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
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 September, 2023
Leftist hate on display again
With typical Leftist obtuseness, they see no contradiction in calling No campaigners racist when they are the ones who are advocating a racially discriminatory policy
Pro-Voice supporters hurled vile abuse at No voters as clashes broke out at an anti-Voice rally last night.
Hundreds of angry Yes voters descended on the Royal International Convention Centre in Brisbane on Wednesday night for an event featuring outspoken Indigenous No campaigners Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine.
Guests were ushered toward a back entrance, away from the angry mob outside. But their chants were unmistakable even with a glass wall separating them.
'Jacinta Price, you picked a side: genocide,' the protesters chanted. 'Jacinta Price, go to hell. Take your racist s**t as well,' they said next.
As the event concluded, Yes protesters crowded the exits of the venue and began verbally abusing attendees as they tried to leave.
When demonstrators began migrating to the car park the leader of the group took the megaphone and shouted that Senator Price was 'one of the most vile racists in the country'.
The comments enraged No voters who had just spent their night hearing Ms Price give a rousing speech about her concerns with an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. 'She's a hero,' one person shouted back.
Within the confines of the venue, Senator Price was treated like a rockstar. No voters were chanting her name, crowding the stage hoping to get a photo or have a private word with the Country Liberal Senator from Alice Springs.
But outside tensions boiled over as guests from the No rally held their own signs and proudly pointed to the merchandise they were wearing - primarily hats and shirts - to antagonise the protesters in return.
Over the next 30 minutes, the two groups traded barbs as police tried to keep the situation from escalating.
Attendees - including journalists and photographers - were branded 'racist scumbags', 'scummy dogs' and 'racist dogs' by protesters, who questioned 'how they can sleep at night' after attending rallies in favor of the No campaign.
One No voter who threw himself in the path of the protesters appeared to be punched in the face, as police lined the streets in an attempt to keep the two rowdy groups separated.
The aggressive display is just the latest example of the divide among Australians as the debate over the Voice referendum heats up.
Just two weeks ago No voters leaving a similar event in Adelaide were called 'racist dogs', 'pigs' and 'crazy w***ers'.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12566387/anti-voice-rally-protest.html
****************************************************
NT bureaucrats soak up half the money given for Aboriginal education
Where is more than half of the NT’s $1.179bn education budget if it’s not being spent on schools? The answer is buried somewhere on the 14th floor of a Darwin office building people call ‘Carpetland’.
The NT Department of Education’s airconditioned offices are a long way from the on-the-ground realities of remote schools. With a supermarket, jeweller and sushi place in the shopping centre below, public servants are at a distance from the remote teachers who sometimes drive through several croc-infested creek crossings to reach their students.
Educators have told The Australian this is a problem because the department has the most power to decide where the money is spent.
Of the 2021-22 NT education budget, less than half ($558.5m) went directly to schools, according to government data released in response to a parliamentary question in writing. The remaining $620.5m was managed centrally.
“It’s just not a good look” is how John Guenther, research leader for education and training with the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, describes the breakdown of spending.
As The Australian has reported, schools across the Territory are the most underfunded in Australia, and many are cutting essential programs and teachers.
“The allocation to corporate services has been increasing well above the inflation level,” Guenther says. “And I don’t see that there is any sort of justification for that because they’re not actually providing any more service.”
It’s hard to ascertain the size of the NT Department of Education, which classifies its bureaucratic or “corporate” staff as “non-service based” and its on-the-ground staff, such as teachers, as “service-based”. The distinction is not clear because some staff work across both categories.
According to the department’s 2021-22 annual report, of 4400 positions, 483 (11 per cent) were non-service based.
However, 2022 Productivity Commission data, which uses a different classification, shows 704 staff “not active” in NT public schools. Analysis by the Australian Education Union NT reveals that for every 1000 students, the NT has 24 non-school staff, compared with nine in the ACT and eight in Tasmania (other small jurisdictions).
The Australian Education Union NT also reports Territory Department of Education spending on non-school staff rose 81 per cent between the 2015 and 2020 financial years, to $123.1m.
At a Darwin press conference this week NT Chief Minister Natasha Fyles defended the size of the bureaucracy, saying: “In terms of our agencies, we need to make sure that they have the support to do their job. If we can have people out of agencies and on the ground in schools, that’s absolutely what I want to see. But we, as a government, have certainly invested back into schools, more teachers in our classrooms, more resources for our teachers and more infrastructure for education.”
The NT Education Department says central and corporate spending does funnel into schools, directly and indirectly. It covers costs for things such as principals’ salaries, some staff leave entitlements and allowances, and urgent minor repairs or new works.
In a jurisdiction such as the NT, which has many small and remote schools, it also can make sense to centralise some services; for example, counsellors or health workers who support more than one school.
NT Education Minister Eva Lawler says education is a fundamental human right.
“We fight every day to ensure all students in the NT, no matter how remote they live, have access to a quality education,” she says.
“We have placed high importance (on) ongoing monitoring and accountability mechanisms to track progress and ensure that human rights in education are respected and protected.
“We are working with stakeholders and community groups to ensure that families understand every child has equal access to a quality education here in the NT and that education is the key to removing barriers for success – whatever that success looks like for each individual.”
Accusations of a “bloated bureaucracy” at the cost of essential programs have been longstanding and on both sides of politics.
Former NT Indigenous policies and programs analyst Shane Motlap says a report on the Territory’s educational outcomes in the 1990s should have been a turning point for schools. Instead, all it did was further inflate the bureaucracy.
“It spelled out very, very clearly the literacy and numeracy levels of First Nations people in the NT – it was alarming,” says Motlap, a Mbabaram man. “And because you’ve got public servants in the system, they will do what public servants do, and they will build bureaucracies … that do very little in getting good outcomes or turning around some of the sadder stories.”
He found that it wasn’t uncommon for good programs to be shelved because the government had “run out of resourcing”.
“Good things don’t last up there,” he says. “The good programs go well and then they die. And then I’d ask questions: what do you mean ‘run out of resourcing’?”
Motlap says resources run out because the funding for any program also needs to support the high bureaucratic spending to deliver it.
Former NT principal and Indigenous education academic Gary Fry says the generalised pooling of funds also has hindered transparency around spending.
“What it’s created is this monster, where people are just basically using Aboriginal people for political reasons, putting their hand out for the money, and then just absolutely not accounting for the way that money has been expended,” says Fry, a Dagoman man.
“We can’t continue to do this. The Australian public has been given a disservice of the biggest magnitude, it’s hidden in full view of everyone.”
********************************************************
NAB loses the plot
Judith Sloan
I went onto my online banking account the other day, as you do. But before I could get to the information I needed, I was met with this message: ‘Find out how Australia can secure its share of the global decarbonisation market. Explore insights from the All Systems Go: Powering Ahead report.’
Which bank?, you ask. The answer is the NAB, the wokest of the big four but they are all extremely woke. My parents had banked with the NAB and I have had an account from early childhood. I also own a small parcel of NAB shares. (What are you doing, Judith? But is there any real choice?)
On reflection, the only thing that surprised me about this unwelcome interruption to my online banking activity was that it didn’t involve an exhortation for me to ‘vote Yes’. After all the NAB has donated a cool two mill. to the Yes23 campaign, along with the other three big banks as well as Macquarie.
I could be wrong, but my impression is that the big corporate supporters of Yes have pulled their horns in, although the money has been handed over. Many of the plans devised by the activists in government Relations/HR/ESG departments have been shelved lest there is a blowback from customers and shareholders.
The foyers of head offices were to be festooned with Yes posters and balloons. There would be messages for customers. Staff would be encouraged to ‘do the right thing’ and to tell their contacts to do likewise.
I may be living in a different world – I have been hanging out in Queensland for several months and there is very little to indicate that there is even a referendum coming up. But I still think I’m on the money on this issue (geddit?), not least because of the political pressures imposed by warriors like Senators Matt Canavan and James Patterson.
But let me get back to the unwelcome intrusion to my online banking activity and the ridiculous climate report funded by the NAB. We are told in the blurb that NAB commissioned Deloitte Access Economics so retail customers could learn about the opportunities that exist ‘with the right mix of policy, innovation and investment to trade competitively’. (By the way, this is very good business for the consulting firm, reselling a very similar report already completed.)
Obviously, ‘the country will have to meet its 82-per-cent renewable-energy target, reach interim emissions reduction targets and net zero by 2050, and implement already announced decarbonisation policy initiatives’. After that, lots of really, really big numbers are quoted, including the drumroll figure of $435 billion as the economic opportunity by 2050. Green hydrogen gets quite a few mentions – pause for laughter here.
And what has this got to do with NAB customers? Let’s face it, it’s just assumption-driven horseshit and my guess is that I’m one of the very few NAB customers who would even bother to read it.
There are a few vacuous comments from the NAB chair, Phil Chronican, who warns us that ‘the harsh reality is that only if we hit our targets without replacing exports, we will become a materially poorer nation’. (Hey, Phil, what about the option of not replacing exports?)
But it’s OK, because we are in a strong starting position because of ‘Australia’s natural endowment of land, sunshine and wind’. I guess because no other country has these things.
Needless to say, the NAB chief executive Ross McEwan had to get in on the act with a few similarly vacuous comments of his own. ‘Australia can reap the benefits of innovation and productivity growth (sic) that will lift Australia’s supply-chain competitiveness and put the country on a strong footing as our traditional exports are replaced.’ Oh please, spare me.
But here’s the rub (I guess): ‘As Australia’s biggest business bank, we are here to fund the transition and support our customers with the capital they need to invest in new technology and ideas for future-proofing their business and deliver new ways to grow.’ (Note to Judith: sell.)
Reading between the lines, what the bigwigs at NAB are saying is the bank won’t lend to any fossil fuel projects and it will interrogate the emissions-intensity and decarbonisation plans of all business customers. This will involve not only their own operations but also the emissions intensity of their customers.
In this context, it is not surprising that NAB has its own Chief Climate Officer, no doubt supported by a large department. I thought banks were supposed to be boring but, hey, it’s so much fun skiing off-piste even if the snow is a bit patchy – climate change, you must appreciate.
The ultimate irony of all this is that the wheels are falling off the net zero wagon in many places around the world. No one thinks that B1’s (Chris Bowen’s) 2030 emissions-reduction target is achievable or that 82 per cent of the eastern electricity grid will be powered by renewables by the end of the decade. (How are those plans going for the additional transmission lines, Chris? The plans for offshore wind farms also look dead in the water – another geddit?)
The UK is now walking back from all that climate guff accelerated by Theresa May and Boris. There are delays all over the place – banning petrol/diesel cars, gas boilers, multiple recycling bins, compulsory environmental upgrades of rental properties – although expect all these policies to be quietly ditched at some stage. Oil and gas projects in the North Sea are now being given the go-ahead.
Germany, now with deep economic problems, is also quickly retreating although net zero by 2045 remains the official policy. Crippled by rising electricity prices, a tipping point was the decision by the large chemical company, BASF, to build a new plant in China because of cheap energy prices!
A large fund created from green levies on retail and industrial customers is now being redirected to encourage large industrial operations to remain in Germany by handing out massive subsidies to offset high energy prices. Offshore wind farms have also been a bust in that country and green hydrogen is going nowhere. (The Germans are, however, keen to sell overpriced electrolysers to other mugs happy to throw away their money at green hydrogen.)
Why the luvvies down at the NAB would think it appropriate to hand over a large sum of money to private consulting firm, Deloitte Access Economics, to produce tendentious drivel is anyone’s guess.
I guess it will be a welcome addition to the climate section of the bank’s annual report underpinning its commitment to net zero.
But thank God for small mercies, NAB at least didn’t instruct online account holders to vote Yes – well, as far as I know.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/happy-for-small-mercies
*************************************************
Why bad classroom behaviour is demoralising our teachers
This is a major reason why I sent my son to a private school
Australia is facing a dire teaching shortage, and one of its root causes remains under-addressed: out-of-control classroom behaviour. Privately, and in online discussion groups, teachers report feeling burnt out and unsupported. They face defiant pupils, uncooperative parents and administrators with impossible expectations.
“I’ve been teaching for 22 years. Over that time student behaviours gradually worsened but this has dramatically accelerated since Covid,” lamented one teacher in online forum r/AustralianTeachers.
These anecdotes are backed up by large-scale survey evidence. In 2022, a Monash University study of 5000 teachers found that one-quarter did not feel safe in their job. In online forums, teachers share their war stories. “I’m on duty in a break and I go to tell a group of kids sitting out of bounds and out of sight to come back, and they just say ‘nah, we’re not gonna do that’,” writes one teacher.
“I signed up to teach not to manage behaviour. I always knew I would have to deal with some behaviour, but not to the point where my class has to be evacuated for safety,” reports another.
Forget about microaggressions, or poor-taste jokes (reasons for other workplaces to be described as “toxic”) for teachers, a toxic workplace consists of chairs being thrown around rooms, and weapons being brought to class.
“I’ve had to confiscate knives from students and I’ve been punched in the stomach while pregnant by a student,” reported one teacher in a 2019 study. And it isn’t just the experiences of those teachers who post online. A 2021 survey of 570 Australian teachers found that: “Behaviour management was … frequently nominated by teachers as the greatest challenge they face. Teachers explained that just a small minority of disruptive students can have a large and negative impact on the majority, and that managing these behaviours takes even further time away from teaching. Sixty-eight per cent of teachers indicated they spend more than 10 per cent of their day managing individual student behavioural issues. Seventeen per cent said that this consumes over half their day.”
Parents are not much help, either. Teachers report the parents of defiant pupils often have uncooperative attitudes themselves, and can be dismissive of their child’s bad behaviour. One teacher online shares their daily routine of emailing parents about their child’s disorderly conduct, only to receive such responses as “hahaha sounds like them”.
Within three years, NSW is projected to have a shortfall of 1700 secondary teachers, according to federal Department of Education modelling. And this shortage will be most acute in science and mathematics. This is part of a broader trend across Australia, where more than 9000 secondary teachers are expected to be in short supply, and more than 50,000 teachers are anticipated to leave the profession between 2020 and 2025, including 5000 aged 25 to 29.
Currently, one in five pupils in regional NSW is taught maths by a non-specialist teacher, and up to 70,000 pupils could be affected by teacher shortages by 2030. Despite a government strategy to add 3700 teachers over the next decade, there is still no plan to address teachers’ work conditions, such as deteriorating classrooms and stress, in order to make the profession more sustainable.
So what is to be done? Greg Ashman, a deputy principal and education researcher, argued in a NSW Senate inquiry earlier this year that the first step to fixing a problem is recognising there is one.
The Senate inquiry’s terms of reference emphasised that, based on a 2018 Program for International Assessment analysis, Australian classrooms are some of the most chaotic globally, ranking 69th out of 76 jurisdictions.
Ashman argues that part of the issue is that our education bureaucracy is influenced by ideologies that do not recognise bad behaviour for what it is. Poor behaviour is interpreted as a “form of communication,” meaning a child or teenager is in need of extra support, not consequences.
This is reflected in the comments posted by teachers in online forums: “Apparently we are not supposed to use the term ‘behaviour’ anymore,” wrote one teacher just this week. “Apparently behavioural issues are ‘wellbeing’ issues. And behaviour is a stigmatising term for young people.”
In some cases, bad behaviour is medicalised as Oppositional Defiant Disorder – a disorder that is recognised by the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5). It may be appropriate to use this label in some cases. However, once a disorder has been diagnosed, all consequences can be interpreted as “discrimination”. Schools are required to be “inclusive” and that means being inclusive of children with ODD.
Disability and mental health diagnoses of all types are on the rise. Last year, 22.5 per cent of schoolchildren in NSW were identified as having at least one “disability”, a label that often works as a get-out-of-consequences-free card.
Given the war stories and dire statistics, perhaps it should be no surprise that 40 per cent of teachers leave the profession within just five years. We do not expect other professionals to work in environments where they are disrespected and, at times, abused just for doing their jobs.
But ultimately, the real victims in all of this are the pupils who are just trying to learn. Disruptive children make it hard for everyone to concentrate, and one problem child can detrimentally impact an entire classroom.
Given the lack of control in our classroom environments, perhaps it is no surprise our literacy and numeracy standards continue to decline. Despite the hundreds of billions spent on education.
************************************
27 September, 2023
Green shoe brigade: Red carpet for renewable koala killers
Mount Morgan, less than 40 kilometres from Rockhampton, was once the largest gold mine in the world. It closed in 1990 but there’s still gold in them thar hills. These days however it comes from Renewable Energy Certificates or RECs, pronounced wrecks, which is what renewable projects are doing to grid security and the environment.
The RECs have been so lucrative that companies from all over the world have poured into Queensland lured not just by the generous REC subsidies but by a lax regulatory environment in which ministers have the discretion to override, for ‘relevant infrastructure activities’, environmental regulations regarding tree clearing, ground cover, and the amount of run-off allowed to flow into the Great Barrier Reef.
When Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen was premier in the 1980s, deals were done for the ‘white shoe brigade’ that ignored regulations and delivered rapid rezoning, government loans, and subsidies for controversial developments on the basis of a nod and a wink and sometimes a rumoured brown paper bag of cash.
Under Premier Palaszczuk, Queensland is rolling out the red carpet for the Green Shoe Brigade, not so much carpetbaggers as sun and windbaggers. There’s no need for a brown paper bag. The ‘climate crisis’ justifies the immediate rezoning of pastoral and forested land to allow for industrial-scale renewable utilities.
There is an ‘anything goes’ atmosphere of the Wild West or the Wild North making Queensland’s Renewable Energy Rush every bit as feverish as the gold rush that preceded it.
The scale of what Palaszczuk is planning is Bowen-esque. The Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan launched this month has set a 50-per-cent Renewable Energy Target by 2030 and a 2032 target of up to 2,000 turbines generating 8GW of electricity, 14 million solar panels generating 4GW of electricity, and 5GW of pumped hydro and battery storage.
Yet of 54 wind plants listed, only five are operational, four are under construction, and 42 proposed. Of 129 solar plants, 40 are operational, three are under construction, and eight proposed. And of four pumped hydro storage plants, one is operational, one is committed, and two proposed.
What makes any of this credible is the speed with which projects have gone ahead in the last year and the ruthless indifference to bulldozing the last remnants of old-growth forests. Too rugged for agriculture or mining, these are the last refuges for dozens of Queensland’s most rare and threatened creatures including koalas and greater gliders.
Conservationist Steven Nowakowski calculates that 14,100 hectares of remnant forest will be cleared for 17 renewable projects in North Queensland, and 4,625 kilometres of new haulage roads will have to be bulldozed through forests to service 88 renewable energy projects in the pipeline throughout Queensland.
If a mining or oil and gas company was committing environmental destruction on this scale and it was being rubber-stamped by a Coalition government every green group and parliamentarian in the country would be up in arms. But state-funded conservation groups have said off the record that they don’t dare criticise the state government for fear of losing their funding.
Almost every renewable energy project in Queensland has triggered the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act passed by the federal government in 1999 to protect our unique plants, animals, habitats, and places.
To date, Minister for the Environment Tanya Plibersek has not covered herself in glory. Her Liberal predecessor Sussan Ley put a stop to a project at Lotus Creek to build 81 wind turbines 230 metres high spread over 48,000 hectares including 632 hectares of koala habitat and 340 hectares of greater glider habitat because it posed a ‘clearly unacceptable’ threat to koalas. The Australian Conservation Foundation welcomed the decision saying, ‘renewable energy projects should not leave biodiversity and threatened species worse off’, but said nothing when Plibersek reinstated the project with increased power generation.
Lotus Creek has a thriving koala community including females with young on their backs in pristine old-growth forests with nesting hollows supporting a flourishing ecosystem of wildlife.
A former Greens candidate, Nowakowski is a voice in the wilderness calling for the state government to turn the area into a national koala park. Horrified by the destruction wreaked by renewable energy’s massive footprint he now supports the Liberals’ nuclear energy policy and the Nationals call for a moratorium on renewables.
‘No one wants to imagine an Australia without the koalas,’ said Plibersek last month, but when it comes to a choice between protecting endangered koalas in native forests and building a wind farm, she opted for the latter.
Bulldozers will arrive any day now at Lotus Creek and if a koala is injured it must, by law, be clubbed to death. Yet unlike Ley, Plibersek hasn’t had to face accusations of being a koala killer.
Glen and Nikki Kelly are the sixth generation to run the family farm near Rockhampton – the essence of sustainable land management. They are horrified that their flourishing property will be ringed with 120 wind turbines 275 metre high which will destroy the habitat of rare and threatened species, create landslides feeding into the Great Barrier Reef, and in summer, firefighters will no longer be assisted by aircraft because the smoke-obscured turbines will make it too dangerous.
Nearby, Cedric and Therese Creed are battling a 36km2 solar plant, bigger than Norfolk Island, to be built on prime agricultural land on the Don river. In extreme weather, toxic leakage from damaged panels and batteries will poison the land and the reef. In a bushfire firefighters can’t even approach it because of toxic fumes and the risk of explosions.
What might save regions from reckless renewable development is the massive uptake of rooftop solar. Queensland’s grid is approaching what energy economist Stephen Wilson calls ‘peak renewables’. When the operator can’t buy any more renewable electricity, companies can’t earn RECs and profits are curtailed. Investment in renewable generation is at its lowest level in five years because of diminishing returns, yet electricity bills are soaring because of renewable subsidies, capital costs and weather-driven shortages.
It was National Threatened Species Day on 7 September but the threat that most concerns Plibersek and Prime Minister Albanese is the vote for the Greens in their adjacent inner-city electorates. So far, it seems their voters care more about closing down coal-fired power plants than whether Big Wind is killing koalas.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/green-shoe-brigade/
************************************************
Labor's latest job-destroying bill
The title of the new Bill is "Closing Loopholes" but it does no such thing
It’s worth going through the legislation in some detail to establish just how bad it is. But the foundational premise on which it is based is that the only legitimate form of employment is permanent employee, preferably full-time, with a host firm. Everything else – casual, independent contractor, gig worker, labour hire worker – is illegitimate and should be either prohibited or purposefully discouraged.
Of course, one reason for this presumption is that it is only permanent employees who show any inclination to join unions and, even then, not in very high proportions. Take the comparison between permanent employees and casual workers: around 20 per cent of permanent employees are union members (and bear in mind many of them work in the public sector) while only 6 per cent of casuals join up.
From the unions’ perspective, casual employment is bad even though the data confirms that casual workers exhibit the same overall job satisfaction as permanent workers. We know also that only between five and ten per cent of casuals take advantage of the right to convert to permanent employment after 12 months in the job.
Let’s look at the changes to the casual provisions. There is now a ten-point test before employers even think about offering casual employment. After six months, casual employees will be able to apply for permanency and at any time after that. Offering regular shifts to casuals – even something that looks regular – will be a dangerous activity for employers even though many casual workers, including working mothers, prefer regular shifts (and enjoy the 25-per-cent casual loading).
Another section of the Bill deals with labour hire firms which provide workers to large firms with existing enterprise agreements – think here mining operations and aviation, in particular. It has irked the unions for some time that these labour hire workers are not paid exactly the same as the permanent workers with whom they work. Note these labour hire workers are generously remunerated, but not as generously as the enterprise agreement-covered permanent workers.
The reality is that some firms have been locked into extremely inflexible and outdated agreements which are impossible to escape. Their use of labour hire workers has been a means of working around the system.
But as with all these sorts of changes, there are unintended consequences. BHP, for instance, has its own internal labour hire arrangement and it’s unclear whether the legislation will cover this situation – it probably will. Labour hire is also used for specialised workers undertaking bespoke projects and maintenance. Again, it’s unclear whether they will be covered by the new legislation.
But if that doesn’t sound messy enough, get this. Even though the legislation hasn’t even passed the parliament – it has gone to a Senate inquiry which will report in February next year – the labour hire provisions are expected to apply from the day B2 made the second reading speech.
That’s right, the provisions are retrospective but B2 doesn’t have a problem with that, likening it to the anti-avoidance provisions governing some tax changes. The fact that there are no parallels doesn’t bother him. He’s keen to deliver and the sooner the better. In fact, the Bill contains 13 different start dates, which is unbelievably confusing.
Then we get to the gig worker provisions and the introduction of a new classification of worker – employee-like. These employee-like workers will have their wages and some terms of employment set by the Fair Work Commission. Again, it’s not entirely clear who’s in and who’s out. The Ubers of this world are in as are most food delivery services.
Airtasker was told it wasn’t in and was assured by B2 of this until he changed his mind. It shows that sucking up to the likes of B2 is not a sure bet. The platforms linking care workers with those who need the services – Mable is the best example – were thought to be out because the workers are paid much more than the award rates of pay. But it now seems Mable is in.
The reality is that the unions don’t like the gig economy and they are happy for it to shrink. They want the work that gig workers do to be in the form of permanent jobs, which isn’t going to happen to any great extent. The next best thing is for the work to go away. The fact that most gig workers have traditional jobs and use platform-based engagements as a means of making extra money doesn’t really bother union officials. Or B2, for that matter.
Then there is the section of the Bill that boosts the rights of union delegates even if there is only one union member at a workplace. There is a presumption that the one unionist represents the interests of all other workers and must be given special, paid privileges to do so. This includes time off from work to undertake union activities as well as attend union training sessions. This is truly excessive by anyone’s standards.
This Bill is a gift of enormous proportions to lawyers and industrial relations advisers. It’s a major headache for most employers, one way or another, and a major drag on productivity and investment. It will provide a degree of uplift for the rapidly disappearing union movement, although many sensible workers will still resist the entreaties to join up.
At its most fundamental level, the legislation is appalling public policy – complex, ambiguous and ill-directed. It is attacking problems in the labour market that simply don’t exist while creating a new set of real impediments that will have to be removed in due course
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/b2-makes-a-running/
*****************************************************
Seismic blasting in the hunt for a new Australian gas field said to threaten whales
Activists in Australia are trying to stop oil and gas company Woodside Energy from conducting seismic blasting off the country’s western coast, which they say could deafen and ultimately kill endangered migratory whales.
The court challenge is part of a long-running campaign by Indigenous and environmental activists to frustrate Woodside’s plans for “Scarborough,” a massive fossil fuel project set to pump out carbon emissions for decades even as Australia attempts to meet tougher climate targets.
Earlier this month, Marthudunera woman Raelene Cooper sought an injunction to delay the blasting, but that order is due to expire on Thursday, allowing Woodside to resume work it says is required to indicate the location of large gas reserves.
On Tuesday, Cooper argued her case in the Federal Court, saying she was not properly consulted by Woodside Energy before it announced the blasting, a precursor to exploratory drilling.
During the process, airguns fire compressed air toward the ocean floor and the soundwaves penetrate the seabed before bouncing back to receivers towed by a boat. The pattern of the soundwaves gives geologists an indication of oil and gas reserves trapped under the ocean bedrock.
According to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, the noise can reach 250 decibels, around a million times “more intense” than the loudest whale sounds.
“Now, that’s really problematic if you’re a whale because whales depend on their hearing for everything – to navigate, to find their mates and their food,” said Richard George, Greenpeace Australia Pacific senior campaigner.
“So, a deaf whale is a dead whale.”
Woodside Energy plans to extract millions of tons of gas from the Scarborough field, about 375 kilometers (233 miles) off the coast of Western Australia, mostly for export to Asia.
The project was signed off by the previous Australian government led by Scott Morrison, however it retains the support of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s administration, despite its pledge of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Gas is generally less carbon-intensive than coal, but it’s still a planet-warming fossil fuel, and there is a growing understanding that its infrastructure leaks huge amounts of methane – a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide in the shorter term.
Australia’s offshore oil and gas regulator, NOPSEMA, approved the blasting in July, despite acknowledging that Woodside may not have identified all Indigenous people in need of consultation on the seismic blasting plans, or given them adequate time to be consulted.
In a statement to CNN, Woodside said it had “consulted extensively on our environment plans, dedicating time and effort so our approach to environmental management and [Environmental Plan] consultation meets our current understanding of regulatory requirements and standards.”
Woodside Energy provided CNN with its marine environmental plan for Scarborough dated June 2023.
The document lists dozens of threatened and migratory species of sharks, mammals, reptiles and birds that can be found in the vicinity of the blast zone, including loggerhead and leatherback turtles, great white sharks and pygmy blue whales.
Greenpeace said Woodside’s plans “skirt close” to a major migration route for pygmy blue whales, a smaller subspecies of blue whale that travels north each year from the Antarctic into waters off Australia’s northwest.
The population size of pygmy blue whales is unclear, but the Australian government considers the mammal to be endangered.
The government’s species profile warns about the dangers of “man-made noise” to the whales, saying it can “potentially result in injury or death, masking of vocalisations, displacement from essential resources (e.g. prey, breeding habitat), and behavioural responses.”
“Potential sources of man-made underwater noise interference in Australian waters include seismic surveys for oil, gas and geophysical exploration,” the profile adds.
However in its environmental report, Woodside said any impact on whales would be short term.
“There will be no lasting effect on whales, however there could be short term hearing impacts,” Woodside wrote in its report.
The company also said it “will have dedicated marine fauna observers and systems which can listen for whale song on some vessels” and that the “presence of whales can postpone activities.”
**********************************************
United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet and founder Clive Palmer fail in Voice referendum court bid
United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet and founder Clive Palmer have lost a court bid to count crosses on Voice referendum ballot papers as a "No" vote.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) maintains that on October 14, the word "Yes" or a tick will be counted as a "Yes" vote, but a cross, or "X" will not be counted as a "No" vote, because its meaning is ambiguous.
Mr Babet and Mr Palmer sought an urgent Federal Court ruling that any ballot papers with just an "X" alone in the voting space provided, would show that a voter does not approve of the proposed change to the constitution.
They also proposed an alternative ruling that ballot papers with just a tick symbol should be counted as informal votes, saying it would not prove a voter intended it to be affirmative of change.
According to the AEC, to correctly cast a vote in this referendum, people should write "Yes," in the designated box, or "No".
The AEC has strongly urged voters not to use ticks or crosses on their ballot forms.
In its advice, the commission says crosses are used on many forms in daily life, and could mean approval or rejection, and therefore will be counted as an informal vote.
A clearly defined tick can only be interpreted as showing approval for something, and so will be counted, but the AEC has asked that voters "please don't" use symbols.
************************************
26 September, 2023
Perth low-sensory nightclubbing experience a hit for people with a disability
I am delighted to hear of this. Fortunately, I am a high-functioning autistic but I still did from an early age experience basic autism problems. I have never been able to tolerate nightclubs or big party scenes. I would have been glad of an alternative when I was young
Consider a packed, dimly lit nightclub full of loud raucous conversations and music.
It can cause sensory overload for neurodiverse people, prompting them to wonder if they should have stayed home because they find it incredibly difficult to acclimatise to an unaccommodating reality.
It is far more difficult to meet new people and form friendships when pubs, bars, and nightclubs do not accommodate disabled patrons.
But in Perth, there is a dedicated group working with young people to break that barrier. Community Access Squad (CAS) is specifically aimed at supporting people with a range of disabilities to build confidence through socialising, including in the local nightclub scene.
Tarkin Barker loves the group's low-sensory Dance Ability club nights in Fremantle. The 20-year-old, with autism and an intellectual disability, said he wouldn't have gone to a nightclub by himself without his support worker.
"At night I feel more vulnerable and do not go out without family or formal support," Mr Barker said. "In noisy and busy places, I require assistance, and I feel overwhelmed when faced with aggression."
Kelly Buckle, who organises the event, said it's a welcoming environment for people of all disabilities. "Lights are used but no strobes due to seizures, with the music starting low, but it does build," she said.
"We provide ear plugs and a quiet area to desensitise, there is also a garden bar which we also have access to.
"We have photo cards on the bar for those that are minimally verbal to show the bar staff what they would like to drink." Ms Buckle said she hires the whole of the nightclub and it's a private event.
Mr Barker said it's one of his favourite events on his social calendar. "It is a friendly environment and there is staff to make sure everything is safe," he said.
"Going to this nightclub event has allowed me to be part of the community and be independent from my family."
Michael Gray attended the one of the club nights last week and said it was a fun environment for everyone. "[I enjoyed the] music and dancing with all my friends and just being able to let loose and let my hair down and I don't get to do that often," he said. "So, it's just fun."
Mr Gray said it's a great way to get people together. "Kelly [Ms Buckle] has always been very open and allowed anyone with disabilities, anyone to come and express themselves and have fun," he said.
Professor Andrew Whitehouse from the Telethon Kids Institute said there were a range of challenges autistic people face in social situations.
"[These] can include difficulties in reading non-verbal cues and body language, sensory differences that can lead to overwhelming situations environments, and a preference for routine," he said.
***********************************************
Over 300 Threatened Eagles Killed or Injured by Wind Turbines in Tasmania: Study
Over the past decade, wind turbines and transmission lines have led to the deaths or injuries of 321 threatened eagles in Tasmania, according to a study.
More cases are believed to be unreported due to a lack of systemic research on wind farms and public information.
It found that from 2010-2022, wind farms caused the deaths of 268 eagles and injured 53, with state-owned power company TasNetworks reporting 139 deaths, and eagle rescuers witnessing 91 deaths and 50 injuries.
Study author Gregory Pullen said the number of eagle deaths was a “stark reminder” that an urgent solution was needed to mitigate further harm to the vulnerable species.
“The real number can only be higher since surveying at wind farms is incomplete,” Mr. Pullen noted in the study.
“Specifically, it is only close to turbines, is periodic, and does not involve all turbines or all habitat around each turbine, scrub often being excluded.”
Of great concern is that 272 deaths involved the endangered Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle, and 49 of the vulnerable white-bellied sea eagles.
Both species could face further risk as the expansion of wind turbine construction continues amid the federal government’s net-zero push.
“Accelerated deaths of the Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagle and white-bellied sea-eagle are a grim reality if thousands of new wind turbines and hundreds of kilometres of transmission lines are erected across Tasmania to meet a legislated doubling of renewable energy production by 2040,” Mr. Pullen said.
The study estimated that less than 1,000 Tasmanian wedge-tailed eagles remain and emphasised ongoing monitoring to ensure the species does not become extinct.
It includes observing the number of eagles, stability of breeding pairs, nesting success and surviving chicks, presence of juvenile birds, and whether disruption to the natural habitat causes dislocation.
While the Tasmanian government has guidelines in place to protect threatened eagles, Mr. Pullen found that these have not contributed to real-life decisions regarding wind farm placement.
For instance, despite great differences in eagle densities across Tasmania, there are currently no designated "no turbine zones."
Some researchers have suggested Tasmanian eagles be fitted with GPS trackers, but the concept has been slow to establish and has yet to be used in wind farm planning.
The study comes as Tasmanian authorities continue their push towards net zero, recently inking a deal with the German city Bremen.
State Energy Minister Guy Barnett said the collaboration was evidence of the state's plan to become a leader in large-scale green hydrogen production by 2030 to meet both domestic and international demand.
“This joint declaration demonstrates the opportunity the rest of the world sees in Tasmania and confidence in the government’s renewable energy agenda,” Mr. Barnett said in a statement on Sept. 17.
“Tasmania is well placed, with our 100 percent renewable electricity, abundant water supplies, and excellent port infrastructure to seize these important opportunities with international partners.”
Scientist Questions Wind Power Reliability
There are concerns, however, over the viability of large-scale renewable energy generation. One Oxford University mathematician and physicist has criticised wind power saying it is historically and scientifically unreliable, noting that governments are prioritising "windfarm politics" over numerical evidence.
Professor Emeritus Wade Allison made the assertion in response to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, where the “instinctive reaction” around the world was to embrace renewables.
“Today, modern technology is deployed to harvest these weak sources of energy. Vast ‘farms’ that monopolise the natural environment are built, to the detriment of other creatures,” Mr. Allison said in the report, published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
“Developments are made regardless of the damage wrought. Hydro-electric schemes, enormous turbines, and square miles of solar panels are constructed, despite being unreliable and ineffective.”
**********************************************
New Zealand's housing density experiment saw approvals for new builds in Auckland 'skyrocket' while house prices kept climbing
Deregulation works its usual magic
There is a place just a few hours from Australia's east coast where a change in policy has seen the number of approvals for new homes "skyrocket" while increases in rents and house prices have been kept to moderate levels.
In Auckland, the council has been running an experiment, and at the heart of it is a bold decision to remove restrictions around zoning, opening up suburban blocks to higher-density developments.
The test case went so well, New Zealand's national government adopted a version of it for the whole country, but recently the opposition withdrew its support, meaning the upcoming election could change things.
There are all kinds of arguments against the idea of opening up suburban blocks to higher-density housing, and often the debate is a hypothetical one.
But the Auckland up-zoning change happened in 2016.
Since then, blocks of land that were once the site of single-family homes have been developed into new medium and high-density housing projects all over the city — and now the data is in.
The top line is that building consents — or council approvals for new homes — started to increase the moment the new approach to zoning was proposed.
Then, the data shows, rents started to stabilise, with Auckland's rents now rising at a slower rate than New Zealand's other major cities.
House prices are still going up, just at a slower pace. And now indicators are showing housing affordability is slowly improving.
Research economist Matthew Maltman said: "I have seen very few economic phenomena like it." "The new plan came into place and just absolutely skyrocketed these dwelling consents," he said.
He said New Zealand was "broadly a pretty comparable country to Australia" and the experiment showed what was possible.
"And we have all these debates about how can we increase housing supply. How can we improve affordability?" Mr Maltman said. "And there's this place that's not far away from us that's actually done it and implemented these reforms that people have been talking about for years."
At the heart of the experiment is an ambition to use land inside the city of Auckland more efficiently — growing by densification, as opposed to sprawl.
That approach keeps new housing close to existing infrastructure such as transport, schools and employment hubs.
Ryan Greenaway-McGrevy, an associate professor in economics at the University of Auckland, said prior to the 2016 change, most of the city was zoned for buildings of no more than two storeys high and covering a maximum of 35 per cent of the block.
"Those are sort of typical, single-family detached policy settings, and so those restrictions were relaxed to various degrees," he said.
"In the residential zone that allows the most density, you can build five to seven storeys now and have a site-coverage ratio of 50 per cent."
Auckland's suburbs have been transforming. A space that was once quarantined for a small cottage now accommodates multiple families.
Not every project that is approved to be built actually is, but research suggests that in New Zealand more than 90 per cent of building consents turn into bricks and mortar projects.
Another caveat to keep in mind is that the data that shows how many new buildings are being approved does not factor in those old dwellings that were demolished to make way for the modern developments.
But five years after zoning regulations were relaxed across more than three-quarters of Auckland, Dr Greenaway-McGrevy's research has found the changes have resulted in more than 20,000 additional homes across the city.
"It's not just about developers," Dr Greenaway-McGrevy said.
"It enables the state to provide medium and high-density housing as well.
************************************************
Surging migration, housing crisis leave door open for Coalition
You may have read about the migrant crisis engulfing the small Italian island of Lampedusa. Ten thousand uninvited arrivals reached its shores in one week, eventually to be relocated elsewhere in the EU.
Needless to say, 10,000 in one week sounds an awful lot but here’s the thing: in Australia there are now more than 10,000 migrants arriving by plane each week.
