Tuesday, March 19, 2024



Faith-Based Schools Can’t Maintain Ethos Under New Religious Discrimination Bill: Opposition

It is actually the Bible which is the problem. It describes homosexuals as an abomination and says that God will judge them (Romans 1 & 2). And Christians are commanded to preach Christian teachings actively (Matthew 28: 19 & 20). Legislating against the Bible is surely a vast cultural leap that can only end badly. Christian beliefs must be allowed or there will be big consequences. Albanese is already headed for the boot. If he enacts this he will go out in a landslide

Faith-based schools could find themselves getting bogged down in litigation as a result of the Labor government’s religious discrimination bill, according to the federal opposition.

Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash has taken aim at the Albanese government’s upcoming religious discrimination protections, which she said could obstruct religious schools from maintaining their religious ethos.

What Is The Proposal About?

The bill, which was initially introduced by the former centre-right Coalition government in 2021, set out to protect Australians from discrimination on the basis of religious belief.

However, the Coalition failed to pass the law prior to the 2022 federal election after five Liberal MPs crossed the floor to support amendments by the then-opposition Labor Party, which were designed to prevent discrimination against gay and transgender students by religious schools.

On the other hand, faith-based groups have expressed concern that the bill would do little to legislate protections for religious Australians, arguing the protections were too narrow to be effective.

The topic would soon resurface in public debate as the Australian Law Reform Commission prepared to release a long-awaited report in March 2023 that would recommend “making discrimination against students on the grounds of sexual orientation … unlawful.”

This would be done by repealing section 38(3) under the Sex Discrimination Act, a move that could potentially bar faith-based schools from preferencing candidates who share the schools’ spiritual outlook during recruitment. It could also prevent schools from asking students to abide by the school’s belief system.

The shadow attorney-general warned that under Labor’s religious protection bill, faith-based schools wouldn’t be able to conduct themselves in a way that is consistent with their values.

“What they’re saying to me is ‘Michaelia, we just want to educate; under Mark Dreyfus and Anthony Albanese, we’re going to wind up litigating,’” Ms. Cash told Sky News on March 17.

She also said she had heard “very concerning things” about the new amendments, adding that this would likely include an anti-vilification provision, which criminalises speech that is considered hateful.

‘A Cure That Is Worse Than The Disease’: Think Tank

Similar concerns have been voiced by Morgan Begg, the director of the Legal Rights Program at the Institute of Public Affairs. He said the religious freedoms of Australians would be under siege due to the “weaponisation of anti-vilification and anti-discrimination laws.”

“This notoriously ambiguous concept creates an opening for bureaucrats and courts to tie up supposedly legitimate speech in legal limbo,” he wrote in an opinion article for The Epoch Times.

“For example, saying ‘marriage is between a man and a woman’ is something that many religious Australians believe, but saying so could be considered ‘hateful’ by some in the community.”

Mr. Begg warned the religious discrimination bill would “add more laws on top of bad laws” and described it as “a cure that is worse than the disease.”

Pressure To Conform

In recent years, faith-based schools have been facing mounting pressure to compromise on their spiritual values with LGBT groups.

The conflict was highlighted during the controversy surrounding Citipointe Christian College in 2022, which saw the school’s principal stand down over an enrolment contract that described homosexuality as a sin.

The contract, which stated that the college would only enrol students on the basis of the “gender that corresponds to their biological sex,” had attracted public protests and criticism, with some parents accusing the school of stigmatising a “vulnerable community.”

Former Principal and Pastor Brian Mulheran said at the time that his intention was “only to offer families a choice about how their children educated, and to be open and transparent about our religious ethos.”

“I am sorry, sorry that some students felt that they may be being discriminated against at Citipointe. We would never discriminate against any student on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity,” he wrote in a letter.

Ahead of the 2022 election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised he would resume addressing the religious discrimination bill during their term of parliament.

“We’ll do it in a way which is much more consultative and brings people together in a way that I hope characterises the way my government functions,” Mr. Albanese said, adding that he “respected people of faith.”

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Police bodycam footage shows why young woman rightfully won $320,000 pay out from NSW cops after being bailed up on the side of a street

Extraordinary: A woman was imprisoned for something someone else did with no involvement from her. It offends aginst natural justice, among other things. Some truly poisonous policing. Nobody is safe under such circumstances. And the cops concerned are apparently still employed

A young woman thrown in prison for six months following a routine 'stop and search' by police was awarded a $320,000 pay out, with bodycam footage revealing the officer's actions were unlawful.

The video shows Ebonie Madden in 2019 being bailed up with her companion, Dylan Turner, on a South Penrith street, in Sydney's west.

Mr Dylan is seen holding a black bag which is confiscated and searched by Senior Constable Michael Darnton and another officer.

But when Senior Constable Darnton uncovers a knife inside, he places Ms Madden in cuffs - and she was later charged with resisting arrest, possessing a knife and theft.

'You are under arrest for custody of a knife in a public place,' Senior Constable Darnton told Ms Madden before Mr Turner interjected and said: 'It's mine, chief.'

Senior Constable Darnton, who ignored the comment, later told a court that he and the other officer 'did not hear' Mr Turner.

The clip also shows a third officer, Danielle Munt, telling the pair, 'that's what happens when you're mouthy, you get searched'.

The officer later admitted in court the comments were 'unprofessional'.

Ms Madden spent six months behind bars in 2020, but in December 2022, she won a $320,000 compensation payout from NSW Police after a judge found that Senior Constable Darnton did not have reasonable grounds to justify conducting a search.

The court also ruled that she had been subject to malicious prosecution and false imprisonment, saying 'the clear inference is that Darnton's motivation was other than a legitimate exercise of police powers'.

That ruling was upheld on appeal in February.

A spokesman for NSW Police told the ABC the force will review the Court of Appeal judgement and consider ways to improve the way they handle such matters.

However, new data has revealed that there may be thousands of unlawful searches being conducted around the state.

Civil litigator and criminal lawyer Peter O'Brien and UNSW Professor Vicki Sentas fear police officers may be abusing their powers, saying it's likely that the vast majority of searches in this state are conducted unlawfully.

'[Australia] has one of the largest per capita police populations in the world … so when there's a quiet night, police often feel the need to be proactive,' Mr O'Brien said.

'And what that actually means, in many instances, is that they are overstepping their mark.'

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Feminist lawyers a danger to justice

It was a riveting moment. Here was Tasha Smithies, a lawyer for Channel 10, appearing as a witness in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation action.

This is the lawyer who advised television celebrity Lisa Wilkinson to go ahead with the disastrous Logie Speech praising Brittany Higgins for her “unwavering courage,” which ended up delaying the criminal trial for four months.

It was advice that clearly left Justice Michael Lee unimpressed.

“It is inconceivable to me that any legally qualified person could have given [such] advice,” he told the court, describing the advice as “inadvisable and inappropriate” and suggesting this was something that “someone who did a first-year criminal law course” should have known.

So, what was it that inspired this bizarre action from Ms. Smithies, the senior litigation counsel for one of Australia’s largest media organisations?

She told the court that she greenlit the speech because she felt it was important for Ms. Wilkinson to show she was not “wavering” in her support for Ms. Higgins.

“It was my view that from the time after the broadcast of the story, Ms. Wilkinson was inextricably intertwined with Ms. Higgins,” she said.

Even when she was grilled about the damage caused by that advice, she was unapologetic.

“I am not professionally or personally embarrassed by the advice I gave Ms. Wilkinson,” she said.

It was astonishing watching this woman, eyes shining as she proudly proclaimed that it was more important to support the celebrity journalist in her believe-the-victim crusade than to give appropriate, lawyerly advice that would not prejudice the fair trial of an accused person.

Bruce Lehrmann has made a complaint to New South Wales (NSW) Legal Services Commissioner, stating that Ms. Smithies has “displayed legal conduct that is wholly inadequate, deceptive, unacceptable and that breaches her obligations as an officer of the court to uphold the fundamental principles of the rule of law.”

Activism Over Professionalism

This appears to be the latest in a new breed of female lawyers.

Women who make no effort to disguise their feminist goals, from blatantly discriminating against men in the workplace, to flagrantly ignoring important principles in our criminal justice.

Thank goodness they are a small minority. But with women comprising the bulk of law graduates for the last 30 years, there’s been a huge wave of female lawyers flooding into every sector of the legal system.

Many are excellent, extremely competent, and appropriately focussed simply on doing their job in the best possible way. But examples keep popping up of feminist lawyers exploiting the legal system with all sorts of antics which show where their real commitment lies.

These are just the ones we hear about—heaven only knows what chaos such women are creating behind the scenes.

Remember Annette Kimmitt, CEO of Australia’s largest law firm Minter Ellison, who was fired after sending out an email to staff saying she felt “triggered” by the company’s decision to act for then Attorney-General Christian Porter after he was subject to a historic rape allegation?

Ms. Kimmitt emailed 2,500 staff expressing her displeasure that a senior partner was acting for Mr. Porter.

In her email, Ms. Kimmitt said the matter “has certainly triggered hurt for me. I know that for many of you it may be a tough day and I want to apologise for the pain you may be experiencing.”

She claimed the decision to act for Mr. Porter should have been considered “through the lens of our Purposes and Values.”

Ms. Kimmitt apparently had substantial support from young members of the firm, who obviously also support these “Values”; values which happily ditch the principles that everyone is entitled to a presumption of innocence and legal representation.

