the danger of central control.
“This is really really bad stuff. First of all, the bill itself is bad and in my view it will set the tone for a digital future,” he said.
“I mean at some point, it is going to be very difficult for people to resist using this in order to access businesses and services.
“At the moment the bill doesn’t require you to have a digital ID, but we’ve heard overtures about systems being voluntary before haven’t we. And we know what governments do when they get centralised control of these sorts of systems.”
The senator said he voted against the legislation, and it will now move to the lower house of parliament.
“It is now up to lower house federal members of parliament to vote against this bill. And look all I can say is, speak to your local member about this bill, speak to your local federal member of parliament about opposing this bill, because Australia is now another step closer to a dystopian digital future.”
The legislation passed the Senate with 33 for, and 26 against. Senators from the Liberal Party, United Australia Party, and nationalist One Nation opposed the bill, while Labor, Greens, the Jacqui Lambie Network, and former Liberal-turned-independent David Van voted for it. A few senators were absent from the chamber at the time of the vote.
Life is About to Change: One Nation Senator
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts said the digital ID law is the most significant legislation he has seen in his time in the Senate.
“It’s the glue that holds together the digital control agenda by which every Australian will be controlled, corralled, exploited and then gagged when they speak or act in opposition,” he claimed in Parliament (pdf).
Mr. Roberts said life is about to change for every Australian. “As much as Senator Gallagher seeks to downplay the significance of introducing one central digital identifier for each and every Australian, the reality is that this is the most significant legislation I’ve seen in my time in the Senate,” he said.
“The government knows that digital ID will be compulsory by the device of preventing access to government services, banking services, air travel and major purchases for any Australian who does not have a digital ID.”
Mr. Roberts claimed the digital ID would create a live data file of movements, purchases, accounts, and associates with a reference to every piece of data being held in the private and government sectors as the “first step in a wider agenda.”
“Google, Facebook and other tech giants have been building huge data files on every Australian for years. Those huge data files contain every website you’ve visited, every post you made on their social media and everything you have ever bought online, and the keyword scan from conversations overheard by Siri and Alexa in your home are now unmasked,” he said.
One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson said nine laws were rushed through the Senate on March 27 with no debate or scrutiny.
“One of them has horrifying consequences for our future and our freedom: the Digital ID Bill 2023,” she said.
“This law is designed to control the Australian people.”
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Cancelled Again: Who Controls Campus Free Speech?
Bettina Arndt
Last time I spoke at Sydney University, the riot squad had to be called in to protect my audience from the baying mob of feminist activists trying to close the speech down.
They didn’t like the fact I was speaking out about their efforts to force universities to set up kangaroo courts to adjudicate sexual assault.
Funnily enough, this kerfuffle led to the federal government calling an inquiry into free speech on campus, which ultimately led to laws that require universities to promote open discussion, rather than allow activists to determine the public discourse.
Obviously, those regulations haven’t had the intended impact because unruly students just go on their sweet way.
Earlier this month I was cancelled again—and this time by the Young Liberals, for Heaven’s sake.
What does that say about the future of the centre-right Liberal Party when they are the ones shutting down proper debate?
The University of Sydney Conservatives Club was hosting a discussion evening focussed on the Higgins rape case. I was approached three months earlier to appear on a panel, along with Chris Merritt, vice president of the Rule of Law Institute, and author Andrew Urban.
The young women organising the event did a terrific job putting together thoughtful discussion points including the use of the case for political ends, undermining of the presumption of innocence, concerns about unmeritorious cases being brought before the courts, damage to the credibility of the media, and the impact of #MeToo.
It was just perfect for setting the scene for civilised debate for a select audience—the event was promoted solely to the Conservative Club students.
Ironically, the previous event hosted by the club just two weeks earlier featured Tony Abbott and the famous UK commentator, Konstantin Kisin, who argued freedom of speech is the cornerstone of Western civilisation.
Clearly, Mr. Kisin’s important message failed to impact on the blinkered views of the president of the Young Liberals who took it upon himself to cancel me.