To be sure, they are coming here on visas, but the intention of many is to stay, at least for as long as possible. Close to 100,000 recent arrivals have now applied for humanitarian visas, which will involve many years of assessments and appeals.
According to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, net overseas migration (long-term arrivals minus long-term departures) reached 454,000 in the year ending March this year.
The largest component is student arrivals. The annual increase in Australia’s population was a massive 563,000 people or 2.2 per cent. The NOM made up 80 per cent of the increase. Most new migrants head for Melbourne or Sydney.
Illustrating the naivety of the Treasurer on this issue, Jim Chalmers has simply asserted “the migration numbers are recovering. That’s not a government target or policy. That’s the demand-driven part of the program. It largely reflects the fact that international students are coming back quicker. That’s why we’re seeing these slightly higher numbers.”
In fact, the current numbers are significantly ahead of Treasury’s forecasts of peak NOM of 400,000.
Migrant numbers of this magnitude are both ill-judged and unmanageable. And unlike Europe, where action is difficult, the Australian government could act to reduce the migrant intake but simply refuses to do so. The simplest route would be to put caps on uncapped temporary visas but there are a number of options.
Under Labor, resources in the Department of Home Affairs to process visas have been ramped up to speed up visa processing. Boasts are now made about the number of visa applications being approved and the short time involved. Close to 90 per cent of all student visa applications are approved. The figures are quite staggering. In December last year, for instance, 97,000 student visas were granted compared with 24,000 approved in the previous December.
If we extrapolate the figures we are already at a record number of student visa holders in Australia, eclipsing the previous record. There has been a massive shift in the source countries, with very strong growth from India, Colombia, Brazil, The Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh.
Those on student visas no longer have to hide their real intentions – to stay in the country after they graduate – which has been made easier by the close-to-automatic issuing of lengthy post-graduation visas.
Earlier in the year the government also received a very unhelpful report chaired by former senior bureaucrat Martin Parkinson that recommended all temporary migrants be given a pathway to permanent residence.
However, even the most ardent supporters of a large migrant intake and the benefits of a big Australia recognise there are annual limits to the extent to which migrants can be absorbed without adverse consequences for the local population as well as the migrants themselves. There is no doubt that a NOM of more than 400,000 a year – indeed, more than 200,000 a year – is beyond the absorptive capacity of the country.
The argument that the government’s hands are tied because of the need to fill skilled job vacancies is totally misleading. The vast majority of the migrant intake is not skilled and even when they complete their qualifications, overseas-born graduates are much less likely to fill professional or managerial occupations than graduates born here.
Certainly, international students undertake unskilled and semi-skilled work, but the case for a large migrant intake has always been made on the basis of a strong skill bias.
To preference employers seeking workers because they can’t find locals or don’t want to bid up wages is a serious policy mistake. Just as a lack of capital can thwart the operation and development of businesses, so can the lack of workers.
The government should not be in the game of seeking to fill all these worker gaps through facilitating migration, just as it wouldn’t want to cover an insufficiency of capital.
The better alternative is to allow the labour market to allocate workers to their best use and to limit the use of migration. Some firms may just have to shrink.
It doesn’t take an economics degree to realise this surge in the population would put immense strain on the housing situation and this is exactly what is playing out, particularly in the cities to which the migrants are flocking.
The vacancy rates for rental properties are at historic lows and rents are rising very strongly, well above the rate of inflation. The fact federal ministers can express concern for those adversely affected by the housing crisis yet do nothing to curtail the size of the migrant intake underscores a wilful downplaying of the connection.
The reality is that all the government housing plans announced thus far, including the federal one, don’t touch the sides when it comes to closing the gap between demand for housing and the supply.
Setting meaningless targets is similarly unhelpful. The federal government has declared that 1.2 million homes will be built in the next five years even though Australia has never achieved anything close to that figure.
And wait for this: according to the most recent figures, annual housing starts have hit a decade-low of just under 60,000. Just in case you think the newly created Housing Australia Future Fund will make a difference, it is anticipated that a mere 30,000 new homes will be built over five years as a result of this initiative and it will not begin for at least another year.
The reality is that government plans have a nasty habit of coming up short and the only sustainable way to deal with the housing imbalance is via private supply responding to private demand.
In the meantime our urban landscapes will be transformed from the previous predominance of detached housing to clusters of poor-quality high-rise apartment buildings. Our cities are already rapidly changing and not for the better in the minds of many.
The consequences of the migrant surge do not stop at the housing market. Congestion, crowded schools and hospitals, deteriorating social amenity, more generally, are some of the impacts.
The federal government can kiss goodbye to its emissions reduction pledge given such strong population growth.
Survey after survey point to the lack of public support for high rates of immigration. The vast majority want a return to previous levels – NOM was around 100,000 a year in the earlier years of the century; some would even prefer a complete pause.
But the politicians would rather prioritise the wishes of the vested interests seeking more migrants – the property developers, big business, universities and, bizarrely, even state governments.
If we think of this issue in a global context, people are on the move, be it via legal or illegal channels. Europe, Britain and the US are being overwhelmed by migrants, in particular. Political parties that support restrictions on immigration are gaining momentum.
There is a real opportunity for the Coalition to differentiate itself from Labor on this topic and thereby break from the bipartisan endorsement of big Australia.
It may take some courage, but is likely to be rewarded by increased support from voters.
************************************
25 September, 2023
Rooftop solar 'cannibalising' power prices as Australian generators pay to stay online
"Ecological" power generation is basically nuts. It tries to get something stable out of power sources with wildly fluctuating outputs. Basically, everybody loses. For much of the day both the ecological generators AND the conventional generators lose -- as a big daytime electicity suplus plunges power prices so low that ALL generators get nothing or near nothing for their output
Daytime power prices are plunging into negative territory – meaning generators have to pay to produce – as renewable energy increasingly cannibalises the market, according to experts.
As the share of green energy in Australia's biggest electricity system momentarily reached a record high of 70 per cent this week, energy software company Gridcog said "price cannibalisation" was becoming an increasingly common phenomenon.
Wholesale power prices in the national electricity market across the eastern states dropped to as low as -$64 per megawatt hour last Saturday, when soaring output from millions of rooftop solar panels flooded into the system.
The phenomenon is particularly pronounced in mild, sunny conditions and especially on weekends, when solar output is at its highest but demand for electricity is relatively low.
In a post to its social media followers, Gridcog said large-scale solar farms were, perversely, being hit hardest by the trend because rooftop solar was generally beyond the control of the market operator.
It noted utility-scale solar plants were having to pare back generation or switch off entirely during such periods to avoid having to pay to maintain production.
"Price cannibalisation is a major emerging feature of the energy transition," the company wrote on LinkedIn.
"It occurs when increased volumes of renewables with the same generation profile produce at the same time.
"This depresses prices in the market, often to the point that prices turn negative, and it presents a serious challenge for investors, particularly of utility-scale projects."
The firm said the trend was likely to accelerate as ever-more solar was added to household and business rooftops across the country.
More than 3.3 million Australian homes have solar panels – almost one in three – and there are forecasts this will almost double by 2032.
"These systems compete directly with large utility-scale assets connected to the transmission system," Gridcog wrote.
"As an aside, it also demonstrates the dominance that distributed [rooftop] solar has in Australia compared to utility-scale, something we expect to see more of in other markets in coming years."
Dylan McConnell, a senior research associate from the University of New South Wales, said rooftop solar was no longer a marginal player but central to the running of the grid.
He said the technology was reshaping the power system in sometimes unexpected ways. "It's very significant in some jurisdictions," Dr McConnell said. "It varies across the country, but in places like South Australia there are periods where production from rooftop solar actually exceeds the demand of the entire state. "It's huge."
Dr McConnell said SA was an extreme example of a different, though related, phenomenon known as minimum operational demand.
The term referred to the minimum level of demand for power from the grid.
Crucially, it stripped out the demand that customers were meeting themselves through resources that sat behind the meter — principally, rooftop solar.
Dr McConnell said generation from rooftop solar panels was so great at times that it was not only meeting owners' demands, but also those of most other customers as well.
He said this was pushing demand for power from the grid ever lower and squeezing out conventional generators such as coal- and gas-fired plants.
But Dr McConnell said the electricity system was not ready to run without those generators, which were increasingly having to ramp up and down to cope with the intermittency of solar supply.
"The other day in NSW, [coal generation] was just above two gigawatts in the middle of the day, and then that evening it was above 9GW," he said.
"So we had a 7GW ramp in the space of a few hours — they're capable of doing it.
But then, I guess more importantly, is the impact on economic viability." That, says Dr McConnell, represents the challenge.
"When you have low prices in the middle of the day and low volumes, is the increase in prices in the evening and the higher volumes there enough to offset that? The answer to that seems to be no."
Alex Wonhas, a former electricity system planner, noted that record lows for demand for power from the grid were being broken routinely as more and more rooftop solar was added to the system.
"At times when the renewable resources are high they will replace the conventional generators," Dr Wonhas said.
"But then at other times when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining we need either storage or conventional generators to step in.
"So it's a much more dynamic and much orchestrated system that we're facing in the future."
For Dr McConnell, the growth of rooftop solar in Australia would continue to test other generators and the power system more broadly.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-23/rooftop-solar-cannibalising-australian-power-market/102889710
****************************************************
No diversity in public support for "Voice"
One thing that is now undeniably clear is that virtually all of our elites who, with tedious regularity, espouse the dogma of diversity are unfluctuatingly uniform in their opinions.
No one could genuflect at the altar of diversity more assiduously than just pushed out Qantas head-honcho Alan Joyce. And so there was never going to be any surprise as regards his views on how to vote in the upcoming Voice referendum. Or whether he would spend shareholders’ monies, lots of them, to push that preferred line.
Try to name a senior corporate executive in a publicly listed company in this country who has come out openly for the ‘No’ side, the one polls show is supported by over half of Australians. Go on. I’ll wait while you ponder given that I’ve got a few hours till my delayed Qantas flight leaves. Or what about the charities? All sorts of them are sending monies and support to the ‘Yes’ side; they are dipping into the charitable donations that were sent to them by regular people, of whom at least half will vote ‘No’ if the polls are to be believed. Again, try to name the head of a single charity who has come out for ‘No’. I don’t know about you dear readers but from this day forth I will be asking if any charity took sides on the Voice referendum before giving it a penny. And that most certainly also goes for giving money to any university. Give money to one of the unis that came out officially for ‘Yes’ and you are part of the problem, not the solution. Ditto for every single one of the charities in this country. If they and their boards opted to come out for ‘Yes’ then all of us ‘No’ voters should tell them where to get off next time the request for money comes in. Don’t just stop giving. Tell them explicitly why not and make sure your answer gets to the CEO or Board.
We can play the same game with each and every one of our universities’ Vice-Chancellors and their staggeringly large retinues of virtually world’s highest paid Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Pro-Vice-Chancellors, Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellors et. al. (and yes, there are Deputy Vice-Chancellors ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ who define what it means to have a ‘bullsh*t’ job, one where getting rid of the job altogether would make the enterprise work better) all busy shoving Woke orthodoxy down the throats of faculty and students alike. You’d be hard-pressed to get an independent thought out of a handful of our university high-level administrators as regards the transgender issue, the old issue of stopping the boats, the former government’s response to Covid, same-sex marriage, cutting back on the incessant ‘acknowledgements of country’, the list goes on into the horizon. And when it comes to the Voice referendum, bravery for these people amounts to staying formally neutral. Did you know that over half of our universities have come out officially for ‘Yes’? Not a single one has come out for ‘No’. Rather, the remainder are purportedly staying neutral, though many of those are pushing information sessions for faculty and students so skewed (‘Getting to Yes’ sums it up) they would make a feminist seminar on toxic masculinity look even-handed by comparison.
I don’t suppose I need even bother to point out that the worldviews of the Canberra public service bigwigs cover the whole spectrum of viewpoints from A almost to B. Well, on a good day that is, while they are all wearing purple and celebrating International Refugee Day before heading off to a three-day Welcome to Country ceremony.
Put bluntly, and all jesting aside, under the banner of ‘diversity’ we are being delivered incredible uniformity of thought. ‘Monolithic orthodoxy’ sums it up. Now, of course, in part this remarkable uniformity of expressed views is just cowardice. Quiet dissenters and apostates have comfortable, highly-paid jobs; some have families to feed and mortgages to pay. They go with the flow and keep their heads down. Some no doubt complain privately at home about the wall-to-wall woke orthodoxy. But then many are real believers. These people hire fellow travellers and they sure don’t look keen to hire heterodox non-conformists and encourage them to speak their minds.
At this point I hear a few of you muttering, ‘Why does it really matter? This is all just cultural stuff. Why fight the culture wars? The left has won.’ I strongly disagree. Everything is downstream of culture and we all do need to fight on this most-important-of-all terrain. But suppose that’s wrong. Well, this all-encompassing canonical orthodoxy of thinking also plays out in non-culture-related areas too. Just think about the lack of any independent views during the Morrison government’s response to Covid. My kingdom for an Anders Tegnell or Ron DeSantis in Australia.
Or take this country’s monetary and fiscal policy. For years and years before Covid we were printing money with a gay abandon (a phrase you wouldn’t use in the Canberra public service I suspect). Interest rates were down around zero. Now I grew up under the dominant economic view that policy settings ought to favour savers more than borrowers. To encourage the good old-fashioned Protestant virtues and all that. Not any more, that’s for sure. So when did the Reserve Bank and Treasury become wall-to-wall Keynesians? Because it sure seems to me that this is the dominant – make that virtually the sole – view of those pulling our economic levers. It’s a monolithic orthodoxy. Frankly, I think we need a ‘red team’ of Milton Friedman types to prod and push back against what we’re doing. Forget blaming Russia. Grossly over the top government spending and the obscene expansion of the money supply by our and others’ central banks would be what I nominated as the main cause of our bad inflation. Followed by the terrible decision-making during the pandemic. Nor do current interest rates seem to me likely to get the actual problem of inflation under control – so no, I don’t trust the official package of goods used to measure inflation at the moment. Remember, inflation is a tax. It benefits governments with big debts and hits the hard-working middle classes. It’s a form of government theft. Last Sunday night before putting on the TV I went to get some petrol and a couple of Magnum ice-cream bars. The latter were six dollars each. I can remember driving to the same petrol station when they were half that.
I ask again, do our top economic decision-makers encourage a bit of unorthodox thinking? A red team? Or is it wall-to-wall Keynesian orthodoxy, an orthodoxy that Liberal Cabinet Ministers can’t be bothered to push back against.
Last point about all this orthodoxy of outlook across all of our elite institutions. You know what it tends to do? It tends to foster amongst these people a toxic dose of their own perceived virtue, as though after 3.8 billion years on earth they are the pinnacle of moral evolution. The odds, I’m afraid, are against this self-delusion.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/whats-that-you-mean-by-diversity/
*************************************************
Will no university students ever fail now?
British politician Enoch Powell famously said ‘All political lives end in failure’ – a proposition amply corroborated by his own career. Scholars are vulnerable to a similar fate. To paraphrase the famous anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, academics can be certain of two things: someday, they will all be dead, and eventually, they will all be proven wrong. (Sahlins’ tip for a successful scholarly career: make sure the first precedes the second.)
Even superstars fail. In a classic Nike advertisement, basketball legend Michael Jordan confesses to missing more than 9,000 shots and losing almost 300 basketball games in his career. ‘Twenty-six times,’ he says, ‘I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot – and missed. I’ve failed over and over again in my life.’ Then he delivers the line that has attracted millions of people to view the ad on YouTube: ‘And that is why I succeed.’
Jordan’s message is motivating and inspiring, but it’s also worrying. If failure is essential to success, then what are the prospects for our current crop of students who have never experienced failure of any kind? No school student is held back, summer school repeats are rare, and first-class honours are becoming the typical university grade. What happens when these students move out of education, where success is now the norm, to a world in which failure is ubiquitous? Never having had to deal with setbacks, never having failed at anything, will they have the capacity to cope? We will soon find out.
Over the past 20 years, government policy has resulted in an avalanche of university students. The highest-ranked institutions swept up the best-prepared applicants, forcing the less prestigious universities to lower their entry standards drastically. Not surprisingly, many of these poorly prepared students are finding themselves unable to complete their courses; dropout rates have climbed to record levels.
Under the rules governing accreditation, Australian universities have a legal requirement to ensure that the students they admit have the educational background and study support to complete their courses. It appears that universities have flaunted this requirement, so the government has stepped in.
In a daring display of its unshakeable commitment to the academic success of its constituents, the federal government has introduced legislation that could revolutionise, or perhaps obliterate, the way we understand the concept of failure. Call it the ‘No Student Left Behind – Especially If They’ve Failed’ Act. It’s an ambitious move, guaranteeing the total eradication of that ghastly ‘F’ word from the Australian educational system: failure.
The Australian government is mandating that university students who score less than 50 per cent in their exams shall be entitled to a slew of educational life-savers. University-funded tutoring, counselling, examination do-overs, special exams and extended deadlines are all on the table. With these bountiful resources at their disposal, no student will ever feel the sting of failure again. And to ensure universities are as invested in the success of their students as the government, a hefty fine of $18,780 per student will be introduced for those institutions that fail to help their students rise above the 50 per cent benchmark.
If Dante were alive, he might have added a tenth circle to his Inferno for the university administrators who will have to deal with this fiscal sword of Damocles. Instead of cramming more students into lecture halls and labs, universities will have to find funds for an army of tutors, counsellors and exam monitors.
But worry not, for the Education Minister has spoken: ‘Universities should be helping students to succeed, not to fail.’ It’s a comforting thought, almost reminiscent of a fairy tale ending. It gives students a cosy sense of assurance that the government is there, always ready to sweep in and replace the big bad wolf of failure with the benevolent fairy godmother of success. But will it work?
Tim Harford fears it won’t. In his book, Adapt: Why Success Always Follows Failure, Harford claims that messing up is central to learning. Students gain more from mistakes, blind alleys and dead ends than from success. Failures give students the opportunity to ‘pick themselves up, dust themselves off and start all over again’.
Such resilience is essential because becoming an expert is a long process, at least 10,000 hours, says Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers. Expertise takes a long time to acquire because, outside of universities, 50 per cent is not good enough. The real world has higher standards. Businesses will collapse if their accountants are only 50 per cent accurate, computer programs that work only half the time are useless, and no one would be happy if surgeons fluffed half their operations. A 10,000-hour apprenticeship provides plenty of opportunities for students to learn from their errors, and everyone knows that practice makes perfect.
Failing is not only essential to honing one’s skills, but it also provides the chance to cultivate oneself (‘Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’). The character traits forged by experiencing and overcoming failure are necessary for success in any field. Tenaciousness, resilience, drive, perseverance and the ability to delay gratification while working toward a distant goal are just as crucial in achieving success as intelligence. Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth calls this combination of character traits ‘grit’. It comes from confronting failure and overcoming it. Without failure, progress is impossible.
Universities, faced with high costs and potential fines, may be tempted to take the easy way out and pass every single student. That view might sound cynical, but it is realistic. Will a university degree retain its lustre when passing becomes an expected, almost mundane occurrence rather than a reward for hard work, grit and resilience? If everyone is a winner, is anyone winning anything at all?
But these are long-term concerns and our politicians are unable to think beyond the next election campaign. They look forward to offering voters a world where failure ceases to exist and success requires no effort. A world in which every student gets a degree just for showing up.
It’s an idyllic vision that might catch on across the globe. Imagine a future in which everyone gets a shot at the Grand Dream, even if their exam scores are below 50 per cent, a time in which the ‘School of Hard Knocks’ has shut its doors forever. Fans of Horatio Alger novels, the stoic pioneers who defined the ethos of hard work and success through perseverance, must be turning in their graves.
The moral of the story, dear reader, is that university failure is on the brink of extinction. At least, it is Down Under. This extraordinary development will have vast repercussions for education, success, and the very nature of our universities.
Of course, we want our students to succeed. But passing every student will ensure just the opposite. By preventing students from experiencing failure, we will keep them from gaining the self-confidence that comes from overcoming it.
If we want young people to be able to handle life’s inevitable slings and arrows, then for their own sake, we must let them fail.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/eliminating-the-f-word/
**********************************************************
Qld Young Australian of the Year Jean Madden wins fresh victory over police
A YOUNG Australian of the Year wrongly accused of defrauding her own charity for the homeless has won a fresh victory after police were ordered to pay her appeal costs.
Street Swags founder Jean Ellen Madden was vindicated in 2019 after police dropped the last of 16 criminal charges brought against her alleging she had misappropriated funds from the charity between 2015 and 2016.
At a final hearing in December 2019 when a police prosecutor revealed the charges would be discontinued, Ms Madden’s lawyers made an application for costs.
But the application was later refused by a magistrate in June 2020 who found any order for costs needed to have been made prior to the formal dismissal of the charges.
Ms Madden unsuccessfully appealed that decision in the District Court in July 2021 which affirmed the magistrate’s earlier decision.
But she took the fight to the Court of Appeal which ultimately ruled in her favour in March this year, setting aside the earlier decisions from the Magistrates Court and District Court.
The Court of Appeal remitted the costs application back to the Magistrates Court for hearing and determination at a date to be set.
Ms Madden has now had a fresh win in a decision handed down this month, with the appeal court ordering the Commissioner of Police to pay her costs of the appeals process through the District Court and the Court of Appeal.
“Fairness requires that the appellant be indemnified against the costs she incurred in order to obtain a result which accorded with the law, at least to the extent of costs on the standard basis,” the appeal judges wrote.
In 2010, Ms Madden was awarded the title of Queensland’s Young Australian of the Year after founding the charity Street Swags which created innovative, lightweight bedding for the homeless.
Between July 2016 and March 2018, police brought 16 charges against Ms Madden but they were discontinued over subsequent court appearances with the final charges discontinued in late 2019.
At the time, Ms Madden described the charges as malicious, saying the unfounded allegations had destroyed her career and the charity.
************************************
24 September, 2023
Kerry White: Indigenous No campaigner describes the Stolen Generation as a 'mistruth'
That white social workers took abused black and mixed-race children out of their abusive families and fostered them to caring white families does NOT create a stolen generation. A rescued generation, more like it The families of origin sometimes wanted their children back but the social workers were rightly cautious about that. They would have been slow to return children of any colour to an abusive family. There is a high incidence of child abuse among Aborigines to this day
An indigenous No campaigner says use of the term Stolen Generation is among the 'mistruths' being raised in the debate over the Voice referendum.
Narungga woman Kerry White, who stood as a One Nation candidate in the last South Australian election and is scheduled to speak at a 'Freedom Rally' in Adelaide this weekend, made the comments at a No event in June.
This weekend's event is part of a series of No rallies across Australia standing against what it bills as 'hidden agendas of the Voice and other unlawful forms of tyranny'.
The protest also targets vaccine mandates and a bill to censor online 'misinformation' which has been proposed by Labor.
At a previous referendum event held in Adelaide in June, Ms White rationalised the policy of removing Aboriginal children from their families - known as the Stolen Generation - as sometimes necessary.
'Back in the early 1950s and 1960s, mixed race children were being removed and placed in institutions for their own safety,' she said. 'Mixed race children were not accepted by blacks or white, and were being abused.
'The problem is in rural and remote communities we are so far away from mainstream that a lot of things go unnoticed.'
Ms White is a board member for Recognise A Better Way, one of two prominent No campaigns rallying against the Voice.
Former Labor MP Gary Johns is another prominent member of the group, who was recently criticised for advocating for genetic testing to determine whether someone can be regarded as Aboriginal and be eligible for services and positions reserved for Indigenous people.
Dr Johns' comments sparked outrage from politicians and officials committed to the Yes vote.
Ms White has previously said things must change if Australia seeks to 'improve outcomes for Aboriginal people in rural and remote Australia' - but she does not think the Voice is the solution.
'What is clear is we need transparency, productivity and accountability for all the taxpayer dollars spent by organisations and the government.
'What we don't need is more of the same BS that for generations ... has been built on untruths, half-truths and fiction.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12543279/stolen-generation-mistruth.html
******************************************
Racists under every bed
Cancel culture is about to get interesting and happening right here on Australian campuses. Get your popcorn and tune in!
But be warned: the first episode – the cancelling of Alfred Deakin through the push to rename Deakin University – is dreadfully dull and predictable. It is episode two and three where it gets juicy, where the cancellers cannot escape the undeniable analogies between the deemed offences of Deakin and those of left-wing heroes, John Curtin and (gasp) Gough Whitlam. The cancellers just haven’t realised this yet, which makes it particularly engaging.
Before getting too far ahead of ourselves, let’s recap on developments from earlier in the month which set the scene.
As reported in the Age newspaper, academics and students at Deakin University have decided that the university’s name needs to change, because Alfred Deakin, a founding father and our second prime minister, was apparently – you guessed it – a racist.
The university leadership is resisting the change for the moment, but have established a truth-telling process to document Deakin’s record, which will inevitably add further pressure for a name change.
On what basis do they argue that Deakin was a racist? As it turns out, on the basis of some quite racist policies and statements, as viewed from today’s perspective. In particular, he supported the introduction of the White Australia policy when he was Australia’s first attorney general and continued this support in his times as prime minster.
According to the activists, one of his greatest sins was predicting that Australia would remain a white country in decades to come.
Deakin’s views on race would not be acceptable in Australia today, and I don’t know of a single parliamentarian who would hold such views. Today, we are the most successful multi-racial country and this is a great source of pride to the vast majority of us.
But at the time, Deakin’s views were mainstream. In fact, every political party, including the Labor party, supported the White Australia Policy and nearly the entire population tended to view people through a racial lens. As the federal Parliamentary Library notes, there was ‘almost universal support’ for restricting non-Europeans and the extensive parliamentary debate of the policy concerned the method of exclusion, rather than whether it should occur.
So why single out Alfred Deakin from the entire political class and population of the time? Particularly when Deakin is broadly regarded as an important figure in the development of modern Australia, including being critical in the creation of our federation.
I suspect because he is seen as a figure of the right. The National Union of Students’ Xavier Dupe is clear on this: ‘The University should be renamed, just like other institutions named after right-wingers,’ he is reported as saying.
The problem for left-wing activists, like Dupe, who want to reassess historical figures through the values of today is that their own heroes are likely to be caught up in the revisionism.
And this is certainly the case here with two of the giants of the left, John Curtin and Gough Whitlam. Both were substantial figures in Australia’s history; both have universities or university institutions named after them (Curtin University, the Whitlam Institute) and both said similarly objectionable things to Deakin.
Consider John Curtin’s position on the White Australia policy. He was an ardent supporter, telling the federal parliament in late 1941 that, ‘Our laws have proclaimed the standard of a White Australia…. It was devised for economic and sound humane reasons. It was not challenged for 40 years. We intend to keep it because we know it to be desirable.’
Gough Whitlam’s statements are not as directly analogous. After all, Australia’s discriminatory immigration policy had already been abolished for six years by the time he became prime minister.
However, his position on the south Vietnamese was arguably as appalling. When Saigon fell in April 1975, Whitlam overruled his Foreign Minister’s willingness to admit significant numbers of South Vietnamese refugees, famously telling Foreign Minister Willesee that he didn’t want an influx of ‘f-cking Vietnamese Balts’.
No Labor figure today tries to justify Whitlam’s position. Because it can’t be justified. But if cancel culture activists on campuses are consistent, then surely Curtin University and the Whitlam Institute are also targets for renaming?
Chris Watson, Labor’s first prime minister, was also amongst the Labor luminaries who supported racist policies. In fact, while many unions and Labor people at the time were against non-European immigration for industrial reasons – fearing an undercutting of wages – Chris Watson made it clear that racial impurity was his primary concern, stating, ‘The objection I have to the mixing of these coloured people with the white people of Australia… lies in the main with the possibility and probability of racial contamination.’
Should Watson also be cancelled? Watson doesn’t have a university named after him, but there is a federal electorate and Canberra suburb named in his honour – just like Deakin. Should they be renamed? Tony Burke, who holds the seat of Watson doesn’t think so. Nor does Anthony Albanese who, in his 2015 ‘Light on the Hill’ address, praised Chris Watson as a ‘great leader’ whose record speaks to ‘our [Labor] ideals’.
The truth is that no person in the past would withstand the scrutiny of everything they said if they are judged from today’s moral values. No political leader from the earlier days of Australia’s modern history. And what about the past family members of the activists? Even their own grandparents?
So how should we judge people like Deakin and Watson?
We certainly shouldn’t let left-wing activists be the moral arbiters. Rather, we should assess them in their historical context. This means being honest about our past – the good and the bad.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/its-time-to-cancel-gough/
*****************************************************
Australian students shun education degrees as fears grow over ‘unprecedented’ teacher shortage
Their pay is pretty good. It just needs the government to make classroom conditions acceptable. Unruly students need to be controlled
Graduating high school students are continuing to turn away from teaching degrees in huge numbers, early application data shows, as concern grows over “unprecedented” workforce shortages.
The data, provided to Guardian Australia from the Universities Admissions Centre, showed education degrees received just 1,935 first preferences this year, a 19.24% decline compared with 2023 and the lowest rate since at least 2016, when public records became available.
Overall, education was ranked seventh out of 11 major areas of study.
Health received the highest number of first preferences (9,008), followed by society and culture (8,463) and management and commerce (5,277).
The education minister, Jason Clare, said in the past 10 years the number of young people going into teaching had gone backwards by about 12%.
“Of those who do start a teaching degree, only 50% finish,” he said. “And of those who finish it, 20% are leaving after less than three years.
“Teachers do one of the most important jobs in the world and we need more of them.”
Clare pointed to new $40,000 teacher scholarships rolling out in coming weeks as part of the National Teacher Workforce Action Plan.
The scholarships will be available to 5,000 young people to become teachers provided they commit to the role for a number of years.
“In the next few weeks, we’re also launching a national campaign to promote the teaching profession, to encourage people to want to become a teacher by raising the status of the profession in the community,” Clare said.
“I want to change the way we as a country think about our teachers, and the way our teachers think our country thinks of them.”
The Australian Education Union federal president, Correna Haythorpe, said it was “vital” greater measures were taken to encourage students into teaching for public education to remain viable.
The federal government’s teacher workforce shortage paper, released last August, found schools were facing “unprecedented teacher supply and retention challenges”, with workforce shortages one of the “single biggest issues” facing teacher employers.
“We are concerned the status of teaching is not necessarily seen as an attractive option for students and that requires governments to invest in attraction and retention mechanisms,” Haythorpe said.
She pointed to teaching degree fees and the burden of unpaid placements placing pressure on students amid a cost of living crisis.
“Federal, state and territory governments must take bold and urgent action … governments at all levels should invest in paid placements for teaching students, proper mentoring programs and lowering the costs of teaching degrees.”
New South Wales and Victoria have both made significant announcements to address the workforce shortage this month.
Last week, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, announced students enrolled to become secondary school teachers would have their degrees paid by the state government, in an effort to fill “crippling” staff shortages in the sector.
It followed a deal sealed between the NSW deputy premier and education minister, Prue Car, and the teachers’ federation for starting salaries to rise from $75,791 to $85,000 and the highest salary from $113,042 to $122,100.
A submission by the former NSW government to the federal government’s Initial Teacher Education (ITE) review in 2021 acknowledged enrolments in the state had declined by almost 30% from 2014 to 2019.
“Many high achieving students are not choosing teaching as a career,” it read.
**********************************************
Our moral guardians: Climate activists teach children to send cookie malware to skeptical grandparents
The Australian Youth Climate Coalition (AYCC) is asking supporters to send deceptive links out to friends and family that look like a cookie recipe but embed software cookies instead on the victim’s computer. The digital cookie then pushes green climate videos into their feeds, (as if the ABC news wasn’t loaded enough).
Look out for any links to oneminutecookie.com.
The AYCC gets about $3m in donations, and even visits schools, teaching children how to cheat and lie to save the planet, or something like that. What are good family relationships built on after all, if not deception? What is science if it is not propaganda?
These are all good questions to raise with the children in your life and the schools in your area. Don’t wait for an email to arrive, thank the AYCC for providing the opportunity to start the conversation now.
If the believers are so caring, ethical and moral why are they teaching children it’s OK to deceive family members? Is this the kind of “fair and just” world we want to live in?
Call up schools and the local P&C and ask if they are aware the AYCC — which runs programs in schools — teaches children to fool parents and grandparents and use malware. Are these the kind of family values that belong in our schools? Will the local school guarantee that they will not allow this group to manipulate children?
The Australian exposed their crooked game this week, and traffic to oneminutecookies.com has fallen to zero. So presumably the link trap will change. (The campaign has been put on hold).
************************************
21 September, 2023
Qld. Deputy Premier slams ‘rich inner-city elites’ for trying to stop flights
He is referring to the Greens -- accurately
Deputy Premier Steven Miles has let fly at “wealthy inner-city elites”, accusing them of trying to clip Brisbane Airport’s wings by restricting flights and driving up airfares.
In an extraordinary attack, Mr Miles said the “elites” don’t want planes flying over their own homes or “working people” to be able to afford to fly.
His comments follow a bid by the Greens to impose a curfew and flight caps at Brisbane Airport “to bring peace and a good night’s sleep to thousands of Brisbane residents impacted by flight noise”.
Brisbane-based Greens federal MPs Elizabeth Watson-Brown, Max Chandler-Mather and Stephen Bates have championed a bill to introduce hourly flight caps and a late night curfew at the airport for non-emergency flights.
Ms Watson-Brown has proposed a radical plan to divert planes to Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport and put passengers on high-speed trains to Brisbane.
The bill – set to be debated in federal parliament next month – has been estimated to come at a cost of $3b a year to the state economy if enacted.
Sharing the stage with Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner at a major aviation industry conference in Brisbane last week, Mr Miles joined forces with his political foe to slam the plan.
“Our airport is just so critical to our region’s economic prosperity, and I can’t think of anything more hypocritical than the Greens political party’s campaign against the airport,” he told a panel discussion at the CAPA (Centre for Aviation) Australia Pacific Aviation Summit.
“The blokes running this campaign are just about the most frequent travellers from Brisbane Airport to their engagements on (ABC show) Q+A and down to Canberra for the parliament.
“I’m an environmentalist, former environment minister and former conservation activist but the Greens are not a party of the environment – they’re a party of wealthy inner-city elites.
“And what they’re saying is that planes shouldn’t fly over the homes of wealthy inner-city elites, they should only fly over the homes of working people.
“And that only wealthy inner-city elites should be able to afford to fly but working people shouldn’t be able to afford to fly.
“That’s despite the fact that it’s those wealthy inner city elites who benefit disproportionately from the economic opportunity and prosperity that the airport delivers.”
Cr Schrinner said the Greens’ proposal was simplistic and would drive up travel costs and concentrate aircraft noise.
He said Brisbane City Council received far more complaints about barking dogs, loud parties and noisy air-conditioners than it did about airport noise.
“Offering simplistic solutions to this is not going to cut it,” he said.
“It’s a reminder that living in a large city is about managing impacts and noise. There are other ways to achieve that other than what’s being proposed.”
Meanwhile, the Senate inquiry into the federal government’s controversial decision to block extra Qatar Airways flights into Australia is due to sit in Brisbane next Tuesday.
The decision has also been blamed for helping keep international airfares sky-high, particularly out of Brisbane.
Brisbane Airport Corporation is understood to have made a submission to the inquiry.
******************************************************
Auditor-General urged to probe the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency
The Auditor-General has been urged to probe the alleged misuse of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds within Australia‘s largest Indigenous legal organisation, following explosive allegations of corruption and fraud amongst senior staff, two of whom are still employed.
Opposition legal affairs spokesperson Michaelia Cash referred the matter to Commonwealth Auditor-General Grant Hehir and the Australian National Audit Office earlier this month, pressing an investigation into the near-$20m provided to the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency every year.
The referral comes following extensive reporting in this masthead that revealed dozens of serious allegations of criminal conduct amongst NAAJA’s leadership team.
Those allegations included that finance chief Madhur Evans made a secret $20,000 payment into chairperson Colleen Rosas’ bank account, and former chief executive Priscilla Atkins used company funds to purchase artworks, flights, and vehicles including a $129,000 Range Rover.
NAAJA is currently receiving $83m over a five year period from the National Legal Assistance Partnership (NLAP), which is helmed by the federal government.
Senator Cash requested Mr Hehir consider “an audit of arrangements under the NLAP that may result in the payment of Commonwealth money to NAAJA.”
“I refer to reports recently published in The Australian newspaper setting out claims regarding the administration of the NAAJA,” Senator Cash wrote in a letter to Mr Hehir, obtained by The Australian.
“The reports raise serious concerns about the potential misuse of Commonwealth money provided under the National Legal Assistance Partnership, and the efficacy of governance arrangements under that agreement.
“Among other things, the allegations give rise to concerns that Commonwealth money may have been used to support behaviour which, if proven, may constitute corruption or potential criminal conduct.”
Senator Cash continued: “Specifically, I ask that you consider a performance audit to assess the adequacy of data collection, performance monitoring and other governance arrangements under the NLAP, and whether adequate safeguards are in place to ensure that Commonwealth money is not being misused.”
She said if improvements to NAAJA were identified through the audit “I ask you to consider whether they ought to be implemented more generally in respect of funding to other service providers that is governed by the NLAP.”
Senator Cash said there was a “degree of urgency” to the issue, considering the government will reassess the NLAP next year ahead of its expiry in 2025.
“If the next iteration of the NLAP is to take account of any recommendations you may make about the adequacy of existing funding arrangements, it would be highly desirable for all parties to have the benefit of any ANAO report before negotiations commence,” she said.
Senator Cash took aim at Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus for shifting the onus onto the NT government and claiming the territory was responsible for administering the NLAP funds.
“With respect, if that is the case, that is all the more reason for an audit,” she wrote.
“If NLAP arrangements are such that the administration of Commonwealth funding is done at arm’s length, as the Attorney-General appears to contend, then the governance provisions in the intergovernmental agreement that allow the Commonwealth to appropriately monitor expenditure (and respond to any misuse of Commonwealth funds) are all the more important.”
NAAJA conducts the lion’s share of Indigenous legal cases in the NT, where crime has increased by double digits in the past year. The organisation employs 200 workers across Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek.
The Australian understands the NT Commission Against Corruption is investigating the allegations, many of which have come to light in a Federal Court case filed by Ms Atkins, who alleges she was fired from NAAJA after discovering the corrupt conduct of Ms Evans and Ms Rosas.
Ms Atkins claims Ms Rosas appointed her friends to senior positions within NAAJA, and requested her pay be given to her on a credit card so as not to alert the tax office and threaten her Centrelink pension.
Along with making the discreet $20,000 payment to Ms Rosas, Ms Atkins alleges Ms Evans left her mobile phone in offices to record unsuspecting colleagues, and bullied NAAJA workers.
NAAJA denies allegations that Ms Evans and Ms Rosas engaged in deceptive conduct, and claims Ms Atkins was fired for forging Ms Rosas’ signature on her contract extension document, securing her position as CEO – and its $350,000 salary – for a further five years.
NAAJA has also alleged Ms Atkins used company funds to buy nine vehicles, flights, clothes and artworks. Ms Atkins denies all allegations of misconduct.
Ms Rosas and Ms Evans continue to work for NAAJA.
Sources believe NAAJA will spend up to $1m on the trial, after it recruited global firm King & Wood Mallesons to represent them.