Then there was Emma Covacevich, Clayton Utz’s first female chief executive partner, who announced when first appointed that she had firm views about how to achieve gender parity.
“It’s about more women coming in and more men going out,” she explained.

What about the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC, who had a melt-down when District Court judge Robert Newlinds claimed her office was taking a “lazy and perhaps politically expedient” approach to rape cases by failing to interrogate complainants’ allegations and sometimes putting hopeless cases before the court.

(His comments occurred in relation to a case where a man had spent eight months on remand in jail—and the jury took one hour to throw the case out. Then it turned out the woman had made similar allegations against about eight other men.)

Three other judges had made similar comments last year about unmeritorious cases being pushed through into court.

Then, a few weeks ago, another District Court judge, Peter Whitford really went to town, pointing out that pushing through such cases risks “drawing the criminal justice system into disrepute.”

Ms. Dowling’s response was once again an emotional attack on Mr. Whitford, before she finally backed down and announced an audit of all NSW sexual assault cases committed for trial.

Women Over Men

Female lawyers have been out in force publicly celebrating the demolition job Labor inflicted on our Family Law Act.

Canberra family lawyer Debra Parker was quoted in a local online paper praising the “overdue” and “transformative” overhaul of family law. She proudly proclaims that the move takes the law back to 1976—when the “best interests of the child principle” was central.

Oh yes, those were the glory days of uniform maternal custody, before parliament was convinced into thinking dads actually matter.

The only time fathers rate a mention in Ms. Parker’s comments is through posing a risk of exposing children to family violence, as she justifies the new laws that toss out the assumption of shared parental responsibility, let alone equal shared time.

Perhaps ironically, given the historical underpinnings of feminism, what most of these women have in common is a disdain for the principle of equality before the law.

Their goals appear to be primarily about promoting and protecting women’s rights at the expense of men’s rights. Their priorities are to do everything they can to protect and cosset women, believing their every story.

Too often, the effect of their actions is to undermine long-standing and legitimate legal safeguards. Safeguards that are designed to ensure that innocent men are not convicted.

There are very good reasons for men to be nervous about the increasing power of feminist lawyers.

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Every school in NSW to offer gifted education programs

I am all in favour of this. It will be a great help to many students in crummy State schools. It is probably not important to really high IQ students, however. They will do well in any system. I did not go to school at all for my Senior exam. I just taught myself all in one year. Others in my IQ bracket should probably do the same

High potential and gifted education will be rolled out in every public school in the state under a new plan to challenge the students who are not reaching their full potential.

Such programs were available in only half of the state’s public schools, Education Minister Prue Car told the Sydney Morning Herald’s Schools Summit on Thursday, but fixing that would depend on tackling the state’s teacher shortage.

She said teachers had been “gaslit” by the previous government into thinking there was not a crisis in the sector.

“Parents deserve to see high potential and gifted education inside the doors of every local school,” Car said.

“Parents want confidence that regardless of their choice of school, that the learning environment will bring out the best in their child.

“Our vision is that in NSW, high potential and gifted education will be delivered in every public school, in a high-quality offering, in a way that is valued by students, parents and teachers alike.”

Under the plan, public schools will identify high potential students across four domains: intellectual, creative, social-emotional and physical.

A 2021 policy was supposed to make gifted education training available at all schools to ensure gifted students were extended even if they did not attend a selective school or opportunity class. However, only half of the state’s schools have the programs in place.

University of NSW researcher Professor Jae Jung said the extent to which the current gifted program was being taken up was highly variable.

The Sydney schools that have surged past 3000 students
“There needs to be a follow-up process and assessment to understand to what extent it is being implemented,” he said.

“One way to ensure gifted education practices are implemented is to guarantee all teachers have gifted education training at the pre-service teacher training level. There also needs to be a mandatory requirement that gifted education programs are available in all schools.”

Gifted education can take different forms including grade skipping, gifted classes and curriculum differentiation within the regular classroom, Jung said.

Car told the summit the challenges the public school system had faced, such as a lack of staff or resources, had left some communities wanting their schools to deliver more gifted education programs.

She said teachers felt “gaslit” by those supposed to support them, and that their challenging experiences in the classroom were being dismissed.

“They were told there was no shortage. That it was a beat-up,” Car said.

A research review by the NSW Department of Education previously found gifted children comprised the top 10 per cent of students, but up to 40 per cent of them were under-achieving.

If at least 10 per cent of students are gifted, 80,000 students in NSW public schools have high potential.

It found that without help to turn their promise into achievement, the students might never achieve their potential.

Car also announced at the summit that she had asked the NSW Education Standards Authority to conduct a review into professional development requirements for teachers and whether they were preventing them for undertaking learning that met their individual needs.

“I asked that NESA consider the administrative burden for teachers … as well as the professionalism of teachers in being able to identify their own professional learning priorities,” she said.

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

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

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

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

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

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

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Monday, March 18, 2024



Great Barrier Reef undergoing mass bleaching event

Hoagy is back! Professor Hoegh-Guldberg is once again being an alarmist. He went silent for a few years when his own research showed the reef to be very resilient against damage. But he seems to like attention

Less excitable people below, however, give a more positive and much less alarming picture


The Great Barrier Reef has been hit by its fifth mass coral bleaching event in the past eight years. That event has led experts to ask whether Australia's environmental icon has reached a tipping point.

One of the world's leading coral authorities, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland, is worried it has.

"I know that's shocking … but that's the type of system we're working with at the moment," Professor Hoegh-Guldberg told 730.

The chief scientist for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), Roger Beeden, believes such a call is premature.

"Right now, what we've got is a system is that is actually bouncing back from particular events," he said

But he does concede the repeated mass bleachings are taking a toll. "There is no doubt that these events are a clear alarm signal that we all need to be acting on climate change," he said.

The GBRMPA declared a mass bleaching event was underway in Australia last week but how it effects the reef remains to be seen.

"We won't know how significant that is until it plays out, and that's going to play out probably over the next six to eight weeks," Dr Beeden said.

The worst affected areas appear to be in the southern region of the reef.

And when 7.30 showed Professor Hoegh-Guldberg video and images taken recently by the media company, the Undertow, he was alarmed. "I think it's devastating," he said.

"This is an advanced bleaching event and I think a lot of coral is going to die.

"Not only are the branching corals bleaching, which are the sensitive ones, but the bommies, really large long-lived corals are also bleaching severely.

"And these bommies have been around for 200 years, so the fact that they're dying under these conditions should set off the alarm."

Not all bleached coral dies – some of the severely bleached coral from a 2016 event in the north of the reef has survived.

"For those areas that were affected by coral bleaching you can see some recovery in some places. Other places there's no recovery and you can see that full spectrum of things," Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.

He says that while it's vital to ensure reefs remain resilient through programs such as improving water quality, repeated bleaching events make recovery harder each time.

"What we do know is that if you increase the events that damage coral and you don't give them enough time to recover, you end up losing coral," he said.

"We've seen bleaching come and go, and what we're seeing here in this 12 to 18 months is that we will see the tipping point exceeded and the system crash."

"As to what that means exactly in terms of species and how that will play out, the ebbs and flows, we don't fully know," Dr Beeden said.

"It's certainly clear from the global science that we're putting pressure on reefs."

But the GBRMPA chief scientist also says the Great Barrier Reef has shown remarkable resilience.

"Given enough time, and a lack of other pressures, coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef are still able to bounce back from these kind of events."

A 2022 survey by the Australian Institute for Maritime Science showed coral cover across the Great Barrier Reef was at its highest level since it began records 37 years earlier.

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Sydney University will recruit hundreds of new teaching-focused academics in what it says is a bid to improve student experience and place a higher value on teaching in higher education.

This is just more dumbing down of education. Getting research published is the guarantee that the teacher's knowledge is at cutting-edge level. Take that away and a teacher might have no expertise to share. The students might just as well read the latest book on the subject. I did a lot of research in my academic career and I always had a LOT to say in the classroom that was not in the books

Vice chancellor Mark Scott said the roles would carve out a new career path for teaching specialists in academia, allowing them to fill some of the most senior roles at the university.

However, some are unhappy about the plan, suggesting it creates two tiers of academics by removing a focus on research.

The university will on Monday launch an international campaign to recruit more than 150 tenured academics after an initial appointment of internal applicants across 55 new roles.

The teaching-focused positions will be for every career stage, from lecturers to full professors and senior leadership roles across a broad range of disciplines.

Scott said for students the key engagement with the university is around what happens in the classroom, not in the research lab.

“Our most brilliant teachers should be as famous and revered in the institution as our most brilliant researchers are today,” he said.

“I have a view that we owe every student a transformational experience here at the university.

“They’re paying higher fees than students have ever paid in this country.

“So to prioritise appropriately teaching and learning as important as we do research - that’s what we need to do. I think that’s what the great global universities do.”

Teaching-focused academic roles are controversial among many academics who see the roles as career-limiting and involving intense workloads.

The jobs came about as part of protracted EBA negotiations with staff which concluded last year. The university agreed to introduce 330 new permanent academic roles to reduce casualisation of the workforce but 220 of those were to be teaching-only positions.

It contrasts with the existing deal for academics which guarantees they spend 40 per cent of their time on research, 40 per cent on teaching and 20 per cent community engagement.

English and linguistics academic Nick Riemer, the university’s National Tertiary Education Union branch president, said there was a clear effort from senior management to break the teaching and research nexus.