The week before the event, the president suddenly announced to the female students running the event they weren’t permitted to include me—apparently, Young Liberals NSW has final control over the Club’s activities.
It is interesting to note the new NSW Liberal Senator Maria Kovacic applauded the decision to ban me—to think that this woman won the seat of the late, great Jim Molan.
The Young Liberals president actually suggested that hosting an event with me could ruin the career of the art/law student who was the major organiser.
It is quite bizarre and extremely alarming that this young man, who presumably has set his sights on a career in Liberal politics, should join the ranks of the thought police.
In fact, he preferred the event not to take place at all. But the organisers stuck to their guns and decided to go ahead with the event, with my two fellow panellists to handle the discussion.
But when it comes to marketing and promoting the event, the interference came again, with demands that Ms. Higgins not be mentioned.
The promotion simply mentioned, “Lawfare in Australia,” a very bland and rather misleading presentation of the proposed discussion which was originally promoted as “Higgins Unpacked.”
In the end, the event did end up being cancelled, after the other panellists decided on principle to withdraw.
Apparently, the president was not acting off his own bat, but rather had been leant on by other senior members of the organisation. And there are many Young Libs who objected strenuously to my exclusion, so there’s dissension in the ranks, with factional issues at play.
Yet the fact remains that key Young Libs were determined that Higgins remains unpacked.
The head of the organisation failed to answer a series of questions asking him to explain the reasoning for his decision. These included my suggestion that he may subscribe to a preferred narrative regarding the Higgins case.
Heaven forbid that some of the student audience might open their minds to alternative perspectives on the issue. It just shows what a great job the Brittany Higgins cheer squad has done to shut down proper discussion around the facts of this case.
Given the biased media coverage, it will be interesting if Bruce Lehrmann wins his defamation action against the media—the outcome is to be announced on April 4.
The general public has been so misinformed about the holes in the Higgins case that many will be outraged if the judge finds the media was wrong to promote her very story.
It’s a very bad look for Young Liberals to be opposed to uncensored public discussion of the social and political implications of this critical legal case.
The conundrum faced by young conservatives was addressed by Konstantin Kisin, during his recent tour of Australia. At the end of his two-week tour, he warned that this country has been infected by the woke virus, with people afraid to speak out on any number of issues.
“While the centre left appears its extremist fringe, many on the centre-right hesitate to challenge the cultural vandalism they observe for fear of being described as ‘cultural warriors,’” he said.
Was that the fear that prompted this worrying move by the Young Liberals? They know that a thorough dissection of the Brittany Higgins saga would lead to the usual Twitter storm from the lunatic fringe who control so much of university culture.
If that was enough to lead our future Liberal leaders to cower in fear, the future of inspiring political leadership in this country looks very bleak indeed.
It’s a strange thing that this 74-year-old grandmother still has them quaking in their boots.
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IPA's Daniel Wild: 'Why I think Australia is the least racist country on earth
Conservative commentator Daniel Wild has argued that Australia is the 'least racist country on Earth' despite 'elites' claiming that racism is an entrenched problem.
His comments follow recent remarks by Race Discrimination Commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman, who said that 'anti-white' or 'reverse' racism - such as the allegation levelled at Matildas star Sam Kerr that she had called a UK policeman a 'stupid white bastard - 'missed the point'.
Instead, Sivaraman said, the notion of anti-white racism moved Australia away from dealing with the 'actual problems of structural and other forms of racism in this country'.
But Mr Wild, the deputy executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), said the country 'has done more than any other nation to pioneer advances to democracy and equality' by promoting individual advancement over group division.
'Based on this divisive ideology of identity politics, we are being told by a small group of elites and the political class that Australia is a racist nation,' Mr Wild told Daily Mail Australia.
'These activists claim the country's institutions are racist because they were established by the British... and fail to understand that modern Australia has unparalleled opportunity for all Australians, regardless of race or ancestry.'
The IPA is a Melbourne-based think tank advocating for free-market and conservative ideals that has strong ties to the Liberal Party, mining industry and Murdoch press.
Mr Wild pointed to two examples of Australia pioneering methods which have subsequently become cornerstones of democracy and equality in modern society.