The matter is scheduled for trial from October 23.
********************************************
Labor’s immigration hypocrisy: young and vulnerable hit hardest
Chris Minns – who lives in a house – seems to think you should live in an apartment, and the Labor Party doesn’t want any further questions on the subject.
Speaking at the Sydney 2050 Summit in May this year, he told the audience that ‘we have to get more comfortable with the idea of going up’.
But unfortunately for most people, Minns’ idea of ‘going up’ means their living standards going down, especially for the young people and workers who will likely be the ones getting crammed into these new apartment buildings.
Two recent polls show that people aren’t too happy about Minns’ idea, with more people preferring to cut migration than they would downsize into apartments.
A Twitter poll run by ABC’s Q+A showed that 65 per cent of Australians think the government should reduce the immigration intake to ease pressure on housing – matching roughly with several other polls showing similar results.
Meanwhile, less than half of people polled support Minns’ policy to increase supply through more apartments in city suburbs, coming in at a rather disappointing 48 per cent.
And is it any wonder, with a 2021 study by Strata Community Association NSW showing nearly four out of every ten new apartment complexes in NSW contained major flaws…
Sydney’s population growth, driven almost entirely by Federal Labor’s record overseas migration intake, is placing mountains of stress on the New South Wales housing and rental market.
To ease this pressure, state Labor is proposing building higher unit blocks alongside main roads and above train stations – perhaps not exactly what we had in mind when the party campaigned on ‘A Better Future’.
And though it may certainly sound like a solution, Minns’ ‘house for me and dog box for thee’ approach to fixing the housing crisis, reeks of elitism and political favouritism, as it completely ignores the community-preferred option of lowering migration.
Yet it’s no surprise really, because the truth is that maintaining high levels of migration is advantageous to Labor’s union and business mates, giving them an endless supply of job sites and workers.
Only it hurts the very people that voted for them, and Labor knows it.
In a recent sitting week, NSW Independent MP Rod Roberts asked Housing Minister Rose Jackson whether she would liaise with her federal counterparts to lower migration to help the housing crisis. Her response said it all.
Instead of conceding community concern about immigration, Rose instead resorted to calling the question a ‘dog whistle’.
One can only assume the 50 per cent of Labor voters who also want lower migration are dog whistling too.
The hypocrisy is astounding. Rose Jackson is also the Minister for Youth and Homelessness, two areas heavily affected, and least benefited, by mass migration.
On the youth front, young Australians, who are most likely to be renters or first-home buyers, are being squeezed out of both a housing market and rental market by record migrant arrivals of nearly 400,000 in the last year alone.
For example, recent data released by the Institute of Public Affairs shows that an incredible 70 per cent of new homes built last year were filled by international students alone.
And homeless numbers are up 5 per cent, with tent cities popping up around the state, as rental availability drops below 1.8 per cent.
This brave new Australia comes with deep social ramifications, including the delay of family formation, worsening of fertility rates, and even worsening mental health, as the stresses of trying to find a place to live weighs heavily.
And sadly, if you have a question about it, you’re dog-whistling.
On the altar of the housing market, working and young Australians are being sacrificed for the greater good of economic growth, and the Labor Party is using culture war tactics to silence any opposition to it.
With no end in sight, people will undoubtedly look for more radical solutions and fringe parties to show their anger, while parties like Labor will continue to try and grapple with this dual allegiance of the wealthy few, and the voting many.
In a way, Minns is achieving his goal of going up, except so far the only things ‘going up’ in New South Wales are the number of migrant arrivals, corporate and union profits, and the stress levels of people trying to find a place to live.
Everything else – living standards, birth rates, and young people’s patience – will continue declining.
If Labor ever truly does want to achieve their election promise of solving the housing crisis, they’ll first have to reconcile these deep hypocrisies of wanting high migration and low housing demand.
But don’t hold your breath, because right now all they’re doing is building castles in the sky, without any regard for what people really want.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/labors-immigration-hypocrisy-young-and-vulnerable-hit-hardest/
*************************************************
Rollout rage: power struggle and a ‘shocked minister’
Infrastructure Minister Catherine King joined farmers, councils and environmentalists in attacking consultation on the Victorian-NSW Interconnector transmission project, which will plug renewables into the grid and help achieve Labor’s 2030 emissions reduction target.
Amid growing concerns in regional Australia about transmission line upgrades and offshore wind turbines, Ms King told the Australian Energy Market Operator to “engage thoroughly and honestly with impacted communities … from project conception, to construction and beyond”.
Ms King’s extraordinary intervention heaps pressure on Energy Minister Chris Bowen to urgently address rising community anger over government consultation on renewable projects and massive transmission lines integrating solar and wind farms into the electricity system.
In her submission to AEMO, which is overseeing a project plagued by delays and cost blowouts, Ms King said parts of her electorate would be significantly impacted if a Western Renewables Link transmission station was built by VNI West north of Ballarat.
“Throughout this process, I have been shocked and disappointed by the lack of respect that has been shown to local communities and the lack of consideration of their land uses, local government views and landscape,” Ms King, writing in her capacity as Ballarat MP, told AEMO.
“In my view, a significant amount of the anger felt by the community could have been avoided if their views and interests were considered from the very start of the project, rather than four years down the fact.”
AEMO has established TCV, a wholly owned subsidiary, to progress early works on Victoria’s centrepiece $3.3bn electricity transmission project, finalise the route and consult with landholders, community groups and traditional owners. It will not physically construct or own the high-capacity 500Kv double-circuit overhead Victoria-NSW transmission lines.
Mr Bowen, who is working to “improve” renewable energy project engagement with stakeholders, received a hostile reception on Tuesday when he arrived at a closed-door meeting in Nelson Bay to discuss the NSW Hunter Offshore Wind Zone with hand-picked community representatives.
Community leaders who attended the meeting in Labor MP Meryl Swanson’s battleground seat of Paterson, where the Liberals secured a 4.2 per cent swing at the 2022 federal election, claimed Mr Bowen rejected their request to reopen consultation.
The government’s rapid push to meet its 82 per cent renewables and 43 per cent emissions reduction targets by 2030 has sparked anxiety in coastal and regional communities earmarked for transmission line projects and offshore wind zones.
Confirmed and proposed projects in NSW, Victoria and South Australia have united seafood producers, fishermen, boaties, farmers, environmentalists, tourism operators, local governments and community groups who are demanding better consultation and independent analysis.
Major concerns raised by stakeholders about offshore wind turbines and transmission projects include negative impacts on endangered and at-risk wildlife, tourism and whale-watching, the seafood industry, sacred traditional Indigenous sites, visual amenity and farmland.
In her submission published by AEMO on May 27, Ms King welcomed an “increased focus … on social license” but warned VNI West proponents to “engage fully with the communities around Bulgana who will be impacted by this proposal and to mitigate any negative impacts it may have on their lives or livelihoods”.
“More broadly, I welcome the focus on cultural heritage, land use and the environmental impacts of the proposed route. The region north of Ballarat is not only home to the finest potato-growing country in Australia, but is a region of notable heritage and natural beauty,” she wrote.
“It has always been an inappropriate location for a development of this type as I, and many in the community, have been saying from the start. As Australia continues its transition to net zero, there will be increasing need for new projects just like this one in order to maintain a stable electricity grid.
“In rolling out these projects, it will be important to engage thoroughly and honestly with impacted communities all throughout the process – from project conception, to construction and beyond.”
Ms King’s intervention preceded a review ordered by Mr Bowen in July to “bolster reforms in community engagement around renewable energy infrastructure upgrades and new developments”.
A spokeswoman for Mr Bowen said Ms King “is a strong advocate for the energy transition, and for listening carefully to local communities about its opportunities and impacts – and the minister agrees”.
“Our traditional energy assets are ageing – with over 4GW of dispatchable power leaving the grid over the past decade and only 1GW to replace it because of chaos on climate and energy,” she said.
“Australia has needed much better consultation around energy infrastructure for years – so with the states we are making the overdue changes to electricity rules to ensure proponents of all energy projects must engage properly with communities – and landholders and communities have better guidance about their rights and entitlements.”
Regional Victorian councils, environmental groups and farmers have lodged concerns with AEMO about the route of VNI West’s overhead transmission lines. The project will connect the Western Renewables Link, north of Ballarat, with Project EnergyConnect at Dinawan.
Concerns about the VNI West and Western Renewables Link projects focus on vegetation loss, land clearing, threats to woodland bird species, impacts on cultural sites and economic damage to agricultural production and tourism.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said Mr Bowen must explain the true cost and impacts of Labor’s renewables plan. “If Chris Bowen pretends that his policy is going to cost less than $1.2 trillion, he needs to provide the detail because the experts … are saying that the Labor plan will cost between $1.2 trillion and $1.5 trillion – and Australians will pay for that through increased electricity bills. People are going to end up with 28,000km of new poles and wires, which is a considerable eyesore through many communities.
“People in metropolitan areas, or outer metropolitan areas like mine in my electorate … don’t want those wind turbines. So why should people in regional areas be forced to take them when they’re not reliable, and you need to firm them up?”
After the Bureau of Meteorology on Tuesday confirmed that Australia had entered an El Nino phase, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government was taking the long-term climate change threat seriously. “Part of that is a shift in the energy mix to 82 per cent renewables by 2030,” Mr Albanese said. Mr Bowen this week said transmission projects like VNI West and Hume Link were “absolutely essential for the country, for our plans for emissions reduction, but also communities deserve proper engagement”.
Mr Bowen, who released departmental modelling this week claiming the Coalition would need to spend $387bn to replace coal-fired generation with nuclear small modular reactors, on Tuesday said it “never hurts to do a bit of engagement”.
“I understand people’s concerns. But I also understand the jobs that will be created,” he said. “I understand people in the Hunter want to see action on climate change. They want to see local jobs created as well. These are things to be balanced.”
************************************
20 September, 2023
Binary Australia campaigner Kirralie Smith has AVO against her withdrawn
How absurd can you get? This pleasant country lady was held to be a physical threat because she spoke out about transgenders in sport. The only thing she would be likely to threaten anybodyn with would be an offering of pumpkin scones. "apprehended violence" indeed. Another case where the law is an ass
A high-profile campaigner against transgender women competing in female sports is claiming victory after a restraining order against her was withdrawn in court.
Police had taken out an apprehended violence order out against Kirralie Smith, 52, to protect an amateur NSW soccer player at the centre of a transgender row.
The player, who towered over most players, was the league's leading goal scorer and a clip of them sending a rival player flying in a tackle went viral earlier this year.
The director of Binary Australia led a protest campaign which bombarded soccer bosses with more than 12,000 emails demanding Football NSW take action.
Ms Smith's campaign also included a petition entitled: 'Keep blokes out of women’s sport!'
Police initially applied for the AVO in April and served it to Ms Smith at her home in Mt George, 200km north-east of Newcastle, NSW.
It prevented her from discussing or approaching the player, and also covered electronic harassment of the trans activist player, who lives more than 300km away.
But when the case returned to Burwood Local Court in Sydney on Monday, police withdrew their application and the AVO was dismissed.
'We won!!!!!!' Ms Smith posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'The AVO was withdrawn!!!! 'It is not violence to defend women’s spaces or sport.'
The mother-of-three added: 'The police prosecutor simply withdrew the application - after wasting a lot of time and $.'
Ms Smith currently has one other AVO application against her, which is due back in Taree Local Court on October 10, and another previous AVO was withdrawn in April.
She added on Tuesday: 'The first win in this series of law fare against me is greatly encouraging. 'I still have an AVO application by another male player in a female team and two vilification complaints. I will stand firm and not shrink back. 'I will have this week off to celebrate and recover and be back soon!'
The decision comes as Ms Smith celebrated her birthday on Tuesday. 'I can’t stop smiling,' she said. 'What a gift for my birthday today. A win for female sport and freedom of speech.'
Ms Smith has been highly vocal around the participation of transwomen in women's sports and the risk of injury to female players.
She was backed by failed federal Liberal candidate Katherine Deves who has been a high profile critic of transgender athletes in women's sport.
Ms Smith angrily denied she was a threat to the player after the AVO was imposed and told Daily Mail Australia in May: 'I've never been violent in my life. 'I have a very long-standing knee injury. I'm not violent and not capable of violence.'
She added: 'It's important for women to be able to draw boundaries and speak freely about how males impact their spaces and services.' 'I will continue to speak truthfully about matters of biology and how they affect women and children in Australia.'
****************************************************
Drumgold matter goes from bad to worse
There is a clear wish in elite cirles to let Drumgold off the hook. It seems to be regarded as exculpatory that his foul deeds were in support of feminist hysteria
When it comes to the nation’s most controversial scandal, the Lehrmann matter goes from bad to worse. There are further disturbing signs of institutional failure in the ACT.
So far there is no indication that the ACT government will take any action against the territory’s former chief prosecutor Shane Drumgold despite the public board of inquiry’s damning findings against him. The ACT Greens-Labor government didn’t even sack him, instead allowing Drumgold to resign.
Based on the findings of the Sofronoff report, the ACT government could be demanding that Drumgold be charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice or the common-law offence of misconduct in public office.
These governmental failures were compounded in recent weeks by other institutions dragging their feet. The ACT Bar Association and the ACT Supreme Court, likewise, have shown no signs of upholding the integrity of the legal profession and the court system, respectively, after the former director of public prosecution’s misbehaviour during the nation’s most controversial sexual assault trial.
The people of the ACT are still waiting for the Bar Association to do what it is charged to do under the Legal Profession Act 2006 – to promote and enforce the professional standards, competence and honesty of the legal profession, and provide a means of redress for complaints about lawyers.
Bruce Lehrmann complained about Drumgold’s behaviour to the ACT Bar Association on December 9 last year – before the ACT government announced a public inquiry.
Lehrmann is still waiting for some sign of action. Nine councillors sit on the ACT Bar Council – the body at the top of the ACT Bar Association that “is responsible for regulating the professional conduct” of the practising barristers. The Bar Council wrote back to Lehrmann in May.
In a profession that charges by the hour, it pays to be unhurried. But, still, that doesn’t explain why it took the Bar Council five months to tell Lehrmann it needed more information on one matter, and as to the other issues raised by Lehrmann – including that the DPP “did not fulfil the prosecutorial obligation to ensure a fair trial” – the Bar Council would wait for the final report of the Sofronoff inquiry.
The Sofronoff report was released on July 30. A week later, the ACT Bar Council said the findings “will receive careful consideration … in the context of its role as the professional regulator of the ACT Bar”. It is September, and it’s crickets – still.
There is no indication that the ACT Bar Council has considered the report or intends to look at Lehrmann’s complaints against Drumgold.
Not unreasonably, this past weekend Lehrmann wrote back to them asking for an update.
“The findings of the report touched on some areas I raised in my complaint but uncovered alarming new examples of misconduct by Mr Drumgold that many were unaware of including further examples of deceit and non-disclosure to the defence team,” wrote Lehrmann.
The former Liberal staffer who has always maintained his innocence suggested the council “should adopt the inquiry report as evidence to support any investigation under way of Mr Drumgold”. While the council has power to reprimand a lawyer and order compensation, Lehrmann said those actions would be “woefully inadequate” given the serious findings in the Sofronoff report.
Instead, the ACT Bar Council should be referring this matter to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the body with the power to recommend the ultimate sanction – that a lawyer be removed from the roll of practitioners.
Indeed, the Bar Council has the power under section 411 of the Legal Profession Act to refer this matter to ACAT – without starting or finishing an investigation – if the council is satisfied there is a reasonable likelihood that Drumgold would be found guilty by ACAT of unsatisfactory professional conduct or professional misconduct.
What is the ACT Bar Council waiting for? What more does it need than the Sofronoff report for it to act?
There were a number of tax scandals in the 1990s where lawyers who engaged in misconduct handed in their practising certificates. The relevant ruling bar councils said that was not enough to signal the seriousness of the misconduct, and instigated proceedings to have the lawyers removed from the roll of practitioners.
Walter Sofronoff KC found that the ACT’s chief prosecutor knowingly lied to the Supreme Court, engaged in serious malpractice and grossly unethical conduct, “preyed on a junior lawyer’s inexperience” and treated criminal litigation as “a poker game in which a prosecutor can hide the cards”.
Had Drumgold succeeded in dishonestly preventing Lehrmann from obtaining material that could have helped his defence, any conviction would have been set aside on the ground of a miscarriage of justice, Sofronoff found.
What further prosecutorial misconduct is required for the ACT Bar Council to step up?
Lawyers are also wondering why the Chief Justice of the ACT Supreme Court has gone so quiet – apart from spruiking her commitment to social justice a few weeks ago in a YouTube clip for the University of NSW.
There are no signs that Chief Justice Lucy McCallum, the winner of the 2023 Alumni Award for Professional Achievement, is proposing to take any against a chief prosecutor who was found to have lied to her during a trial where a man could have gone to jail.
The Legal Profession Act makes it clear that nothing in the Act disturbs the inherent jurisdiction of the ACT Supreme Court. In other words, the court has the ultimate supervisory jurisdiction to deal with misconduct by lawyers.
The Chief Justice could initiate contempt proceedings, through the registrar of the Supreme Court, against the man who was found to have made false claims to her in court.
McCallum could initiate proceedings through the registrar of the Supreme Court to have Drumgold removed from the roll of practitioners.
In 2018, the prothonotary (a posh word for registrar) of the NSW Supreme Court took action to have disgraced former Labor MP Craig Thomson struck off the roll of practitioners.
The only discernible action taken at the ACT Supreme Court in relation to this matter is this: on September 14 the court set up an online file to make it easier for the media to follow Drumgold’s application for judicial review, launched last month to have the Sofronoff findings quashed.
To sum up, then, the ACT Supreme Court has taken no action against a prosecutor who was found to have lied to the Chief Justice but has taken action to assist the media in following Drumgold’s legal claim.
What makes this doubly weird is that the ACT Supreme Court didn’t offer the same ease of access to the media during the Lehrmann trial.
During the latter part of the public board of inquiry, Sofronoff sent Drumgold a notice of possible adverse findings against him. One was that Sofronoff could have found the DPP was not a fit and proper person to remain on the roll of barristers, or to remain in the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In response Drumgold’s lawyer, Mark Tedeschi SC, said those decisions were not part of Sofronoff’s remit.
And Sofronoff agreed. Instead, the judge set out the facts, made serious findings and left it to other institutions to do their job.
Those other institutions entrusted by the law, and by citizens, with upholding the administration of justice have done zip.
It would be unfortunate if this inaction leads people, not just lawyers, to wonder whether there is widespread institutional failure within the ACT – from the government to the legal profession to the judicial system.
**********************************************************
Bowen is running out of time and options on power
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen is proof that Australians are likely to pay a high price for ideological purity when it comes to energy. By continuing to reject even consideration of nuclear power or other high-density forms of electricity generation to replace coal, the Albanese government is leaving itself little room to move.
Mr Bowen has outlined the scale of the task required, including millions of solar panels, thousands of wind turbines and tens of billions of dollars’ worth of new transmission lines. The Australian Energy Market Operator has sounded the alarm that the build-out is behind schedule and over budget, risking the security of electricity supplies unless something is done to preserve coal-fired generation.
The renewable energy industry has confirmed that commitments from companies to invest in projects have collapsed to levels below what was being achieved by the Morrison government.
For all the talk of certainty provided by a legislated emissions target, companies are not willing to invest until government has provided the distribution networks needed to get the power to market. Getting access to the land required to build the networks is proving more difficult and expensive than anticipated. So, too, is getting access to farmland and environmentally cherished areas to build wind and solar farms. Community outrage is plain to see from southern Victoria to north Queensland.
Plans to boost the renewable energy network with offshore wind also are facing heavy weather. Australians are being told we are lucky to have the attention of offshore wind developers given the global demand.
But the reality is investment in offshore wind has collapsed in Britain and North America because of rising costs and inadequate government subsidies. In Australia, there is growing community anger about the impact of offshore wind turbines on visual amenity and wildlife, including whales and seabirds.
As community opposition to both onshore and offshore projects continues to build, so does the political pressure in seats that traditionally have been safe for Labor.
Meanwhile, the constituents calling loudest for change are most often those least likely to experience the disruption first-hand, and they are likely to vote green or teal independent. The major parties must manage the transition.
The Albanese government is learning a lesson that has been consistent in efforts to tackle climate change around the world. Public support for action does not always extend to a willingness to pay for it or to suffer material or environmental inconvenience as a result.
As a dense form of energy, nuclear can use existing infrastructure and have a much smaller footprint. Mr Bowen seems determined to push on regardless.
His attempts to dismiss a call by the Coalition for nuclear to be considered was ham-fisted and further damaged the government’s credibility. Even the inflated costs put forward for nuclear by Mr Bowen looked cheap compared with accepted estimates of trillions of dollars for a renewable alternative. Given the global rush for small-scale nuclear development, the long-term costs are likely to be much lower than Mr Bowen’s estimates for energy that will be available on demand.
To forgo options other than wind, solar and batteries, the government must deal with the issue of where they will go. In an energy transition where enthusiasts, including the government’s net-zero tsar, Greg Combet, are quick to talk about warlike footings, it can be only a matter of time before reasonable objections are swept away by authoritarian compulsion in the name of an energy emergency that is entirely of the government’s making.
*********************************************************
Universities deliver ‘woke’ degrees to trainee teachers who demand more practical training
“Woke’’ universities are instructing trainee teachers in gender theory, climate activism and race relations, as young teachers demand practical classroom skills.
One in five teachers has warned the federal Education Department that universities failed to teach them all the practical skills required to teach children to read and write, or to manage classrooms.
Up to one-third of recent teaching graduates from some universities declared their degree had failed to prepare them for the classroom.
Teachers-in-training have been lectured on “postmodernism, existentialism and reconstructionism” in the University of Canberra’s initial teacher education degree.
Course materials sent to students show lecturers have critiqued the “social and political content’’ of the Australian Curriculum, mandated by the nation’s education ministers for teaching children from primary school through to year 10.
A lecture slide notes “we aren’t even doing a very good job”, tallying up 19 references to social justice, Aboriginal rights, invasion, colonisation, the Stolen Generation, assimilation, social justice and racism.
The course material includes a slide from CNN, with the title “Our World Today’’, linking climate change to aggression and violent behaviour, depression and anxiety, farmer suicide and forced migration.
Thousands of students skipped school on Friday to march in “School Strikes 4 Climate’’ protests in Brisbane, Darwin and Melbourne.
One protester brandished a misspelt placard declaring “I’M MAD AND DISSAPOINTED”.
Two of Australia’s most eminent scientists – Nobel laureate and Australian National University vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt and former chief scientist Dr Alan Finkel – this week criticised the poor levels of literacy and numeracy among school students and called for greater focus on schools teaching the basics of English and mathematics.
One-third of school students failed to meet the minimum standards for reading, writing and numeracy in this year’s NAPLAN (National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy) tests, with students twice as likely to fail than to excel in the tests.
But many teachers are struggling with literacy and numeracy themselves, as universities fill their teaching degrees with lectures on social justice.
The federal Education Department revealed on Tuesday that many teachers fresh from university feel their degrees failed to prepare them for classroom teaching.
“A lot of students talked about the need to have more practical on-the-job training as part of the course and some suggested something along the lines of an apprenticeship model,’’ said Lisa Bolton, director of research and strategy for the department’s Quality Indicators for Learning and Teaching survey of university graduates.
“They wanted to know more about classroom behaviour management, dealing with parents and dealing with students with particular learning needs.
“They said the placement was too short, the course was too theoretical and even a bit outdated. A few had made comments about wanting the lecturers to have more recent teaching experience in schools.’’
One University of Canberra final-year student told The Australian the education degree was “teaching us to indoctrinate students’’. “It teaches about gender diversity and critical race theory rather than drilling down on the fundamental skills so we can be really effective teachers ourselves,’’ the student said.
“I’m pretty irritated by all the politically correct and woke stuff. “We could learn more in a school classroom than in the university … and save ourselves and the taxpayer a lot of money.’’
At the University of Canberra, a lecturer’s slide about “postmodernist writing’’ includes a rambling and incomprehensible 92-word sentence: “The move from a structuralist account in which capital is understood to structure social relations in relatively homologous ways to a view of hegemony in which power relations are subject to repetition, convergence, and rearticulation brought the question of temporality into the thinking of structure, and marked a shift from a form of theory that takes structural totalities as theoretical objects to one in which the insights into the contingent possibility of structure inaugurate a renewed conception of hegemony as bound up with the contingent sites and strategies of the rearticulation of power.’’
A University of Canberra spokeswoman said the student’s complaints “do not accurately represent’’ the quality and content of its degree. She said trainee teachers were given practicum placements in schools, ranging from a week in the first year to 30 days in the fourth year of study.
“Taken together, all units of study that focus on a key learning area of the Australian Curriculum – mathematics, English, science etc – represent approximately 50 per cent of the total units studied by students in an undergraduate course of initial teacher education,’’ the spokeswoman said.
“The other half of the courses focuses on educational and developmental psychology, classroom and behaviour management, the use of data to improve learning, designing learning for diversity and inclusion, and the development of a professional identity well-informed by policy, theory, appropriate sources of professional learning and codes of conduct and practice.’’
Federal, state and territory education ministers have given universities until the start of 2025 to update their degrees to focus more on classroom management, children’s brain development and the teaching of phonics-based reading and writing, as well as mathematics.
The detail of what is taught in existing university degrees is kept secret: universities must submit course content to state and territory teaching accreditation bodies for approval, but most only publish a broad outline on their websites.
The Australian sought the universities’ course materials from the Queensland College of Teachers but was told they could not be released “for privacy reasons’’.
The University of Queensland’s website shows that teaching students spend the first six weeks of their degree learning about “sociological ideas and concepts needed for understanding the complexities of schooling and the social processes that often go on within them”. “We delve into the history of knowledge production in sociology, and explore the need to decolonise, expand and diversify what we know about schools and the processes that go on in them,’’ it states.
Students are assessed, in part, on a 10-minute verbal presentation explaining concepts such as “decolonising knowledge’’, the “myth of meritocracy” and “deficit discourses’’. Another lecture is about “expanding notions of sex, gender and sexuality’’.
At Victoria University, the very first subject in its teaching degree aims to “develop understanding for the cultures, histories and languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and to use this knowledge in the promotion of reconciliation”.
The teaching of science, maths and reading is not covered until the second year, and students must wait until the final year of their four-year degree to specialise in subjects such as biology and humanities, or to integrate the use of digital technologies in lessons.
Charles Sturt University’s course handbook for its Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood and Primary) has a list of 11 outcomes for its graduates.
The top priority is for graduates to be “agents of change’’’.
“Graduates from this course will teach for social justice and equity,’’ it states. The fifth priority is that “graduates from this course will teach for student learning’’.
At the University of Adelaide, an introduction to Australian history “treats the development of Australian society to the present through the lenses of Aboriginal deep time history; convicts and colonialism; war and conflict; migration and multiculturalism; landscape and the environment, and; the development of democratic institutions”.
Despite 13 years at school and four at university, 7 per cent of the 20,000 final-year trainee teachers failed to pass the mandatory literacy and numeracy test in 2021.
The Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students was set up as a guardrail to keep poorly trained teachers out of classrooms.
The test includes questions that could be answered by primary school students, such as correcting a spelling error or answering: “This year a teacher spent $383.30 on stationery. Last year the teacher spent $257.85 on stationery. How much more did the teacher spend this year than last year?’’
************************************
19 September, 2023
Pitting modern secular beliefs against the entire Bible
That faith ledership should be by men only is made clear in both the Old and New Testaments. It's not a view common to all religions. Many pagan religions actually worshipped women. But it is a marker of the Judeo-Christan faith as recorded in the Bible.
So you either believe the Bible is right or not. If not, you are just a modern pagan, not a Christian. Christ himself was most energetic in preaching from the Old Testament so there is no doubt where the loyalties of his folowers should lie
There is no doubt that women can and do good works both within and outside the church and a division of labour between men and women is very common. Why must a faith-based division be condemned? The opposition is in fact religious: Pitting a Leftist equality religion against the religion of the Bible
The claim below that Bible-based Anglicans are obsolescent is the big joke. The Sydney diocese hosts around a third of the nation's Anglicans. They are thriving. It is the secularists who are obsolescent. As ever, the faith of the Bible is powerfully attractive to people. The secularists have nothing compared to it. The Sydney diocese is having the last laugh
One of the oddest, little-known contradictions in this country will be occurring in Christchurch St Laurence, on the fringes of the Sydney CBD, this weekend, quietly and with little fanfare.
The most powerful woman in the Australian Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Perth Kay Goldsworthy, will be preaching in the Sydney Diocese – a place where women are not allowed to be priests or lead congregations that contain men. Here, Goldsworthy can’t be an archbishop, a bishop or even just a priest once her plane’s wheels hit the tarmac in Sydney – she can only operate on the lowest rung of the clergy, as a deacon.
If she were to fly here when a bloke was being consecrated as bishop or inaugurated as archbishop, she could not take her rightful part alongside her male colleagues, but would sit in the pews. She can’t wear her funky purple episcopal robes, either.
It’s so weird, and wildly offensive to female clergy around the country. You are less, you are different, you must step back, here, you must submit to men.
A private protocol – of which I have obtained a copy - was drawn up to manage this situation after all bishops, including the females, were accidentally invited to the consecration of a male bishop in St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney, in 2014. Awkwardly, then Archbishop Glenn Davies needed to uninvite all the women.
Davies pointed out that these bishops must operate as deacons in Sydney, with an important caveat: they cannot contravene Sydney Diocese’s “understanding of the restrictions of the apostle in 1 Timothy 2:12.” This verse, reflective of the patriarchal culture of its time, reads: “I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.”
Sydney Diocese is now operating under a kind of gender apartheid, where women operate under a different set of rules, and need to submit to men, and male authority, or be ostracised. Some have gone to be ordained elsewhere, and very many have left. It’s pure geographical absurdity.
A spokesman for Sydney Diocese advises me this protocol is still in place.
The Sydney diocese has fought long and hard, at great expense, in synods, courts and commissions for more than half a century, to stop women becoming priests. It has come to define it, and been their symbol of doctrinal purity, a source of internal pride if occasional public embarrassment.
When he was archbishop, Glenn Davies continued to hold the line against women priests. Like Peter Jensen before him, and Raffel after, he has been a leader in GAFCON – the Global Anglican Future Conference, which aims to counter the liberalising tendencies of church leaders who have accepted women as priests, same-sex marriage and been relaxed about divorce.
The Sydney diocese has actively promoted and supported “church planting” in other Anglican dioceses for nearly two decades – setting up churches in other parts of the country that are theoretically independent but closely aligned with their conservative ethos, thumbing their noses at the geographical differences they enforce for women, ignoring the protocols of the local bishop.
In those four decades, a lot of women, especially those of a modern, feminist bent, have left the church over this nonsense. Yes, I know there are women who comply with this doctrine of headship, who claim to thrive under its hierarchy, but most just think the whole thing is nuts.
Some church leaders try to shove it under the rug when visitors come by. But it matters; the Anglican church runs schools, aged care homes, counts three million odd Australians as members. There are many fine people there doing important work. As Keith Mason, KC, a retired judge who has struggled for the equality of men and women in the Diocese for many years told me: “The idea that you can be ‘separate but equal’ was a terrible and deceiving lie in South Africa. It doesn’t work for an Australian Church claiming to be modelled on the teachings of Jesus either.”
Did you know the Sydney synod – the parliament of the church – was sitting this week? No, nor did most people. Once it was front page news, now it’s barely reported on, barely discussed outside the church. Many people have, quite simply, forgotten that this is going on, that women are treated this way. This pure, distilled sexism once provoked outrage, now it is seen as absurd, archaic and inexplicable. Surely undervaluing and silencing women for decades, in both flamboyant and secretive ways, simply underwrites your own obsolescence.
*****************************************************
Inheritance tax will only hurt middle Australia
The newly appointed chairwoman of the Productivity Commission, Danielle Wood, is very keen on taxation, especially new taxes. Indeed, the staff at the Grattan Institute, which she now leaves, have rarely seen a tax they don’t love or wish to increase.
Higher GST? Tick. Greater GST coverage? Tick. Higher taxation on older people? Tick. Higher taxation on superannuation? Tick. Property taxes on owner occupiers? Tick. Limits on negative gearing? Tick. Lower discount on capital gains tax? Tick. Carbon taxes? Tick. Inheritance tax? Tick.
On the face of it, Wood’s strongly held views on taxation policy could prove an embarrassment for the Albanese government. Indeed, just before her appointment being announced, she delivered a lecture in Tasmania where she endorsed the option of introducing an inheritance tax as well as including the value of the family home in the Age Pension assets test.
“While so-called ‘death taxes’, but more correctly ‘intergenerational transfer taxes’, are political dynamite, the windfall wealth gains of older generations and structural budget pressures mean we should at least have a sensible conversation about the possibility of taxing large inheritances,” she said.
She added: “At minimum, we should not be subsidising inheritances via some of the existing rules that allow the accumulated value of superannuation tax breaks to be inherited by the next generation, as well as the exclusion of virtually all the value of the family home from the Age Pension assets test.”
While strenuously denying the suggestion that the Albanese government plans to introduce an inheritance tax, senator Deborah O’Neill made the weak point that Wood’s speech came before the announcement of her appointment as chairwoman of the Productivity Commission. The fact is that Wood’s views on this matter have been well-known for a very long time.
But OK, let’s have an open mind about inheritance taxes, at least until you have read to the end of this column. We can all agree they are political dynamite, but are there sound economic reasons for considering such taxes? What does the international evidence tell us?
It’s always worthwhile returning to the basic facts before discussing policy options. Indeed, Wood refers to the previous work of the Productivity Commission on intergenerational wealth transfers but misses the main point. In her speech, she states “the Productivity Commission projects that among current retirees, just 10 per cent of all inheritances will account for as much as half the value of bequests.”
She quotes Thomas Picketty who likens this to a Jane Austen world “where inequality is exacerbated by ever-growing inheritances”. In fact, the Productivity Commission report shows the reverse. A key conclusion is wealth transfers actually improve wealth inequality. “When measured against the wealth they already own, those with less wealth get a much bigger boost from inheritances on average, about 50 times larger for the poorer 20 per cent than the wealthiest 20 per cent,” the report read.
On a dollar-for-dollar basis, wealthier people receive more inheritances and gifts but “less as a percentage of their existing wealth”, an effect the Productivity Commission expects to persist into the future. “Children tend to enjoy a similar relative wealth position to that of their parents, but inheritances are not the main driver of this.” These findings match international research. But just like bank robber Willie Sutton, it’s not surprising those seeking more tax revenue would eye off intergenerational transfers given the sums of money involved in annual bequests are substantial – currently close to $200bn annually.
In fact, Australia used to have a number of death duties levied by both federal and state governments. Currently there is a 17 per cent tax levied on any superannuation balance held by a deceased person not given to dependants. Capital gains tax is also payable by beneficiaries on inherited assets apart from the family home.
If we look across the world, many countries have inheritance taxes but many don’t. Interestingly, nine OECD countries have abolished them since the early 1970s. The Nordic countries don’t have them. In the US, the exemption levels are extremely high – assets of up to $11m given to children attract no tax, for example.
But the main take-out point of the international experience is how little revenue is generated from inheritance taxes – a mere 0.5 per cent of all tax revenue on average of those OECD countries with such taxes. It’s a lot of trouble to go to for such a little return. In Australia’s case, we would be lucky to drag in around $3bn a year.
Note also that the compliance costs of inheritance taxes are extremely large, including the required addition of gift taxes. Only annual wealth taxes have higher compliance costs. In those countries that have inheritance taxes, there is a thriving estate planning industry that is essentially productivity-sapping.
Let’s be clear on another point: the very wealthy don’t pay inheritance taxes. They have trusts, companies, overseas assets – complicated arrangements that mean that death doesn’t trigger a tax event. It’s only the middle classes that get caught in the inheritance tax net, which has been the recent experience in Britain.
One of the problems of Wood’s endorsement of an inheritance tax, as well as a number of other taxes/penalties to be imposed on older folk, is they essentially involve double taxation. In the case of superannuation, it would be triple taxation – at the point of contribution, earnings and pension.
People have accumulated assets using post-tax incomes or, if they have used negative gearing, are liable for capital gains tax on any realisation of assets. The presence of an inheritance tax and all the attached regulations carry the risk of deterring investment and capital accumulation, which would have wider negative economic effects.
That older people are wealthier than their children and grandchildren has always been thus. It potentially becomes an economic issue with a (slowly) ageing society. But it’s not helpful to set up a narrative about intergenerational conflict, as is Wood’s wont, in part because the older generation continues to help out, both financially and non-financially, younger generations.
As Wood takes up her role, she must bear in mind that she is heading up the Productivity Commission. It’s not about taxes which, to varying degrees, are productivity-sapping. The work of the Productivity Commission about productivity gains that could be made in the large non-market, government-funded services sector is important in this respect. If these gains could be achieved, then the need to raise taxes would be commensurately reduced.
As Paul Krugman opined, “productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run it is almost everything”. Wood may care to have this famous quote framed to hang in her new office.
***************************************************
Innocent boy, 11, dragged into a paddy wagon
A heartless and irresponsible bureaucracy at work
“No, no, no. Let me go!” The cries of the 11-year-old Indigenous boy pierce the Northern Territory neighbourhood as two uniformed police officers force the struggling, sobbing child into the cage of a police wagon.
He’s done nothing wrong. A child protection worker assures him of this – “you haven’t done anything wrong” – as she calmly observes police manhandle the screaming child out of his home, carry him by his hands and feet, whatever limb they can grasp, before bundling him, alone and distraught, into the back of the police van.
His “crime”? He’d run away from a foster care placement and didn’t want to return. He wants to be here, with *Tom and *Marie, the couple he calls Mum and Dad, the people who raised him from just seven weeks old until he was removed by Territory Families two years ago and cycled through more than seven foster homes. He wants to be with his biological sisters and the odd assortment of family pets that mingle underfoot in a home adorned with family photos.
Video obtained by The Australian shows the highly distressing removal of the boy known as Benny. Forceful tactics and use of the secure cage of the police wagon raise questions over the treatment of the traumatised boy – questions that NT Police and Territory Families refused to address on Monday.
In the video Benny tries to explain, be heard, stand up for himself. Resist. The police wave their court order at Tom. Benny is not authorised to be here because Tom and Marie are no longer certified foster carers. They require Benny to come with them but he will not leave voluntarily and Tom has told police he’ll let him go, but he will not force the boy to leave.
There’s only one way this will end.
The video shows three armed uniformed officers wrestling the child out of the house and down the long driveway late on Friday afternoon.
“I’m not moving,’’ Benny tells police when they finally get him to the police van parked on the road. “No thank you,’’ he tells them again, struggling to regain his composure. “You have no right to touch me.’’ He’s yelling now, panicked. “I said no thank you. I want to stay here. It’s not up to you, it’s up to me. I don’t want to f..king go!’’
He’s offered the choice to get into the NT government vehicle or the police van but to Benny it’s a false dilemma. He’s already told them he’s not moving.
He struggles against the police restraining his arms either side, tries to stamp on one officer’s toes, swears at them.