“There should be more academic jobs at the university because at the moment it has an overreliance on casualisation and that just involves outright exploitation,” he said.

“But we are very seriously concerned that university management seems intent on separating teaching and research, which are academic functions which intrinsically belong together.

“If you’re not researching in your fields you’re passing on doctrine.”

Riemer said the education-focused roles that exist at the university were subject to high levels of overwork.

“And there’s every reason to think uni management see teaching focus roles as just a cheap way of getting staff to do a lot of teaching without giving them the time for the research they need to do to stay up to date,” he said.

But Scott said teaching at higher education level had been undervalued, and the roles would create viable career options for teaching specialists.

“We’re creating a career pathway that says to the very top end of the professoriate, people who are teaching experts can have a career pathway to the very top,” he said.

One of the first internal recruits for the roles, Louis Taborda, senior lecturer in project management, said he chose teaching because he saw it as a noble cause.

He began his career as a high-school maths and computer science teacher, then worked as an IT consultant before moving to academia.

“I felt right at the beginning that getting into teaching was something that was noble, pure and unadulterated,” he said.

“It’s absolutely a pleasure to watch students grow.”

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South Australia introduces sweeping reforms to REDUCE the availability of rental accomodation

The more you restrict what owners can do, the more reluctant they will be to let their properties out

From March 1, rent price increases are now capped at one increase for every 12 month period.

There is a dramatic lift in penalties for landlords who discriminate against a potential tenant who has children, with the maximum fine rising from $2500 to $25,000.

And a landlord who falsely states he or she requires possession of a rental premises in order to terminate a tenancy can be hit with a maximum fine of $50,000 from an earlier maximum penalty of $2500.

The changes follow the illegalisation of rent bidding – the practice of landlords or real estate agents soliciting higher bids for a rental above the listed price – in September last year.

The change means landlords can no longer able to advertise properties with a rent range, put properties up for rent auction or solicit offers over the advertised rental price, with a penalty of up to $20,000 in place for breaches.

Later this year, a third tranche of reforms will stabilise the rental experience ever further.

South Australia will extend the notice period to end a tenancy from 28 days to 60 days, permit tenants to have pets in rentals with “reasonable conditions” and ensure rental properties comply with minimum housing standards.

Consumer and Business Affairs Minister Andrea Michaels said the government’s reforms struck the “right balance” between protecting both the rights of tenants and landlords.

“At a time when South Australian tenants are facing unprecedented levels of housing insecurity, we want to ensure tenants have the best possible protections in place including stronger rights, more financial stability and better long-term security,” she said.

“Landlords also deserve protection to ensure their property is being properly taken care of, which is why we have also increased penalties available for those tenants who fail to live up to their responsibilities.”

Tenants who intentionally cause serious damage to a rental property now face fine of $25,000 from $2500 before the changes.

What the numbers show

Data from SQM Research shows average weekly rents for both houses and units continue to rise across much of Australia.

Some cities have recorded double digit growth in rent prices in the past 12 months, including Adelaide, which recorded a 13 per cent rise in combined house and unit rent prices.

Adelaide has a vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent while Perth’s market is the tightest, with a vacancy rate of 0.4 per cent.

Sydney’s rate is 1.1 per cent.

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Complaint filed to Human Rights Commission against WA child protection department

Great! Absolute silence on WHY Aboriginal children are still being removed wholesale from their families by social workers. If you have seen how brutal Aboriginal men often are towards women and children you will know that the removals often save lives. How incorrect that is!

A law firm has lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) against Western Australia's Department of Communities over the allegedly discriminatory removal of First Nations children from their families.

It is the second of four complaints filed against state government child protection departments and Shine Lawyers is claiming that widespread racial discrimination has led to the unlawful and unjust removal of Indigenous children into state care.

Shine Lawyers also says government departments have failed to reunify these children with their families.

First Nations woman Lisa* was removed from her family when she was six and lived in at least 10 different foster homes.

"I felt like [the Department of Child Protection] destroyed everything that I could have had with my family," she said.

Lisa said she lost connection with her mum and cried for her every day when she was sent to live 600 kilometres away.

"I still cry for them," she said.

"I still miss them and I still don't get it back — I never get the love back."

Now 20, Lisa said she relived her childhood trauma when her six-week-old daughter was taken from her and placed into care.

"Since I lost my connection with my mother, I don't want to lose it with my daughter," she said.

Lisa does not want her baby growing up thinking that she is not loved.

"I never got a chance to love her before they decided to take her away from me," she said.

Shine Lawyers special counsel Caitlin Wilson said despite legislative intervention, inquiries, policies and reports, and the fact that these statistics have been reported for years, the over-representation of Indigenous children in the child protection system had not decreased.

"Sadly, Western Australia has the highest over-representation rate in the country," Ms Wilson said.

"We're seeing a real failure when someone is identified early on during their pregnancy, a failure of the department to wrap support around that person and help them with housing issues or domestic violence, substance disorders, whatever it might be.

"Instead they're removing the child at birth and it's too late for anyone to do anything at that stage."

The complaint in WA follows one in New South Wales in January and class actions are set to be launched against government departments in four states, including South Australia and Victoria.

WA Minister for Child Protection Sabine Winton said she could not comment specifically on the case in the AHRC, but she was proud of her department's work.

"Aboriginal children are over-represented in the out-of-home care system, there's absolutely no doubt of that," she said.

"We are working hand-in-glove with the federal government to meet our national commitments to closing the gap."

Ms Winton said recent changes in the out-of-home care system showed the direction the department was moving in.

"We now have 16 organisations who support young children in care … of those, six are now Aboriginal-controlled organisations," she said.

"This time last year there was only one Aboriginal-controlled organisation.

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Battery Storage Plans Fan Community Bushfire Fears

A northeast Victorian community is fighting plans to build battery storage in an area of extreme bushfire risk, as the state government closes one avenue of appeal.

Mint Renewables and Trina Solar plan to build two battery energy storage systems (BESS) near the Dederang terminal station in the Kiewa Valley.

“It’s just ridiculous,” Dederang’s Sharon McEvoy, who owns farmland next to the proposed sites, told AAP.

“It’s north-facing, and backs right up next to the bush ... surrounded by bushfire management overlays.”

Ms. McEvoy led a community meeting, as more than 200 frustrated residents of Dederang and nearby communities filled the recreation reserve hall and spilled out onto the deck and foyer.

“We know the fire risk,” she told the crowd on March 14.

Battery fires can burn for several days and release toxic and flammable gasses, as seen in 2021’s four-day fire at the Tesla Big Battery site near Geelong, west of Melbourne.

“We care about the environment, the waterways, and the land where we live and work,” said Ms. McEvoy, while fighting back tears.

“The government is sacrificing the wellbeing of rural communities.”

The meeting came hours after the Victorian government announced plans to fast track new renewables projects, including stripping the ability of third parties to appeal planning decisions in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).

“Once the reforms come into effect, new permit applications for batteries can be considered under this new accelerated pathway,” a spokeswoman for the department transport and planning told AAP.

“Our accelerated pathway for renewables projects will help deliver cheaper and cleaner energy to Victorian households sooner.”

The department has not yet received permit applications for either of the Dederang battery storage projects, and applications made from April 1 can be considered for fast tracking.

The state government maintained community voices would continue to be protected, despite the curtailing of VCAT access.

“Third party objections will still have a place in the approvals process, but this change prevents time-consuming and repeated delays that hold these projects back for years,” the Victorian government said on March 14.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said the issue went far beyond a state planning issue.

“What is happening to your community is happening right across the country,” Senator McKenzie told the crowd.

“We’re all on the journey to net zero, but we need to share the burden.”

Both Chinese-owned Trina Solar and Mint, owned by Infratil and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, opted not to attend the meeting.

“We are updating our design and developing mitigation measures to ensure the project is well-informed by local knowledge,” Mint said in a statement.

“We will continue to be open and responsive to questions and constructive feedback.”

Ovens Valley state MP Tim McCurdy said residents should direct their concerns to Victoria’s minister for planning, Sonya Kilkenny.

“We’re not anti-renewables, we just want communication,” Mr. McCurdy told the crowd.

“We want to know what’s going on.”

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

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

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

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

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

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

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Sunday, March 17, 2024



Authoritarianism lives in the mind of a Leftist teacher

Brendan McDougall (below) teaches in a government school in country Victoria. He realizes that some parents are prepared to make considerable efforts to ensure that their children get a good education while others are prepared simply to accept what the government offers. He deduces rightly that, no matter the system there will always be at least some people who seek privately-funded education in order to give their children more than the government offers. He wants to stop them doing that. He wants to forbid private education altogether. He would approve of the old Soviet system.

That is a distinctly radical proposal from a distinctly radical website and one with no chance of adoption so why does Brendan argue that? His argument is actually realistic in some ways. He thinks that having private schools diverts resources that might otherwise go to government schools and he wants more resources for government schools. Private schools get all the best teachers, for instance.

What he overlooks is that the existing system greatly expands the share of national resources that goes into education. Private schools attract private money, which adds to what the government spends on education. He is actually advocating for LESS money to be spent on education

He cannot be unaware of that. It is just Leftist envy that is heaving in his breast. He is aware that many private school users "are paying for their children to have access to a more powerful peer group" and he hates it. He just cannot bear the thought of other people doing well for themelves and feeling happy about it. Their happiness makes him unhappy. He must be miserable a lot of the time.