The first, he said, is the secret ballot, first enacted into law in South Australia in 1856, which gave rise to each person's vote being given equal weight regardless of race or affiliation.
The 'Australian ballot', as it is also known, is printed at public expense, contains the names of all candidates, is distributed unfilled at the polling location, and is marked by the voter anonymously.
The second, he said, is the Church Act established in NSW in 1836 that allowed for equal funding for various Christian denominations and which laid the framework for a religiously tolerant modern Australia.
Mr Wild claimed school and university students are 'drenched in ideology' about Australia's historical failings and are not taught a balanced view of our history that celebrates the country's achievements in establishing a world-leading democracy.
Mr Sivaraman, however, has argued that racism is embedded within Australian society.
'We had a White Australia policy. Our positions of power - in politics, media and the judiciary – are [still] held by white people. That's the context in which racism is occurring and needs to be understood,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
'We sometimes coat over the racial inequities that exist with a veneer of purported harmony. That is: we don't want to admit that there are problems and issues, and that we don't necessarily all have a fair go, which is the Australian ethos,' he said.
'If calling out racism is being 'woke', and 'woke' becomes this pejorative term that's used to suppress or undermine the credibility of someone's comments, there's no space at all to even talk about racism.'
The treatment of Indigenous Australians is a particularly sore point in Australian history.
Documented massacres on Aboriginal tribes were committed by early English colonial settlers, and between 1905 and 1967 thousands of people were re-settled into white society in what was later dubbed the Stolen Generations.
Aboriginals still account for 28 per cent of prisoners, despite making up 2 to 3 per cent of the population, according to the Bureau of Statistics, and die in custody at far higher rates than other inmates.
Mr Wild agreed Australia 'is not without fault', but argued our modern society sets the benchmark for tolerance and inclusiveness.
'The white Australian policy was wrong, and it was rightly repealed in favour of a non-discriminatory migration policy, which has been a foundation to our nation's success from the 1970s onwards,' Mr Wild said.
'Those who disagree should educate themselves on the facts about Australian history, for example the Kable Case, the secret ballot, the Church Act, the 1967 and 2023 referenda.
'The vast majority of Australians voted in the 1967 referendum to remove divisive references to race in the Constitution, while 60 per cent voted No at the 2023 referendum to enshrine racial difference in our constitution through Voice to parliament.
'Time and again Australians have risen to the occasion in showing their support with the basic ideal that all of us should be treated as equals regardless of our race, ethnicity, background, or gender.'
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Jetstar Asia announces direct flights from Broome to Singapore, promises low airfares
This is a bit optimistic. They will have to clean up the Aboriginal crime problem if they want Broome to become popular
Jetstar Asia has this morning announced direct flights between Broome and Singapore, reconnecting Western Australia's north to the bustling south-east Asian hub.
The Singapore carrier today launched its new route with the seasonal service set to begin operation on June 25.
It will offer two return flights each week until October 26.
Flights from Broome to Singapore through Silk Air were previously launched in 2018, at a time when the state's tourism industry had experienced a drop in spending from overseas visitors.
Last year, the Broome International Airport sought federal government support to recommence the flights between the Kimberley and Singapore.
The primary barrier to run the international flights was approval to establish permanent, regular border services at the site.
Broome will be reconnected with Changi International Airport, which will expand the hub's network to eight Australian cities.
Tickets for the new route will be on sale today, including special one-way fares starting at $145, with the flights to recommence in April next year.
Hopes to boost WA's international visitors
WA tourism minister Rita Saffioti said the new flight link would expand the state's aviation capacity through the gateway to Asia.
"This Singapore to Broome service presents an incredible opportunity to turbocharge international visitor numbers to Australia's north west, and inject millions into the region's accommodation, hospitality and tourism businesses," she said.
Broome International Airport chief executive Craig Shaw said the direct flights would bring the outback town closer to the rest of the world and recognised the region's desirability as a visitor destination.
"International connections to Broome as the gateway to the Kimberley region have been a long-held ambition for the local tourism industry and the airport," he said.
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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)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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