Three Territory Families staffers watch on as he’s forced into the cage of the police wagon, screaming “no no no, I’m not going back”. He bangs on the locked door as he’s driven away.
It’s a deeply troubling scene. Any hope of forging trusting relationships with authority figures have likely been burned in this moment.
Benny’s older sister, Jess*, who has endured her own trauma in a birth family wracked with intergenerational trauma, is crying. She can’t stand to watch. “If he dies in his next placement his blood is on your hands,’’ she tells police.
She’s a young adult now, safe in the knowledge they can’t take her. A younger sister, Milly*, who has suffered significant attachment issues since her earliest days, is staying put in her bedroom. Tom and Marie, a non-Indigenous couple who work in education and health, say the teen is in constant fear she too will be taken away.
“To know that’s happened to her brother, and it could be her next, and to see him so traumatised is horrendous. It’s wrong on every level,’’ Marie says.
They watch this drama, this struggle between three police and a boy unfolding outside their house, in disbelief. After all they’ve heard about trauma-informed care, this is deemed the best way to handle a child who requires extra care with his diagnoses of foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, intermittent explosive disorder and ADHD?
Whatever gripes Territory Families have with this couple – and there are many, on both sides – this video of forced removal of an Indigenous child by police looks like something from the dark past.
You watch it and can’t help but wonder how the best interests of a vulnerable boy who has done nothing wrong are best served in the cage of a police wagon.
Tom and Marie are still shaken when they speak with The Australian in the aftermath of his removal.
NT Police refused to comment on the case when contacted by The Australian on Monday. A spokesperson for Territory Families would only say that the safety and wellbeing of children and families is their “utmost priority’’.
“Child protection work is extremely complex and is done with (a) range of partners from police, health, and non-government organisations. This work is regularly reviewed to ensure the actions were appropriate and in the best interests of the child.’’
There have been no allegations that Benny was unsafe with Tom or Marie, or lacked love and care or was denied cultural connection. They have close bonds with the children’s birth family. Two grandparents and an aunt told The Australian earlier this year they were content for the children to live with Tom and Marie because they got to see them, were welcomed into the family home.
But the matter has been escalating since August 2021 when the couple were informed their authorisation as foster carers had expired. Standard-of-care concerns had been raised and Benny and Milly were removed without warning and before the couple could respond to the concerns.
“We were not permitted to have any contact with the children, not even to explain or say goodbye,’’ they said.
In a letter to Territory Families they said: “Had we been given the opportunity to respond, the issues could have been examined and quashed and the children would not have been traumatised by being removed from our care.’’
Milly was subsequently shuffled through 13 foster placements and two residential centres. “A mentally unwell child, and they did that to her,’’ Tom said.
She kept running away, back to Tom and Marie who’d cared for her since she was 18 months old. “She’d come back to us and then we’d have to force her to leave. It was horrendous,’’ Tom said, describing the trauma of physically forcing the screaming child into a car. “After about the 11th time we said we can’t do this anymore. I had to say, ‘I am not going to make you get in the car. I’m not going to send you away anymore.’’
That was late last year and Milly has been allowed to stay with them since then. They say that Benny, living nearby in other foster care arrangements, was not allowed to visit or see his siblings, even on special occasions, a matter of ongoing concern in light of the Aboriginal placement principle that puts connection with kin as a high priority.
It’s understood matters escalated over recent weeks when he was about to be moved to another foster care home. He too ran back to Tom and Marie.
A letter from Territory Families, sent last Thursday, referred to the “repeated occasions’’ the couple had had Benny in their home without authorisation and ordered them to return him, noting they were no longer certified carers. The letter warned that the department had the power to apprehend and remove the child, who is under the guardianship of the department’s chief executive officer until he’s 18.
Police and Territory Families workers had attended their home previously and requested that Benny leave with them but he refused. “I said to them ‘I am not stopping you from taking him’,’’ Tom says. “I just wasn’t prepared to force him to go. He was choosing to be here, he was self-placing and refusing to leave.’’
Marie says they encouraged him to give his new foster care placement a go, but he was steadfast in his refusal.
They believed mediation was still an option at this point. Arrangements were being made for meetings between the couple and the department this week, but before that could happen, in the back and forth of arranging suitable dates and times, police and departmental officials arrived last Friday with their court order and police van.
It’s the culmination of a 13-year ordeal that began when Tom and Marie agreed to foster Milly and Benny and their two older siblings, Jess and another child, who killed himself at the age of 15 while living in a residential care home.
It’s a story of a couple without children of their own who offered a loving home to the four siblings who’d been removed from their parents following neglect, malnourishment, serious abuse and extreme family violence.
With little support, at times, in dealing with the highly traumatised children who all displayed troubling behaviours, Tom and Marie increasingly found themselves at loggerheads with case managers and the department. They felt their calls for help, their evidence of violent outbursts from the children and their times of heightened stress were used against them to blame them for not coping.
Eleven-year-old Benny struggles with Northern Territory police before being dragged into a paddy wagon on Friday.
Eleven-year-old Benny struggles with Northern Territory police before being dragged into a paddy wagon on Friday.
In the “standard-of-care concerns” used to justify removing the children, Territory Families listed the significant levels of stress the carers exhibited. They were accused of not working collaboratively and constructively with the department’s care team, of being unwilling to follow advice, being inconsistent around their needs for respite care and differential treatment of the children.
In a letter of complaint, Tom and Marie described the allegations as unsubstantiated and nebulous. They attempted to describe their challenges working with the department. “We are constantly called on to explain and re-explain, justify and re-justify to staff who are frequently unaware of the history of these children despite having access to years of paperwork.
“The huge turnaround of staff results in their ill-supported responses and strategies. What we have carefully created with one set of teams is immediately dismantled by the incoming team with opposing frameworks, philosophies or beliefs.’’
The Australian has heard similar complaints from other foster carers in NSW and the Northern Territory who raise the risks of becoming known as “problematic carers”.
Marie said they challenged the reasons for the children’s removal “via any avenue we could find’’, but to no avail.
A child psychologist who worked with the family said that Tom and Marie had shown “a lot of resilience and love towards the children. They have shown to be very capable of caring for the children.’’
“I believe there needs to be support from Territory Families towards the family but also towards myself as I have had no luck in trying to collaborate with the … caseworkers for the family.’’
The principal at a school attended by Benny was also glowing in his assessment of Tom and Marie. “Their love and care … was a constant in his life since he was a baby and with their support we could all see that [Benny] had a real shot at a successful happy life.’’
Tom and Marie can only hope this is still the case.
They don’t know how Benny is coping after Friday’s events. They have no right to any information about him and don’t know where he is.
As for Milly, Territory Families has engaged an external psychologist to do a thorough assessment to determine her needs. “I appreciate that you have engaged in this process. TFHC await a final report from the psychologist to determine the most appropriate arrangements for [Milly],’’ the department said in a letter to Tom and Marie.
So now they must wait, while assuring the children that whatever happens, they love them.
“We made a lifelong commitment to the children,’’ Tom says. “We remain faithful to them.”
*********************************************************
South Australian small businesses struggle to absorb higher power costs as bills rise by $650
South Australian business owners say they are being forced to rethink how they run their services, with the most recent round of power price hikes already taking a significant toll.
Over the past year, butcher Steve Howell said he has seen a significant jump in the cost of running his small business.
"With electricity, gas and lots of other things — the rising cost of just life — it is difficult," Mr Howell said.
"I'm finding that I have to work longer hours if that's possible but I do it, because it needs to be done."
Earlier this year, the Australian Energy Regulator announced that from July 1, electricity prices would increase between 20 and 25 per cent for residential customers in South Australia, New South Wales and south-east Queensland.
It also said small businesses would face rises of up to 29 per cent, depending on their region.
Mr Howell said he was concerned the latest surge in electricity costs would make it difficult to keep prices low for customers.
"Every time we do get one of these hikes I need to re-evaluate the costs of everything," Mr Howell said.
"The people that produce the products that I buy in store, they've got electricity hikes as well, so it just filters down and so unfortunately the consumer has to pay.
"It's just layered, it affects us and it hurts a lot of us and we're losing small business."
Salon owner Maria Paglia said on top of hefty electricity bills, the soaring cost of living has meant many people are increasingly cutting back on luxuries, including hair appointments.
"We have noticed a big change," Ms Paglia said.
"It's a bit of a struggle as clients are stretching out their services which is making it harder as they're not coming in as regularly.
"Everything is going up day by day and it is making it very hard and we're trying not to pass it on [to customers] but we're pretty much going to have to, otherwise we won't be able to stay afloat."
SA households paying up to $250 more, report finds
A report by the Essential Services Commission of South Australia found in the 12 months to the end of June, power bills had increased by up to 16.5 per cent, equating to nearly $650, for small businesses across the state.
It also showed the average South Australian household is paying up to $250 more.
South Australian Council of Social Service CEO Ross Womersley said the escalating prices are particularly concerning for households on low incomes.
"We know that many families are making decisions not to put food on the table quite as often as they might or indeed to feed their kids but not necessarily to feed themselves in an effort to save money so that they can afford to keep paying their energy bills," Mr Womersley said.
In the June state budget, the South Australian government announced additional electricity bill relief measures which included rebates of up to $500 for eligible households on concession payments.
Mr Womersley said while the introduction of the rebates was a step in the right direction, major energy retailers responded "almost immediately" by increasing their prices.
"So the advantage, the protection, that that payment was likely to provide just has been eroded in seconds literally," he said.
"The really terrifying thing is that even with those costs increasing and with that energy relief payment, what happens when we get into the next cycle once that money has run out?
"It raises big issues about what our governments can be doing to ensure that particularly low income households get the benefits of solar and insulation so that their energy demand isn't continuing to escalate."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-19/small-businesses-rising-power-costs-south-australia/102868204
************************************
18 September, 2023
The Feelgood versus the rational
I have set out at some length here why Leftists tend to have ego problems. They have a great need for praise and admiration. So if an opportunity comes up for a Leftist to say or do something that will win him/her congratulations for being caring (etc.), he/she will grab that opportunity. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with that. The problem arises when the feelgood policy has consequences that are destructive or dangerous. What if some action that at first seems praiseworthy turns out to do a lot of harm if you take that action?
A Leftists will not normally be deterred by that. His/her need for praise will cause him to close his eyes to the bad consequences down the track and keep advocating anything that sounds good. He needs the praise too much to give up the feelgood policy
But conservatives are not like that. They are cautious and want to avoid doing anything that will hurt people. So they will point to the future harms of the feelgood policy and will oppose it because of those harms. The conservative does not allow the feelgood nature of some policy to swamp all other considerations.
And Australia is at the mmoment gripped by a debate over a policy that feels good to most people but which could do real harm if implemented: The "Voice" debate.
Leftist feel all warm and righteous at advocating a special voice in Federal parliament for Aborigines. Aborigines as a group are in a hell of a mess in many ways so "doing something" for them has great appeal. It shows how much heart you have for their problems and may lead to better treatment of them by future governments.
But conservatives know their history and are quite appalled by the prospect of racial privileges for one particular group. If the 20th century taught us anything, it taught us the evils of racial favoritism. There can be no doubt that racial preferences are simply evil and provoke disharmony.
So conservatives are against the Voice on that and other grounds. And that makes them the enemies of the Leftist feelgood policy. So what do the Left do when thretened with the loss of their feelgood policy? Do they simply concede the point and desist from advocating something that could be very harmful? No way. They like ther feelgood policy too much to abandon it.
So what do they do? In good Leftist style they resort to abuse and lies. They go "ad hominem". They cannot answer the conservative arguents so they impugn the motives of conservatives who oppose the polcy. In the oldest bit of Leftist abuse in the book, they accuse conservatives of racism. They say that it is racism that lies behind opposition to the "voice". That they are are the one who are advocating something racist seems quite lost on them.
So they pretend tat it is white supremacists who are their opposition while they are the good and noble guys. It's a sad commentary on the ego needs that drive such irrationality but it is a classic bit of Leftist argumentation.
The toon below describes the mythical world that the Left have created around the "Voice". One of the many things that the Left are sedulously ignoring is that it is not only white conservatives in opposition but many Aborigines too. Around half of Aborigines seem to be opposed to the Voice and say so. How come they oppose something that is supposed to help them?
The only way the Left have of dealing with that puzzle is by ignoring the Aborigines concerned. The toon features some well-known Aborigines who oppose the Voice and shows them as canvassing for a "No" vote
************************************************************
Prosecutions ‘frequently terminated’ to avoid harming First Nations victims: DPP
Since the usual victims of Aboriginal offenders are other Aborigines, this denial of justice hurts Aboriginal victims and helps the offenders
The state’s top prosecutor has warned that the criminal justice system is failing First Nations victims of crime and her office frequently terminates prosecutions involving Indigenous complainants because existing trial processes are not culturally safe.
NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling, SC, said adapting the justice system to serve the needs of First Nations complainants was a priority, including advocating for judges to give directions to jurors situating the evidence of Indigenous witnesses in a cultural context.
“It’s our strong view that there’s a potential for First Nations witnesses to be prejudiced in terms of their evidence being understood if lawyers, judges and juries aren’t familiar with the cultural and language differences that can characterise their evidence,” Dowling said.
Sociolinguistics experts have identified the respectful avoidance of eye contact, long silences and gratuitous concurrence – saying yes regardless of whether a person agrees with a proposition – as features of some Aboriginal communication styles that may be misinterpreted by non-Aboriginal jurors.
Those communication styles were “underpinned by cultural norms of courtesy and respect”, Dowling said, but “it can be, in fact, regarded as the opposite of what non-Aboriginal people expect from an honest witness”.
There was “further potential for miscommunication in cross-examination” because it involved the use of leading questions which “suggest an answer to the witness”, Dowling said.
The potential for jurors to misunderstand the evidence not only risked distorting the individual trial process, she said, “but we believe it has a deterrent and chilling effect on other First Nations people from engaging with the legal process”.
Under legislative changes that took effect in NSW last year, judges in many sexual assault trials must give a direction to jurors addressing common misconceptions about consent.
Dowling said those reforms provided a “good model” for a direction to “counter incorrect or stereotypical assumptions” that might affect jurors’ assessment of the evidence of First Nations witnesses. This would not remove judicial discretion and directions were “not required in every case or for every First Nations witness”, she said.
The changes might include a new requirement for judges to give a direction to jurors in some cases to help situate the evidence of First Nations witnesses in a cultural context. This could be modelled on the direction about consent given in some sexual assault trials.
The Evidence Act could also be changed to make it easier to introduce expert evidence about sociolinguistic factors that may affect the assessment of First Nations witnesses’ evidence.
Inspiration could be drawn from the state’s child sexual offence evidence program, which allows for a deviation from conventional cross-examination in some cases. This may allow evidence to be given in a narrative form.
Dowling said that “the very fundamental thing that needs to happen is that there is comprehensive judicial training into trauma-informed practice and also cultural awareness and culturally safe practices in courtrooms”.
The directions could “be as simple as highlighting to the jury that in many First Nations communities it’s considered polite to avoid eye contact or that a silent pause is an important part of Aboriginal communication,” she said.
This year, Dowling’s office discontinued a prosecution involving the alleged sexual assault in the 1970s and 80s of an Aboriginal teenage girl, given the pseudonym Leah, after Leah raised concerns about the trial process and a lack of cultural safety.
Leah’s concerns included the potential for long silences in the evidence of First Nations witnesses to be misinterpreted, and her desire to give her evidence in a narrative fashion.
“Leah noted that both she and her mother were storytellers, and that there is significant cultural value and power in storytelling for First Nations people,” a DPP case note said.
Leah’s case was not isolated. Dowling said that “for First Nations people, cultural safety is central to wellbeing” and her office “frequently terminates prosecutions involving Indigenous complainants because the criminal justice process is not culturally safe and does not meet their needs”.
‘These proposals are not radical. They are about fairness, and justice is all about fairness.’
NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, Sally Dowling, SC
Judges have discretion to give a direction to jurors about the evidence of First Nations witnesses, and they have been given in trials in the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia. However, they have rarely been given in NSW despite applications by prosecutors, and they have no legislative basis.
“We have seen with the consent directions ... that there’s not a lot of movement in this area without legislative amendment,” Dowling said.
She said there was “a widespread misconception that only First Nations people from remote communities have these distinct sociolinguistic characteristics” but “even quite urban communities” could share those features.
Dowling said separate changes to the NSW Evidence Act could be considered to allow “expert evidence on the sociolinguistic features of First Nations people ... to be given in court much more easily”, as is the case for expert evidence about the impact of sexual abuse on children.
The state’s child sexual offence evidence program also provided “a precedent for a significant deviation from conventional cross-examination in NSW”, she said, and it was “an analogue ... from which we can draw inspiration in this context.” The Evidence Act already allows judges to give a direction that witnesses give evidence in narrative form in some cases.
“These proposals are not radical,” Dowling said. “They are about fairness, and justice is all about fairness. We’re pursuing these changes largely in response to what our First Nations staff ... have identified as the difficulties they face in working with our First Nations witnesses and complainants.”
The changes “would be just as beneficial for First Nations people who are accused of having committed crimes”, she said.
Indigenous Australians are overrepresented as victims of crime compared with the non-Indigenous population and “they are a really important cohort of the people who are needed to be serviced by the criminal justice system”, Dowling said.
Bureau of Statistics figures based on police reports reveal First Nations people experienced sexual assault at 2.5 times the rate of non-First Nations people in NSW last year, the DPP said in a report tendered in a Senate inquiry.
**********************************************
Journos are failing the public in their reporting on renewables
The main sources of misinformation on Australia’s renewable energy transition are journalists from the ABC and the Nine newspapers.
And it’s not just about exaggerated reporting of natural disasters. Think about preconceptions among environment writers about the rights of people directly affected by the renewables grid expansion. Add to that journalists who ignore inconvenient facts about what is really happening to emissions around the world, and especially in China and India.
This column suggested last year that editors should send reporters into regional Australia to look at the reaction of rural communities affected by the rollout of more than 10,000km of poles and wires to connect renewables projects to the eastern states’ grid. This column has also pointed many times to misreporting of China’s renewables expansion while ignoring its rapidly expanding CO2 emissions.
This paper’s chief writer, Christine Middap, is the former editor of The Weekend Australian Magazine. She published a compelling piece on Saturday July 21 under the headline “Casualties on the road to renewables”.
The piece examined the plight of landholders affected by Transgrid’s HumeLink transmission project. Middap explained what fourth-generation Snow Valleys land holder Dave Purcell sees from his farm: eight to 14 steel towers, up to 76m high, carrying cables crisscrossing his cattle property.
Even Minister for Energy Chris Bowen sympathised with the plight of such farmers. “In my experience, most concerned community members are not anti-renewables, anti-transmission or anti-progress. Nor in most cases are they opposed to projects going ahead if their concerns are addressed,” Bowen was quoted saying.
The Sydney Morning Herald took a very different tack on the issue on Saturday September 9. This is a paper that has devoted probably hundreds of thousands of words in the past 50 years to disputes in Sydney’s eastern suburbs over trees disrupting multimillion-dollar harbour views.
National environment and climate editor Nick O’Malley savaged the new NSW Labor government’s decision to extend the life of the Eraring power station in the Hunter Valley. This is the country’s largest power source and the likelihood it would need to remain open beyond the 2025 date owner Origin Energy has flagged for closure has been known for years.
O’Malley quoted NSW Minister for Energy Penny Sharpe on social licence and renewables. “As Sharpe says, transition involves dispersing energy production that was once centralised mostly in the Hunter Valley across the state. Objections to new solar farms, wind turbines and transmission lines from landholders across the east coast are increasing.”
The piece, a full page, went on to quote several green energy lobbyists and planning experts about the slow processes of the NSW Department of Planning. From people whose land is being dissected by such projects – not a word. The renewables industry lobby owns the SMH’s journalism.
Reporting about the renewables commitments of the No.1 and No.3 global CO2 emitters, China and India, is just as lacking. Too many environment writers focus on increasing renewables use while ignoring that both countries are expanding their coal capacity.
In fact, The Telegraph in London on September 6 said China had this year started on new coal capacity greater than the entire existing US coal fleet. Yet in much media here it is Australia that is the emissions pariah.
At least The Guardian was honest enough to publish the truth on August 29. Quoting analysis by the Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research of Energy and Clean Air, The Guardian said “… in the first half of 2023 (China’s) authorities granted approval for 52 gigawatts of new coal power, began construction on 37GW of new coal power, announced 41GW worth of new projects and revived 8GW of previously shelved projects.”
Yet ABC radio’s flagship morning current affairs program, AM, on September 11 reported – po-faced – that Australia was being left behind by China’s energy transition as renewables industry leaders here pleaded for subsidies to help compete with US President Joe Biden’s misnamed Inflation Reduction Act spending on US emissions reduction.
Reporter Annie Guest interviewed Tim Buckley from the consultancy Climate Energy Finance who called for $100bn in government investment in renewables and critical minerals such as copper and lithium. Buckley believed the Future Fund should become an equity holder in renewables projects.
John Grimes, CEO of the Smart Energy Council, told Guest China was leading the world in the production and export of solar panels, wind turbines and EVs. “The rest of the world is in China’s dust,” he said.
Indeed, China has been the biggest beneficiary of the global energy transition across the West, even though it has increased domestic coal consumption by 300 million tonnes a year and last year increased emissions by 10 per cent over the pre-Covid peak set in 2019, according to The Conversation on July 10.
It is the biggest emitter by far, has the fastest-growing emissions and yet is the winner from commitments in Europe, East Asia, North America and Australia to reduce their emissions. In effect, the rest of the world is exporting its industrial base to China for no net gain on global emissions.
In fact, several European car makers, including German giant Volkswagen, have warned in recent months that European car production is on the verge of collapse in the face of cheap imported Chinese EVs and conventional cars and soaring power prices in Europe.
Now President Biden is using the Inflation Reduction Act to get a piece of the action China has been enjoying and European vehicle, electronics and chemical companies are moving manufacturing facilities to the US. Renewables lobbyists here want government subsidies so they can get some of the cake too. But what if it all fails?
AM was incurious about China’s rising emissions, the dangers of governments picking winners, the severe economic downturn in China, and the possibility Biden’s green agenda may just be a trillion dollar act of self-harm.
An editorial in The Wall Street Journal on September 4 warned many projects that were made possible only by Biden subsidies are now seeking large price increases from utility ratepayers to compensate for higher interest rates and soaring investment costs. Offshore wind developers in New York are seeking a 48 per cent rise in their power delivery contacts.
“The Alliance for Clean Energy NY is also requesting an average 64 per cent price increase on 86 wind and solar projects,’’ the Journal said. It noted growing demand nationally for renewables projects in the wake of Biden’s subsidies had driven inflation in the prices of renewables components.
So the laws of supply and demand apply even in the green economy? Who knew.
Good journalists should cast a sceptical eye over the self-interested claims of people wanting government handouts to boost private profits. Many consumers don’t pay for their media, relying on free sources such as the ABC and The Guardian.
It is incumbent on such sources to test the claims of those who stand to profit from new technologies. ABC consumers may be astounded to know there is as yet no economically viable technology pathway to green hydrogen. Nor would many realise most energy specialists expect all countries will continue to rely on gas for decades to firm renewables.
**************************************************
Fairness slips through ALP’s fishing policy
If Anthony Albanese planned to price wild-caught barramundi off the menu before last year’s election, he forgot to mention it to the electorate. However, it probably had yet to enter his mind before he flew to Paris to talk to UNESCO in July 2022.
Closing the gillnet fishing industry was one of the things UNESCO insisted must happen to stop the Great Barrier Reef from joining the “in danger” list. The Prime Minister and his Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, have bent over backwards to comply. French newspaper Le Monde recently quoted sources close to UNESCO saying the difference between the new government’s attitude and the old one was “like night and day”.
Gillnet fishing for wild barramundi in north Queensland will end when the season closes on October 31 and will be illegal from the start of next year. It was banned at the insistence of a supranational organisation without any discussion in federal parliament or consultation with the industry. To describe it as undemocratic would be an understatement.
Sky News host Caleb Bond says “doomsayers” would lead you to…
There is no credible scientific evidence showing how an annual catch of 200 tonnes of wild barramundi in onshore waters could damage the Reef. There have been no reports that stocks of wild barramundi are depleting. On the contrary, local fishermen say they have seldom been more abundant.
Yet from the end of next month the only place Australians will be able to buy Queensland wild barramundi will be on the black market. Gillnetting will continue in the NT and WA, but since two thirds of the national catch comes from Queensland, wild-caught barramundi will be priced out of reach for most consumers. Everything else will be farmed and much of it will be imported.
The sentence on gillnet fishing came out of the blue. Commercial fishers in Queensland reportedly found out less than an hour before a general announcement released by Plibersek and the Queensland government on June 5. The announcement was apparently timed to coincide with World Oceans Day, but no one had considered it worth warning the people whose livelihoods were about to be destroyed.
“It was just gut-wrenching to have that told to you in a press release,” gillnet operator Neil Green told me at the weekend. “No one in Queensland who managed the fishery was ready for this. Here we are three months down the track and we have no idea whether we’re going to get compensated, we’re going to be bought out or what the future is.”
Neither government had given much forethought to the impact on towns such as Ayr, where a thriving fishing industry operates around the mouth of the Burdekin River. The local ice producer is wondering if his business will survive. Business for the suppliers of marine services has tanked. Licence holders are stranded with expensive boats for which there is no longer a market.
It’s unclear whether Plibersek has visited the region, so far as anybody can tell. The decision and the announcement were made in the safe confines of Canberra, a city where the major industry is messing with other people’s lives.
“We know one of the most immediate threats to health of (the) Reef is unsustainable fishing practices,” read the June 5 press release in a section headed “Quotes attributable to the federal Minister for the Environment and Water”. She said dugongs, turtles and dolphins are caught in nets and drown.
If Plibersek could spare time to spend a morning with Green and his daughter, Sienna, working the creeks and mangrove swamps near the mouth of the Burdekin River, she would have learned the allegations in her press release were pure fiction.
She would have watched Green release his nets meticulously weighted at the bottom and with corks at the top, at locations and at a depth where almost half a century of experience has taught him he’ll catch barramundi and nothing else.
No licence holder looking for a return on their investment in their boat, equipment and red tape would contemplate not complying with the reporting regulations. Green has never had to report the catching of dugongs, turtles and dolphins, let alone their drowning, because he has never had the misfortune to catch one in 47 years of commercial fishing.
The Queensland government keeps a record of wildlife deaths for which humans are responsible. The total number of dugongs caught in nets since 2012 is six. The total of koalas killed on Queensland roads is more than 3000. Cars and trucks remain legal, at least for now.
Green has repeatedly asked for scientific evidence to support the minister’s claims. He said the best answer he’d been given was that fish absorb carbon dioxide and hold it in the ocean. “I’m happy to consider the science, but I’m not going to cop this rubbish,” Green told me.
UNESCO’s jihad against gillnets began in April last year when a delegation of special investigators flew to Queensland to look for evidence of damage to the Barrier Reef. Like Hans Blix, the hapless former Swedish diplomat sent to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, the delegation was hardly likely to return with a report declaring fears were misplaced.
The delegation spent 10 days in Queensland meeting more than 100 people, including politicians, bureaucrats, academics, representatives from tourism and the ever-expanding reef conservation industry. None of them worked in the kind of jobs where you get your hands dirty. They met representatives from the World Wildlife Fund, Queensland Conservation Council and the Australian Marine Conservation Society, whose organisations had joined the confected campaign against gillnets.
They apparently met nobody from the commercial fishing industry, let alone the licence owners whose worlds they were about to destroy.
When the Hawke Labor government banned logging on the Atherton Tablelands in 1987, then environment minister Graham Richardson had the decency to show up at Ravenshoe and look squarely at the faces of the workers who were about to lose their jobs. That is not the Albanese government’s style. It rubberstamps decisions made in Paris with little consideration for the dignity of working Australians, incomes, communities or fairness.
It is the same approach it has taken to develop the industrial-scale wind and solar plants blighting scores of regional communities from Tasmania to far north Queensland.
The pattern is clear. Albanese is dancing to the tune of the inner-city elites who call for greater action on climate change, knowing they’re exempt from paying the cost. His government is making costly decisions in energy and environmental policy without bothering to ask if they are needed or will be effective.
It is perfectly understandable. When the Prime Minister and his Environment Minister represent adjoining inner-city seats that are both under sustained attack from the Greens, the dignity of working people in regional communities is probably the last thing on their minds.
************************************
17 September, 2023
‘Heat waves are the killer’: Australia's very own false prophet warns of deadly risk over summer
Flannery is well-known for prophesying that Perth would become a ghost city for a lack of water. Perth of course continues to thrive
His latest propecy is just as mad. It is COLD weather, not hot weather, when most deaths occur
The long-range weather forecasts have been worrying. Australia faces a long hot summer with an increased risk of drought.
And while there will always be fears of bushfires, especially after the devastating black summer of 2019-2020, Tim Flannery warns that heat waves might be the biggest concern this season.
“All indications are we’re heading for a very hot summer, but we’re still getting some rain,” the Climate Council’s chief councillor said. “The potential for heat waves to have a big impact on human health is really there.
“You don’t need floods or bushfires to impact human health. Heat waves are the number one killer of people among natural phenomena so that’s a big concern.”
Flannery, a long-time advocate for more action to combat climate change, cited the 2009 heat wave in south-east Australia that health authorities have said contributed to the death of more than 370 people in Victoria alone.
“Melbourne saw it very clearly [then] when there was four days above 40 degrees and very little cooling at night,” he said.
Flannery was speaking before the release of a new documentary, Johan Gabrielsson’s Climate Changers, which has him interviewing leaders of the climate movement around the world. It launches in cinemas with a live Q&A session on Sunday.
**************************************************
Huge cost of Australia’s renewable energy dream, according to industry leaders
The race to connect renewable energy to the grid is challenging and costly, industry leaders say, as they urge a focus on affordable electricity.
Alinta Energy chief executive officer Jeff Dimery said his firm was investing $10bn into renewable power, including offshore wind, battery technology and pumped hydro, but cautioned that affordability must remain a key driver.
He cited the giant Snowy 2.0 pumped-hydro project, the cost of which in August was announced as having blown out to $12bn from an original $2bn.
Mr Dimery said this would deliver $100m of monthly revenue once complete, which translated to a capital cost of more than $60 per megawatt hour.
The market paid less than $15 per megawatt hour for pumped hydro less than three years ago – a more than fourfold cost hike.
“We need to clean up our energy supply..... And I guess what I’m saying is that, ultimately, I agree with the Prime Minister, his vision and how we need to get there. Where we’re differing is at the pace at which we might do that,” Mr Dimery said.
Transgrid executive general manager Craig Stallan, whose firm operates and manages the high-voltage transmission network in NSW and the ACT, said infrastructure needed to be built to create a superhighway across the national power grid.
*************************************************
Assumed guilty: Parallels between Bruce Lehrmann and Zachary Rolfe cases are unmistakable and disturbing
The parallels between the investigations and the prosecutions of former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann and former police officer Zachary Rolfe are unmistakable and disturbing.
In both cases, a hasty investigation and charging of a young man for a serious crime was accompanied by diarised police concerns about lack of evidence.
In both cases, the politicisation of events by politicians and other senior figures occurred against a backdrop of social movements fuelling a febrile environment.
In both cases, a pattern of non-disclosure of material to defence lawyers put at risk their ability to properly defend their clients.
The difference is that the public has now had the benefit of a thorough public inquiry into the exercise of state power in the Lehrmann matter.
If we are to trust in all aspects of the criminal justice system, from policing to prosecutors, the issues raised by Rolfe’s lawyers and reported by The Australian’s Kristin Shorten today must be investigated. An internal police investigation is not enough.
There should be a transparent and meticulous public inquiry by a skilled and fearless senior judge into the circumstances surrounding the investigation and prosecution of Rolfe.
That the former constable was unanimously found not guilty by 12 jurors within a few hours is not a reason for institutions that wield tremendous power against a citizen to avoid a public inquiry into their behaviour.
The Northern Territory’s new Police Commissioner, Michael Murphy, has an opportunity to start his term in office by encouraging proper and overdue public scrutiny of the most controversial police investigation in the Territory’s history.
In his letter to Murphy on June 16 this year, Rolfe’s lawyer, Luke Officer, laid out serious concerns about the conduct of Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Newell. They included claims that Newell amended and edited an expert report, that he obtained opinions from a purported expert denying the lethality of the scissors that Walker used to stab Rolfe and threaten his partner, even though that expert said it would be inappropriate for her to give evidence, and that Newell withheld supplementary opinions given by two other experts to him about the lethality of the scissors that would have assisted defence but were revealed only during the trial.
The Darwin-based lawyer in his letter says it was only down to “sheer luck” that he became aware of the undisclosed material.
Again, by sheer chance, Rolfe’s lawyers became aware of a series of draft police coronial reports – known as the “Pollock reports” – that police had not given to the DPP, and could therefore not share with Rolfe’s defence team.
When making his order for disclosure of those reports, Supreme Court judge Dean Mildren said: “If the documents are never revealed, it may be that an innocent person has been wrongly convicted. It is to be hoped that this situation will not occur in the future.”
In his final report into the investigation and prosecution of Lehrmann, Walter Sofronoff explained why full disclosure was central to our trust in the criminal justice system by ensuring a fair trial, and addressing the imbalance of power and resources between the state and a citizen. “Criminal litigation is not a poker game in which a prosecutor can hide the cards,” he wrote.
In the Lehrmann case, the former DPP was exposed as failing to disclose material.
In the Rolfe matter, disclosure failures concern police.
Disclosure duties are the same for police and prosecutors because both are instruments of enormous state power, just as the damage to a defendant, and our trust in the criminal justice system, is the same whether non-disclosure is by a prosecutor or by police.
Many other parts of the Rolfe saga echo the Lehrmann case. For example, police diary entries reveal senior police officers expressed concerns at charging Rolfe before sufficient evidence had been amassed.
Just as the Lehrmann saga unfolded against the background of the #metoo movement and nationwide March 4 Justice protests, the arrest, prosecution and trial of Rolfe occurred as the Black Lives Matters movement grew in prominence, alongside “Justice for Walker” protests nationwide.
More concerning than the wild west of social media, which became hunting grounds for Lehrmann and Rolfe, leaders behaved badly. On November 12, three days after the fatal shooting, then-commissioner Jamie Chalker and chief minister Michael Gunner travelled to Yuendumu, where the latter told the community there would be an independent investigation into the shooting and “consequences will flow as a result.”
Recall that former prime minister Scott Morrison delivered an apology in parliament to Brittany Higgins, saying “I’m sorry to Ms Higgins for the terrible things that took place here”.
On the morning after Gunner’s comments – hours before Rolfe was charged – the NT’s then Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Ken Fleming attended a rally at Alice Springs, where thousands gathered to protest after Walker’s death, and said “one of the most important messages today is ‘Black Lives Matter’.
“Anybody who says contrary to that is guilty of corrupt behaviour,” he said.
A promised ICAC investigation into the shooting was to be headed by Fleming but after his rally speech, he was forced to remove himself from the probe and soon after retired. The probe never eventuated.
In 2022, after Rolfe was acquitted, ICAC investigated whether his murder charge had been politically influenced by Gunner or anyone else and found the claims were baseless.
If those leading our most powerful institutions do not show respect for this fundamental value, why would other politicians, let alone citizens who serve on a jury?
There are other matters of concern in Operation Charwell – the criminal investigation of the shooting. The police’s mission statement included this: “To provide a brief of evidence to the Director of Public Prosecutions in support of the offence as alleged against Constable Zachary Rolfe.”
The mission for police should have been to conduct a complete, accurate and reliable investigation of all evidence: that which supported the charge against Rolfe and that which did not.
According to police notes, a report was commissioned from a US criminologist about Rolfe’s use of force after NSW police advised NT police that “They were not keen to put themselves into the firing line if their SME [subject matter expert] offered an opinion that may be adverse.”
Did this mean NSW police didn’t want to express opinions that did not fit charging Rolfe?
The US criminologist, paid almost $100,000 for his 12-page report, was not provided with all the information on the incident but senior police told him via email that “it is important we make sure we have a good fit otherwise I will struggle to be able to convince my bosses of the value in utilising your extensive expertise”.
Given that Rolfe was arrested, did a “good fit” mean a report that fitted the mission statement of “in support of the offence” of murder?
If there is an ICAC investigation underway into these serious issues, the corruption watchdog won’t tell us.
The NT Police Professional Standards Command advised Rolfe’s lawyer that the Office of Ombudsman NT refused to investigate, stating it was “not in the public interest”. In response to Rolfe’s June complaint, the head of the PSC said he did not consider any further action was required.
It is passing strange that when The Australian sent questions to NT police on Monday, they said they were investigating Rolfe’s complaints. What is going on?
Had there not been a full public inquiry in the ACT, we would never have learned about serious wrongdoing by then DPP Shane Drumgold. The Rolfe fiasco raises similarly concerning questions about the conduct of police.
Only a thorough and public inquiry can settle concerns that Rolfe was the victim of brute politics, misguided social movements, a deeply flawed police investigation and serious failures to disclose material his lawyers should have had to properly defend him.
********************************************************
Australia's biased public broadcaster again
Special powers for blacks must not be questioned
Surely it’s no coincidence when addresses to the National Press Club by two of the nation’s most-prominent No campaigners – Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine – are apparently snubbed by ABC TV’s main channel?
Anyone who referred to the national broadcaster’s online TV guide on Thursday morning – just hours before Senator Price was due to give her powerful address in Canberra – could see that the live airing of her 12.30pm speech was not on the ABC main channel’s schedule.
Instead an episode of Hard Quiz was scheduled, and viewers who wanted to watch Senator Price’s speech would have had to switch to the ABC NEWS channel, which draws far fewer viewers.
A check of all the newspaper TV guides said the same thing: Senator Price’s address would not air on the main channel.
3AW broadcaster Neil Mitchell informed his listeners of this on Thursday morning, telling them: “Normally you would expect ABC television to broadcast the speech, well an email from Bernadette points out to me that they are not, they are going to put Hard Quiz on air instead.
“That can’t be right, that’s got to be an oversight, there is no way they would be so blatant to say, ‘Oh Jacinta Price is going to argue no, we will put a quiz show on instead’.”
Diary has been reliably informed it was Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson who took matters into her own hands on Thursday morning when she got wind of the ABC’s eyebrow-raising move.
The former ABC presenter phoned managing director David Anderson and shared some stern words.
Whatever was going on behind the scenes, it appears this call had significant impact because an 11th hour decision was made to air Senator Price’s speech.
Despite this, there was still no mention on the ABC’s online TV guides before the speech began and even the ABC’s helpline was telling callers they should switch to ABC NEWS channel to watch her address.
Diary asked the ABC what was going on and mid morning was told that Senator Price’s speech would be on the main channel due to “particular public interest in this event during the referendum campaign”.
When Senator Price’s spokesman was asked on the weekend what caused the ABC to drastically change its tune, he said: “Our office was alerted to this on Thursday morning, but we understand that when the matter was raised the ABC took action to run Senator Nampijinpa Price’s address on the main ABC channel.
“We believe it’s important that voters have equal opportunity to hear from all sides of the debate, and we’re glad the change in their programming schedule was able to be made.”