We can be thankful that there are not enough like him to be influential. When Mark Latham was leading the Labour party, he suffered a crashing electoral defeat after just a mild threat to Federal funding to private schools. Around 40% of Australian teenagers go to non-government schools so that is a huge voting bloc to threaten.

In case it is of any interest, I went to a small country State school in Queensland and sent my son to a regional Catholic school. Both schools were rather good, I think



Australia’s public schools are in crisis.

Teachers nationwide have been shouting about this for more than a decade. There are no teachers. Our students are falling behind internationally. Many kids are depressed and school refusal is through the roof. It’s become so dire that even Education Minister Jason Clare agrees.

Over the past decade, right-wing responses have been to blame the teachers or claim there are too many soft skills being taught. Those advocating in the media for school reform have tended to argue about the funding disparity between public and private schools, and the fact our schools are many percentage points away from meeting the school resourcing standard.

These arguments ignore the reality that our current system values the education of some young Australians more than others — and the numbers obfuscate and distract from the true rot in the sector: class segregation.

We have one of the most robust private education sectors in the world, and it’s hard to argue, especially following a recent Four Corners investigation into allegations of harassment and discrimination at Sydney’s Cranbrook School, that this is doing our society any good.

Private schools don’t need tweaks or reforming; they need to be abolished.

No teachers, no resources

Our teachers are overworked, overwhelmed, burnt out and undervalued — and the numbers often cited are egregious. In New South Wales and Western Australia, shortages of more than 2,000 teachers were reported at the end of 2023. In Victoria, 800 jobs remained unfilled across the state when students returned from the summer (now reduced to 795 at the time of writing, including 14 principals).

This shortage is being felt across the board, but the pain is sharpest at schools in our most vulnerable communities, such as mine, where six teachers have returned from retirement this year and we still have seven unfilled full-time jobs, with no applicants in sight.

In the decade following the 2012 Gonksi review — which assessed school funding and depicted a system characterised by alarmingly declining test scores and increasing educational inequality — funding of private schools has increased at twice the rate of public. Not only did the review’s warnings go unheeded, but successive governments have worked in tandem to accelerate the trend. In Victoria and NSW in 2021, five elite private schools spent more on new facilities than governments spent on 3,372 public schools combined.

These numbers are shameful, but while they liven up discussions in staff rooms, they’re not effective at creating change. There are deeper issues at play. For every cartoonishly posh school in Kew or Bellevue Hill charging well over $30,000 tuition a year, there are five or more smaller, lower-fee private schools that cost $5,000 a year that compete for teachers and students across Australia’s less affluent areas.

These schools are often as materially scruffy as the fee-free public school down the road, with similar performances in metrics like NAPLAN and ATAR. Despite this, parents flock to these independent private schools in droves, with enrolments ticking up 14.1% over the past five years, while enrolments at Catholic private schools increased by 4.8% in the same period. Yet despite recent cost of living pressures, enrolments in public schools only grew by a measly 0.7% over the past five years, well below the average growth for all schools of 3.5%.

Paying for a peer group

We are certainly not getting richer, particularly those of us young enough to have kids starting school for the first time, so why might cash-strapped parents be willing to spend an ever-increasing portion of their disposable income on a product that isn’t measurably “better”?

One reason is that private schools have marketing departments, but a more potent force is that middle-class parents in Australia consider privately educating their children a cultural norm.

Australia is one of the richest countries in the world, and we have one of the highest percentages of private-school-educated young people in the world — 36%, with an increase of 4 percentage points over the past 20 years. In a country like the United States, where there are roiling debates about school choice and rampant social inequality, only 10% of students attended private schools as of 2022-23.

In Australia, enough parents send their kids to private schools that to do otherwise can feel inadequate or negligent. Parents care about their kids and they don’t want them to miss out, so they work two jobs and send their kids to private school so they can relax knowing they did everything they could.

In doing this, however, they inoculate themselves against needing to care about what happens to those who can’t afford what they can. They tap out, and if a third of our families tap out of public education, there becomes little political will left to make our public schools work. This is compounded by the fact that it’s the wealthier, powerful third — the parents who are also doctors and bankers and lawyers and politicians — who leave the public system first.

This means that in Australia we have two education systems — one for everyone, and one for the students whose parents believe that the one for everyone isn’t good enough. These latter children spend their formative years only associating with people like them, with limited mixing across class lines. Parents who send their kids to private schools aren’t necessarily paying for a better education — they are paying for their children to have access to a more powerful peer group.

This has been true for decades. Parents today who attended public schools grew up knowing the state didn’t care about their education, and so it is with today’s young people. They know this in their bones as they walk through the gates. As teachers, we see it in their eyes, but we also see it in our declining PISA scores, our school refusal rates, completion rates, our problems managing behaviour, and the upticks in youth crime statistics. These kids know that their country cares about other children more than them.

Education for all

In a debate about the value of VCE in my Year 12 English class last week, one student asked me if “a 40 here is really worth the same as a 40 at a private school in Melbourne”. The truth is that it’s worth so much more when it’s been fought for so much harder, but there aren’t the structures in place for us to see that.

The rampant, chronic underfunding of our public schools is a blight on our national identity, especially for a country that lionises the idea of a “fair go”. But simply reallocating funding to be more equitable will not address the class segregation corroding Australia’s school system.

So what can we do? Well, we can start by phasing out the federal taxpayer dollars pouring into the coffers of private schools — a minimum of $17.8 billion in 2024. If someone wants to pay for their child to attend a school where they won’t fall in with “the wrong crowd” or the other classist monikers we reserve for poor kids, they can pay for it themselves. We could then invest that money back into our public schools, targeting funding to the communities like mine who need it most.

We could ban the new construction of private schools that are de facto designed to siphon away from the public sector the families who have the resources to invest in their children’s education, robbing their local school of their assistance. A better-resourced public sector could be designed to provide different educational options for different kids, and we could repurpose some of those three-storey performing arts centres into facilities accessible to everyone.

These solutions aren’t easy — they require long-term thinking, values-based politics and bravery. The issue has been ignored for so long that it is entrenched. Decades of underfunding and neglect have made our public schools less competitive and less attractive to middle-class parents. Decades of conversations during school pick-ups and dinner parties have made parents increasingly anxious that their child might get left behind.

Even if we did manage to abolish the grossly inequitable privatised model we currently have, our schools would still be segregated by postcode; by the capacities of parents to pay “top-up fees” to give their local public school an edge. But unless our leaders dare to acknowledge the injustices baked into the system, more kids will leave the public system, more burnt-out public school teachers will leave the profession, and more of our next generation will leave the education system feeling as though it wasn’t designed for kids like them.

If governments, state and federal, are serious about fixing public education, they must consider the radical choice of abolishing the private education sector. Until they do so, they will never truly ensure that our schools are about every child learning, growing and flourishing.

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Urban planners decry NIMBYs as residents oppose St Lucia housing development

Nimbys are often very active and vocal so goverments are reluctant to defy them. But they are claiming a right that usually does not legally exist under statute law. But Common Law is more flexible and can beget wins. They certainly obstruct housing provision for others

Urban planner Dorina Pojani says "selfish" NIMBYs are preventing much-needed homes from being built.

What's next? Brisbane City Council will decide on whether to approve the development following the weekend's election.
Robert Davidson fears his apartment's value will plummet when a luxury high-rise apartment is built right next door.

The University of Queensland music lecturer lives on a leafy street in St Lucia, just down the road from his campus.

The developer, Place Design Group, plans to build a four-storey building with ten units at the neighbouring property, 7 Ryans Road.

Dr Davidson's real estate agent, Plum Property, estimates his apartment is currently worth $830,000, but would only sell in the $600,000 range if the development goes ahead.

"When I bought the unit I didn't know that was the case. It's kind of been sprung on me and it feels like I'm paying for someone else's profit," Dr Davidson said.

"I'm a huge supporter of medium-density housing. I just think you need to think strategically about where it should go, and there's so many reasons this is not strategic."

Planning educator says attitude 'selfish'

University of Queensland urban planning Associate Professor Dorina Pojani said, in her view, a four-storey housing development in that area of St Lucia was perfectly reasonable.

Dr Pojani said Brisbane's housing shortages were being exacerbated by "selfish NIMBYs" — home owners who oppose new houses being built in their neighbourhoods.

She said in her view this was a clear example of "typical NIMBYism", driven by fear of falling property values.

"That kind of attitude is extremely selfish as the city is undergoing a major housing crisis and we've got people living in tents and parks," Dr Pojani said.

"Even if their property values decline, I say 'who cares?'

"A house should be a place for living. It should not be a place to store wealth, showcase wealth, or pass wealth from generation to generation."

Dr Pojani said any new units, even luxury ones, would help boost Brisbane's housing supply and alleviate the shortages.

Place Design Group did not respond to the ABC's request for comment.

However in their written response to objections raised by residents, they rejected claims their building would lower neighbouring house prices.

"The development will have negligible impacts to surrounding property values," it said.

"The development will enhance the street appeal of Ryans Road, not only for the property subject of the development, but those within the immediate and surrounding area, having a positive influence on nearby property prices."

The 'Nimby Paradox'

As suburban sprawl radiates from cities across the country, experts and politicians are increasingly saying we need more infill development. But building higher-density homes isn't always easy.

Brisbane artist Jackie Marshall, who currently lives with Dr Davidson, said she felt the developers were effectively "stealing" value from the neighbouring properties.