Apparently only the Wednesday NPC addresses are routinely aired on both ABC channels, which is fortunate for Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney, voice architect Professor Marcia Langton and Indigenous lawyer Noel Pearson, all planned for that midweek slot.
But what do viewers want to watch? Well, ABC TV’s YouTube channel shows viewers wanted to watch Senator Price in droves.
Her NPC address has drawn 84,000 views so far, compared to Professor Langton’s 17,000 views and Minister Burney’s 10,000 viewers.
Mr Mundine is due to give his NPC address on Tuesday, September 26, so Diary checked the ABC’s online guide to see where viewers could watch it. Not on the ABC.
Instead they were to be treated to an episode of the British series, Call the Midwife.
But after Diary put questions to the ABC, you guessed it, Mr Mundine’s address appeared on the ABC NEWS channel schedule, although not the main channel.
Diary asked Mundine about it on Sunday and he said, “It’s the ABC. They put all the Yes campaigners on the main channel and the No campaigners they drop to second class.
“They are not taking the referendum seriously, they are also picking a side.”
The ABC was asked about this on the weekend but did not respond.
************************************
14 September, 2023
Marcia Langton accuses No campaign of racism and stupidity
She is full of hate towards mainstream Australia. And if the referendum passes, she is highly likely to be on the resultant "advisory" body
Aborigines are in general very polite people so she is not very Aboriginal in her speech about this matter. But her father was a Scotsman so her Aboriginality is much diluted. That may explain where her politeness went
Linda Burney has been forced to intervene and call for care and respect from both sides of the voice referendum debate after Marcia Langton accused the No case of racism and stupidity, undermining the Yes campaign’s strategy to win over five million undecided voters.
Race became a central feature of the campaign on Tuesday in the wake of Professor Langton’s comments to an audience in regional Western Australia, as Noel Pearson urged fellow Yes supporters to “be respectful of the reservations that people have”.
The Australian understands there is a view among senior ranks of the party that if the Yes campaign manages to win over undecided people and add them to the Yes voters already locked in, they can achieve a majority on October 14.
Professor Langton in Bunbury on Sunday called out No campaign “lies” such as a voice enshrined in the Constitution will lead to treaty and compensation for Aboriginal people. “We’re really down to the wire. We’ve got four weeks to win this now and if there are people thinking, ‘Oh, but I read that (West Australian columnist) Paul Murray said that they’re going to use this as a sneaky way to get treaties’, we’re already well on the way to treaties, just tell them that,” Professor Langton said, adding that compensation would only ever be paid if the courts or governments said it should be.
“What are they (the No campaign) talking about? See, ‘Aborigines are bludgers, Aborigines steal everything, Aborigines aren’t entitled to the compensation that everybody else gets because they’re lying’. Do you see my point? Every time the No case raises one of their arguments, if you start pulling it apart you get down to base racism – I’m sorry to say it but that’s where it lands – or just sheer stupidity.”
The Minister for Indigenous Australians refused to directly criticise the comments but told federal parliament: “I want to say this very clearly – I call on everyone involved in this referendum to act respectfully and with care for their fellow Australians.
“We are a great country. We are enhanced by listening to a diversity of views and opinions. Fundamentally the voice is all about the act of listening … Of course there is no room for racism of any kind in this country,” Ms Burney said.
Professor Langton, an architect of national, regional and local voice models, defended her comments, saying No campaigners were using racist tactics but she didn’t believe the majority of Australians were racist.
“I have not said that No voters are racist. The No campaign is using racism to peddle their deceitful wares,” she told The Australian on Tuesday.
“No one gets compensation unless a court or authority has ordered it. There are treaty processes well under way in Victoria. Queensland and the NT. The Calma Langton Report states unequivocally that the Voice structure we recommend would not interfere in existing bodies or processes.
“It is an advisory body only. The No campaign is deliberately lying about matters that are on the public record and duping the public.”
Opposition Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Jacinta Price – a leading campaigner for the No case – said the comments provided an “insight into the mindset and agenda of the Aboriginal activists pushing the divisive voice.” She warned the remarks from Professor Langton would be highly offensive to about half the nation.
“Whichever way the referendum goes, the result looks like it will be extremely close and any suggestion No voters who are unpersuaded by their proposed voice are siding with racism or stupidity is highly offensive to at least half the country.”
Ken Wyatt, who was Indigenous Australians minister in the Morrison government and has worked with Professor Langton for years on the issues of constitutional recognition and a voice, did not wish to comment on her remarks first reported by the Bunbury Herald.
However he characterised some of the claims of the No campaign as “stupid”.
“People are now becoming more uncertain because of the strategies that are being used by individuals who are pushing fears and concerns into the minds of people,” Mr Wyatt said.
“Last night in Melbourne I learned there are messages being given to cultural groups saying stupid things like ‘if you vote Yes you will have to pay Aboriginal people for the use of your land’ or ‘you cannot go to the beach if the voice is established’.
“These are blatant mistruths and that is causing people to become concerned and that is sad when this should have been a debate about the merits of an advisory body to government because that is all it is it is – an advisory body – it has no extraordinary powers.
“The political leaders opposing this in the Liberal Party and the Nationals will have a say on the legislation that is drafted to create the voice.”
Anthony Albanese told caucus on Tuesday that MPs needed to talk to as many people as possible in the weeks ahead, while it is understood Mr Erickson also said Labor members should use the final month of campaigning to make the case for the Indigenous voice.
***************************************************
Inquest to examine apparent suicides of five trans and gender diverse Victorians
The apparent suicides of five people who were undergoing a gender affirmation process before they died will be investigated by the Victorian coroner.
The inquest, scheduled for November, will consider the otherwise unrelated deaths together, as the coroner is likely to make recommendations that could help prevent future suicides.
While the suspected suicides are not directly linked, the coroner believes investigating the deaths during the one inquest will lead to better informed recommendations.
All five of those who died were born between 1987 and 2001. The lead case involves Bridget Flack, whose body was found in bushland in the Melbourne suburb of Kew two weeks after she was reported missing.
The 28-year-old was last seen by her friend on the morning of 3o November 2020 in Lygon Street, Carlton. She had said she was going to take a walk in a park in Fairfield, but despite contacting people via phone later in the day, Flack never returned home.
Flack’s disappearance made national headlines and more than 120 people helped her family search for her, before her body was eventually found by a member of the public.
The Victorian coroner, Ingrid Giles, has issued an order on how the five people should be publicly referred to during the inquest.
“In July 2023, I assumed carriage of the investigation into the deaths of five young people who were undergoing a gender affirmation process prior to passing, and who had died by way of apparent suicide,” the order said.
“In order to assist the court in referring to the deceased persons in a respectful and culturally appropriate manner in these proceedings, the loved ones of the deceased were consulted in relation to the names that were in use by the deceased prior to passing, and which had been chosen by the deceased to correspond with their gender identity.”
“I have determined it appropriate to refer in this proceeding to each deceased by what the evidence supports as their chosen name, even where this had not been legally changed.”
In one case, a pseudonym of “AS” will also be used, Giles said in the order.
Shortly after Flack’s disappearance, her sister described her as an incredibly intelligent and articulate person.
“She’s artistic, she sings, plays music, writes music, DJs. She writes beautifully, beautiful poetry and stories. She loves her job, she loves studying,” her sister said at the time.
A directions hearing will be held on 13 October before the inquest begins in late November. Three days have been set aside for the inquest.
***********************************************
Northern Territory Police to open Zachary Rolfe complaint inquiry
Politically correct detective apparently did his best to "get" an innocent cop. That may now be investgated
The Northern Territory Police Force has vowed to investigate Zachary Rolfe’s allegations of serious misconduct against a Darwin detective involved in his failed murder prosecution despite recently telling the complainant no further action would be taken.
In June, the former police officer formally complained to Police Commissioner Michael Murphy about the conduct of Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Newell during the criminal investigation into Kumanjayi Walker’s death and asked the police chief to initiate a thorough investigation into the matters raised.
NT Police’s Professional Standards Command wrote to Mr Rolfe last month, advising him his complaint against police fell to the Office of Ombudsman NT to investigate but that the Ombudsman had declined because it was not in the public interest and Mr Rolfe’s one-year time limit to complain had expired. The letter, sent in early August, said PSC believed no further action was required.
In a confusing backflip, NT Police on Tuesday told The Australian, in response to questions about PSC’s decision, that “police are investigating the allegations”.
“As the matter is ongoing no comment will be made at this time,” a spokesperson said.
Sen-Sgt Newell, the senior investigating officer for the criminal investigation – codenamed Operation Charwell – into Walker’s death, also declined to comment with an investigation under way.
In May 2022, two months after Mr Rolfe was acquitted of murdering Walker at Yuendumu, he complained to police, in writing, about certain aspects of the criminal investigation before detailing his “very serious concern” over Sen-Sgt Newell’s conduct in relation to “evidence collecting” and nondisclosure in June.
The 11-page complaint, sent by his lawyer, Luke Officer, alleged the experienced detective “may have engaged in criminal conduct, such as, for example, perverting the course of justice”, and included excerpts of court transcripts from his trial, as well as emails and other internal police material – including coronial reports – supporting his claims.
Mr Rolfe’s concerns were distilled into five issues, including that email correspondence between detectives – including Sen-Sgt Newell – and American criminologist Geoffrey Alpert suggested the investigation team was editing its expert’s report.
The Australian revealed in April last year NT Police had paid Mr Alpert $100,000 to produce a 12-page report supporting the murder charge against Mr Rolfe and that he repeatedly altered his conclusions at the request of detectives.
The second matter raised was that Sen-Sgt Newell had allowed pathologist Marianne Tiemensma to give expert evidence at trial about the lethality of the scissors Walker had stabbed Mr Rolfe with despite Dr Tiemensma expressing that it may be inappropriate because she had performed Walker’s autopsy and may be accused of bias.
Two complaints were about Sen-Sgt Newell being aware of or withholding supplementary expert opinions from trauma surgeon Keith Towsey and forensic pathologist Paul Botterill that would have helped the defence and were only revealed in the course of the trial.
The fifth complaint was that Sen-Sgt Newell withheld evidence of a conversation with Australian Federal Police forensic analyst Timothy Simpson seeking a supplementary opinion and that the conversation only came to light during the trial.
Before Mr Rolfe’s trial started, his lawyers learned of the existence of police coronial investigation reports – which were critical of the criminal investigation including the use of particular expert witnesses – that had not been provided to the Director of Public Prosecutions or the defence. Mr Rolfe’s legal team had to subpoena then police commissioner Jamie Chalker for their production.
Commander David Proctor wrote in his coronial investigation report that the criminal investigation was biased against the accused. Commander Proctor claimed the prosecution’s use-of-force expert, Detective Superintendent Andrew Barram, was subject to “confirmation bias”, that he was “firmly ensconced within the investigation team” and that his independence as an expert was “compromised”.
Mr Officer this week told The Australian “the highest-profile murder trial in recent times” was plagued with issues of nondisclosure from the start.
After receiving Mr Rolfe’s complaint in June, police also referred it to the Independent Commissioner Against Corruption but Commissioner Michael Riches refused to confirm whether he is investigating the allegations.
An ICAC spokesperson this week said “the Commissioner does not comment on such matters”, despite having publicised other investigations it was conducting.
Mr Rolfe was dismissed from the NT Police in April “due to serious breaches of discipline” during his policing career. He has lodged an appeal.
The 32-year-old will be called to give evidence at Walker’s inquest when it resumes at Alice Springs next month.
*********************************************************
BS 24.7 The next Covid variant?
Rebecca Weisser
Once again, New Zealand is leading the world in the pandemic stakes. While Australian premiers are still hung up on pretending Covid vaccines are ‘safe and effective’ TM, New Zealand’s Prime Minister and former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has moved on to the stage of denying that the mandates were mandates. As he puts it, ‘In terms of the vaccine mandates… (people) ultimately made their own choices… There was no compulsory vaccination.’
Did he get the idea from Pfizer’s man down under, Dr Brian Hewitt, who tried it on Senator Pauline Hanson in a recent Senate Committee Hearing saying, ‘No one was forced to have a vaccine’, people were offered an ‘opportunity’ to get vaccinated. Fair point. We should be more positive. Being held up at knifepoint in a dark alley isn’t being mugged, it’s an ‘opportunity’ to donate your valuables to a masked bandit.
In Australia, the vaccine efficacy that preoccupies state premiers – who imposed the mandates – is getting re-elected. As Premier Andrews put it when he won the Victorian election in a ‘Dan-slide’ last November, ‘Vaccines work!’ In Queensland, Premier Palasczcuk is so keen to repeat the act that she’s hired Andrews’ adman.
But who will last longer? The mandates or Palasczcuk? On Friday 1 September, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman (mooted to be a front-runner to replace the Premier) announced two-week consultations on removing the mandates, two years after they were imposed in September 2021.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer (CHO) has already said they should go but the power of the CHO which seemed almost unlimited at the height of Covid hysteria has diminished now that he is proposing something sensible.
A group called Doctors Against Mandates mounted a legal challenge to the mandates on 12 March 2022. Within a fortnight of receiving 13 affidavits from medical professionals and six reports from international experts, the CHO revoked the mandates for health workers in the private sector. Unfortunately, mandates which cover the public sector health are still in force.
One of the most damning indictments of vaccine efficacy was filed in relation to the doctors’ challenge to the mandate in the Supreme Court of Queensland early this year by the state’s Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard. It revealed that once 80 per cent of the population were vaccinated and the borders opened in December 2021, not only did Covid cases explode, peaking at 18,500 per day in January, but 80 per cent of the 176 Covid deaths were in people who had had one or more Covid vaccine jabs. Most were double-vaxxed but 13 were triple-vaxxed and one died after five shots. In other words, the vaccines were duds. They failed to stop the pandemic or prevent the vulnerable from dying. All the bullying of the unvaccinated, preventing grieving Australians from comforting their dying loved ones or attending their funerals, denying a pregnant woman in New South Wales permission to cross the border and get urgent medical treatment which meant she waited 16 hours to fly to Sydney, and lost one of her twins – it was all for nothing.
Did the Premier rush to apologise for the damage done by the ‘failed vaccines’, to quote Bill Gates who profited heavily from his investment in the Pfizer jab? Of course not. The information was only made public last month by Rebekah Barnett in her excellent substack Dystopian Downunder.
Far from apologising, Queensland Health is still threatening disciplinary action against ‘hundreds’ of workers who ‘did not comply with their employment contract’ by getting jabbed.
Infectious disease physician Paul Griffin supports ending the mandates but thinks the biggest risk is that ‘people will think the initial rule was wrong, which,’ according to him, ‘isn’t the case’.
That’s the nub of it. The government doesn’t want to admit that the vaccines are useless and the mandates were morally, scientifically and practically wrong.
The only reason it is ending the mandate is because it can’t replace the more than 2,100 healthcare workers who were stood down or forced to resign.
‘We have global workforce shortages, so I think it makes sense now to reconsider this mandate,’ Fentiman says.
‘If someone wants to now reapply for a job with Queensland Health who is not vaccinated for Covid, they’ll be treated the same as any other worker.’
Despite a massive increase in Australia’s international immigration intake and wage hikes in the health sector, acute shortages persist, not least because the repeatedly vaccinated healthcare workers repeatedly get Covid-19. This was observed in a study of more than 50,000 US healthcare workers in the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, which showed the more often you were jabbed, the more you caught Covid.
Interstate migration into Queensland, predominantly Victoria, and NSW, the states worst affected by lockdown lunacy, has increased demand for health services.
National excess mortality of over 13 per cent this year has increased pressure on hospitals.
The dramatic spike in ‘dying suddenly’ is recorded under ‘other cardiac conditions’ in Australia’s provisional mortality data. Deaths from January to May are 15.5 per cent higher than the baseline average and 1 per cent higher than the same period in 2022.
Deaths due to diabetes were 22 per cent above the baseline average in May 2023, and 1.4 per cent higher than in May 2022
Deaths due to dementia including Alzheimer’s were 18 per cent above the baseline average in May 2023, and 2.1 per cent above May 2022.
Each of these causes of death has been linked in studies to the spike protein in the virus and/or the vaccine. For example, a paper from Larson et al. at Linkoping University, Sweden published on 1 September presents evidence for the initiation or acceleration of Alzheimer’s disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by the spike protein.
When the mandate for health workers ends in Queensland, flagged for 25 September, only NSW, Victoria and South Australia will be left. Will that be the end?
Who knows? In the US some colleges and hospitals are trying to bring back mask mandates.
Scott Gottlieb, former head of the US Food and Drug Administration and now on the board of Pfizer is talking up the next booster.
The latest variant has been named after Eris, the Greek goddess of ‘strife and discord’. What is the plan? A rerun of lockdowns and Black Lives Matter on the rampage in the run-up to the 2024 Presidential election? Skeptics have their own name for the variant – BS.24.7.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/bs-24-7/ ?
************************************
13 September, 2023
Australia-Philippines Ties Undergo 'Watershed' Moment Amid Rising Indo-Pacific Tensions
I am very pleased to hear of official friendship between Australia and the Philippines. I have spent some time there, though only in Manila, and like the people.
I have observed many Filipinas married to older Australian men and the marriages do mostly seem to work out. And even in private hospitals, Filipina nurses are ubiquitious. So the people to people links are strong.
I also like that it is a tropical country due North of Australia, though the flight time is about 8 hours. And English is widely used there
So I would favour any assistance that Australia can give to the Philippines
Australia and the Philippines have become strategic partners following a pivotal meeting between the countries' leaders on Sept. 8.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he was honoured to be able to facilitate the ramp-up in ties, which was a historic moment in relations between the two nations and would see both countries work as partners to maintain a stable region.
“Australia and the Philippines enjoy a long-standing relationship based on close cooperation and enriched by the 400,000 Australians with Filipino heritage," he said.
“Today is a watershed moment for relations between Australia and the Philippines. Our Strategic Partnership will facilitate closer cooperation between our countries and contribute to an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.”
The strategic partnership follows the announcement in August that Australia would look to work more closely with the Philippines on defence and security-related issues.
"The Philippines is a critical nation for Australia's interest," Mr. Albanese said on Sept. 7.
"We have strong economic relations with the Philippines. We also have strong cooperation when it comes to defence arrangements, and in addition to that, we have a strong diaspora in Australia."
Australia Looking To Elevate Ties
The announcement comes just weeks after Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles announced both countries would work to elevate diplomatic ties to a strategic partnership level.
Advertisement - Story continues below
Speaking in Manila on Aug. 25, Mr. Marles said that both countries were very ambitious about "working more closely together, about building our high-end interoperability, about seeing our defence forces become closer."
"We are two countries committed to the global rules-based order. We are committed to an idea of a world in which disputes are determined by reference to international law," the deputy prime minister said.
"Peace is maintained through the protection of deployable rules-based order and its functionality around the world, and in truth, around the world today, we see it under pressure."
Mr. Marles said that he saw Australia's deepening defence ties with the Philippines as a pathway to upholding the rules-based order
"What we will do is bring our military capability to enhance the rules-based order and to provide for its expression," he said.
"And in that sense, what we are about is peace. And so I think that message is as important now as it’s ever been."
China Tensions Create Impetus for Deepening Ties
The deepening military ties between the two nations come as the Philippines is experiencing an increasing ramp-up in tensions with Beijing over its attempt to claim Filippino territories in the South China Sea.
In August, the Philippino government condemned a Chinese coast guard ship’s “excessive and offensive” use of a water cannon to block a Filipino supply boat from delivering new troops, food, water, and fuel to the Second Thomas Shoal, a Philippine-occupied territory.
Beijing believes it has “indisputable sovereignty” over almost all of the 1.3 million square mile South China Sea, as well as most of the islands within it.
This would include the Spratly Islands, an archipelago consisting of 100 islands and reefs that sit territorially within the waters of the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan.
The confrontation is the latest flare-up between the two countries, which has seen the Chinese Coastguard vessel use military-grade lasers and other methods to deter Filipino naval ships from the disputed regions.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines said in a Facebook post that the Chinese ship's actions were “in wanton disregard of the safety of the people on board” and violated international law, including the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The “excessive and offensive actions against Philippine vessels” near the shoal prevented one of two Filipino boats from unloading supplies needed by its troops guarding the shoal, the Filipino military said in a statement reported by the Associated Press.
It called on the Chinese coast guard and Beijing's Central Military Commission “to act with prudence and be responsible in their actions to prevent miscalculations and accidents that will endanger people’s lives.”
***********************************************
Energy lawyers experience record boom as renewables transition takes hold
An explosion of green tape under the Albanese government’s energy reforms has sparked a race between top law firms to hire energy transition and construction lawyers, with one international firm poaching a full nine-person team from a rival practice.
As top-tier law firm Baker McKenzie acquires a whole team of partners, associates and paralegals from competing practice Norton Rose Fulbright, lawyers across the country are taking on mammoth caseloads, hiring in record droves, and paying high sums for top quality talent who are across the growing number environmental and energy matters.
When Anthony Albanese at the G20 Summit committed to tripling Australia’s renewable energy technology capacity, and a global emissions peak by 2025, lawyers were keenly listening in.
Newly appointed Baker McKenzie construction boss Emanuel Confos told The Australian the interest in the renewables sector had increased at an incredible pace, to the point that “everybody wants to get a piece of the energy market”.
“This is a booming industry. In the same way any industry booms, there are people out there making a lot of money,” said Mr Confos, who has more that 20 years experience in the fast-growing energy and renewables sector.
“There is getting approvals to build a solar farm, getting an offtake agreement to sell the electricity, package it up and sell it on. This is a big industry gain.”
Mr Confos said when the first large scale solar farm was built in Australia in 2010, “no one was really interested”.
“Now, every place I go, people want to hear about energy work,” he said. “It is at the forefront of everything. The stockmarket is interested, investment houses are interested. Everyone wants to get a piece of the energy market.”
Since Labor has come to power, the government has legislated Australia’s 2030 emissions reduction target as 43 per cent below the 2005 level, and are targeting net-zero emissions by 2050.
The government also introduced a safeguard mechanism to force the nation’s 215 biggest-emitting facilities to cut nearly 5 per cent of their emissions each year until the end of the decade.
Baker McKenzie partner Aylin Cunsolo said federal government policies were boosting work levels across both the public and private sector. “It’s a policy decision to achieve net-zero emissions, and that is a policy decision both at a government level but also at the private sector level. Part of that is driven by global targets, as well as shareholder pressure,” she said.
Ms Cunsolo said the firm had landed deals with major brands such as Aldi and Fujitsu to assist in securing power purchase agreements that allow the companies to contract directly with a renewable energy project to acquire electricity and green products.
Her colleague, energy partner Harriet Oldmeadow, agreed, saying community expectations had contributed to the booming market. “In Australia, there is 100 per cent an expectation that we turn ourselves to net zero,” she said.
“One of the most critical things for our clients … is ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and advising clients on how they meet their ESG (targets).”
Pinsent Masons construction partner Rob Buchanan told The Australian there would be an international shortage of energy transition, construction and infrastructure lawyers as the sector continued to heat up.
“The level of work in Australia in the infrastructure space – including energy and road infrastructure – has resulted in lawyers like that becoming more sought after and attracting better salaries,” he said. “I think globally there is going to be a shortage of high-quality lawyers that service the energy community.”
Mr Buchanan said the bulk of the work coming from the public sector related to issues with network transition as coal-fired stations power down and clean energy gears up.
“In Australia, we’ve seen the initial wave of solar and wind go in, and it’s become apparent because Australian is much bigger and the population density is lower and a lot of these installations are going in the middle of nowhere, and so we’ve seen a lot of novel problems come out of that,” he said.
“The main one is the problem with our transmission network which was designed to hold stable, coal-power generated electricity with no variations.”
Herbert Smith Freehills partner Nick Baker said there is an “incredible demand at the moment for people with deep energy sector experience.”
“We have seen a significant increase in energy work coming from all parts of sector. Renewables remains hot while energy security and storage related transactions and issues have emerged and are dominating headlines,” he said.
“These trends are driving M&A, project development, environment and planning, social licence, and disputes work, although finance is slower to take off.”
**************************************************
Race-based land grabs must end
Most Australians were brought up believing that Crown Land is public land – shared for present enjoyment and preserved for future generations.
Some of it was roped off as ‘untouchable’ and everyone accepted this because it was fair and equal.
This mentally of shared public assets for the whole nation has been lost on various Indigenous groups, including those who have raided (or are presently attempting to raid) New South Wales’ Crown Land. They are taking it for themselves – fellow citizens and future generations be damned. It is a selfish act, which goes a long way to explaining the fury of non-Indigenous Australians who spent their lives respecting these areas only to watch them treated with cynicism.
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act of 1983 was implemented under Labor’s Neville Wran government. Mourned by those who sought financial gain from public land as a ‘champion of Aboriginal land rights’, Wran’s real achievement has been the butchering of the state’s natural assets along race lines with tens of thousands of land claims taking place.
Citizens may feel as if they are watching a racial collective in the process of acquiring public land to build the beginnings of an ethnostate – billions of dollars worth, at last count – upon which treaties can be negotiated if the Voice to Parliament falls into place. Nothing says ‘you don’t have a right to the land you were born on’ like watching racial groups snatch it away from public view to make a profit.
This particular 1983 Act is not a caretaker function. The land ceases to be public and becomes the private property of Aboriginal groups.
Would any other citizen or corporation be allowed to do this? Of course not. It is one of the growing racial privileges handed out by governments to polish their virtue badges at election time while creating a vast chasm (dare we call it a gap?) of inequality among Australian citizens.
There is no onus on the protection of this land once it has entered private control. Aboriginal groups can develop it, sell it, licence it, or find some other creative way to exploit what was formally a shared national treasure.
For far too long Australians have ignored this behaviour, but with land claims being lodged on every scrap of the state, it needs to be addressed, stopped, and the land returned to public hands where it can be protected.
Everyone is dispossessed. Aboriginal Australians are in no way special in that regard and yet it is used as the justification for this law. Nobody else can run around carving off blocks of land based on ancient history. It is nonsensical.
‘Some LALCs will sell the land to improve their bank balance. That’s their prerogative,’ said the NSWALC Deputy Chair.
2GB host Ben Fordham stumbled over this sentiment during a recent radio interview when he sensibly asked what the cultural significance was on the ludicrous claim made on a reserve near Balmoral Beach.
‘Aboriginal land claims are not based on cultural significance, that’s not the actual factor. It’s about, is it able to be claimed? Is it in the name of the Crown?’
It was a comment that Fordham accurately queried as a ‘land grab’.
‘The Aboriginal Land Rights Act was set up as recompense for all lands that have been removed from us,’ said the guest.
‘So, if there’s an opportunity there to get your hands on it, you may as well?’ Fordham clarified, seemingly quite shocked.
‘That’s exactly it. The land councils are here to try and acquire what land we can get back within our boundaries to really form the asset base that will pay for … to sustain our councils.’
If you feel sick you should. This is not a fair contract between citizens.
For those who have been suspicious of Native Title, it was difficult not to laugh and hold up a giant, ‘I told you so’ sign after a $100 million Native Title claim was slapped on Balmoral Beach.
It came as a shock to the affluent area, who no doubt thought that enduring endless ‘Welcome to Country’ ceremonies, voting ‘Yes’, and putting little ‘this is so-and-so land’ signs up everywhere would exclude them from the corporate side of Indigenous activism.
They were wrong.
Mosman Council opposed Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council and their 2009 bid for the 4,000sq/m Lawry Plunkett Reserve.
‘We are amazed this is even subject to a claim,’ Councillor Bendal said.
The land has been used by the public for over 100 years and is nestled between homes, but that isn’t going to save it.
The notion of race-based lockouts and acquisitions of previously public land is repulsive. There is no excuse for it in the civilised world and certainly the concept would never be applied the other way. Can you imagine a site of colonial heritage locking out just Aboriginal people because their presence would offend the spirits? It would never happen, and it should not be happening here.
We live in hope that one day these pieces of land claimed under Native Title will be returned to all Australians, but right now we are in the middle of an assault on Crown Land.
It has been revealed that there are currently over 3,000 Native Title claims in the Sydney area, and 40,000 for New South Wales. That’s 40,000 claims to take away collective public ownership and instead place Australian land into the hands of a network of race-based groups.
The island of Australia is getting smaller every day if you happen to be born with the wrong skin colour.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/race-based-land-grabs-must-end/
*****************************************************
Queensland sugar lands in East London’s Tate and Lyle factory, reigniting trade between Australia and Britain after a 50-year hiatus
It’s a dockside scene that hasn’t been witnessed for half a century: Queensland sugar being unloaded on The Thames.
Overnight (AEST), a huge bucket that holds 16 tonnes of raw sugar in one scoop began to move the first of 33,000 tonnes of sugar grown in North Queensland’ s Burdekin area from a cargo ship docked in East London. It went straight onto a conveyor belt and funnelled inside the Tate and Lyle sugar factory for processing.
“This is fantastic,’’ said Mark Hampson, an executive from Queensland Sugar Limited.
“We were on the dock when this was loaded and to be here seeing it unloaded is special.”
Following the implementation of the United Kingdom-Australia free trade deal back in May, Australian beef and wine has begun to flow into Britain in increasing amounts. But for sugar, which had previously been hit with an eye watering tariff of up to 64 per cent, the free trade deal is particularly important.
This year, quotas permit 80,000 tonnes to be imported into the UK – but that will rise to 220,000 tonnes by October 2030, after which all tariffs will be eliminated.
Tate and Lyle refines around 600,000 tonnes of sugar a year but it had stopped importing Australian sugar, which had made up 20 per cent of its product, back in 1973 when Britain entered the European Economic Community.
The sugar off this one ship – and there is expected to be three or four shipments here from Australia to London over the next 12 months – is worth more than $35 million. The tariff that would have been imposed before May 31 would have been $18 million.
“That (cost) made it unviable for many years,’’ said Gerald Mason, senior vice president of Tate and Lyle Sugars.
He said this first shipment under the FTA had been “tricky” with new paperwork but he thanked the 4000 small family farmers in Australia and the 20 mills for working together to make the transport load possible.
“We are very thankful for that (co-operation), and this will get easier. This vessel is so important to us. How important? We will unveil a plaque here today, and the last plaque unveiled was by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.”
Australian High Commissioner to the UK, Stephen Smith, unveiled the plaque, watched on by the deputy high commissioner Elizabeth Bowes, who had been the chief negotiator during the FTA process.
Mr Mason, said the Australian raw sugar would help fill a void that had been left by Caribbean and Fijian producers which had struggled with the declining price of sugar in the European market following market reforms about 20 years ago.
“We like Australian sugar,” Mr Mason said, adding Australia’s high ethical standards and environmental processes were attractive.
“Having Australian sugar in our mix gives us a range of raw sugar. We are happy the colour is a nice golden brown, with lots of flavour and taste, and we can convert it to brown sugars and syrups we really like.”
Senator Murray Watt, the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, said: “The increased market access offered by the trade agreement will bring the agriculture industry closer to its goal of $100 billion in production by 2030.”
************************************
12 September, 2023
Greens Flex Power to Reach Deal With Labor on Housing Affordability Bill
I am no fan of government spending but I am rather in favour of spending on more "public" (charity) housing. There is a significant minority of tenants who would never be housed otherwise. When given a chance, they fail to pay rent and do extensive damage to the property. That is why landlords insist on references from the previous landlord. So it will be very difficult for such a tenant to get another place to live. "Public" housing is their only chance. Governments can afford such people. Private landlords cannot
The federal government has agreed to spend an additional $1 billion on public and community housing as part of a deal to secure the Greens’ support for the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) Bill.
The funding will be distributed through the National Housing and Investment Finance Corporation.
The move follows a government decision—while under pressure from the Greens—earlier in the year to provide $2 billion to the social housing accelerator fund.
Greens leader Adam Bandt welcomed the decision by the federal government, saying that "pressure works."
“Labor’s HAFF still won’t fix the housing crisis, but the Greens have secured $3 billion dollars for housing right now—not relying on a gamble on the stock market—and we’ve got to a position where it can pass the Senate," he said.
"Labor said there was no more money for housing this year, and we pushed them to find $3 billion."
The bill, which has been stalled for nine months in the Senate, is set to create a $10 billion fund (US$6.7 billion) which the Albanese government argues will solve the lack of social and affordable housing across the country, with the government hoping the legislation will allow the building of 30,000 homes over five years.
Under the proposed legislation, the fund will stay in perpetuity, and each year, the government will use its returns to invest in housing across Australia. However, the return amount that can be withdrawn from the fund is capped at $500 million annually.
The negotiations mean that the federal government has spent six times more than it was willing to spend on an annual basis.
However, the Greens have warned the Labor Party that they have only just begun wielding their influence, signalling that they will use all significant legislation to campaign for the government to freeze rents around Australia.
“Renters are powerful, and the Greens are the party of renters. We have won more money for housing for renters, and rent control is next,” Mr. Bandt said.
“I say this to Labor: if you continue to ignore renters, your political pain has just begun. There are several more significant bills on the immediate horizon where the Greens will use our position in the balance of power to push the government to address soaring rents with a freeze and cap on rents.
“Renters are on the march, and the Greens will be fighting alongside them all the way.”
Meanwhile, the Greens housing and homelessness spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather MP said that the Greens' advocacy had meant that for the first time, Australian "renters have a national voice for the first time because the Greens stood up and fought."
"Our message to renters is your voice and vote is powerful, and the Greens are ready to fight for you and know that we won’t stop until every renter in this country has a safe and affordable place to call home."
Mr. Chandler-Mather argued that it appeared that the Albanese government did not care about the one-third of this country who rents and that housing advocates had caved too soon to the Labor party.
"Labor had the opportunity to freeze and cap rent increases through National Cabinet, and they refused, so from now on, every rent increase is Labor’s fault, and come next election Labor should be prepared to hear from renters loud and clear they are fed up with being treated as second class citizens," he said
“To every housing organisation and crossbench MP who told us to pass the HAFF Bill in its original form, sit up and pay attention. When we stay at the negotiating table, we get outcomes, and $3 billion of additional guaranteed and immediate money is proof that Greens in the balance of power can drag Labor kicking and screaming to taking meaningful action."
****************************************************
Pauline Hanson erupts over push for dreaded new tax
One Nation’s Pauline Hanson has blasted a suggestion that the government should consider inheritance taxes for the rich, declaring the idea “left-wing”.
Incoming Productivity Commission boss Danielle Wood controversially urged the federal government to have a “sensible conversation” about inheritance taxes on Monday, while acknowledging the policy is “political dynamite”.
In an interview with 2GB radio this morning, Senator Hansen dismissed Ms Wood as nothing more than a “Marxist” with socialist policies. “She’s coming up with these ideas that she’s previously backed [such as] slashing defence spending which we need,” Senator Hanson said. “Increasing the GST by 15 per cent, again hurting the Australian people out there because this money goes to the state who actually waste money and we get nothing for it.
“Then she wants to redesign stage three tax cuts, which for all of you people out there working hard, expecting a bit of a tax cut … she wants to take that away from you. And then including the home in the age pensioner’s assets test and then rolling back generous superannuation tax concessions.”
Senator Hanson told 2GB’s Luke Grant that Ms Wood “doesn’t win any awards from me”. “And if Labor rely on her and her economic sense … I wouldn’t have an economist [do] my grocery shopping for me,” she said.
Ms Wood, who will be leaving her role at the Grattan Institute for her new job, has stated that her personal views are longstanding and focuses on concerns that the burden of taxation will continually be on the shoulders of younger workers.
She told news.com.au that her personal views will not be part of the work that she planned to do within her new role, unless it made a referral on tax.
“We know that there is a growing pot of wealth, sitting in the hands of older Australians that will be passed on in coming decades,” she said.
“You would set some kind of threshold for the size of inheritances and only tax above that amount.”
In a recent speech at the Grattan Institute that was first reported by The Australian Financial Review, Ms Wood agreed that the idea was “political dynamite”.
“It’s just a very politically sensitive topic. I think it’s because it’s seen as kind of interfering with a personal transaction, which is sort of given out of love, and I understand the sensitivity of that.”
However, her focus was on the projected burden that younger workers will carry in the future.
“But in a world again, where we need to raise money, we’re otherwise going to be pushing a huge burden on future workers.”
Other calls Ms Wood has made were for retirees to pay a 15 per cent tax on their superannuation earnings, along with a reduction in the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount.
Currently, Australia is one of 16 countries with no inheritance tax after Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser abolished it in 1979.
Other countries with no inheritance tax includes our neighbour New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Singapore, Norway, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden, Israel, Slovakia and Serbia.
****************************************************
‘Mass exodus’: why investors are jumping ship
Australia is losing critical rental stock at a time when it’s needed more than ever due to record migration.
Alarming new polling has revealed almost one in eight investors across the country sold a rental property over the past year, with 73 per cent of the properties selling to owner occupiers.
NSW investors accounted for about 20 per cent of the sales, according to the survey by the Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA).
PIPA noted the sales resulted in hundreds of thousands of properties being “stripped from rental markets”.
It followed a high rate of investor sales over previous years, with earlier PIPA polling showing 16.7 per cent of investors had sold at least one property in the previous two years.
Most of the rental properties are being bought by owner occupiers.
Common reasons investors sold their properties were rising interest rates, governments’ threatening to increase taxes or introduce rent freezes, and the need to clear debt.
PIPA chairman Nicola McDougall described the sales as a “mass exodus of private investors from the market”.
“Clearly, this would explain the undersupply of rental properties available for tenants around the nation,” she said.
Victoria and Queensland had the highest rates of investor sales, which reflected recent proposed rental market reforms, Ms McDougall said.
“Those states are leading the charge with restrictive, unfair and inefficient legislative reforms that adversely impact property investors,” she said.
Victoria and Queensland were considered the least accommodating states for investors by PIPA members, while NSW and WA were considered more accommodating for investors.
A slight improvement in the appeal of NSW reflected how Sydney had weathered the nation’s Reserve-Bank-led market correction.
“It’s had a relatively short period where prices were reducing and that would have enamoured some investors,” Ms McDougall said. “But it’s still a very expensive market and that would limit the number of investors who could purchase there.”
Ms McDougall said it remains clear investors are selling up or avoiding buying due to attacks by governments disguised as reform that make owning a rental difficult.
Investors’ major reasons for selling over the past year were changing tenancy laws (43 per cent), interest rate rises (40 per cent), negative cash flow (23.2 per cent) and offloading an underperforming asset (18 per cent).
Other popular reasons were governments increasing or threatening to increase taxes, duties, and levies (47 per cent) and talk of rental freezes (34.6 per cent).
In a sign of more pressure to come for tenants, the survey found 38 per cent of investors said it’s likely they will sell within the next year.
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/mass-exodus-why-investors-are-jumping-ship/
*****************************************************
Too much free stuff
Judith Sloan
I was a big fan of P.J. O’Rourke, who sadly departed this world too soon. Who didn’t love his biting, satirical books and essays, poking fun at the ardent devotees of the trendy zeitgeists of the day?
My absolute favourite O’Rourke quote is this: ‘If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free.’ The point is that when governments give away free stuff – of course, it’s not really free, just provided free of charge to the users – all sorts of negative consequences follow.