Ms Marshall said the development would worsen traffic, endanger cyclists, clear greenery, and spoil the views for neighbours.

"There are so many sites in St Lucia that are ripe for high and medium density building that do not contribute to cyclists' problems, that aren't on the floodplain, that aren't taking value away from residents' properties," she said.

"If the LNP are serious about solving the congestion problem they need to make sure we don't approve developments that will put cars on the Brisbane river loop and create a danger for commuters."

Natali Rayment is the executive director of Wolter Consulting Group and the co-founder of YIMBY QLD, an anti-NIMBY group.

Ms Rayment said Brisbane had a severe "missing middle" — a shortage of medium-density apartment blocks.

She said higher density accommodation was particularly crucial near facilities such as universities, train stations, and other areas of high activity.

She said many Brisbane residents still clung to the idea of low density suburbia, despite its drawbacks.

"We're a big city with great opportunities, yet we still seem to have these old country town values," Ms Rayment said.

"We've got a housing shortage and if someone wants to build four storeys in St Lucia right now, I think we need to say yes and get it happening."

The development is currently pending approval from Brisbane City Council, which is in caretaker mode for the local government elections.

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Australian Alps snow cover to fare worst in the world under climate change, German study finds

And pigs might fly. Prophecies are worthless. The best snow in our general area is in New Zealand, anyway

A grim picture has been painted of the future of the Australian Alps, with research predicting snow cover days may fall by 78 per cent by the end of the century.

Worldwide, 13 per cent of ski areas are predicted to lose all natural snow cover by 2100.

Researchers from the University of Bayreuth in Germany have today published a study in the journal PLOS One, prompting calls from academics to reinforce an urgent need to address climate change.

The study puts Australia's rate of decline as the highest when compared to six other major skiing regions in the world, including New Zealand, Europe and Japan.

"I'm not surprised by the findings of this report, to be honest," Climatologist and Australian National University Professor Janette Lindesay said.

"There's no doubt that we're heading for an even warmer future."

The study found one in eight ski areas across the globe, or 13 per cent of winter ski slopes, were predicted to lose all natural snow cover this century under a high emissions scenario.

High emissions referred to one of three climate change scenarios based on the Shared Socio-economic Pathways model laid out in the study, alongside "low" and "very high".

Study co-author Dr Veronika Mitterwallner said her team focused on the "high emission" projection to summarise their findings because they considered it the most current and realistic scenario of the three.

Despite this, the study found annual snow cover days across all seven "major mountain areas with downhill skiing will significantly decrease worldwide" across all three scenarios.

Professor Lindesay said it reinforced a need to ramp up efforts to tackle climate change and lessen potential damage to alpine environments.

"The scenarios are effectively storylines … taking into account possible future carbon dioxide emissions, socio-economic circumstances, population growth and possible policy responses to global heating," she said.

"The best thing we can do is get emissions down to net zero as fast as we possibly can."

The study predicts snow resorts may need to move or expand into less populated mountain areas at higher elevations to combat the effects of climate change.

But University of Canberra based geomorphologist Phil Campbell said that would not necessarily work in Australia where ski resorts were at a lower altitude compared to other countries.

"One of the problems in Australia is that we're fairly low in our ski resorts, which are already at the very top of our mountains," he said.

"We're not going to have the same ability as many other countries do to be able to relocate our ski resorts.

"The same goes for endangered plant species as well, because there's nowhere for them to retreat to."

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Dick Smith's urgent warning to Australia as a record influx of new immigrants move Down Under

Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith says a record influx of new immigrants is a 'disaster for families' and young people wanting to own their own home.

The electronics chain founder, who turns 80 next week, wants Australia's net immigration slashed to 75,000 a year to ease Australia's rental and housing affordability crisis.

This would take immigration levels back to where they were in 1997, before the overseas intake doubled within a decade, only to double again after the pandemic.

'Every Australian family has a population plan to have the number of children they can give a good life to, but at the rate we are going, it means the average Australian family will have less,' Mr Smith told the Daily Telegraph.

Australia's population is estimated to double in the next 50 years, with big business interests advocating high immigration to boost the supply of labour.

Mr Smith said 'billionaire political donors' only promoted high population growth to expand their wealth.

New Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Thursday showed Australia welcomed 125,410 permanent and long-term arrivals in January, marking the highest January on record.

Accounting for departures, the net growth in permanent and long-term arrivals for January reached 55,330, surpassing the previous highest intake in January 2009 by 40 percent.

Treasury economists are expecting Australia's overseas intake, covering skilled migrants and international students, to slow to 375,000 in 2023-24.

This would be lower than the record 518,000 intake for 2022-23 and below January's annual increase of 481,620.

But this would still be almost double the pre-pandemic level of 194,400 in 2019-20, before Australia was closed from March 2020 to December 2021.

Official data showed the majority of new arrivals are settling in NSW and then Victoria, leading to more congestion in Australia's two biggest cities.

Most migrants begin as renters, leading to more competition for accommodation in Sydney and Melbourne.

High population growth is also creating problems in other states, with Brisbane the recipient of high interstate migration, as south-east Queensland attracts residents from NSW and Victoria in search of more affordable housing and warmer weather.

Daniel Wild, the deputy executive director of the Institute of Public Affairs think tank, said high immigration was behind Australia's housing crisis.

'It is clear that the federal government's migration program is unplanned, out of control, and out of step with community expectations,' he said.

'On top of this it has failed to address Australia's worker shortage crisis, the very thing the federal government uses to justify such rapid increases in intake.

'It is clear this lazy approach to solving worker shortages is not working and there should be a greater focus of getting Australian pensioners, veterans and students into work.'

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Australia’s ATM extinction!

Hands up if you’ve struggled to find an ATM lately… I don’t mean an overpriced service station ATM; I mean a free, big four banks ATM. If you’ve struggled, you’re not alone.

The big four banks in Australia, namely ANZ, Westpac, the Commonwealth Bank, and the NAB, have not only been shutting down bank branches (around 460 branches in the past three years), they are also rapidly removing ATMs.

As of June 2017, there were 13,814 bank-owned ATMs across Australia. Six years later, in June 2023, there were just 5,693 – a decline of almost 60 per cent or 8,121!

Banks, the government, and corporate media will claim customers overwhelmingly prefer digital transactions, and they’re shutting down ATMs in response to the lack of demand for cash. I push back on this by asking: What came first, the inability to find an ATM, or a natural shift to online services?

Further, considering we were locked down in our homes for almost three years, I would’ve thought measuring outdoor-based consumer activity during this period would be fraught with difficulty.

Over the past few years, one of the main drivers toward digital transactions has been reframing cash as dirty and capable of spreading diseases such as Covid.

As someone who works in the service industry, I witnessed first-hand how successful this narrative proved in scaring people away from using cash. Retailers and businesses took this artificial marketplace signal as a cue to get rid of money permanently – a move many companies would applaud given the considerable costs involved in maintaining cash on the premises.

Offering cash as tender is expensive – from Armaguard collection to paying an accounts employee – not to mention the security costs involved in preventing internal and external theft. Businesses also prefer cards as they can add various surcharges. The ACCC currently has its hands full trying to rein in Australian businesses charging excessive credit card surcharges. Australian companies are legally obliged to charge customers the amount they pay to credit card companies, which is 0.5-3 per cent. Thus, businesses charging a flat surcharge for every transaction are not just ripping us off but also breaking the law.

Further, running and maintaining an ATM costs the bank money. Aside from the initial cost of purchasing the ATM, a suitably qualified person must physically stock the machine with cash and receipt paper. Then there are insurances, including public liability, rent charges, and the ongoing costs involved in anti-fraud software and hardware updates. It’s ridiculous to suggest that banks don’t minimise these costs as much as possible; nevertheless, there’s no doubt ATMs are expensive to maintain. All this highlights that ATMs and cash are no longer strong profit drivers for banks compared to digital products and services.

Indeed, any profits derived from ATMs disappeared in September 2017, when all four big banks stopped charging $2 transaction fees to non-customers using their ATMs. At the time, the banks collectively and accidentally ‘came out’ by stating in the media that they would accept the loss of $500 million in profit produced annually by charging ATM fees. This is interesting, as you will recall that up until that point in time, the banks had claimed that they did not make a cent of profit from ATM fees. For those more astute readers, you may have also noted the significance of the timing of this announcement. 2017 was the first year that ATMs started to disappear en masse…

In response to the rapid closure of bank branches and ATMs, many have suggested that we withdraw our cash at Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, or Australia Post. Okay, sure, that seems valid. However, the other day at my local Woolworths, I counted only two cash checkouts with withdrawal facilities and 12 card-only checkouts. We’re seeing the same scenario play out at Coles. Many Woolworths stores in metro locations across Australia conducted cashless trials as early as 2020. As for Australia Post, well, to achieve sustainability goals, it is currently shutting down local branches and creating regional hubs.

The situation at Aldi is worse. There are some newly opened Aldi stores across the United Kingdom and Europe that require you to scan a digital QR code with embedded digital ID tracking to enter the store. These stores are entirely autonomous, with no shop assistants, and cash is not accepted.

Imagine there’s nowhere to withdraw our money from, and a hiccup in the banking system were to occur, for example, a global banking crisis. Without ATMs or bank branches, it would be hard, if not impossible, to withdraw our savings. This, in turn, could lead to a situation known as a bank bail-in. Bank bail-ins are when a bank’s creditors and investors, i.e., you and I, are forced to take a loss on our holdings to recapitalise the bank during a financial crisis. This is a fancy way of saying the bank uses its customers’ savings to bail itself out of monetary issues, and yes, it’s 100 per cent legal.