Sadly for us, the vast majority of politicians either don’t understand, or prefer to ignore, this message. They simply can’t wait to offer more free (or excessively subsidised) stuff in order to amass the greatest number of grateful recipients. While there will be various spins put on why free stuff is necessary – helping the disadvantaged, improving the environment, lifting education standards, yada yada – the reality is far too many government spending programs are simply a means of using the power of the government purse to hoover up more votes. And all sides of politics do it.
Before I cover some of the big free stuff, let me first outline one of my current favourites – free fishing rods and other fishing gear to Grade 5 students in Victoria. It will cost $1.5 million out of a $96 million package ‘to improve fishing, boating, piers and aquaculture’. There must be votes among anglers, obviously.
The blurb reads: ‘The Minister for Outdoor Recreation announced 60,000 kits will be made available to grade five primary students in more than 1,900 Victorian schools. The kits will set families up with everything they need to wet a line including a fishing rod and reel, line, tackle box, some tackle and a Kids’ Guide to Fishing that includes information and links to educational resources to learn the basics such as fishing safety, knots and rigs. The kits will help youngsters get active, learn about the aquatic environment and have fun in the great outdoors whether they be down the coast, on Port Phillip Bay or by a river in regional Victoria.’
You probably think that I am making this up, given the extremely parlous state of public finances in Victoria. But, no, this free fishing gear is currently being sent out to primary schools so the kids can nag their parents to take them fishing, even though this will prove highly inconvenient in most cases and most parents will have no expertise or interest in fishing.
By the way, most Victorians don’t live close to the sea or a river.
I’m only guessing here, but perhaps Dan the Man, current premier of Victoria, has fond memories of fishing with his dad and he wants to spread the love using other people’s money. The more likely outcomes are family disputes, a few nasty accidents as fishing hooks end up in the wrong places and all that hardly used fishing gear being left on front lawns to be picked up in the next rubbish collection. At best, some parents might make a few bob by selling it on eBay.
At a bigger level, free stuff is flourishing as an idea in the minds of many political leaders. One of the current popular ones is free kindergarten/pre-school. If you believe the promotional material, all three- and four-year-olds are guaranteed a certain number of hours per week in kinder/preschool with no charge to the parents. But, of course, the parents are perfectly capable of gaming the system to maximise the benefits for them.
In New South Wales, for example, parents of four-year-olds are entitled to three days of free preschool at any one centre. But go to another centre and you can get the other two days for free as well. The net effect is that the centres are full of four-year-olds and there are simply no spots for three-year olds, notwithstanding the commitment the NSW government made.
They’re called supply constraints which is clearly an alien concept to those who are designing and running these programs. Not only are there a limited number of physical centres, but there are also shortages of suitably qualified carers to work there. It’s all very well offering free kinder/preschool but the reality is it will simply not be possible to make good the promise, at least in the short term. In the longer run, it will prove very expensive.
Similar problems have arisen in Victoria where many kindergartens are run by local councils. According to the Age – don’t ask – ‘Knox City Council will stop running all but two of its 28 kindergartens from January 2025, affecting placements for 1100 children aged three and four.’ The combination of rapidly rising costs and inadequate funding by the state government has led to this decision.
Free TAFE courses and even free university courses have also become popular among politicians. The argument is that you just need to identify the skills in need and then lure students into the relevant courses by making them free of charge. Sadly, the evidence is that people don’t actually value highly something that they receive without charge: the completion rates of these free courses are wretchedly low.
And again, there is very little attention given to the supply side. The fact is that the providers of these free courses are often inadequately funded using inappropriate funding formulas. Moreover, the instructors often have weak incentives to provide quality courses because the students aren’t paying anything anyway.
Of course, free stuff can be very popular with the users as long as the stuff is available and deemed to be of acceptable quality. It’s why bulk-billed medical services have tended to be a hit with patients, even for those who clearly have the means to make a financial contribution to consultations.
But here’s the thing: if something is free, there tends to be overuse and runaway government spending. It is also the case that the quality of the service will almost always decline – superficial, single-issue six-minute GP visits, anyone?
Asking everyone to pay, say, the equivalent of a cup of coffee or two is surely not asking too much. In the meantime, politicians need to wake up and realise that providing lots of free stuff is extremely poor public policy.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/too-much-free-stuff/
************************************
11 September, 2023
Sky News Australia takes legal action against RMIT FactLab
Sky News Australia has begun legal action against RMIT FactLab, demanding the retraction of false fact-checking verdicts on the TV channel’s online content, and reimbursement for lost revenue.
The broadcaster’s lawyers, Ashurst, have written to RMIT University and listed at least five fact checks published since December last year – four relating to voice referendum content – that claim Sky’s content is false.
RMIT FactLab, led by director Russell Skelton, published the five fact checks despite its International Fact-Checking Network certification expiring on December 2 last year. To issue fact-checking verdicts, RMIT FactLab must hold a valid IFCN certification as part of its agreement with social media giant and Facebook owner, Meta.
A legal letter to RMIT by Sky News Australia’s lawyers on August 28, said the lack of IFCN certification was problematic.
“Despite FactLab acknowledging it is not certified and its clear acceptance of that fact, demonstrated by the removal of some of the misleading material, the ‘verdicts’ will appear on the FactLab website and therefore are still being used on Facebook,” it said.
“As you are aware, Meta only works with IFCN certified organisations as fact checkers.
“Continuing to publish the verdicts, and provide them to Facebook, is clearly misleading when FactLab concedes it does not have the relevant certification required to do so.”
The letter has also accused RMIT FactLab of stating it has certification it no longer holds on fact check verdicts. Sky’s lawyers said this is “false and misleading” under Australian Consumer Law.
FactLab came under fire last month after it fact checked reports by Sky News host Peta Credlin that the Uluru Statement from the Heart was 26 pages long.
Sky News uploaded a video of Credlin’s comments about the statement’s length on its Facebook page but FactLab declared it was “false information” and a tag was placed on the video. It was subsequently unable to be viewed.
Sky News, owned by News Corporation, publisher of The Australian, published a lengthy report on the saga and conduct by RMIT FactLab in the “Fact Check Files”, by digital editor Jack Houghton.
Meta subsequently suspended its partnership with RMIT Fact-Lab, due to the lapsed IFCN certification status and concerns of bias in relation to fact checks done on voice debate content.
RMIT University’s lawyers responded to Sky’s legal demands on Thursday and said the broadcaster’s actions had resulted in the RMIT FactLab’s suspension. The lawyers also said when Sky established a Facebook page, “it agreed to Meta’s terms of use” and that Sky should instead take legal action against Meta.
“These terms include that your client’s content may be subject to whatever programs Meta utilises or applies, such as third party fact checking programs, or algorithms which either promote or reduce your client’s contents appearance in user’s feeds,” RMIT’s lawyer said. “If, as your client claims, it has suffered quantifiable financial loss, because of Meta’s application of its own terms of use, then your client’s claim is against Meta.”
However, Sky’s lawyers sent a legal letter to RMIT University on Friday disputing these claims.
“Our client may have agreed to Meta’s terms of use, but its agreement to those terms do not extend to actions that breach the law and thus enable FactLab to conduct its ‘fact-checking’ for Meta whilst in breach of the consumer law,” the letter from Sky’s lawyers said.
“In any event, it is RMIT who has breached its agreement with Meta by failing to adhere to the requirements of its third party fact checking program.”
Liberal Senator James Paterson wrote to Meta on August 30 and asked the tech giant to review all previous fact checks done by the RMIT’s FactLab and release the findings publicly.
On Saturday, Meta’s regional director of policy, Mia Garlick, in a response to Senator Paterson, said complaints about fact checks should be sent to the IFCN.
“With respect to any concerns about the nature of a fact check, to ensure the independence of the fact-checking process and to allow them to be promptly addressed, these must be addressed directly with the individual fact-checker within seven days of the fact check,” she said.
“At present, given the length of time that has occurred since the fact checks you reference, complaints about any concerns that a fact-checker has not met the IFCN requirements should be directed to the International Fact Checking Network.”
An RMIT spokeswoman said FactLab’s accreditation with IFCN is in the process of being renewed. “RMIT FactLab stands by the accuracy of its work to date and remains dedicated to slowing the spread of viral misinformation and disinformation through its fact checks,” she said.
*************************************************
Poor reading and writing skills are dooming students to failure in high school and university, eminent scientist warns
One of Australia’s most eminent scientists has blasted a lack of basic literacy for sabotaging students’ success in high school and university, as damning new data reveals that failed teaching methods could cost a generation of children $12 billion in lifetime earnings.
High school science teachers have blamed low literacy for students’ struggles in the high-stakes STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and maths.
Australia’s former chief scientist, Alan Finkel, is demanding more focus on the phonics-based teaching of reading and writing in primary school, as well as the basics of mathematics, to stop students failing in high school.
“These are muscle memory subjects you need to know early,’’ Dr Finkel said on Sunday.
“In literacy, not teaching phonics has been a serious problem because we have a generation that hasn’t been taught effectively how to read. And good luck picking up mathematics at university for a subject like engineering or architecture if you didn’t learn it at school.’’
Shockingly low levels of literacy are also revealed in a report by Equity Economics, which calculates $12bn in lost lifetime earnings for children who fail to master reading and writing.
The report is under consideration by a panel of experts advising education ministers on key targets and priorities for their next national school reform agreement.
Teachers Professional Association of Australia’s Scott Stanford launched a scathing attack against the sheer…
It shows the ACT is the only state or territory in which year 9 students are reading at the level expected for their grade, based on mean scores from last year’s NAPLAN literacy and numeracy tests.
ear 9 students performed at the level expected of a year 8 student in South Australia, NSW, Victoria and Western Australia. But in Queensland and Tasmania, year 9 students had the reading ability of a year 7 student, in terms of mean scores.
The report says four out of every 10 students in Australia do not meet international reading benchmarks for 15-year-olds.
“Children with lower levels of literacy are more likely to end up in the lowest income bracket in the future,’’ the report states.
“This perpetuates a cycle of reliance on government assistance and escalates costs within healthcare, housing, employment and justice systems. The impact extends across lifetimes and generations.’’
Dr Finkel, an eminent neuroscientist and electrical engineer who served as chief scientist from 2016 to 2020, warned that low levels of literacy were sabotaging teenagers’ learning in other subjects at high school.
Many science teachers “do not think their students are proficient in what many would consider basic skills.’’
“Literacy and numeracy underpin the higher-order thinking we expect in our science classrooms,’’ he said.
“Students in science should be applying their knowledge from maths and English classes to reinforce their learning and access scientific concepts.’’
The warning from such a high-profile scientist will put pressure on the nation’s education ministers to mandate the teaching of phonics-based reading – in which students sound out letter combinations to “decode’’ words instead of guessing them by looking at pictures, or learning them by heart.
Dr Finkel, who has also served as special adviser to the federal government on low emissions technologies, co-founded science education company Stile Education, which provides curriculum materials to one in three Australian high schools.
In Stile Education’s latest survey of more than 1100 Australian high school science teachers, 57 per cent per cent felt their students’ literacy levels were limiting their ability to understand science in high school.
Half felt their students’ poor grasp of maths was limiting their ability to understand science. Students could not use basic spreadsheet tools to manipulate or visualise data.
Dr Finkel said children also needed to be taught to touch type, given they spent so much time on computers.
Forty per cent of teachers felt their teenage students were not proficient touch typists – an important skill if children were to avoid injury such as carpal tunnel, tendinitis or repetitive strain injury from using keyboards incorrectly.
Alarmingly, given the rapid rise of generative artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT, 40 per cent of teachers felt their students could not understand the difference between a good and a bad source of information on the internet.
To reduce cheating and improve learning, Dr Finkel called for a return to pen-and-paper exams in schools, with students reading their answers aloud, to “bypass any opportunity for AI to be involved”.
Dr Finkel said it was essential that students learn to think for themselves, based on the foundational skills of reading, writing and maths taught in schools.
“People need that ability deeply ingrained in their brains, so they can be part of a real-time conversation,’’ he said.
“Too few students can tell the difference between good and bad information on the internet.
“In the workplace, if you’re having a discussion with people around the table, you expect each of your colleagues to articulate their thoughts clearly and verbally.
“You can’t do that if everyone says, ‘I need 10 minutes to research my answer’.”
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said on Sunday that he was “interested in what works’’.
“Phonics is a critical part of that and so is catch-up tutoring,’’ he said. “Some children need extra intensive support, either one-on-one or in a small group to help them catch up and keep up.’’
Mr Clare said educational priorities and targets for schools were under review for the next schools reform agreement with state and territory governments next year.
**************************************************
Top Qld. cop slams kids in watch houses plan
As Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll doubles down on her stance that children shouldn’t be in watch houses, Police Union president Ian Leavers says he disagrees and that young criminals who commit murder, home invasions and rapes “need to be locked up”.
Ahead of a media conference with Police Minister Mark Ryan on Friday morning, the Commissioner sent a memo to all of her staff today saying that, in her opinion, “children should not be held in watch houses unless absolutely necessary and for the shortest time possible”.
But Mr Leavers, who was speaking at the same press conference said: “I have a great deal of respect for the Commissioner but I have a very different view”.
“My view is if they are committing murders, home invasions and rapes they need to be locked up,” he said.
“And if it’s in a detention centre or a watch house, I don’t particularly care because public safety is my number one priority.
“And my colleagues on the front line, they are dealing with victims day in and day out as well as being victims themselves. And if these people do the wrong thing they need to be locked up.”
After his comments Ms Carroll then said “I agree with Ian, these people need to be locked up”. “My view is a watch house is a temporary situation until they get to a detention centre,” she said.
“But in a perfect agreement, we’re talking about children who are serious offenders and that is why they are in a watch house in the first place. But certainly watch houses are temporary facilities and we need to get them into a detention centre.”.
It comes as Queensland Human Rights Commission Scott McDougall confirmed he was in line to meet with Premier after her office got in touch — the first meeting between the pair in nearly five years.
Emergency laws rushed through state parliament in recent weeks allow the government to hold children indefinitely in watch houses and to declare those facilities official youth detention centres — with human rights law overridden to make this happen.
But there isn’t capacity to turn more than one watch house into a makeshift youth prison Ms Carroll said, asserting children shouldn’t be in police holding cells anyway.
“It is my view into the future that if there is a capacity with watch houses with detention centres, that only one watch house is dedicated, a modern watch house and all the services come to the watch house to address the needs of those children,” Ms Carroll said.
“We can’t do that across all of Queensland.
“I’ve always been upfront about this, that the least amount of time a child spends in the watch house the better you know, watch houses are not for children.”
The Courier-Mail has reported the Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer has previously indicated the newly constructed Caboolture watch-house could be used to hold children.
“Last month, an application was recently heard in the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus (a common law principle that demands a person incarcerated be brought before a court to determine there is lawful authority to detain the person) seeking the immediate transfer of particular children from watch houses to a youth detention centre,” Ms Carroll wrote to staff today.
“The applicant’s argument was that a child was required to be transferred to a detention centre as soon as the QPS could practically do so, without any regard for the capacity of a youth detention centre to receive the child.
“Whilst the issue was not ultimately decided in that case, concerns about the interpretation of the relevant provisions in the Youth Justice Act 1992 (the Act) led to the government taking steps to amend the Act to clarify that the existing arrangements regarding the transfer of children from watch houses is lawful.
“These amendments recognise that the capacity of a youth detention centre to receive a child is a relevant factor in the timing of any transfer and the government introduced a detailed framework under which these decisions are to be made. I would like to clarify, that the government’s decision, is not to house more children in watch houses.”
Ms Carroll said the challenge was that “future immediate transfers of children from watch houses to a youth detention centre may not be possible”.
“It is still the QPS position that children should not be held in watch houses unless absolutely necessary and for the shortest time possible,” she wrote, using bold and underlined text in the memo.
“We all know that watch houses are not designed to detain people for lengthy periods of time. They are constructed only for temporary detention. If the need arises whereby a watch-house is needed to hold youth offenders for an extended period, a watch-house will be selected that has the best facilities to do so.
“This will include the provision of access to external providers such as education and mental health services. I am very conscious of the capacity issues impacting watch houses and the subsequent strain on our workforce. The work you do to ensure that community safety is maintained despite watch houses exceeding capacity is nothing short of exceptional.
“The QPS remains committed to working with government and key stakeholders to consider and implement alternative interim and longer-term solutions to provide better alternatives to children being housed in watch houses. I sincerely thank you for your ongoing hard work and commitment to our community, in what has been a challenging environment in terms of demand, the QPS continues to excel, and I couldn’t be prouder of each and every one of you.”
Mr McDougall had previously blasted the government for the “mockery” of the parliamentary process and revealed he hadn’t met with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in nearly five years despite numerous attempts.
He confirmed on Thursday Ms Palaszczuk’s office had recently been in touch to arrange a meeting.
“We’re not just talking about the right to humane treatment, we’re now talking about the right to life of these children,” Mr McDougall said.
“I’m looking forward to that meeting to discuss some of the urgent actions I think are required to ensure that we avoid what I can see being a human rights disaster occurring this summer.”
The state government, including Acting Premier Steven Miles most recently, have defended the rushed laws as necessary amid a nearly successful Supreme Court challenge which could have forced children in watch houses to be transferred to youth jail immediately.
The recent strengthening of youth justice laws such as making breach of bail an offence has led to child detention rates skyrocketing in Queensland, with the three youth prisons operating at near-capacity constantly.
*********************************************************
Huge new solar farm upsetting country people
There’s nothing but heartbreak and dismay as another renewable energy project looms over regional Australia.
Danish company European Energy has been given approval to build Australia’s largest solar ‘farm’ a mere 70km from the Great Barrier Reef – the same reef that climate scientists weep dramatically over whenever a government grant surfaces.
We say ‘farm’ because nothing grows beneath the scorched Earth veneer of silicon panels.
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘captain’s call’ of $443 million to save the Great Barrier Reef is starting to feel like a nasty, expensive joke. If the argument is ‘carbon emissions are killing the reef’ then the associated emissions from Queensland’s ‘green’ projects are nothing short of catastrophic. The reef would be better off with the old coal-fired power stations.
Locals whose communities are sitting in the path of these projects are upset that the current Labor government’s desire to reach Net Zero at any cost – frequently cheered on by the nearest Liberal – is threatening the environment rather than conserving it.
‘They’re not subject to reef regulations,’ complained one local. ‘It’s just out of control. Complete disregard for the reef and the people it destroys.’
This particular solar ‘farm’ is expected to cover an area of roughly 2,700 ha with 2 million solar panels. If the build runs to schedule, it will connect to the grid in 2026. What’s the carbon footprint of these panels? Who knows. If it’s ever completed, it should produce 2.8 TWh/year unless it under-performs due to dust, damage, and bad weather. All things that never happen in Queensland … right?
Community comments from unhappy residents sound eerily similar to those from coastal communities that ‘love’ wind energy but don’t want any turbines in their ocean views. Farmers in the Gladstone region feel the same way about solar farms. They’re pro-renewable energy but only in the ‘right place’ which, presumably, is not their place.
No matter where you put these projects, they destroy the local area.
There is going to be a lot more of them which you can find in the REZ Roadmap. Spread across three regions, Queensland is carpeting itself in over 100 solar farms and 1,000s kms of transmission lines. No more pristine outback wilderness. The CopperString project, for example, is an 840 km transmission line marked as ‘the largest ever economic development project in North Queensland’. Largest ever mess, too.
Despite ‘powering central Queensland’ the project is not removing remote Queensland’s reliance on diesel as ‘these communities are not connected to the main energy grid, decarbonisation of the main grid will not impact them’. Strange. Maybe the Queensland government should have focused on bringing these remote areas into the 19th Century before sending the rest of the state into the Dark Ages.
For a nation that keeps voting for renewable energy, professing a sort of endless love affair with the technology, property values decrease everywhere they are installed. Virtue signalling does not translate to extra dollars on home valuations. Homeowners in the area of this solar farm are furious that they haven’t been offered any compensation for the expected value decrease of 30 per cent.
‘That’s basically it, mate, suffer your jocks. It’s destroying us, destroying our family, destroying the district…’ said one farmer, facing an uncertain future. ‘It’s a beautiful little valley.’
Will it still be beautiful glinting in the sunlight with an artificial hide of silicon?
‘I’ve got a neighbour, he’s in a proper mess. We’re struggling to look after him. It’s just not right.’
They later added, ‘It’s hard to believe in Australia that you can just do this. We’re collateral damage in this rush to Net Zero.’
Unfortunately, once the public ‘vote green’, they issue a social licence and public mandate to the ruling government to do exactly this… Elections have consequences.
The project website has a statement addressing community concerns. ‘How will the project benefit the community?’ It replies: ‘Opportunities will be given for local contractors to supply goods and services, particularly during the construction … rates and rent will be paid to the Gladstone Regional Council and local landowners respectively during the life of the project.’
That resolves everything.(!!)
************************************
10 September, 2023
Builders warn new code to push up home costs
Increasing the cost of living is what governments do, all for a good reason of course. But there is an infinity of good reasons
The building trade has taken to the airwaves in its battle against costly changes to the national building code (NCC).
Master Builders Queensland chief executive Paul Bidwell says the cost to build a new home in Queensland will rise by up to $30,000 from 1 October when changes to livable housing and energy efficiencies come in. Queensland is the only state going ahead with the reforms this year with all other jurisdictions delaying them for at least a year.
Bidwell (illustrated) says costs will increase conservatively between $20,0000 and $30,000 – depending on a number of factors.
“Housing Minister Mick de Brenni says we’re exaggerating this but we’re not,” says Bidwell. “This is what builders across the state are telling us. These cost increases are on the back of a 42 per cent increase to build a new home over three years.”
Master Builders Queensland has launched a television advertising campaign to lobby against what it says is the hasty introduction of the changes while more than 1,000 builders have signed a petition opposing the reforms. It has yet to received a response from Mr de Brenni.
Bidwell says Queensland needs 48,000 homes a year over the next five years to meet the national housing target set recently – however, with the 2023/24 forecast only sitting at 36,000 dwellings – we are well short.
“We have supported inclusive, sustainable and affordable housing and been in discussions with government and stakeholders for years – however, in the face of a housing crisis and rising costs, do not believe now is the right time to introduce these changes,” he says.
The advertising campaign being shown on commercial television shows a series of builders with their tools in battle like stances with the tag line ‘Builders fighting to keep the Queensland building dream alive”.
****************************************************
Fear the wind droughts
Matthew Warren knows as much about the energy industry as anyone and his book Blackout (2019) is a very good overview of the system.
In the Financial Review on the weekend, he called for a contest of ideas and not a rigid central plan because the timetable for decarbonisation that AEMO provided for the government in the so-called Integrated System Plan is purely aspirational and it is not really a plan at all.
As a former chief executive officer of the Australian Energy Council and a veteran of the Energy Supply Association and the Clean Energy Council, some may argue Warren is too embedded in the parallel universe to fully challenge the decarbonisation narrative.
In my view, the story will not have a happy ending and the time has come for a new energy narrative based on realism and concern for the welfare of people and the planet. Let’s be energy realists and responsible stewards of the environment at the same time.
On that basis we can move forward using conventional power, including nuclear, to generate cheap, relatively clean and reliable energy, as we did two decades ago.
It has been acknowledged that building a power system driven by intermittent energy only is a radical and unproven venture, but the Western world is betting the farm on it. Given this, it is already admitted that we will have to adjust to unforeseen difficulties.
Wind droughts were not anticipated and they have emerged as the fundamental problem, a fatal flaw in the system, the Achilles heel of Net Zero the program… The official wind-watchers and meteorologists did not warn us.
It was left to others, notably the world-leading wind-watchers Anton Lang and Paul Miskelly, who documented our wind droughts over a decade ago. Now everyone can see them in the public records from AEMO, displayed at Aneroid Energy.
You can also look at the Nemwatch Widget at breakfast and dinnertime and see how often you will sit down to a hot meal on the back of wind power!
The time has come to face the facts about wind droughts and the futility of the three strategies, the ‘Holy Trinity’: transmission lines, pumped hydro, and batteries that are supposed to keep the lights on through windless nights.
When the wind is low across the whole of the NEM, there is no spare wind power for the interstate connectors to carry. As for pumped hydro, where in the world are large pumped hydro schemes powered by intermittent energy? And batteries! Do the arithmetic and see the puny capacity of even the largest ‘big batteries’ compared with the demands of the grid on a windless night.
As Mark Mills explains, the so-called energy transition is not happening worldwide. Trillions of dollars of expenditure over two decades have hardly moved the needle from fossil fuels to green energy.
What is more, there is no way that it can happen, considering the amount of rocks that have to be dug up and transported and then converted into a myriad of products using highly energy-intensive processes.
The AEMO data dashboard has a tab for Renewable Penetration which gives the impression that we are making steady progress with the green transition. The high point is approaching 70 per cent, and the average was up to 36 per cent last month. That is the metric of choice in the parallel ‘Net Zero’ universe.
In the real world, the critical indicator is the amount of wind and solar power generated in the worst case, the night with little or no wind. That is next to nothing and increasing the installed capacity by a factor of 5 or even 10 (if you can imagine that) will not help because 5 or 10 times next to nothing is still next to nothing.
Do not dismiss that argument as unfair or misleading cherry-picking. It is due diligence to see if the equipment is fit for purpose. So we put our weight on the rungs of the ladder before we use it, maintenance workers look for defective parts in aero engines, we check the low point of the flood levy, the gap in the fence around the stock, and the weak link in the chain.
The tipping point in warming was a bogey invented by climate alarmists and now we are approaching a very real tipping point in the power supply.
This is a highly simplified picture of the way we are approaching a critical tipping point in the power supply as conventional power capacity (mostly coal) has run down since the turn of the century.
We expect that coal will continue to exit the system until it falls below the level of peak demand at dinner times. Then the first shocks of wind droughts will be felt. Eventually, the supply of conventional power will fall below the base load that is required day and night. Then there will be rolling blackouts every night when the wind power falls away to a point where it cannot make up the difference between the downward-sloping line of conventional power and the horizontal line representing demand.
The Renewable Energy enthusiasts expect that increasing the capacity of wind and solar will ensure that the gap is closed but on windless nights there nothing to fill the gap. Heroic load shedding, and widespread rolling blackouts, will be required to avoid a system-wide blackout.
All the states and nations on the road to Net Zero by wind and solar power will arrive at the tipping point sooner or later. Britain and Germany have arrived there but their collapse is cushioned by power imported from other places. We are on the brink and we don’t have any extension cords.
Lately, there has been a flurry of alarm about this potentially catastrophic situation but it should not come as a surprise. Since early 2020 the Energy Realists of Australia sent a series of briefing notes to all state and federal MPs and many journalists to raise concern about wind droughts, lack of storage and cognate matters. However, the major parties all pressed on with aggressive policies to eliminate coal (surely the biggest public policy blunder in our history) and they all share the responsibility for the impending crisis.
Moreover, the press corps neglected to inform the general public about the issues and voters sleep-walked into the last election without understanding the energy policy issues that are at stake. Echoing Paul Keating’s pronouncement on his recession, you could say that this is the energy crisis that we had to have!
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/end-the-net-zero-nightmare/
**************************************************
A reading revolution is underway in many Australian schools but classes are still a 'lottery' for parents
Noni Bogart's daughter Zoe was a bubbly and confident child when she started school. But she struggled to learn to read, and repeating a year didn't help.
Zoe was learning to read at a Canberra school that used a strategy that has since been removed from the Australian curriculum, yet remains in use in many classrooms around the country.
The three-cueing system encourages children to think of a word when they get stuck and ask themselves: "Does it make sense here? Does it sound right? Does it look right?"
This technique is coupled with "predictable" home readers — books that follow a pattern with pictures to match.
"The books that she was reading at the time, they were pretty much just 'look at the picture and guess what the words are'," Ms Bogart says.
By year 3, Zoe was barely able to read kindergarten books. It left her feeling frustrated and her mother "quite let down".
"I put my trust into the teachers and into the public system, and I've literally got no result," Ms Bogart says.
She took matters into her own hands, finding a tutor and scraping together enough money to move Zoe and her older sister Lacey to a Catholic school.
There, they were taught letters and sounds in a particular order so they could blend them and decode unfamiliar words.
The theory is that, after a child has decoded a word a number of times, they will just know it and progress to more difficult words and sentences.
Canberra-Goulburn Catholic schools, as well as public schools in South Australia, New South Wales and Western Australia, have trained their teachers to deliver this structured, explicit literacy approach.
Once Zoe was taught this way, she caught up to her peers within two years.
Ms Bogart says her family is an experiment that shows how effective the explicit instruction of phonics can be.
Her son Jagger learnt this way from the start, and the kindergarten student is already at a year 2 reading level, according to his mother, who has been on her own learning journey to teach her children at home.
Jagger had the benefit of using Zoe's old "decodable readers" — books that use a restricted number of letters and sounds the child has been learning. "There's proof there that those decodable readers work," Ms Bogart says.
Children like Zoe are known as "instructional casualties" by advocates of structured, explicit literacy.
Speech pathologist Scarlett Gaffey sees many of them in her Canberra clinic who are "failing to learn to read not because they can't but because they're not taught well enough".
"I'm working on other things like speech and language or stuttering perhaps," Ms Gaffey says. "But on top of that, because the school is teaching them using a 'balanced literacy' method, I then have to spend significant amounts of time teaching them to read."
Debate has raged for decades over the best way to teach children to read — whether that's focusing on the meaning of words in a balanced literacy approach, where students immerse themselves in literature, or focusing on learning letter-sound combinations, known as phonics.
Pamela Snow co-founded the Science of Language and Reading Lab at La Trobe University. She says the evidence clearly backs the explicit instruction of phonics and that reading, unlike speaking, must be taught.
"We know that children who are effective readers early on are the ones who have acquired those automatic decoding skills," she says. "What we don't want is for children to be taught strategies that effectively promote guessing."
Professor Snow says there is huge variation in how schools teach across the country, creating a "lottery" for parents. "Two schools only a few kilometres apart can be taking a completely different approach to reading instruction," she says.
"It's reasonable for parents to not give any real thought to the question of whether their child would be taught to read when they go to school — it's just assumed — and some will be lucky and some won't be so lucky. "But it shouldn't be a lottery."
Professor Snow says the stakes are high: children who are early strugglers experience a "multiplier effect" as they go through school, potentially facing a "lifetime on the margins of society".
"When that support isn't provided in a timely manner, the gap opens up — and it opens up early and it opens up very wide," she says.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-10/literacy-teaching-revolution-underway/102834334
**********************************************
Charles Darwin University students told to 'reflect deeply' on career choice if they oppose the Voice
A university professor is under fire for telling allied health students who don't support the Indigenous Voice to Parliament to consider a different career.
Charles Darwin University Associate Professor Bea Staley sent a pro-Voice email to speech therapy students suggesting they should rethink a career in allied health if they plan to vote No at the October 14 referendum.
'As you know, CDU has also taken the stance of a Yes vote,' Professor Stanley wrote.
'The speech pathology courses at CDU have been created with notions of equity and social justice at their core. We will be voting Yes.
'If you feel you are unable to vote Yes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights, you might want to reflect deeply on whether a career in allied health in Australia is really for you.'
Associate Professor Staley described the referendum as 'Australia's Brexit moment'.
'If we as Australians seek to move towards reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we must vote Yes,' she continued.
'A Yes vote will not make up for the atrocities of colonisation, but it is certainly a step in the right direction for a more humane and just Australian society.'
Federal NT Senator and prominent No campaigner Jacinta Price described the email as 'effectively bullying'.
She claimed concerned students had previously contacted her office regarding CDU's stance on the Voice.
'They no longer feel like they have the freedom to discuss – certainly this issue – and that they are being ostracised because the school, the University, took the position to support the Voice,' Senator Price told Sky News on Thursday night.
'This is a leadership failure, and I would call on the chancellor to correct this to ensure this sort of pressure isn't applied to students by their lecturers.'
'Universities are supposed to be spaces where debate is encouraged, where universities don't take a position on a political issue.
Sky News host Rita Panahi later described Professor Staley's email as insane.
Charles Darwin University vice-chancellor Professor Scott Bowman said the lecturer would be 'counselled' and stressed that anyone who votes No still make excellent healthcare workers.
'We respect everyone's right to hold their own views regarding the referendum,' he said.
'CDU has actively provided a platform for discussion and the exchange of well-informed ideas and points of view. 'We know that people who vote no will still make excellent healthcare workers.'
CDU is yet to comment on whether the matter will be investigated further but has reiterated its support for the Voice.
Professor Stanley supervises PhD students in her areas of expertise and has several active research projects.
'Bea's teaching and research interests relate to language development, literacy, diversity and difference,' her university bio states.
'Bea studies children and youth in the context of their families and communities.'
************************************
8 September, 2023
Failed vaccine mandates
In Australia, the vaccine efficacy that preoccupies state premiers – who imposed the mandates – is getting re-elected. As Premier Andrews put it when he won the Victorian election in a ‘Dan-slide’ last November, ‘Vaccines work!’ In Queensland, Premier Palasczcuk is so keen to repeat the act that she’s hired Andrews’ adman.
But who will last longer? The mandates or Palasczcuk? On Friday 1 September, Health Minister Shannon Fentiman (mooted to be a front-runner to replace the Premier) announced two-week consultations on removing the mandates, two years after they were imposed in September 2021.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer (CHO) has already said they should go but the power of the CHO which seemed almost unlimited at the height of Covid hysteria has diminished now that he is proposing something sensible.
A group called Doctors Against Mandates mounted a legal challenge to the mandates on 12 March 2022. Within a fortnight of receiving 13 affidavits from medical professionals and six reports from international experts, the CHO revoked the mandates for health workers in the private sector. Unfortunately, mandates which cover the public sector health are still in force.
One of the most damning indictments of vaccine efficacy was filed in relation to the doctors’ challenge to the mandate in the Supreme Court of Queensland early this year by the state’s Chief Health Officer Dr John Gerrard. It revealed that once 80 per cent of the population were vaccinated and the borders opened in December 2021, not only did Covid cases explode, peaking at 18,500 per day in January, but 80 per cent of the 176 Covid deaths were in people who had had one or more Covid vaccine jabs. Most were double-vaxxed but 13 were triple-vaxxed and one died after five shots. In other words, the vaccines were duds. They failed to stop the pandemic or prevent the vulnerable from dying. All the bullying of the unvaccinated, preventing grieving Australians from comforting their dying loved ones or attending their funerals, denying a pregnant woman in New South Wales permission to cross the border and get urgent medical treatment which meant she waited 16 hours to fly to Sydney, and lost one of her twins – it was all for nothing.
Did the Premier rush to apologise for the damage done by the ‘failed vaccines’, to quote Bill Gates who profited heavily from his investment in the Pfizer jab? Of course not. The information was only made public last month by Rebekah Barnett in her excellent substack Dystopian Downunder.
Far from apologising, Queensland Health is still threatening disciplinary action against ‘hundreds’ of workers who ‘did not comply with their employment contract’ by getting jabbed.
Infectious disease physician Paul Griffin supports ending the mandates but thinks the biggest risk is that ‘people will think the initial rule was wrong, which,’ according to him, ‘isn’t the case’.
That’s the nub of it. The government doesn’t want to admit that the vaccines are useless and the mandates were morally, scientifically and practically wrong.
The only reason it is ending the mandate is because it can’t replace the more than 2,100 healthcare workers who were stood down or forced to resign.
‘We have global workforce shortages, so I think it makes sense now to reconsider this mandate,’ Fentiman says.
‘If someone wants to now reapply for a job with Queensland Health who is not vaccinated for Covid, they’ll be treated the same as any other worker.’
Despite a massive increase in Australia’s international immigration intake and wage hikes in the health sector, acute shortages persist, not least because the repeatedly vaccinated healthcare workers repeatedly get Covid-19. This was observed in a study of more than 50,000 US healthcare workers in the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, which showed the more often you were jabbed, the more you caught Covid.
Interstate migration into Queensland, predominantly Victoria, and NSW, the states worst affected by lockdown lunacy, has increased demand for health services.
National excess mortality of over 13 per cent this year has increased pressure on hospitals.
The dramatic spike in ‘dying suddenly’ is recorded under ‘other cardiac conditions’ in Australia’s provisional mortality data. Deaths from January to May are 15.5 per cent higher than the baseline average and 1 per cent higher than the same period in 2022.
Deaths due to diabetes were 22 per cent above the baseline average in May 2023, and 1.4 per cent higher than in May 2022
Deaths due to dementia including Alzheimer’s were 18 per cent above the baseline average in May 2023, and 2.1 per cent above May 2022.
Each of these causes of death has been linked in studies to the spike protein in the virus and/or the vaccine. For example, a paper from Larson et al. at Linkoping University, Sweden published on 1 September presents evidence for the initiation or acceleration of Alzheimer’s disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by the spike protein.
When the mandate for health workers ends in Queensland, flagged for 25 September, only NSW, Victoria and South Australia will be left. Will that be the end?
Who knows? In the US some colleges and hospitals are trying to bring back mask mandates.
Scott Gottlieb, former head of the US Food and Drug Administration and now on the board of Pfizer is talking up the next booster.
The latest variant has been named after Eris, the Greek goddess of ‘strife and discord’. What is the plan? A rerun of lockdowns and Black Lives Matter on the rampage in the run-up to the 2024 Presidential election? Skeptics have their own name for the variant – BS.24.7.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/bs-24-7/
********************************************
Racist duck hunting regulations
The recent state parliamentary report into recreational native bird hunting gives Victorians a taste of the kind of division the Voice to Parliament will have across every area of life in regional Australia should advocates for constitutional change be successful at the October referendum.
The report, almost 300 pages long, lays out a recipe for the kind of race-based division of laws and rights that the federal government would make permanent nationwide.
Without any solid justification – except, it would seem, that some people do not like bird hunting – the committee has recommended the Victorian government end recreational bird hunting on all public and private land from 2024.
Only that would not apply to everyone. According to the committee, the hunting rights of ‘traditional owners’ should be retained.
Other key recommendations include that the government introduce additional protections for ‘Aboriginal cultural heritage’ sites and current penalties for ‘cultural destruction’. The committee even recommends a government re-education program that would require hunters to learn about ‘Aboriginal cultural heritage awareness’.
One of the claims made in support of the committee’s proposed restrictions is that bird hunting is a niche practice and only 0.4 per cent of Victorians hold a bird hunting licence.
It is not clear whether the committee questioned how many ‘traditional owners’ are currently exercising their hunting rights. One gets the impression that it would not matter to the committee members, as its position is that one category of Victorian deserves greater protection.
This goes right to the heart of the concern of a growing number of Australians when it comes to the proposed Voice to Parliament, that laws are increasingly being used to separate people into different groups.
Brazen in its divisiveness, the Victorian parliamentary committee said it would be too cruel if Victorians who do not have Indigenous heritage were allowed to continue to hunt, but it would not be too cruel if those Victorians were Indigenous.
The same concerns became a flashpoint in Western Australia recently, with the confusion and concern generated by proposed Indigenous Cultural Heritage laws. These now abandoned reforms would have mandated property owners obtain permission from local Indigenous authorities before even a fence post could have been dug on land only slightly larger than a suburban block.
The Western Australian reforms were abandoned after overwhelming community pressure following statements of the newly appointed Premier Roger Cook let the cat out of the bag saying his ‘cultural heritage laws do the same thing as the Voice.’
Claims that people should be divided and given different rights would become more commonplace if the indigenous-only voice to parliament – a parallel system of political representation based on race – is inserted into the Australian Constitution.
The federal government’s proposed constitutional change would establish the voice and give it the constitutional duty to make ‘representations’ to the Parliament and the executive government. This means the voice would be empowered to intervene at all stages of the lawmaking process – not just the drafting, review, and debate of laws, but also the right to make representations about how laws are enforced.
There is no limit to the scope of matters that the voice may make recommendations. If passed, the Voice would have the right to make representations to the government ‘on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’. This, in effect, means any issue because all Indigenous Australians are Australians, and the law applies to all Australians equally – or at least it should.
Any disputes in the lawmaking process between the Canberra Voice to pParliament and the elected Parliament will not be resolved democratically. Because the Canberra Voice to Parliament will be enshrined in the Constitution, it will be the High Court that will determine the scope, rights, and powers of the Voice and adjudicate disputes.
The Victorian bird hunting inquiry demonstrates how issues of general concern can quickly be hijacked by activists pushing a divisive agenda and demands for separate treatment can be accommodated by dismantling the principle of equality before the law. At the referendum on October 14, 2023, this could become a permanent feature of our way of life.
****************************************************
Single-sex schools have the academic advantage, NAPLAN data reveals
When prospective parents agonise over the decision to enrol their daughter in a single-sex school, Campbelltown’s St Patrick’s College for Girls principal Sue Lennox has a simple answer: “Boys get away with stuff because ‘boys will be boys’ and that is a dreadful lesson for girls. That is what girls at co-ed school learn,” she said.
“When girls are in class without the boys, they can be themselves. It is a safe place where they can ask questions. They don’t feel they have to be anyone in particular because there are no boys. They grow in confidence.
“In co-ed schools, some subjects are considered ‘boy subjects’ and some are considered ‘girl subjects’. That is absent here.”
An analysis of NAPLAN results from across the country’s 304 single-sex schools shows there is another advantage to segregating boys and girls: they both perform slightly better when it comes to academic results.
After accounting for socio-educational background, the analysis by Catholic Schools NSW using NAPLAN test data from 2019 to 2022 found the single-sex advantage was particularly pronounced when it came to numeracy scores in boys’ schools.
Students enrolled in boys’ schools typically scored between 11 and 12 points higher than those in co-ed schools, after accounting for socio-educational background, the report said.
“Overall, the results of this analysis imply a modest academic advantage for single-sex schools, with the advantage generally greater for boys’ schools than girls’ schools,” the report said.
When it came to numeracy, girls who went to a single-sex school scored on average three points higher than those who attended a co-ed school, after differences in social background were considered.
There are about 284,000 students across the country enrolled in single-sex schools. While they might be performing better academically, the share of all students in those schools across the country declined slightly from 7.2 per cent in 2018 to 7 per cent in 2022.
The shrinking share of students in single-sex schools is likely driven by the fact that many boys schools have decided to open their doors to girls, the report said.
In Sydney, that includes Marist school Corpus Christi College which opened its doors to girls in year 7 this year. It followed North Sydney’s Marist Catholic College North Shore which went co-ed in 2021.
The $41,000-a-year Cranbrook in Bellevue Hill will open its doors to girls in 2026, and Newington College in Stanmore is also weighing up a possible shift to co-ed.
Flinders University researcher Dr Katherine Dix analysed NAPLAN data ranging from 2010 to 2012. She found in numeracy that students at boys’ schools were one school term ahead of students in girls’ schools. However, her research found single-sex schools offered no added value in academic results over time when compared to co-ed schools.
She now believes girls’ schools remained popular because the values they promoted were attractive to parents, while that was less the case for boys’ schools.
“Wanting to develop strong independent young women is a stronger driver in a traditionally male-dominated world. The same driver is not there for single-sex male schools,” she said.
Chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW Dallas McInerney wants single-sex schools to remain an option for parents. He warned that going co-ed by admitting girls should not be considered a quick-fix solution to help a struggling school.
“Just as we believe in parental choice between sectors, it also extends to the type of school be it co-ed or single sex because different children are better suited to different environments,” he said.
“There are a number of different reasons we might want to bring together two single-sex schools on a single site. But as a general principle, one section should not be called upon to save a failing school of the opposite sex. Don’t bring in girls to salvage a struggling boys’ schools.”
At St Patrick’s in Campbelltown, Rebecca, 15, said when she compared the school to her co-ed primary school she preferred just having girls in the classroom.
“It is a lot more quiet and focused,” she said.
Abigail, 15, said she liked the close friendships she had made at school, while her classmate Diadem, also 15, said she liked being in a supportive environment of an all-girls school.
“It is a sisterhood, I feel really encouraged to do my best,” she said.
****************************************************
Truth-telling body using ‘make-believe history’: Blainey
Eminent historian Geoffrey Blainey has accused Victoria’s Indigenous “truth-telling” body of drawing upon a “make-believe” version of history in its latest report, arguing claims Aborigines had democratic decision-making processes prior to 1788 are wrong.
The Yoorrook Justice Commission’s report claims Aboriginal Victorians had “collective decision making” at the heart of their societies before the British Empire colonised the land in 1788, and uses this history as a basis for its calls for “decision-making power, authority, control and resources” in both the child protection and criminal justice systems to be transferred to Indigenous Victorians.
But Professor Blainey says the commission is ignoring the authoritarian and at times violent nature of relations between Indigenous groups, suggesting their version of history is closer to the views of Anthony Albanese and Dark Emu author Bruce Pascoe than those of historians. The commission said the report had been produced after “12 months of intensive research and evidence gathering”, while Professor Pascoe said he had never claimed there had been no violence in Aboriginal society.
ANU WK Hancock Distinguished Professor of History Ann McGrath accused Professor Blainey of “having an imaginary argument with Bruce Pascoe”, claiming the historian has “turned away” from the conclusions of his seminal history of Aboriginal Australia, Triumph of the Nomads.
Yoorrook’s report on Victoria’s child protection and criminal justice systems, published on Monday, states: “Before European invasion, First Peoples were independent and governed by collective decision-making processes with shared kinship, language and culture. They belonged to and were custodians of defined areas of country.”
Professor Blainey said “many scholars” disagreed with this view. “The idea that Aboriginals practised ‘collective decision making’ comes from Bruce Pascoe and our Prime Minister. Their belief that Aboriginals invented democracy 80,000 years ago is make-believe,” the University of Melbourne emeritus professor said.
“Traditional Aboriginal society tended to be authoritarian, and far from democratic. My book, The Story of Australia’s People: the Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia, discusses the kind of historical errors which are now embodied in the Yoorrook verdicts.”
The book won a Prime Minister’s Literary Award in 2016.
Professor Blainey said many experts also disagreed with Yoorrook’s claim that “the systemic racism which persists today has its origins in colonial systems and institutions”.
“There is plenty of evidence that Aboriginal tribes or ‘nations’ thought that they were innately superior to their neighbours,” Professor Blainey said.
He cited a reference in his preface to Triumph of the Nomads to an Indigenous Victorian “meeting a black tribe living only 100 miles away” in the 1840s, and commenting “They are foreign in speech, they are foreign in countenance, they are foreign altogether – they are no good”.
“Brutal warfare existed between Aboriginal peoples, but it is not even mentioned in this week’s edict. Victoria was not the Garden of Eden before 1788, nor after 1788,” Professor Blainey said.
************************************
7 September, 2023
Single parents discriminated against in rental market
It IS discrimination but why? It's mainly because single parents are usually stretched financially. So it is rational to question whether they would be reliable rent-payers. So it is rational for a landlord to pass over them and rent to people who would have less difficulty in paying rent. But not all single mothers are the same so those in well-paid employment would normally deserve a chance
A whistleblowing real estate agent and a landlord say that single parents are “heavily discriminated against” and “stigmatised” in the rental market, with one single mother who works full-time telling of how she lives in her car because no real estate will lease a property to her.
Vicki Eriksson, now a rental property manager with Five Rivers Sales and Rentals in Cairns, has broken ranks with other firms to say discrimination against solo parents is a “massive issue” in the real estate industry.
“In my experience, it was tough to get a rental when I was a single parent … and it’s because there is a stigma attached to it (being a single parent).”
Ms Ericksson said she got involved in real estate management off the back of her difficult experiences as a single parent trying to find a rental and works hard in her role to give single parents rental properties.
“Being a single parent means you are discriminated against and stigmatised in the rental market, just for being a single parent” she said of other real estate agents.
She said the “stigma comes from the fact there is only one income,” and the result is “people becoming homeless and often trying to make ends meet through stealing and violence”.
Indeed one single mother Stephanie Williams, said she works full-time, but is living in her car because of constant rental knock-backs that she believes is because she is a single parent.
“My boss even helped with a letter stating he would pay three months of rent to try help myself get stability for myself and kids. But here I am living in my car” she said.
“When you have kids and you’re on your own it’s tough, but you have to just keep powering on.”
Single parents Patricia Breuil and Jane Mcdonald say they have been forced to share rooms with their teenage daughters after applying for 40 properties between them in the last six months.
Single father Scott Jones says he has applied for around “50 properties” over the past two years.
“It’s beyond a joke” he said.
He is now living in a 14-foot caravan with his three children.
The single parents who contacted the Post know the rental market is already tight with record low vacancy rates and around 1300 homeless people in Cairns, but believe real estate agents are rejecting them simply because they are single parents.
However, another real estate agent property manager who is also a single mother said that while she often leases out to single parents and wanted to remain anonymous – the issue is usually that single parents come to her with poor references.
However, landlord Sarah Wild disagreed.
As a new property owner in the area she told a couple of real estate agents she wanted to rent out to single parents.
“They immediately warned me against this,” she said. “I asked the real estate why and ‘she said you don’t know what their life is like and they come with ‘complications’.”
Ms Eriksson said she believes the stigma against single parents is unfair and unfounded. “Single parents are my best tenants,” she said.
“I advise any single parent to contact a property manager directly. Don’t just keep making applications online. Share your story, tell them who you are, it puts them in a different focus – you become a real person to a property manager that way.”
https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/cairns/single-parents-discriminated-against-in-cairns-housing-market/news-story/8e4ba55b0c85b5afa84cc7d8c8d690ec
*******************************************
A very political airline
Seasoned air travellers are familiar with the sight of a swarm of masked and gloved cleaners waiting to rush on board as soon as they have disembarked to rapidly get rid of all the litter and mess left behind by one horde and have the place looking shiny new for the next.
It will take more than a crack team of airline cleaners, however, to get rid of the acrid stench of a scorched reputation left behind by departing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce. What was once Australia’s pride and joy, the Flying Kangaroo, is on the nose.
So here’s a few handy cleaning tips for the new hands behind the joystick:
Start by scrapping the asinine Welcome to Country announcements that blight every take-off and landing. Not only are they meaningless – passengers landing at Brisbane, for instance, are landing on reclaimed land – but they are tiresomely offensive. The majority of Qantas passengers are Australian citizens who pay their taxes and own or rent property under Australian sovereign law. In the case of fancy airport terminals and runways, these belong to the taxpayer or to the shareholders of corporations and nobody else. Australian taxpayers do not need to be welcomed onto land they already own, and facilities they pay handsomely for, whenever they touch down or take off.
And they certainly do not need to be repeatedly bludgeoned in some quasi-spiritual fashion by lauding abstract persons who may or may not exist.
Landing at Heathrow, are passengers welcomed to the lands of the Catuvellauni and Trinovante tribes of ancient Britain? Landing at Rome-Fiumicino, do hostesses pay their respects to Praetors past, present and emerging? The idea is risible.
The politicisation of Qantas by Alan Joyce et al. must be immediately reversed if the brand is to be restored to its former glory. By definition, politics are polarising – our democratic system is designed to not only tolerate but actually thrive on robust adversarial debate. For every man or woman or whatever in-between who rejoices in Alan Joyce’s virtue-signalling politics, there is another paying customer who is appalled by having politics they disagree with rammed down their throat. Qantas is not the only company jumping on political bandwagons – this disease has taken hold throughout the boardrooms of the West – but it is one of the most visible. During the same-sex marriage debate, Qantas under Mr Joyce took a prominent stance. During Covid, the airline disgracefully and shamefully imposed vaccine mandates on its employees that saw many pilots and others who had dedicated their lives to the airline tossed aside like soggy leftover airline sandwiches.
Yet at the same time as preaching its superior morality from the pulpit – sorry, the cockpit – this unctuous airline stands accused of diddling its customers, allegedly selling seats on flights that had already been cancelled. Whether this occurred due to laziness, greed, incompetence or accident is immaterial. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is seeking to hit Qantas with $250 million in fines. A slew of other allegations of poor behaviour is also now surfacing.
There will be many, many Australians who will look back on events that occurred where perhaps they missed a funeral, or an important family occasion, or a crucial business meeting, or who were simply inconvenienced, and who will view these allegations with seething anger. And they will not forget.
Then we get to the current support for the Yes campaign for an indigenous Voice to parliament, where Qantas’s advocacy coincides with a major rival airline, Qatar, being denied access to our aviation market and – also a sheer coincidence, obviously – the Prime Minister’s young son being gifted membership of the elitist Qantas Chairman’s lounge.
As Qantas enjoys record profits and Mr Joyce bails out with a glittering multimillion-dollar parachute, Mr Albanese’s popularity plummets. Labor’s free-falling PM will surely rue the day he risked hopping on board the flying roo.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/flight-risk-2/
***************************************************
New ‘power of one’ gift for unions in IR reforms, business warns
Contentious new rights for union delegates to intervene in workplaces where they have as few as one or two members risked inserting “a union presence into every workplace in Australia”, employers have warned.
In the latest flashpoint between employers and unions over Labor’s industrial relations shake-up, business groups have vowed to campaign to block the proposal and labelled it a “union recruitment tool”.
After examining the legislation put before parliament this week, University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart said unions would only need to have one or two members in a workplace for their delegates “to have rights in relation to everybody who is a potential member”.
Professor Stewart – one of the nation’s top workplace law experts – said the rights for delegates were not “just about servicing your actual members, it’s about servicing potential members”.
“It means you might have a workplace where there are one or two union members but they now formally have the right to advocate on behalf of everyone in the workplace who is eligible to be a union member and the employer will have to give them reasonable facilities to do that,” Professor Stewart said on Wednesday.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said employers were deeply alarmed by the union delegate provisions.
“This is just a union recruiting tool which has massive implications around how businesses manage their relations with their workforce,” Mr Willox said.
“This affects anyone who is eligible to be a union member so this will impact on non-unionised workplaces. It’s not minor, it’s major and we’ll be fighting it tooth and nail.
“This is a threshold issue for employers because it goes to their ability to manage and ability to protect their workforce from union influence.
“Employers are quite frankly aghast at this … it’s all about increasing union rights, union power, union influence and union membership in workplaces.”
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar said the rights for union delegates exemplified how the bill was “extending the ability for unions to reach into employment arrangements and relationships much more so than they do now”.
The Closing Loopholes bill says a delegate is entitled to represent the interests of union members and “any other persons eligible to be such members”, and have reasonable communication with them.
Delegates must be given reasonable access to the workplace and workplace facilities as well as reasonable access to paid training during work hours unless the employer is a small business.
Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association chief executive Steve Knott said the changes would “make certain employees, who are first and foremost members of the workforce, de facto union organisers paid for by the business”.
“This would apply to all businesses, including those with no union presence and no enterprise agreements,” Mr Knott said.
“The motivation is clearly not to increase productivity, but to insert a union presence into every workplace in Australia. The end game is to drive increased union membership which in turn lifts political donations to the ALP.”
Introducing the bill into parliament on Monday, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke linked the rights for delegates as a way to discover the underpayment of workers.
“A common feature of many high-profile wage underpayment cases is that, when they are discovered, we find the problem has been going on for years and years,” Mr Burke said.
“People are too afraid to speak up, and there are no processes in place to help them do so. We need to make sure that, if someone is not being treated fairly at work, it‘s discovered early. That’s why this bill contains important new protections and rights for workplace delegates, including paid access to relevant training – with small businesses exempt from this requirement.”
ACTU secretary Sally McManus said ensuring worker representatives were educated and supported to do their job was “essential to harmonious workplaces”.
“If the people who volunteer to represent other workers understand their rights and obligations, issues can be resolved quickly in the workplace and we won’t see issues like wage theft going on for years unresolved,” Ms McManus said.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable said: “Extending union delegate powers will be a further hit to the nation’s flagging productivity, taking valuable time and resources out of businesses when they need all hands on deck.
“Why should workers, the majority of whom are not union members, have to cover for the special treatment and time off for select union delegates?
“Given the scope of the powers, including the fact delegates will be able to demand such powers even if they are the only unionised member of staff, clearly the unions are having a laugh at the expense of hardworking business owners.”
Professor Stewart said he expected the changes to be contentious.
“We have all the sound and fury about casual changes which I think are overblown,” he said.
“I think there are some issues with the labour hire provisions. The drafting is potentially problematic but I expect that to be addressed.
“But I think at some point the debate is going to move on to the union delegate provisions. That’s something that is genuinely new. It’s just not something we have ever seen, to my knowledge, formally enshrined in law.”
Mr Knott said there was an “alarming lack of detail” about the proposal.
“Nobody knows what ‘reasonable time’ might mean to attend training or exercise industrial functions,” Mr Knott said. “There is also a big question mark on how many union delegates might be allowed at any one workplace.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/new-power-of-one-gift-for-unions-in-ir-reforms-business-warns/news-story/68d83f8749e793554401bdc27cb28e23
****************************************************
Hotel giant declares war on plastics in green push
A lot of this makes sense. The little plastic bottles of various things that often come with a hotel room will not be much missed. People would mostly have their own versions of such things
When Accor Pacific boss Sarah Derry hosted a lunch for her top executives in Brisbane this week there was nary a single use plastic item in sight.
The nosh up at the Pullman & Mercure King George Square was to celebrate the hotel and three other Accor properties - Sofitel Brisbane Central, ibis Styles Brisbane Elizabeth
Street and Novotel Brisbane South Bank - receiving coveted sustainable tourism certification from Ecotourism Australia.
The former Townsville girl earlier this year declared war on plastic in a new sustainability push for the group, which included a drastic reduction in plastic use across its properties in Australia including the Softel, Novotel, Ibis and Mercure brands.
Derry says that includes getting rid of the little plastic bottles of shampoo and body lotion offered in hotel rooms, plastic water bottles and numerous other single use plastic items. “We have removed some 43 single use plastic items such as individual toiletries from guest facing areas in over 80 per cent of our hotels,” says Derry.
She says the Ecotourism Australia certification is a rigorous process that evaluates a hotel’s environmental performance, community engagement, and contribution to conservation.
Derry says “sustainability is redefining our business model” with the company enrolling a further 150 hotels in the Pacific into the certification program.
Attending the lunch at the Pullman’s Goldfinch restaurant was Ecotourism Australia chief Elissa Keenan, who says Accor Pacific is leading the industry across Australia and New Zealand with its commitment to sustainability.
https://www.couriermail.com.au/business/citybeat/hotel-giant-declares-war-on-plastics-in-green-push/news-story/7d76d58e5ac9f62693aace1f2c853406
************************************
6 September, 2023
Labor voters revolt over Qatar as senate launches inquiry
The move to block Qatar is clearly designed to protect Qantas from competition
A new poll has shown Labor voters want Qatar Airways to be allowed to expand its Australian services despite the federal government moving to block the expansion.
The news comes at the same time as the Senate narrowly passed an inquiry into the Albanese government’s handling of the issue.
Critics have argued the decision will both reduce the number of seats for sale into Australia, and hinder competition that could bring prices down. It’s also drawn criticism from Virgin Australia, a close codeshare party of the overseas carrier.
On Wednesday, a new poll by RedBridge Group, reported in the Australian Financial Review, showed 59 per cent support of extra Qatar flights among Labor voters surveyed, with 56 per cent of all voters sampled wanting the Middle Eastern flag carrier to be allowed to put on additional services.
RedBridge director Tony Barry told the AFR that Labor was not just tone-deaf but “stone deaf” on the Qatar issue, adding that Transport Minister Catherine King’s decision is hurting the party’s own base.
“For most Australians, particularly those with loved ones overseas, travel isn’t a luxury purchase, it’s a cost-of-living issue,” he said.
Support from Labor voters for Qatar was highest in Queensland at 55 per cent, with 53 per cent support in both NSW and Victoria. Among all voters, 12 per cent were opposed to Qatar’s bid to operate an extra 28 services per week across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, with 32 per cent unsure. 1,001 people were surveyed.
The polling comes as the Senate establishes an inquiry into the reasons for the Government’s decision to block the expansion of Qatar’s air rights, a move which was supported by Qantas but staunchly opposed by Qatar codeshare partner Virgin Australia. Queensland’s state Labor government has also signalled it would approve Qatar’s expansion.
https://australianaviation.com.au/2023/09/labor-voters-revolt-over-qatar-as-senate-launches-inquiry/
****************************************
Journalists rebel against Walkley Awards ‘virtue signalling’
Calls to boycott the Walkley Awards because of the event’s links to petroleum company Ampol have met a growing backlash from the nation’s top journalists, with eight-times Walkley winner Hedley Thomas urging colleagues to stand up for the awards “lest our craft be further undermined by knee-jerk activism”.
The Australian’s national chief correspondent added his voice to the debate after legendary political correspondent Laurie Oakes branded the boycott – proposed by a group of cartoonists – as “white-anting” that would further undermine public trust in journalism.
Other cartoonists, including the Herald Sun’s Mark Knight, The Daily Telegraph’s Warren Brown and The Australian’s Johannes Leak, have slammed the boycott. “The custodians of the journalism awards should not be cowed,” said Thomas, who has twice been a member of the Walkley judging board.
“There will be no end to demands from activists if they sense weakness in the Walkley Foundation and leadership team.
“Those who are currently attacking the Walkley Awards for having been supported by ‘fossil fuel’ companies deserve, in absentia, a new gong – Most Hollow Virtue Signalling – at the 2023 event in Sydney in November.
“Our annual celebrations of journalism are always bleary, but I can’t recall seeing a bicycle rack outside the Walkleys, nor any of the current critics pedalling there in past years.
**********************************************
Voice is little more than an elite grab for money and power
Whichever way the voice referendum goes, division and acrimony will surely follow. Like so many government policy initiatives these days, this one is about “the vibe”, consequences be damned. Should the voice be rejected, the people’s verdict is unlikely to be respected. Public protests and unrelenting demands for a treaty, self-determination and reparations will follow. At home and abroad, Australians will be portrayed as racists.
If the proposal is carried, a small racial minority will have constitutional privileges denied the majority of Australians. It will permanently define our system of government as one country, two systems. It will establish a platform for the politics of envy. The very expectation of race-based benefits is no doubt reflected in the latest census, which recorded a 25 per cent jump in those identifying as Indigenous.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart may be well-intended, but its authors are open to the charge that it’s really about more power and money for elites. After all, Indigenous people are anything but voiceless now. Indeed, in the past 15 years, thousands of Indigenous voices have been heard and tens of billions of taxpayer dollars, together with royalties and service payments, invested where the collective voices recommended. It is not clear how an additional voice will improve Indigenous lives.
We are told the voice is about respect. But surely Indigenous people are paid respect daily? Senior Indigenous voices have permanent positions on peak Indigenous bodies, agencies and summits. Land rights have been extended to 55 per cent of the continent. Every day, non-Indigenous Australians demonstrate respect in rituals, acknowledging Indigenous elders past and present, and the traditional custodians of the land on which they stand. Letterheads are adorned with respectful acknowledgments and places are being given Indigenous names. Indigenous flags have become more ubiquitous than the national flag. Most importantly, there are 25 Indigenous members in federal, state and territory parliaments, which, based on population, is an overweight representation. This is surely the ultimate sign of respect.
Former PM Kevin Rudd’s apology in federal parliament for the “Stolen Generation” was hailed at the time as of immense significance in Australia’s journey towards reconciliation and healing. Fifteen years on, it has done little to generate reciprocal respect and goodwill from Indigenous leaders.
Dispassionate analysis of Indigenous conditions points to the greatest concentration of misery being where Indigenous voices are loudest. While reliable statistics are limited, it seems on important metrics such as life expectancy Indigenous people in remote communities die seven to eight years earlier than their peers in the cities.
These communities are also where child neglect and sexual abuse are reaching epidemic proportions. The rate at which Indigenous children were removed from their families increased by 80 per cent between 2008 and 2017, the years following Rudd’s apology. Of the $4.1bn spent on community support and welfare services, the largest proportion (29 per cent) is spent on child protection and out-of-home care (compared with 6.5 per cent for non-Indigenous people). In years to come will they be characterised as another “stolen generation”?
It’s no good blaming British colonialism or endemic racism for these conditions. After decades of widespread community goodwill and tangible support from governments, it’s time for the Indigenous industry to recognise it too is not blameless. It could have addressed these issues through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission back in 1990. ATSIC had a legislative mandate that gave it an increasingly independent voice on policy to government. But ATSIC was beset by incompetence, mismanagement and, allegedly, serious criminal behaviour by its leadership. It was disbanded in 2005. Had it been enshrined in the Constitution, it would still be there.
*********************************************
What is mis-dis in climate change debate?
Speaking in Suva in July 2022, Anthony Albanese declared a climate emergency in the Pacific. This came after joining regional leaders in Fiji to warn Australia’s neighbours face an immediate threat to their security and wellbeing. Pacific islands were sinking under rising sea levels, claimed the islands.
But back in January 2021, ABC News had reported new research that found hundreds of islands in the Pacific are growing in land size. Sticking stubbornly to the climate alarmist playbook like most politicians, the Prime Minister appears to give cover to those agitating for ever more draconian actions through misinformation about climate change.
At last count, a global network of over 1,600 scientists and professionals had signed the CLINTEL Climate Declaration stating there is no climate emergency. Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) is an independent foundation that operates in the fields of climate change and climate policy. CLINTEL was founded in 2019 by emeritus professor of geophysics Guus Berkhout and science journalist Marcel Crok.
The persistent climate alarmism, now at ‘global boiling’ hysteria level, is one of the most pernicious elements of discussion in the public square. How would fact-checkers in the proposed new world of mis-dis laws deal with the diametrically opposed views within not just politics but science itself? The ruling orthodoxy as espoused by government is based on science that is still largely a science of computer simulations. The reality is, as often emphasised by scientists not captured by the orthodoxy or reliant on it, climate science is full of wicked problems; uncertainty not consensus is the dominant status.
When tech giant Meta suspended its partnership with FactLab at the beginning of September 2023, some took that as a public indication of how risky it is to have fact-checking as a fixture of media oversight. That relationship break-up was over apprehended bias in regards to fact-checking amidst the Voice referendum discussions online. Climate change is a topic ripe for such controversial procedures. The disparaging of and billion dollar funding for climate alarm orthodoxy skews the integrity of fact checking carried out on behalf of the ruling orthodoxy.
What would fact-checkers make, say, of geology Professor Ian Plimer’s observation that, ‘Annual human emissions (3 per cent of the total) of carbon dioxide [in the atmosphere] are meant to drive global warming. This has never been shown. If it could be shown, then it would also have to be shown that natural emissions (97 per cent) don’t drive global warming.’ The 3 per cent of the total of 0.04 per cent of carbon dioxide, 0.0012 per cent, is what climate alarmists tell politicians is frying the planet. (That 97 per cent from natural sources includes outgassing from the ocean, decomposing vegetation and other biomass, venting volcanoes, naturally occurring wildfires, and belches from ruminant animals.)
‘When a society loses the desire to know the truth, that is a precursor to totalitarianism,’ observed author, Holocaust survivor, and political philosopher Hanna Arendt (1906–1975). And the truth is not going to be revealed by mis-dis fact checkers who are powered by authority to enforce the ruling orthodoxy.
It is indeed loudly broadcast disinformation that perpetrated the absurdity of climate alarmism in the first place. The unreliability of global warming enthusiasts was demonstrated long ago when Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, was criticised in October 2007 by a high court judge in Britain who highlighted what he said were ‘nine scientific errors’ in the film. The mistakes identified mainly deal with the predicted impacts of climate change, and include Gore’s claims that a sea-level rise of up to 6 metres would be caused by melting in either west Antarctica or Greenland ‘in the near future’. The judge said: ‘This is distinctly alarmist and part of Mr Gore’s ‘wake-up call’.’ He accepted that melting of the ice would release this amount of water ‘but only after, and over, millennia’.
How would mis-dis fact checkers deal with that part of the story?
The zealotry of climate and energy minister Chris Bowen, for example, helps propel any fact-checker to equal zealotry, ignoring the thousands of scientists who have nothing to gain by challenging the orthodoxy.
Dr Richard Lindzen, former MIT Professor of Atmospheric Science and past IPCC contributor, says: ‘The narrative of climate alarm … is pretty absurd. Many people (though by no means all) have great difficulty entertaining this possibility. They can’t believe that something so absurd could gain such universal acceptance.’
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/09/what-is-mis-dis-in-climate-change-debate/
************************************
5 September, 2023
Government doing its best to INCREASE the cost of living
It's what governments do
Labor’s IR changes will cost employers up to $9bn in extra wages over the next decade, according to new government estimates, as business vows to oppose what it claims are extreme and interventionist workplace reforms
Detailed Department of Employment and Workplace Relations costings – tabled along with the Closing Loopholes bill on Monday – said the labour-hire changes could cost employers up to $510m annually assuming just 66,446 labour-hire employees would be covered by new Fair Work Commission orders.
The department also estimated the cost of minimum pay standards for digital platform workers would be $4bn over the next decade.
It said the businesses would likely be able to pass on the extra costs “through higher prices for consumers or third-party businesses”.
The new figures will spark another front in employers’ war with Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke over his second tranche of IR reforms, as he brought the proposals to parliament on Monday after months of consultation.
The Australian understands Mr Burke is a “long way off” securing crossbench support. While high-level ministerial meetings with key crossbenchers have been held, no extensive briefings were offered before the legislation was released.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Tania Constable claimed the $5bn labour-hire estimate “barely scratches the surface” of the true impact of the “same job, same pay” laws. “As the legislation now makes abundantly clear, the economic impact fails to take into account the hundreds of thousands if not millions of service contractors and workers in related entity businesses that will be captured by this legislation,” Ms Constable said.
Introducing the changes into parliament, detailed in a 284-page bill and 521-page explanatory memorandum, Mr Burke also set out proposals for the commission to set minimum standards for truck drivers. Mr Burke said the changes to labour hire, wage theft, casuals and gig-work rules in the bill had been subject to extensive consultations and were designed to close loopholes that undercut pay and conditions of workers. “Most workers will be unaffected by what happens this year, but for those who are affected, this will be life-changing,” Mr Burke said
Business leaders said they were particularly concerned about impacts on owner-driver truckies, apprentices and trainees attached to group training organisations and registered training organisations, adverse impacts on supply chains and employers being forced to litigate their way out of “same job, same pay” rules.
The multimillion-dollar cross-sector industry push against Labor’s IR changes will ramp up and is expected to exceed the resources industry’s campaign against the mining tax. Armed with the government’s legislation, industry groups will also prepare their own modelling.
**************************************************
Coal still needed in NSW
The NSW government will seek a deal with Origin Energy to prolong the lifespan of the state’s largest coal generator beyond 2025 after the state government said it has accepted the recommendations of an independent report that Eraring coal power station would need to stay open to safeguard electricity supplies.
Origin Energy’s Eraring coal power station was set to retire in 2025, but an independent report said such a closure at that time would expose the state to possible blackouts and further price increases.
NSW premier Chris Minns said affordability and guaranteeing electricity supply was paramount.
“One of the biggest challenges facing NSW is ensuring we can keep the lights on while managing the biggest change in energy mix and consumption in the shortest period of time in our nation’s history,” Mr Minns said.
Australia has endured two years of consecutive price rises of more than 20 per cent, a key driver in an affordability crisis.
Should a deal be struck, NSW will be the second state to move to guarantee a coal power station remains in the system as Australia’s energy transition falters.
To strike a deal, however, NSW will likely have to underwrite Eraring – leaving NSW taxpayers on the hook for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. Origin has said Eraring requires an annual spend of about $200m-$250m plus the cost of buying coal to run, though it earns money from selling electricity.
Eraring is, however, on course to be losing money as soon as next year when the emergency coal price cap finishes.
The federal government in conjunction with state counterparts introduced a $120 a tonne cap on the price of coal, a scheme designed to put downward pressure on household and business bills.
The scheme will end in 2024 and Origin’s supply costs will spike, likely plunging the facility back to a loss-making operation.
NSW taxpayers would likely have to cover the losses until the state has developed sufficient sources of renewable energy to compensate for the retirement of Eraring in Lake Macquarie.
*********************************************
Shandee Blackburn’s victory: Killer and rapists nabbed in Queensland DNA lab turnaround
The slaying of a pregnant woman, whose body was stuffed by her killer into the boot of a car, is one of several serious crimes in Queensland resolved as a direct result of huge reforms to the state’s DNA testing lab.
The scientist in charge of the lab, Linzi Wilson-Wilde, has revealed to The Weekend Australian how fundamental changes to the way crime scene evidence is being tested is already resulting in resounding successes for police and the criminal justice system.
“We’ve done a full retraining of scientists. We’ve implemented a new DNA interpretation guideline. We’ve made changes to processes,” Professor Wilson-Wilde said. “When we are going back to cases, we are identifying suspects, we’re identifying offenders, we are getting results that we didn’t get before.”
Professor Wilson-Wilde and Queensland Health have highlighted the killing of Kardell Lomas in 2019, as well as separate, serious sexual assaults, as early examples of breakthroughs achieved since the start of a massive lab overhaul.
Stunning and systemic failures in the lab were identified by The Australian’s Shandee’s Story investigative podcast series, working with independent forensic biologist Kirsty Wright, and were reinforced by retired judge Walter Sofronoff’s public inquiry last year.
Lomas, 31, was seven months pregnant when she was killed by her partner, Traven Fisher, with evidence suggesting he placed her in a choke hold. Her body was found in the boot of her Holden Commodore, in the backyard of the home they shared at Ipswich.
A Queensland Health spokeswoman on Friday said previous testing in the case had indicated that samples contained DNA profiles from up to three people. However a 2023 review using new interpretation guidelines reduced the number of individuals assessed as contributing to the DNA.
The new interpretation guidelines were based on recommendations of the Sofronoff inquiry and additional changes implemented at the lab.
A total of 10 DNA samples previously interpreted as coming from three people were reassessed as coming from two people, and a further two DNA profiles originally assessed as coming from two people were reassessed as coming from one person.
The previous guidelines contributed to over-estimating the number of contributors to a DNA profile. In March, Fisher was jailed for 14 years for manslaughter.
“The new results strengthened the evidence against the suspect, who pled guilty after he was advised of the results of the retesting,” the spokeswoman said.
In another case involving a 2019 sexual assault, previous test results had found no links to the suspect’s DNA. As part of a 2023 review, samples were sent to New Zealand for specialised DNA Y-STR testing, targeting the male Y-chromosome, and this obtained a link to the suspect. The case is before the courts.
The Sofronoff inquiry was told Y-STR analysis was available in almost every lab in Australia but not Queensland. It is particularly useful in sexual assaults because it enables detection of tiny amounts of male DNA in mixed profiles that might be masked by female DNA.
In a third case cited by Queensland Health, a 2020 sexual assault, there were initially good results from some samples while DNA from other samples was considered insufficient to generate a profile.
In a 2023 review, further processing of DNA previously considered insufficient obtained a mixed DNA profile with indications of two contributors, with a likelihood ratio of greater than 100 billion favouring contribution from the suspect’s DNA.
That case is before the courts.
Professor Wilson-Wilde said: “We’re improving our results across the whole gamut of cases, from volume to serious. So murders, sexual assaults, you name it.
“Samples and results where they got no result before, we are now getting results.”
The news of breakthroughs was welcomed by Dr Wright, who since the inquiry’s conclusion in December has been continuing her independent investigations into the lab and the horrific killing of Shandee Blackburn, 23, as she walked home from work in Mackay in 2013.
“This just consolidates Shandee’s legacy. It’s a victory for all victims of crime and their families,” Dr Wright said. “It shows the importance of telling the truth, by the whistleblowers that came forward, and the long-lasting and historical value of the Sofronoff inquiry. But I think there’s more improvements that can be made.”
There were “more issues that may not have been uncovered”, Dr Wright added, speaking ahead of an upcoming new episode of the Shandee’s Legacy podcast.
“I encourage all the experts involved in the judicial system, the scientists, the police and the lawyers, to view any errors or problems they may encounter, that wasn’t uncovered at the inquiry, as an opportunity to go back and correct these injustices.
“There needs to be transparency around that as well.”
In a wide-ranging interview this week, Professor Wilson-Wilde said evidence was also being strengthened in cases that were before the courts.
“Where there was a small amount of evidence, we’re re-examining all of the items and then we’re bolstering that evidence for the court,” she said.
A former director of the National Institute of Forensic Science, Professor Wilson-Wilde is tasked with rebuilding and restoring confidence in the state DNA lab as chief executive of the new Forensic Science Queensland.
The lab is reviewing about 30,000 historic cases that were mishandled and has a separate backlog of about 10,000 cases that built up during the upheavals of the Blackburn investigation and subsequent Sofronoff inquiry.
It has turned to interstate and international labs for assistance with testing to bring the caseload back under control.
********************************************************
Deakin University: Pressure to change name due to racist views held by Alfred Deakin
An Australian university is under pressure to change its name because the former prime minister it is named after held racist views.
Deakin University in Melbourne is named after Alfred Deakin, who served as Australia's second Prime Minister in 1903, and the nation's first Attorney-General.
He helped pass the Aboriginal Protection Amendment Act of 1886, which led to the forced removal of Indigenous children from their families, known as the Stolen Generations.
Deakin also helped create the White Australia Policy in 1901, which restricted the number of non-white migrants coming to Australia.
In 1901, Deakin controversially predicted: 'In another century, the probability is that Australia will be a white continent with not a black or even dark skin among its inhabitants.
'The Aboriginal race has died out in the south and is dying fast in the north and west even where most gently treated.
'Other races are to be excluded by legislation if they are tinted to any degree. The yellow, the brown, and the copper-coloured are to be forbidden to land anywhere.'
Deakin was prime minister of Australia for three terms - from 1903-1904, 1905-1908 and 1909-1910. He died in 1919.
Sixteen academics from Deakin University created a seminar titled 'We need to talk about Alfred Deakin and his ideal of a White Australia', in 2020, and questioned why the university was named after someone with such racist views.
However the university's Vice-Chancellor Professor Iian Martin said a potential name change was not on the cards.
'This is not something that we are looking at and is absolutely not something that those Indigenous leaders...are asking to do,' Professor Martin told The Age.
While acknowledging the views of Mr Deakin would not be acceptable today, Prof Martin said changing the name would not help people understand previous injustices.
'If we simply expunge things from the record, what hope is there learning from the mistakes of the past,' he said.
Indigenous leaders, university staff and relatives of Mr Deakin have all been consulted by the university, Prof Martin said.