Bank bail-ins were introduced in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis to improve the stability of the international monetary system by screwing over the working and middle classes. And please don’t make the mistake of thinking that bank bail-ins only occur in corrupt third-world countries. They have occurred in Cyprus twice, once in 2013 and again in 2021, and in Italy and Spain in 2017. It’s yet another legal mechanism that allows the elites to steal our money to pay for their uncontrolled and unregulated greed.

The banks and government must be positively licking their lips at the unprecedented amount of consumer data falling into their laps at zero cost, with little to no oversight or pushback from the population. The ability of governments to track where their citizens are spending every dollar in the broader economy gives them extraordinary powers. When people use cash instead, that data cannot be captured or subsequently profited by selling it to third parties.

The collection of data on our spending habits is in addition to the ability of certain devices and applications to track our location, know who we’re dating, where we work, how much we earn, and our complete medical and tax histories. These apps, websites, and devices also read our emails, texts, and social media posts and listen to our phone conversations. So, now they will know how, when, and where we spend our money. This occurs even when our financial interactions are technically between us, our bank, and a third party. Imagine what it will be like when we’re all forced onto a government-controlled Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

The government plans to fully integrate us into their new dystopian system of digital IDs and CBDCs by 2030. This will usher in a cashless era of control over everything we own and how, when, and where we spend every dollar. When you combine these mechanisms of control with existing Australian government digital infrastructure, such as the MyGov website, which centrally collates every citizen’s Medicare, Centrelink, and taxation information, the government’s digital surveillance box set will be complete.

This digital boxset represents what Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff has labelled the Dictatorship of no Alternatives. Whereby it is not only challenging to escape submitting to this regime, but it also becomes impossible to offer an alternative system. It’s a monopoly on power and information beyond anything previously imagined. Soon, CBDCs and a government-issued and controlled digital ID will become compulsory for living a normal life. This digital pass will be required to travel, sign a lease, open a bank account, apply for a mortgage, enrol your kids in school or university, visit the doctor or hospital, attend a concert, and get a new job. We will have no choice but to submit. Thus, the dictatorship of no alternatives is simply technofascism by another name.

This is all happening right now. The globalists are busy behind the scenes, rapidly dismantling the old financial system based on physical dollars and implementing a new digital ID and CBDC system, gamed to their advantage. One small way to push back against all this is to keep using cash. Sometimes, the simple things in life really do remain the best!

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

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

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

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

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

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

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Thursday, March 14, 2024


Opposition Confirms It Will Develop 6 Nuclear Power Sites

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has confirmed the Coalition’s energy policy—expected to be released ahead of the federal budget in May—will probably include six nuclear plant sites.

While he has yet to name the exact locations, Tasmania has been ruled out as a potential host state. It’s considered likely that the reactors would be built on the sites of old coal stations to take advantage of existing transmission infrastructure.

This means the Labor-held seat of Hunter, the independent seat of Calare, and Coalition-held Flynn, Maranoa, O’Connor, and Gippsland may be all on the shortlist for nuclear power stations.

At the Australian Financial Review Business Summit in Sydney on March 12, Mr. Dutton said the Coalition would encourage nearby communities to accept the plants by offering them subsidised energy—a model he said was used in the United States. He told the audience that it would also provide an incentive for the industry to establish jobs.

“Nuclear is the only proven technology which emits zero emission and firms up renewables,” he said.

The opposition’s position comes as modelling on Australia’s net zero transition estimates the country will need to invest hundreds of billions, and even trillions, to fully reduce emissions.

The tremendous cost stems from the widescale investment in wind turbines, solar panels, batteries, and pumped hydro (where available), but also into transmission infrastructure, as well as electrification of public transport networks and private vehicles (buying EVs instead of regular cars).

Nuclear Detractors Also Point to Cost

Energy experts say it’s difficult to estimate the cost of transitioning to nuclear, given the technology is not currently commercially available.

But during the speech, Mr. Dutton dismissed what he described as “straw man arguments” against nuclear, including cost.

“Australia’s energy mix is about 21 percent gas, 47 per cent coal, and 32 percent renewables. Ontario province in Canada is about 5 percent gas, 35 percent renewables, and 60 percent nuclear. South Korea is about 30 percent gas, 30 percent coal, and 30 percent nuclear, with the balance mainly hydro … Australians pay almost double what Ontario and South Korean residents pay,” he said.

He said reactors produce a “small amount of waste” and said the government had already signed up to deal with nuclear waste via the AUKUS agreement.

The Australian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARWA) found there were 2,061 cubic metres of intermediate-level waste in 2021, compared to 1,771 cubic metres in 2018. It projects 4,377 cubic metres in the next 50 years, compared to 3,734 cubic metres projected in 2018.

Intermediate-level waste is produced in nuclear medicine—for example, imaging, scanning and radiotherapy.

Currently, the waste is stored in more than 100 places, but most of it is held at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) facilities in Lucas Heights, Sydney.

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Court Strikes Down $3,000 Fine for Person Trying to Leave City During Pandemic

The NSW Supreme Court has found that a $3,000 fine for leaving Greater Sydney without a permit in 2021 was unlawful, casting doubt on the validity of around 30,000 similar fines issued during the pandemic.

This is the second such ruling.

The state’s Revenue NSW, however, says it will not withdraw the fines and, will instead, treat each one on a “case-by-case basis,” likely meaning those fined will need to argue their case with the government and potentially take the matter to court.

The case centred on a $3,000 fine imposed on Angelika Kosciolek for leaving Greater Sydney in 2021. She was homeless and made plans to travel to South Australia after being offered accommodation there.

But Justice Desmond Fagan said fines issued during COVID-19 must pass the “bare minimum test,” established in a 2022 Supreme Court ruling. That ruling said that for a fine to be valid, the penalty notice must clearly state the relevant Act, and the provision related to the offence.

Ms. Kosciolek’s fine was found to have not passed that test, and the Redfern Legal Centre (RLC) said most COVID-19 fines also failed to precisely state which laws had been broken.

‘Withdraw and Repay’: Redfern Legal Centre

“If a COVID fine fails to state the specific offence, the fine is invalid,” Samantha Lee, senior solicitor at the Centre, said. “RLC considers that the judgment supports the conclusion that the remaining COVID fines are invalid and urges Revenue NSW to withdraw and repay the 29,000 remaining fines.”

Yet Commissioner of Fines Administration Scott Johnston, from Revenue NSW, told a Budget Estimates hearing that it would not be withdrawing any of the remaining fines, but will continue to “review and treat every matter on a case-by-case basis.”

However, Ms. Lee urged Mr. Johnston to “come to his senses.”

“The commissioner is refusing to honour a supreme court judgement and do the right thing and give people back their money and withdraw these fines that don’t meet the legal requirements,” she said. “We’re giving the commissioner time to come to his senses and make the right decision to withdraw these fines. If not, then watch this space.”

More than 33,000 COVID fines, worth millions of dollars, were cancelled after a NSW Supreme Court ruling in 2022 found that details of the offences were insufficient.

In that instance, Revenue NSW withdrew 33,121 fines, meaning roughly half of the 62,138 COVID-related infringement notices issued in the state during the pandemic were invalid. However, it emphasised that the decision to withdraw the fines did not mean the offences had not been committed.

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Greens Leader’s $1 Million Expense Bill Causes Debate

Greens leader Adam Bandt claimed $963,166 (US$637,000) in expenses in a single year, including $23,000 for two private jet flights during the 2022 election campaign. He also spent $204,000 on printing costs and $12,000 on a government-provided vehicle and petrol allowance.

That’s in addition to his $314,000 salary and the wages of his personal staff, according to the Department of Finance.

Mr. Bandt booked a chartered flight from Townsville to Rockhampton, costing $8,300, to announce details of his party’s plan for the country to rapidly transition from coal to renewables. The second charter between Canberra and Brisbane, at a cost of $15,000, was to attend the Greens’ election campaign launch.

A private jet emits as much carbon dioxide in one hour (two tonnes) as the average person emits in an entire year. Staff Travel Adds Another $372,000

His other travel costs included almost $29,000 on government COMCAR trips and taxis, and $57,000 for domestic flights. Another $372,000 was spent on staff travel expenses.
Mr. Bandt’s spending was criticised by independent MP Dai Le, who is among the most frugal MPs in claiming expenses.

“I’m shocked by the news of parliamentarians overspending and surprised by the Greens use of chartered flights when they are the party that opposed the use of fossil fuels,” she said.

“At the end of the day, how we spend and what we spend on, will be judged by the people when it’s time to cast their vote.”

The Greens spokesperson said: “As the leader of the third-largest political party in Australia you would expect Mr. Bandt would engage in extensive travel and—unlike the prime minister and many ministers—he doesn’t have access to government VIP flights. All Mr. Bandt’s expenditures are within entitlements.”

Despite the size of his claim, Mr. Bandt ranked below several Labor ministers, including Employment Minister Tony Burke, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for 2022 expenses.

‘Legitimate work expenses’: Stephen Conroy

Mr. Bandt also found a defender in former Labor senator Stephen Conroy. “To my shock, I’ll actually defend Adam Bandt,” Mr. Conroy told Sky News Australia. “The amount of travel and the work expenses, providing they’re within [the guidelines]—and there’s no suggestion from any of these stories, not one single suggestion that anyone has gone outside the guidelines.