He stressed Indigenous leaders did not want the name to be changed.
According to their website, Deakin University 'is committed to Reconciliation and Treaty, advancing the educational aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples'.
'All our endeavours aim to reflect Australia's full history and seek to build an inclusive future'.
Deakin University has been a leader in Indigenous education for 40 years, the vice-chancellor added.
Mr Deakin served three terms as prime minister and was instrumental in Australia becoming a Federation.
He also helped establish the High Court and the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12473099/Deakin-University-change.html
************************************
4 September, 2023
Labour hire laws delayed, small business exempt
Small business will be carved out of Labor’s “ same job, same pay” laws and the controversial reforms will be delayed by 12 months as the Albanese government seeks to mitigate employer opposition and win over Senate crossbench support for its industrial relations shake-up.
As Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke introduces the Closing Loopholes bill in federal parliament on Monday, the government has also offered an olive branch to mining companies by revealing a new test to prevent specialist contractors being inadvertently caught up in the laws.
Mr Burke said the small business sector would not only be exempt from the new labour hire laws but be granted concessions across other key elements of the bill, including wage theft, and casual conversion. It would also not have to provide paid time for union delegate training.
Mr Burke said new payment obligations under the labour hire changes would not take effect until November next year.
Citing Department of Employment and Workplace Relations data that showed only 67,000 workers would be affected, the minister insisted the changes would have a negligible economic impact.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus told The Australian the union movement was opposed to the small-business exemptions, and highlighted how the overall changes were modest and should have gone further.
Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable said the labour-hire changes would be a “dagger to the heart of investment in this country”, resulting in higher costs across the economy.
The government wants to close a labour-hire loophole where an employer and employees have agreed in an enterprise agreement to a particular rate of pay for particular work, but then the employer brings in different workers through labour hire to undercut that rate of pay.
Employees, unions and hosts will be able to apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order that labour hire employees be paid at least the wages in a host’s enterprise agreement.
As revealed by The Australian in June, the commission will consider a range of factors including existing pay arrangements and whether the arrangement is for the provision of services rather than the supply of labour.
The commission must not make an order if it is not fair and reasonable in the circumstances, including where an arrangement relates to the provision of specialist or expert services.
It will need to be satisfied the host’s enterprise agreement would apply to the labour hire worker if they were directly employed.
A default three-month exemption period will apply to avoid having an impact on labour-hire arrangements for surge work and temporary replacements. “There will always be a place for labour hire when it comes to surge work, short-term arrangements and specialist staff,” Mr Burke said.
“This legislation does nothing to change that. These changes will affect a small number of workers but, for the workers this affects, closing this loophole will be life-changing.”
The government will continue to face a barrage of opposition from employer groups when it introduces the bill, which includes a maximum possible penalty of 10 years imprisonment for wage theft.
The bill proposes maximum fines of up to $7.8m – or three times the amount that was underpaid if that amount exceeds the maximum fine. This will be the first time the level of penalty can be proportionate to the extent of the underpayment.
Mr Burke said the government would allow four weeks of debate in the House of Representatives before the bill was sent to the Senate where it would be subject to an inquiry. It is unlikely to be passed until November or December.
As revealed by The Australian in July, the bill will enshrine rights for union delegates and enhance the ability of unions to enter workplaces without the required 24 hours’ notice where they believe there is a risk of workers being underpaid.
Mr Burke said union officials would not be able to get access to the pay records of non-union members.
“I’ve seen the fear campaign that we were going to change those rules; we’re not changing them at all, not at all,” Mr Burke said on the ABC’s Insiders.
“That section remains exactly as it already is.
“There’s also been a fear campaign about something about residential premises. There’s a ban on right of entry being used for home businesses and residential premises. That remains completely unchanged as well.”
**********************************************
Documentary on trans ‘regret’ stirs heated debate
Debate over a TV documentary advertised as being the “most controversial” of the year has raged online amid accusations its portrayal of trans rights issues is “misinformation”.
The 7 News Spotlight special De-Transitioning aired on Sunday night following days of heated debate over claims on the program children were being told to “change” genders.
Earlier advertisements, which stirred debate on social media, presented testimonials from children purporting to have undergone gender affirming surgeries only to later “regret” it.
While many commentators backed the documentary as being “brave” for its portrayal of a contentious issues, others said the program posed significant harm to young trans people.
“Awful contribution to the discourse,” Twitter user Catherine Michelle said. “Why not discuss boob job regret? It’s higher than transition regret. “It’s controversial because you amplify people with an agenda.”
Lawyer and former “captain’s pick” of former Prime Minister Scott Morrison Katherine Deves supported the program online. “Families and children misled, lied to and let down in the worst way,” Ms Deves said. “Since when was lying to children about their sex and selling irreversible medical interventions the right side of history?”
Former Australian Christian Lobby director and Family Frist party chairman Lyle Shelton claimed activists had pushed “gender fluidity”. “Hopefully this will finally cause our politicians to act against the indoctrination of children in schools,” he said. “And, against the (LBGTQ) child gender clinics.”
Gender affirming surgeries, according to the Australian government, range from breast and facial augmentation to voice modulation, and is available only to people 16 and over for “top” surgery and 18 and over for “bottom”.
Some surgeons will provide surgery to younger people in very specific situations, with potential patients needing to demonstrate in all cases the ability to make a fully informed decision and that any mental conditions are “well managed”.
A 2023 report by the Associated Press found that according to World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines, evidence of regret following gender transitions is “scant”, but said patients should be properly counselled.
The same report also quoted Dutch researchers as having found no evidence regret in transgender adults who had comprehensive psychological evaluations in childhood before undergone puberty blockers or hormone treatments.
*********************************************
More waste in chasing the Green dream
A new deal has been struck to keep the Victoria/Tasmania Marinus Link undersea power cable project – central to the "battery of the nation" dream – afloat.
In a joint announcement on Sunday, the federal and Tasmanian governments said they were "acting with a new deal to keep the critical Marinus Link project plugged in – driving economic growth and putting downwards pressure on prices across Tasmania and the national east coast grid".
The project, which was to deliver a connection via more than 300 kilometres of undersea and underground high voltage cable between Tasmania and Victoria's Latrobe Valley, was originally estimated to cost between $3.1 billion and $3.8 billion.
However, the financial burden of the project saw the Tasmanian government announce last month it wanted to renegotiate the terms of the deal.
Today, in a joint statement the federal and Tasmanian governments said they had "worked closely to ensure the project continues" – with amendments made to the deal including:
The original vision of two cables downgraded to one, with "negotiations to continue on a second cable"
Tasmania's contribution towards construction drops by almost half, with the Commonwealth's share to increase and Victoria's to stay as originally negotiated
Tasmania to "have the option to sell its stake to the Commonwealth upon commissioning of the project"
Marinus Link is part of Tasmania's "battery of the nation" strategy and is also listed among the Australian Energy Market Operator's top five priority projects.
Tasmania has enough green hydro energy capacity to power the entire state and also has five wind farms, with several other wind projects under consideration.
However, some analysts have argued that as Victoria invested more in its own wind farms and battery storage, it made less business sense to fund an expensive multi-billion-dollar cable between the mainland and Tasmania.
Tasmania has long argued the largest benefits of the project go to the mainland and Tasmanians should not pay a disproportionate amount.
Today, both governments conceded Marinus Link was "competing in a global market with tight supply chains and is facing similar inflationary pressures to other major energy and infrastructure projects around the world".
Stage one of the project, the proponents say, would "deliver economic stimulus over $2 billion and over 2,400 jobs, with around 1,400 in Tasmania".
Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen said it was "a game-changing project for both Tasmania and the mainland and this updated agreement will not only deliver the benefits of Marinus Link, it will be cheaper to Tasmanians".
Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff said it would mean "jobs, economic growth, energy security and lower power prices with Tasmania investing its fair share and no more".
The governments said they were "working towards a delivery time frame as close as possible to 2028, or earlier if possible".
In a statement, Marinus Link's chief executive Caroline Wykamp said today's announcement was "a signal of confidence for the project, which stood to deliver significant environmental, economic and social benefits".
"Marinus Link is more than an interconnector; it's an enabler," she said.
"This project will deliver more renewable generation development in Tasmania and the mainland, more energy security to both Tasmania and the mainland and more movement and access to lower-cost renewable energy sources, helping deliver lower energy costs in the long term."
Ex-Liberals question deal, condemn Father's Day timing
In a joint statement, Lara Alexander and John Tucker — former Liberals who quit the party in part over the Marinus deal — said the renegotiated deal "raises more questions than answers", saying the Tasmanians premier's "numbers simply do not stack up".
"The figures are not believable, the claim that Tasmania's maximum exposure would be $117 million dollars does not stack up with the federal minister's confirmation of that the cut down project will cost $3.3 billion dollars and the claim that Tasmania will be up for 17 per cent," the statement said.
"Today's announcement from the premier reveals nothing of the cost blowouts which the government has admitted would have sent the state broke if it pursued the deal it signed last October. It conveniently leaves out how much we have already spent on this project.
"It also does NOT address the impact of these massive energy projects on Tasmania's power bills with the exception of an unsubstantiated claim by the premier that it will deliver savings.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-03/marinus-link-undersea-cable-costs-renegotiated/102808504
**************************************************
Students who are illiterate, innumerate, and scared: be disappointed, but not surprised
Why would anyone be surprised at the latest NAPLAN results? Yes, they are disappointing, but the amount of hand-wringing expressed through media demonstrates either naivety or ignorance.
Many of us have been explaining the reasons behind our struggling schools for a long time. This makes it all the more frustrating to hear the media’s tiresome excuses. Here are a few ways to translate common phrases thrown around in media reports as excuses for why so many of our students are not doing well, remembering that, as CS Lewis quipped, the best lie is the one closest to the truth:
We need to get back to basics: Of course, this is right, yes? It might be, if teachers knew what it meant. Many do not. Today I heard a commentator say, ‘Yes, we have to get back to basics with young students – they must learn how to learn.’ Learn how to learn? What incoherency… It reflects the ‘21st Century education’ philosophy that says if we know how to think, we do not have to learn sequential core content. But that is not true. We must have our students instructed in the underlying information upon which they can build. An expert is someone who knows more than others and then they have a basis for thinking critically. Too often our teachers are not taught this.
Our teachers are not trained enough: I remember visiting a school in the village hill districts of Costa Rica. They had their first year of graduating students leave the school, half of whom were from an economically poor village and yet obtained full scholarships to American colleges. Further, at least half their teachers had no tertiary teacher training. Who were they? They were American college graduates who came to live in that village and teach their college subject to these school students as an extended ‘gap year’. Why did this work? These young teachers demonstrated outstanding relational commitment to the students around them, and through that relationship, developed a fruitful teaching and learning environment. What would our teacher unions do with a program like this in Australia?
We must focus on anxiety crises: The environment is boiling, the colonials are oppressive, and we must develop our own identity based on our fleeting feelings… This sort of thinking has replaced any certainty about what individual character is about in our schools. Character used to be based on understanding that we, as humans, are made to live in certain ways. This gave us a common mind on which common sense was based. Now we have dysphoric minds that chase therapeutised illusions of reality. That is the relational context of the current Australian classroom.
Teachers must manage classrooms better: As one young teacher said to me, the best way to do this is to redirect students and use better words. Because character has disappeared, and identity personality tests have taken over, teachers are timid in implementing consequences for bad behaviour. Oh, and I just used two politically incorrect words – ‘consequences’ and ‘bad’. What might happen if teachers actually spoke of punishment for wilful misbehaviour?
Our teachers are not paid enough: the history of investment in education in Australia clearly demonstrates that spending more money the same way does not make a difference. As in all aspects of life, it is what we do with what we have that makes a difference. But like so many of our federal government ministers, bigger government is given as the answer to the problems created by big government.
Our teachers are not paid well because of independent schools: Last time I checked, the NSW independent schools saved the NSW government the same amount as the price of the NSW Police department. The pleas to close down the schools that parents are actually choosing over state schools is driven by the unspoken belief that the government should have more influence than the family.
Trust us to fix it: Again, nothing will change in schools while government policy does not support families as families. Why do we think the best way to live as a society is by the government paying people to care for us, cradle to the grave? I am old enough to remember when I could at least claim something for supporting the rest of my family, while we chose to have only one of us working for pay. Why is it assumed that a child is only ‘ready’ for school if he or she has gone to a pre-school? Why are families discouraged to look after those in need in the family by the push to have everyone in the paid workforce?
Reviewers like Kevin Donnelly have summarised all this by highlighting that we are not instructing our students enough on essential knowledge anymore, and we have ignored our Judeo-Christian heritage. Douglas Murray’s recent article spoke to the heart of our cultural malaise when he asked, ‘Are we pleased to be in this country compared to others, or not?’ The anthropologist might ask it this way: ‘Should all non-Indigenous Australians simply sail away so that the original locals can continue with their pre-medieval designer tribalism?’
It is good that we are disappointed by reports that reveal learning difficulties for our students. But acting surprised by this news is to deny the dynamics of the false reality being constructed by people who call themselves progressive, but are in fact are taking us to hugely regressive places.
************************************
3 September, 2023
Negligent or reckless federal public servants face 25 years’ jail under industrial manslaughter laws
Yay!
Negligent federal public servants found responsible for the death of a worker could be imprisoned for up to 25 years and commonwealth departments fined up to $18m under federal plans to criminalise industrial manslaughter.
Under changes in the Closing Loopholes bill to be tabled in federal parliament on Monday, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke will make industrial manslaughter a crime under the commonwealth’s work health and safety laws.
While most states have legislated industrial manslaughter, the federal government will act on the 2018 Boland review and introduce a new offence that would apply where the gross negligence or recklessness of a duty holder leads to a workplace death.
Under the proposed changes, to operate from July next year, individuals will face a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment if convicted of industrial manslaughter, and body corporates face fines of up to $18m.
Monetary penalties for the Category 1 offence, which applies when a work health and safety duty is recklessly or criminally negligently breached, will be increased from $3m to $15m for body corporates.
The imprisonment penalty will be increased from five years to 15 years, while fines for other offences in the Work Health and Safety Act will be increased.
Mr Burke said it was imperative that fines acted as a deterrent, ensuring employers and businesses were aware of their responsibilities “to do everything in their power to keep workers safe”.
He said criminalising industrial manslaughter would make workplaces safer.
“Every worker should be able to go to work knowing they’ll come home safely,” he said. “But so far this year, 91 workers have been fatally injured in the workplace. That’s 91 too many. People go to work to give themselves a life. That work should never take away a life.”
Eric Windholz, senior lecturer at Monash University’s faculty of law, said “there are scenarios where you could find individuals being prosecuted”.
“The fact that they are talking about imprisonment means that the legislation will have the scope to apply to an individual whose individual acts are considered to be so grossly negligent to warrant criminal punishment,” Dr Windholz said.
“Clearly, they’re contemplating a possibility of individuals being imprisoned. That’s a possibility that a senior officer of a government department, and maybe not such a senior officer if it’s gross negligence by someone at the coalface, could find themselves potentially in that position.
“The more the commonwealth and government per se gets involved in service delivery, the more chances there are.”
University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart said the federal health and safety act also applied to some private sector businesses.
“I really do think this is (the federal government saying) ‘we can’t really be expecting the states to be moving on the Boland recommendations and introducing industrial manslaughter if we then say well we as an employer are not going to be subject to those same rules and those same sanctions’,” he said. “I’m pretty sure it’s a question of consistency.”
Meanwhile, the dispute between Chevron and unions is heading to mediation before the Fair Work Commission, opening the prospect of a settlement before industrial action next week.
Chevron applied for mediation after union members at the company’s Gorgon and Wheatstone downstream gas processing facilities in Western Australia rejected an enterprise agreement not endorsed by union negotiators.
Protected action ranging from work bans to stoppages of work has been endorsed by members and is due to start next Thursday.
**************************************************
The fundamental factor driving Australia’s housing crisis in not an inability to build homes. Rather, it is that Australia runs one of the world’s largest immigration programs, thereby ensuring that housing demand outpaces supply
When I first studied high school economics in 1994, we learned about “supply and demand”. You know, basic economics.
When you read the media and the commentary surrounding the Australian housing market, you would think there’s only a supply side. The demand side rarely gets a mention.
This narrative ignores the fact that last decade – over the 2010s – Australia experienced the largest dwelling construction boom in history. As a nation, we built more homes than ever, as illustrated below:
Indeed, the OECD’s Affordable Housing Database shows that Australia has built significantly more dwellings per capita than most other OECD countries:
Australia ranked fourth in the OECD for housing construction in 2020.
Australia’s dwelling construction rate was also unchanged from 2011, according to the OECD.
Australia also has one of the highest shares of construction workers in the OECD:
Australia is experiencing an unprecedented housing crisis. Rents have soared. Increasing numbers of people are living in group housing. More Australians are being driven into homelessness. There’s a lot of panic around.
In response, national cabinet has committed to building 1.2 million new homes over five years, starting July 1, 2024.
Federal, state and territory governments won’t build these 1.2 million homes. Their plan is to relax planning and zoning rules to allow higher density in the hope that private developers build them.
It is telling that the Albanese Government’s own contribution to the supply target through the Housing Australia Future Fund, assuming it ever passes the Senate, will be just 30,000 homes. That is just 2.5 per cent of the total target: similar to recent construction levels of public housing by state and territory governments:
The national cabinet’s 1.2 million housing target is destined to fail for multiple reasons.
First, it is not in developers’ interest to flood the market with supply because that reduces their profits. Private developers have an incentive to drip feed supply to keep prices high.
Second, national cabinet’s plan is to build 240,000 homes a year, or 660 homes a day. However, Australia has only ever built more than 220,000 homes in a year once in 2017 when it built 223,000.
Australia’s 40-year average home construction rate is only 160,000 – i.e. 80,000 less than national cabinet’s target.
How will Australia build more homes than we ever have before in an environment of widespread builder collapses, shortages in materials and labour, and higher interest rates?
Third, what about the corresponding infrastructure to accommodate these new homes and population? Most roads, schools and hospitals in our major capital cities are already at capacity.
Finally, even if we could magically build these 1.2 million homes, they are likely to be low quality.
The previous decade’s construction boom was associated with widespread defects including cracks, water leaks and balcony problems (e.g. the Opal and Mascot Towers in Sydney).
Building so many apartments as quickly as planned by national cabinet will inevitably compromise on quality leading to the same types of structural issues we witnessed last decade.
The solution to Australia’s housing shortage rests on the demand
The fundamental factor driving Australia’s housing crisis in not an inability to build homes. Rather, it is that Australia runs one of the world’s largest immigration programs, thereby ensuring that housing demand outpaces supply.
In the 20 years to 2002, Australia’s net overseas migration (NOM) averaged 96,000 people a year and population growth averaged 216,000 people a year.
In the 20 years to 2022, Australia’s NOM averaged 190,000 and population growth averaged 328,000 people a year. This period included the negative NOM experienced over the pandemic:
Australia’s population has grown by 7.4 million people (39 per cent) this century, representing the nation’s largest population increase on record.
This strong population growth, combined with falling investment, has driven the shortage of public housing to its current dire levels:
Between 1955 and 1993, Australia built approximately one public home for every 12 to 30 new Australians.
Over the following decades, the ratio of public housing to new Australians fell to a low of one home every 168 new Australians in 2022.
The housing situation will only worsen from here.
The 2023 federal budget projected that Australia’s population would swell by 2.18 million people (equivalent to the population of Perth) over the five years to 2026-27, driven by 1.5 million net overseas migrant arrivals (equivalent to the population of Adelaide).
Last week’s Intergenerational Report (IGR) projected that Australia’s population will swell to 40.5 million by 2062-63, driven by long-term NOM of 235,000 per year.
This means Australia will grow by 14.2 million residents over the next 40 years, which is equivalent to adding a combined Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide to Australia’s current population of 26.3 million.
How will Australia’s housing supply ever keep pace with demand when the population is projected to grow by 355,000 people a year on average for 40 consecutive years?
Australia has not built enough homes over the past 20 years. Although the rate of dwelling construction surged last decade, this construction boom was insufficient to keep pace with the massive increase in immigration-driven population growth from the mid-2000s:
What makes anybody believe that we will achieve better outcomes over the next 40 years?
Moreover, do Australians want to live in high-rise apartments? Because that will become the norm with a population of 40.5 million, and a Sydney and Melbourne of nine million people each.
The same criticisms can be made about Australia’s infrastructure, which has become increasingly crush-loaded by the 7.4 million population increase this century.
How will Australia catch up on its accumulated shortfall of roads, public transport, hospitals and schools, let alone provide enough infrastructure for another 14.2 million people? It is an impossible task.
It’s the immigration …
Australia’s housing shortage is a direct result of nearly 20 years of excessive immigration, which is projected by the IGR to continue for at least another 40 years.
If the Albanese Government genuinely wanted to end the nation’s housing shortage, it would run an immigration program that was substantially lower than the overall expansion in the housing stock, not the other way around.
It is time to stop scapegoating a ‘lack of supply’ and start acknowledging the immigration elephant behind Australia’s housing shortage.
**********************************************
Tyre Extinguishers target Toorak SUVs as part of environmental protest
An extremist environmental group has targeted one of Australia’s wealthiest suburbs, with SUV owners waking to find their tyres slashed and their cars undriveable.
Residents of Toorak in Melbourne woke on Friday to find the vandalised cars and an explanation note left on their windscreens detailing why SUVs are toxic to the environment.
The environmental group, Tyre Extinguishers, left those affected with a note alerting them: “Your gas guzzler kills.”
“We have deflated one or more of your tires,” the note reads.
“You’ll be angry, but don’t take it personally. It’s not you, it’s your car. “We did this because driving around urban areas in your massive vehicle has huge consequences for others.
“SUVs and 4x4s are a disaster for our climate. SUVs are the second-largest cause of the global rise in carbon dioxide emissions over the past decade – more than the entire aviation industry.
“Even if you don’t care about the impacts on people far away from you, perhaps think about the impacts around your neighbourhood. SUVs cause far more air pollution than smaller cars.
“While the impacts on you so far have probably been minimal, every day millions of people are directly affected. Emergency action is needed to reduce emissions immediately.”
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said there had been several reports made following the group’s antics. “At least 10 four-wheel drive and sports utility vehicles in the vicinity of Tintern Ave were tampered with,” she said.
“Notes were also left on the vehicles describing the environmental impact of these types of vehicles. “The investigation is ongoing.”
Tintern Avenue was once home to Dame Nellie Melba, and Toorak is home to more members of The Australian’s Richest 250 list than anywhere else in the country.
Anyone who witnessed anything or with CCTV or other footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
The group is well known in the UK and the US, yet it’s understood this is the first time the group have targeted Melbourne.
It lists instructions on its website about the best way to deflate an SUV tyre.
************************************************
A pushback against the war on the West
Amongst the post-modern rot that infests most of our universities’ humanities faculties stands one small institution that proudly focuses on the origins and brilliance of our Western Civilisation. This institution is growing (officially opening new buildings last week), has heavy-weight support, and is getting outstanding student feedback. Could it serve as the beacon for others to follow, and in doing so, be an important pushback against the intellectual war on the West?
My hope is that the answer is yes. Such a pushback is desperately needed in Australia, particularly in academia, which I will explain.
But first, let me tell you about the institution in question: Campion College. Located near Paramatta in western Sydney, Campion established itself as Australia’s first liberal arts college in 2006 and today has graduated hundreds of students. It dedicates itself to immersing students in the great books and figures that underpin our modern culture, in the correct belief that such immersion is important for individual development, and vital for the continuation of a society that is amongst the most wealthy, tolerant, and free of any society in all of human history.
Students in their three-year degree follow a linear progression starting first in the ancient world, then the medieval, and finally the modern world in third year. Philosophy, history, literature, and theology are interwoven into a coherent picture of the West’s development and the greatest thinkers who influenced it.
Sound radical? Of course not, but unfortunately such an approach is radical in today’s higher education landscape. Much of what is taught in humanities faculties either ignores the development of Western ideas and societies or is markedly hostile to them. It is particularly anti-Christian, which is intricately tied to Western development.
It is difficult to get a complete read on this, but consider the Institute for Public Affairs’ analysis of university history courses. It examined the 791 subjects offered across 35 Australian universities in 2022 and determined that history ‘is no longer about a study of the past, as it has been replaced by post-modern theory…[where] traditional explanations of cause and effects are discarded as everything is reduced to a study of (purported) power relations.’
It found that more history subjects taught about race, than democracy. More taught about ‘identity’ than enlightenment. A full 255 of the 791 subjects were expressly focused on identity politics. That is class, race, or gender.
I am not aware of analyses of other disciplines in the humanities faculties, but I would be surprised if there were not similar findings.
Moreover, except for the three universities that accepted the funding offered by the Ramsey Centre for Western Civilisation, almost none has a dedicated program, like Campion’s, which is an integrated course of study to instil in the student the sweep of ideas that have led to where Australia is today.
The same trend has occurred in school curriculum. When, as Education Minister, I first examined the new draft national curriculum in 2021, I was astounded that there was almost nothing positive said about modern Australia and almost nothing negative about ancient Australia before Europeans arrived.
The forgetting (or loathing) of our history is undoubtedly already having an impact on the confidence that people have in our society today and in the future.
Already a third of 18 to 29-year-old Australians believe that there are preferable alternatives to democracy, according to the Lowy Institute Poll.
If our schools and universities are not teaching the origins and demonstrable benefits of our modern Western society (or are being explicitly hostile to it), then where will we be in 20 years when another generation has been ‘educated’ in these institutions? Will young people defend our democracy as previous generations did? Will we remain as tolerant, cohesive, or wealthy if we are always assessed on our race, gender, or sexuality, and not the content of our character?
Scottish historian Niall Ferguson believes that the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity in Western countries is not radical Islam, or a potential clash with a rising China, but the eating of our society from within.
We have to push back and this must involve getting our education institutions back to teaching at least a neutral view of our history, if not an overtly positive one, given the opportunities a person lucky enough to be Australian has been blessed with.
This can be done in schools through government decisions, as I was attempting to do with the national curriculum. In universities, it requires institutional leadership.
Campion College shows that it can be done. Its building opening last week was attended by former Prime Ministers, sitting MPs, religious leaders, and senior business people. They were present to support the small college, but mainly to support a bigger principle.
As former deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, said in officially opening the buildings: ‘We are in a civilisation moment.’
Campion College is doing its bit to keep us on the right side of this moment. I hope others follow.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/08/the-pushback-against-the-war-on-the-west/
************************************
1 September, 2023
Racism in Australian workplaces
The guff below is mostly misattribution. There are people of Chinese origin frequently to be found in almost all Australian workplaces -- from medical specialists to waitresses. How did they get there? There were clearly no racial barrier for them. They did what was needed to get the job and succeeded.
What is sytematically ignored below is that there are many NON-RACIAL barriers to certain jobs. A poor command of English is the obvious one. A person with poor English may fail to get a job because of difficulties in communicating with them. But another person of the same race with good English will get the job. It is commumnication difficulties that are being avoided, not the person's race
Similarly, overseas qualifications may be looked at askance because qualifications from the country concerned may be of unknown quality. Qualifications from India and Africa may be doubted because comparability with Australian qualifications is doubtful. A person from such countries may be rejected not because of their race but because of realistic doubts about the standard of their qualifications. It's not racism. It is realistic caution.
The pharmacy I go to is almost entirely staffed by people of Asian origin -- including a very black South Indian -- so you would have a hard job convincing me that their race held them back. They do their jobs well
The point of the whine below is to ask for racial discrimination. They argue that a person with sub-par qualifications should be given a job because of their race. Surely we all have every right to reject racial discrimination. It is almost always a call to treat someone else unfairly
Before lawyer Molina Asthana had begun working at an Australian law firm, she was being prepared for the problems she'd encounter there.
Recruiters regularly encouraged Ms Asthana, who is Asian-Australian, to apply for smaller firms, even though she already had years of experience and was highly qualified.
An acquaintance even made a point of telling her about doctors who've migrated to Australia who went on to drive buses.
"That's the first time I faced racism," Ms Asthana says.
The experience instilled a significant level of self-doubt in her.
When Ms Asthana did get a job at a top tier Australian law firm, she was one of only a few people of colour, and she often felt marginalised.
She says other employees had "studied at the same private schools, watched the same TV shows [and] barracked for the same AFL teams, which I didn't really follow". "I was constantly feeling isolated."
Working there took a toll on Ms Asthana's mental health and, after a year and a half in the job, she started suffering anxiety.
But Ms Asthana's story could have been entirely different.
However, she says we are slowly "gathering the data on what racism looks like in the workplace".
And it's important to understand that "even if we're not racist … our practices in our organisations might be".
"People immediately think anti-racism is about me not being a racist, an individualist attitude [or] prejudice that we can train out of people," Dr Fernando says.
She says it's much broader than that. Being anti-racist means addressing racism in "your practices, your procedures, your policies, the way you do things, how you put your communications out to the world".
"Race is about exploitation. Race is about putting somebody down. Race is about creating those ladders of upper and lower. It's an active thing."
'We lack the language'
Better understanding the power of race and the impact of being racialised requires gaining "racial literacy", Dr Fernando says. "Race is not taught. We don't get taught to understand race the way we got taught maths or we get taught about civics."
Consequently, she says "we don't have the words [to] actually talk about it. So [the conversation] is silenced. "We lack the language, we lack the critical thinking."
Dr Fernando says race education needs to be taught, and workplaces are an excellent place to do it.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-01/anti-racism-in-the-workplace-needs-racial-literacy/102755866
*******************************************
The astonishingly woke Australian Academy of Science
Peter Ridd
The Australian Academy of Science (AAS) recently released a report Reef Futures Roundtable, which is ostensibly about the doomed Great Barrier Reef. However, the report only demonstrates that the AAS, Australia’s peak science body, has become not just unscientific, but anti-scientific. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has also become astonishingly Woke.
The AAS report predictably concluded that the Great Barrier Reef could already be ‘irreversibly’ damaged. The fact that UNESCO has just declared it not endangered did not rate a mention, and neither did the latest two years of statistics showing the reef is at record high coral levels. Remarkably, the report does not contain a single fact or figure to support any of its claims about the reef – except the area of the reef is 340,000 square kilometres. There are no figures, no percentages. Nowhere does it mention that coral grows 30 per cent faster for every degree increase in water temperatures. Or that there is 100 per cent more coral on the reef today than in 2012. Or that just 1 per cent of the reef has the potential to be impacted by farm sediment, fertiliser or pesticides, even in the slightest way. Or that the sea level has fallen by 1 metre in the last 5,000 years.
The problem with this completely unanalytical approach is seen in the ‘interventions’ it recommends to fix the reef. Their impracticality is breathtaking. For example, it suggests ‘solar radiation management’ – shading the reef from the sun with man-made fog and clouds to prevent the water heating up and causing coral bleaching. The only number cited in the entire report – the area of the reef, which is as big as Germany – should have given them a hint that this is crazy. How are you going to make a cloud as big as Germany and keep it anchored over the reef for the whole summer over the next few hundred years? And you will also have to stop hot water flowing into the reef from the Coral Sea at the same time. That would require a dam 2,000 kilometres long and 100 metres high.
While a simple calculation is all that is required to reveal the absurdity of this idea, modern science is full of people who are almost completely non-quantitative and, as such, impractical and virtually useless as scientists.
Next there is rubble stabilisation. The supposed experts worry that the Great Barrier Reef will break up from climate change. Each of the 3,000 reefs is an almost solid lump of calcium carbonate rock (fragments of coral glued together over eons) a few kilometres wide and 100 metres high. How this is going to be broken up by some climate change magic is unexplained. But even if that were to happen, are they seriously suggesting we can wire it back together with steel reinforcing and concrete? Just do the calculation on how much concrete and steel this would entail.
The unscientific nature of the AAS report is largely a result of its anti-scientific approach. The report is actually a parody of wokeness and romantic mythology. This starts with the way the roundtable committees of ‘experts’, whom they questioned about the reef, were formed. Each roundtable had two chairs, a non-Indigenous chair, and a specially selected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander chair. The romantic mythology about the special knowledge of any person with Indigenous heritage pervades the entire document, and starts in the foreword by the head of the AAS.
As the Academy approached the task of planning this project it became immediately obvious that there was no separating nature and culture when it comes to the GBR. Land and sea cannot be separated. No priority can be selected on an ecological basis alone. Having a Traditional Knowledges co-Chair in each roundtable allowed for different sources of knowledge to be shared and to form a basis for a number of the observations featured in this report.
Having a diversity of ideas and scientific thought would have gone some of the way to curing the AAS of the groupthink which renders its report risible. And the views and experience of people from the coral islands of the Torres Straits and northern Great Barrier Reef could have been used to great effect. These people tend to be deeply practical about the reef – like almost all seafaring people who live and work on the reef. And practical people know you cannot bolt the reef, which is the size of Germany, down to the seafloor. But selecting people for their ‘roundtables’ on the basis of their ethnicity rather than their scientific or real-world experience is a fundamentally anti-scientific approach.
But it gets worse. The dearth of statistics about the reef are made up for by an abundance of data on the gender identification of all those who participated in the ‘roundtables’. There is also the Indigenous percentage. And not just of those who participated, but also of those who were invited to participate but did not. One could quibble and point out that those claiming to be male or female added up to exactly 100 per cent in all categories, indicating a terrifying lack of diversity on the LGBQTI+++ spectrum. But there is no question, on the important matters for the Woke brigade, that this report is brimming with instructive statistics.
The AAS ascribes such importance to facts and figures on gender and race, but not to scientific facts. This demonstrates it is anti-science. Science is about evidence and logic. It does not matter whether one is male or female or whatever else, it is still impossible to make clouds as big as Germany for the next hundred years. That is called a fact, and facts do not vary with race, gender, or any ideology.
I have been saying for some time that many of our science institutions have become totally untrustworthy. By its wilful abandonment of quantitative analysis, the AAS has destroyed its reputation as a source of useful scientific advice. The media loves a bad news story – they should focus on what has happened to a once-esteemed organisation.
The Australian Academy of Science is now a joke.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/08/the-astonishingly-woke-australian-academy-of-science
*****************************************************
Children made to write apology letters in school to Aboriginal Australians 'for taking their land'
Children as young as 10 are being made to write letters in school apologising to Indigenous Australians for 'taking their land', pictures reveal.
The images taken by a parent were sent to One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, who posted them online on Thursday evening.
The letters, written by primary school children, were put together on pieces of paper shaped in the form of a megaphone with words referencing the nation's colonial past.
'We are sorry for everything that we have done,' one letter reads.
Another said: 'We are sorry to Aboriginals. We took your land and we have now we feel sad of what we have done.'
'Aboriginal people should have many more rights and should be treated nicely they should be also be a aboriginal voice to parliament [sic]'.
Senator Hanson said teachers should 'hang their heads in shame' for psychologically burdening children with historical guilt.
'Under no circumstances should innocent children bear the guilt of historical events, especially events that occurred long before they were even conceived. 'This is not education; it's emotional manipulation,' she argued.
'What legacy are we leaving for future generations if we instil in them a sense of guilt and shame for things they had no part in?
'Rather than moving toward unity and social harmony, we are planting seeds for further discord and division.'
It comes after a mother on Thursday revealed how her daughter was told by teachers at her school to 'go home and influence your parents to vote Yes' for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament.
The Australian mum named Julie told 2GB's Ben Fordham on Thursday that another of her daughters - she has two in a Catholic high school - was also upset that she had a political agenda pushed on her while she was at school trying to learn.
'I've got two children; one in middle high school, the other in senior. They are two strong young women, and I'm very proud of them,' Julie said.
Julie said while the directive to speak about the Voice would have been 'from the top down' and she did not blame teachers, she felt insulted her children were being used as a campaigning tool.
'My daughter at senior level had a retreat day where two prominent staff members spoke to them about the Voice for about 10 or 15 minutes,' she said.
'They were talking about the misinformation on social media and with the No campaign and how it's really important we say Yes.
'They said go home and influence your parents and older siblings who can vote to vote Yes.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12465619/School-kids-apology-letters-Aboriginal.html
***************************************************
Indigenous Voice to Parliament: Pat Anderson says advisory body will 'share power' with parliament - and putting it in the constitution means lawmakers will be 'forced to listen' to their demands
One of the architects of the Indigenous Voice to Parliament has been called out for claiming the advisory body that would follow a successful 'Yes' vote would 'share power with parliament'.
The claims about the real power of the Voice are made in an interview between humans rights advocate Pat Anderson and Search Foundation's Luke Whitington.
The video reemerged on Thursday when it was posted to Twitter by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.
In the interview in June 2022, Ms Anderson says there had been a lack of progress on Indigenous issues 'since the first boats' brought settlers to Australia on January 26th, 1788.
'That's why we have to have the Voice, to manage and be in control, so we can practice real self-determination,' she said.
'And this time we'll have ... the authority and power, sharing power with the parliament of the day.'
She also dismissed claims the Voice will only be an 'advisory body' saying placing it in the constitution means lawmakers will be 'forced' to listen to their demands.
'Are we going to sit back and wait for them to ask us (what we are concerned about) ? Of course we aren't! We are going to say, these are our issues, these are our priorities, this is what needs to happen now.
Ms Anderson was then asked about the Voice being the first step in a sequence.
A Voice to Parliament is just one part of the Uluru Statement from the Heart - which was established in 2017.
If Australians vote to enshrine the Indigenous advisory Voice into the constitution at a referendum later this year, then a special commission known by the Aboriginal word 'Makarrata' is the next step.
The Makarrata Commission would seek a treaty between the federal Government and the First Nations community.
Ms Anderson said 'somebody has to take charge of the Makarrata' and that the Makarrata 'and the truth' went together.
But she said while a Makarrata could be set up any time, without the Voice in the Constitution it could be done away with by the government.
'We need the authority that we'll get from the Constitution to have our own Voice, so we can then do the next bit ...
'That's the whole point of putting it in the Constitution. They are forced to listen to us, forced to include us.'
Ms Anderson said if the referendum passes, 'We (Indigenous people) want to work out its role and function so we can manage the business of the Voice and also setting up Makarrata and going to treaty.'
'We want to head up the conversation,' she said.
'The activist acknowledged that many Indigenous people are annoyed by the use of the word advisory.
'I know why they're saying that, because (it can mean) they don't have to listen to you at all.
'But once it's in the Constitution ... they are duty bound by the law to listen to us. We're not going to sit back and ... wait for them to ask us.
'Of course we aren't. We're going to say 'These are our issues, these are our priorities, this is what needs to happen now'.'
She said passing the referendum, which will be held on October 14, would mean Indigenous Australians will no longer have to wait to be invited to contribute to decision making at government level.
'We will be there at the beginning and the end of every decision and all of the policies that affect us.
'So, gone are the days of the nation state sitting at our kitchen table, with their legs under the table, their interfering and intruding into all aspects of our lives.
'Those days are now over,' she said.
Ms Hanson also had a message for the Prime Minister, writing that 'Anthony Albanese told Ally Langdon on @ACurrentAffair9 that #VoiceToParliament was 'just an advisory body'.'
She said Ms Anderson's interview proved this is not the case, 'Yet Albanese claims the Voice is only a powerless 'advisory body'.'
************************************
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
***************************************