“These are legitimate work expenses. A politician’s job is to communicate with their constituents. Adam Bandt is the leader of a political party, so you’d expect him to be out there up front.”

Last year, it was revealed that Mr. Albanese spent almost $700,000 on domestic and international travel, and other expenses, in the first three months of his prime ministership.

In addition, Mr. Albanese and his deputy Richard Marles incurred more than $5 million in costs using defence jets to move around Australia and overseas.

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Home Schooling Must Be Consistent With Australian Curriculum: New Laws

The syllabus is so wishy-washy that no problems should arise

The Queensland government has introduced legislation in parliament mandating that home education is consistent with the Australian government’s curriculum.

This comes amid an almost tripling of students who are been homeschooled in the state since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Education Minister Di Farmer introduced the Education (General Provisions) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 on March 6, which includes amendments related to homeschooling.

Under the proposed changes, students who are schooled at home are required to follow the government’s syllabus for senior subjects.

The minister noted that more than 10,000 students are currently registered for homeschooling in Queensland.

Ms. Farmer said that given these higher numbers, it is “more important than ever” that students are undertaking a high-quality program.

In addition, she highlighted that the legislation provides “safeguards for student wellbeing.”

“The bill requires a summary of the educational program to be provided at the time of application for home education registration to ensure the child or young person has immediate access to a high-quality program and removes the separate time-limited provisional registration application,” Ms. Farmer told parliament.

“This will provide a single and simplified home education registration process with appropriate oversight by the department.

“Further, the bill removes the need for a certificate of registration and associated obligations, to reduce an unnecessary regulatory burden for parents. Instead, parents will continue to receive a written notice, as they do now, setting out evidence of registration and any conditions on registration.”

Ms. Farmer said the bill establishes a “new guiding principle” emphasising that home education “should be in the best interests of the child or young person.”

“This must take into account the child’s safety, well-being, and access to a high-quality education. This amendment was included in the bill after public consultation on home education amendments was completed,” Ms. Farmer said.

“Using a guiding principle which makes explicit that a child or young person’s best interests must be central to the significant choice of home education is something I am confident Queensland families and home educators will support.”

Home Education Australia spokesperson Samantha Bryan raised concerns with AAP that the mandate may lead to more parents taking home education underground.

Ms. Bryan also told the publication most families registered with the Home Education Unit are succeeding with homeschooling, even if they are not following the national curriculum.

“If children are already receiving a high-quality education, if the system’s not broken, why are we trying to allegedly fix it,” she said.

Ms. Bryan suggested a dual enrolment option allowing families to combine part-time homeschooling with part-time school attendance.

“Families are making great sacrifices because they desperately love and care about the wellbeing of their child,” she said.

“Some of these families would love to put their kids back in school so I think a dual enrolment option—part-time home education, part-time school— would be great.”

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

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

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

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

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

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

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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Wednesday, March 13, 2024


Michael Blythe and the argument in support of negative gearing

I used negative gearing in my younger days, when I was a well-paid academic. I doubt that I would have bothered with landlording without the facility it offered.

And if you want lower rents you need more landlords, not fewer. I specialized in offering high quality rental accomodation, using properties that were mostly in poor condition when I bought them but which I had improved. So eliminating negative gearing would chase people like me out of the rental market and hit it hard just when it is dowm.

It's moronic policy if you have the best interests of tenants at heart. But the Greens are led by the unreconstructed Trotsykite, Adam Bandt, so that cannot be assumed


“Negative gearing must be scrapped” is the clarion call from just about everyone hit by a tight property market.

The tax break is cast as the source of all problems, from spiralling prices to rental supply issues. But is this true?

As the pressure builds against this decades-old tax break, the Greens are pushing hard against the policy. There is a clear and present danger the government may up-end current arrangements — despite denials from the Albanese administration.

If you invest in property, or ever wish to do so, then negative gearing is likely to be crucial to your plan. The ability to set losses against your taxable income is the most important tax break (outside of super) for the everyday investor.

Millions of investors have used negative gearing and millions more no doubt have it in their plans, and as Michael Blythe of PinPoint Macro Analytics puts it: “in our market tax arrangements are as important as interest rates.”

As a former chief economist at Commonwealth Bank, the nation’s biggest home lender, few people know more than Blythe about negative gearing and what it means for the wider economy.

The latest wave of speculation surrounding negative gearing has prompted him to issue a case for the defence. Blythe has produced a report which in his own words will “provide ammunition in support of the status quo”.

His paper, ‘In praise of negative gearing,’ will no doubt be greeted with catcalls of derision, but it is worth reading and offers a compelling argument for keeping negative gearing in place.

In his paper, Blythe goes after some of the most common tropes set out against negative gearing — and he knocks most of them flat.

One very important takeaway is despite the understandable assumption negative gearing is only for the wealthy (and parliamentarians), the data does not suggest this is the case.

More than one in ten taxpayers claim rent interest deductions. Among this group are surgeons and dentists.

But, it also includes emergency service workers, nurses, teachers and bus drivers — it’s a tax policy for everyone.

The other key argument it loses revenue for the government is also undermined by simple economics showing investors are only negatively geared at the start of their investment — as years pass they begin paying tax as property owners.

In fact, there have been recent periods where negative gearing was contributing to budget revenue.

As Blythe patiently explains, the Australian residential property market is based on capital gain, not rental income — rental yields are low and owners accept those low yields on the basis that some day in the future they will get a capital gain.

Importantly, investors work on the assumption capital gains will be somewhere near 25 per cent — based on it being at the top income tax rate and discounted by 50 per cent (a process which has now been in place for more than two decades).

The report shows if the negative gearing system was not in place, then rents would be pushed higher. Keep in mind we already have a rental vacancy ratio of nearly 1 per cent in the major cities.

If you remain unconvinced, then Blythe goes back to the one and only example we have in history of what Australia might be like if negative gearing was removed.

The test case was in 1985 — when negative gearing was initially scrapped and then restored two years later,

If we look at what happened during the two-year interregnum: “the national experience suggested that removing negative gearing would reduce rental supply, lift rents and slow house price growth.”

As for the most recent removal attempt — the ALP move in 2019 to limit negative gearing — it “would have been a replay of 1985” says the report.

Of course, the argument for the defence of negative gearing is far from perfect, and it fails one group — first-home buyers.

The truth is if negative gearing was removed, then house prices would fall — and when this occurred more first home buyers could get a start in the market.

For now, we have the current situation where first home buyers are acting as ‘rentvestors’ — they are getting into the market by owning an investment property first and then buying a home later.

The latest ABS data clearly shows the 2 -34 year old age group has raised their share of the investment property market. The argument goes: at least they have got a foothold in the market.

This is true, but it’s a secondary experience to owning your own home.

As an economist, Blythe warns you can’t do tax reform in parts: “the playing field needs to be level,” so if the government removes negative gearing for houses, then it will also need to be removed for shares.

Certainly, investors are getting worried. Blythe’s report shows a telltale surge in google searches around negative gearing ever since the government changed course on the planned stage 3 tax cuts earlier in the year.

As Blythe suggests: “We have a Budget coming up in May, and we have this one-sided debate about negative gearing, because the people that push for changing housing taxation arrangements make the most noise and get the most attention.”

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The Albanese government is hiding many dark environmental secrets

The Albanese government is embracing some of the worst practices of dictator-driven governments to conceal controversial environmental measures. The secrecy may be necessary because the measures curb mining in Australia, hit many property developments, restrict solar farms and hurt farmers.

I emphasise this commentary is not about the detail of what is planned — I don’t know the detail. My contribution is to reveal the extraordinary third world practices being embraced by Anthony Albanese to conceal what is planned so it can be rushed through the parliament.

I fear the designers have no regard to the revenue implications of what they plan. Their title “The Nature Positive Plan” looks to be in the tradition of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

The secrecy measures are nothing short of extraordinary and are equally dangerous as those used by former PM Scott Morrison to conceal the fact he was taking on extra ministries.

I set out below how the truth behind “The Nature Positive Plan” is being concealed.

Representatives from leading companies and other interested parties are invited to go into a room to look at parts — not all — of the draft legislation.

But before they are allowed to enter the room, they must sign a voluminous confidentiality agreement preventing them from discussing both their entry into the room and the contents of the draft legislation they are about to be shown. I do not know the exact penalties for breaching that agreement, but the fines will be heavy and jail a possibility.

Once the agreement is signed, those allowed to enter the room are told they must not photograph any of the draft legislation on the table and cannot take it away. They are given a fixed time to take notes using blank paper and a pen.

There is some discussion allowed about the draft, but I don’t know the details. The participants are allowed to take their notes away with them. Nothing else.

I don’t know the people who were invited but almost certainly some will be international companies who later (illegally) will report back to international boards, including those in the US (our defence partner), this is a country where very strange practices are taking place.

To overseas eyes used to third world countries, it must reek of corruption, but I don’t think money-based corruption is taking place. It's all about extreme left wing agendas.

As I understand it, there have been several of these bizarre events. Only a government with something very dangerous to conceal would embrace this sort of tactic.

It is publicly known the Albanese government is planning a new tranche of legislation to replace the current Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The EPBC Act was a carefully prepared document. The states and federal governments set the framework and then industry groups, individual companies, environmental groups, scientists, conservationists, subject-matter experts, and the general community were consulted extensively.

The EPBC Act was developed over years before the federal government published a discussion paper, then an exposure draft, to get detailed feedback on the entire suite of changes.

The Albanese government thinks it can replace this substantial, 1,100-page legislation (plus hundreds of further pages of subsidiary legislation) in short time.

Australia as a nation spends its mining, agriculture and property revenue by providing very high levels of social services. Jim Chalmers, in recognition of this revenue source, has taken steps to make mining approvals smoother.

But, I suspect the treasurer does not know exactly what is being planned. You will remember he advocated pensioners use the gig economy to gain the extra income he was allowing them to earn without impacting pension entitlements.

He didn’t know the industrial relations legislation was going to hit the gig economy hard.

It is understandable an ALP government would seek to upgrade the environmental rules set down in the 1990s. But the right way to go about it is to bring the community together with wide consultation — just as was done in the 1990s.

I am told one version of the environmental secrecy technique was used before the industrial relations bill was put on the parliamentary table. The industrial relations blueprint was a total mess and will endanger our economy. And its “loopholes” title was also in the Orwell tradition.

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Why abolishing boys schools is an act of woke madness

Greg Sheridan

The campaign to abolish single-sex schools, especially boys schools, is a sign of the madness of ideology and the badness of groupthink.

It reflects the dreary, dull, lifeless, joyless, small “S” Stalinist bureaucratic conformity that progressive ideology routinely attempts to impose. It’s a rush to insanity, where pressure will come on every successful boys school to become coeducational.

Let’s state the obvious. Boys schools, girls schools and co-ed schools can all be extremely good, mediocre or terrible. It’s a good thing for our educational environment, and for countless families and students, that different types of schools flourish.

Gender Equality Advocate Michelle May says. “The argument is that currently it is not done on merit,” Ms May said. “It’s still very much a boys club. “As long as we’ve got More
It seems a pity that some boys schools with long, good traditions now feel obliged to go co-ed. They may be feeling cultural pressure.

Let me confess. I spent the majority of my schooling at a Christian Brothers school in Sydney that was for boys only. It was a great school, with wide socio-economic and racial diversity, and certainly taught its students respect for women and girls, and respect for everyone.

It wasn’t an exclusively male environment. There were female teachers, librarians, admin staff, mothers in the tuck shop. To be rude, much less sexist, towards any of these would have been unthinkable and would have earned draconian punishment.

The contemporary debate is too ideological. If a particular school has a behaviour problem, that needs to be fixed. Abolishing boys schools generally would be wretched iconoclastic vandalism.

In the Financial Review last week an anonymous business executive called for ending single-sex schools and said boys schools should stop trying to make “men” out of their students.

How weird is this? What is it that boys are supposed to become if not men? Giraffes? Oranges?

The piece reflects the confused and counter-productive campaign against masculinity. Men, like women, can do terrible things. Men are responsible for much more violence than women. I agree we’re living through a plague of domestic violence that we must stop. But you won’t make men decent, respectful and successful by telling them masculinity itself is bad.

Seventeen years ago, in central Melbourne, about 7.30am, a biker, who had been on an all-night binge, was beating up his girlfriend. Two men came to her aid. One was killed in the process. In giving his life to the instinct to protect a woman under assault, that man was displaying masculinity, and it wasn’t toxic.

At the school I attended more than 50 years ago, the brothers, and all the teachers, stressed that men had certain obligations to women – politeness, consideration, respect, courtesy.

The brothers taught that when walking down the street with a girl the bloke should try to walk between the girl and the road. That’s so any danger coming from the road, such as a car crashing off the street, hits the bloke first.

That may all seem hopelessly outdated. But men and women are still different. Completely equal but different. The idea that the differences are mainly the result of socialisation is contemporary ideology waging war against human nature.

Almost no one really lives their life according to the new ideology. Is there a household in Australia where, if a married couple hears a strange noise in the middle of the night, the husband turns to the wife and says: “Now, darling, why don’t you go and see if that noise is a burglar. I’ll stay here by the phone. I would go myself but I don’t want us to be trapped in gender stereotypes.”

It’s good that women’s sport is increasingly seen as the equal of men’s sport. But it’s still different. No one argues that men and women should play rugby league together. The army for a long time included boxing in its training. It’s a tough sport. Maybe its concussion risks render it no longer fit for such training. But you can see it helped soldiers cope psychologically with experiencing a physical blow but carrying on. It has never been the case that men and women enter the same boxing ring and box against each other.

The variety of human experience is vast but boys and girls are different. Co-ed can work superbly, but so can schools that focus only on boys, or only girls. Boys and girls do tend, within all kinds of statistical variation, to learn a bit differently, so boys schools can focus on the way boys learn.

Girls tend to mature earlier than boys and in that early adolescent period a single-sex school allows a boy to remain a boy for as long as necessary. And then become a man.

Cardinal George Pell once remarked that “self-confidence, directness and an instinct for struggle and competition” characterised Christian Brothers schools. That’s pretty accurate.

But boys schools also offer boys a distinctive diversity. At a boys school, if there’s going to be a choir it has to be the boys singing.

The school I went to was exceptionally strong in sports. My one season as a junior rugby league player led to a broken shoulder; my parents decided I’d dispense with footy. I wasn’t very good at sport anyway but the school offered multitudes of other activities. I was always in the debating team, the chess club, sometimes the drama performances, sometimes music groups, briefly in the science club, in Christian youth groups and a million other things.

Even though I didn’t play football or cricket, and hardly excelled at the sports I did participate in, I never felt out of place. Books, learning, contention, energy, purpose, competition – it was a pro-life environment.

The teachers occasionally gave us the strap for our malefactions. Some of life’s antipathies are irrational. I greatly disliked one teacher, who warmly returned my sentiments. No doubt unfairly, I thought him a dogmatic smart alec. Perhaps we were too much alike.

I persecuted him with many pedantic questions and points of order while staying well within the rules and norms. One day, nonetheless, he sort of gave in and gave me the strap. I went home that afternoon immensely chuffed, feeling I’d won a moral victory.

There were times, of course, when we were louts and hooligans, and needed strong direction. The school was pretty strict. Sensibly so. And it had a great tradition. Wearing its uniform meant something. We cared about it. No doubt it struck other kids entirely differently.

But it gave me wonderful treasures. In its library, in primary school, I met PG Wodehouse, my lifelong companion.

We moved house and I finished at a co-ed school. It was good, too. Diversity is good. The urge of ideological censors to hammer everything into a single monotonous conformity is as misbegotten as their demonisation of masculinity, and of the need to turn good boys, indeed, into good men.

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Australian living standards going downhill

The news that the Paris-based OECD has confirmed that Australia has suffered the biggest drop in living standards in two decades would be unknown to most Australians, including the voters in the recent Dunkley by-election.

Nor would they be aware of the expert view that there is little hope of an early recovery.

From a world leader two decades ago, we now underperform comparable countries in the OECD by close to 8 per cent.

This is not just bad luck.

This is the result of the agenda of the political class and other elites who first handed over manufacturing to Beijing, and who are now targeting both agriculture and mining.

They will never be satisfied until, as a result of their efforts, we follow Argentina into third-world status.

At Federation, Australians were, per capita, the world’s second-richest people. This wealth was shared more equally than in most countries. We are now the 20th, our ranking in constant decline.

Contrast Singapore. From an impoverished colony within living memory, Singaporeans are today more than twice as wealthy. With low taxes and widely available housing, their disposable income is double ours.

But instead of such truly crucial news, Dunkley electors and Australians at large, were informed in excruciating detail about Taylor Swift, including the fact she was watched from a free place by a dancing Prime Minister, who then flew on a CO2-emitting RAAF jet to an exclusive concert by Katy Perry in a Melbourne billionaire’s mansion, before flying back to Sydney to decide whether to appear at Sydney’s Mardi Gras.

Nor was there much in the news about funding terrorism or the careless handing out of visas to potential supporters of terrorism and even terrorists.

Macrobusiness.com.au and the Australian Financial Review excepted, there was even less news about the collapse in living standards, a matter unconventional economist Leith Van Onslelen discussed in detail on ADH TV on the Thursday evening before the election.

The election campaign also coincided with the news, played down in the political world and much of the media, that the climate catastrophist chickens have at last come home to roost, at least in relation to our nickel industry. As our leading geologist Ian Plimer pointed out recently on ADH TV, whenever he asks science apologists for the learned articles proving CO2 causes global warming, now ‘boiling’, he never receives them, not once.

Net zero is unattainable and pointless.

The news which exposes the futility of adjusting for climate boiling which does not exist came from Indonesia. It would seem that their politicians are smarter than Australia’s.

Through a clever operation of banning exports until investment was attracted into the nickel industry and by using high-quality and cheap Australian coal to produce electricity for the extensive necessary processing, the Indonesians have effectively replaced our entire nickel industry.

The major reason for ours becoming un-economic is the Albanese-Bowen policy of burdening Australia with probably the Western world’s most expensive and unreliable electricity.

That buyers will pay a so-called ‘green premium’ for this the sort of infantile fiction pushed by Albanese and Bowen.

The reasons people buy goods or services are quality, efficient delivery and price.

When Australians realise that because of the elites’ agenda our GDP is falling towards a mere proportion of today’s, let us hope they do not seek salvation in some Juan Peron as the Argentinians did. While electing sound people rather than career politicians, let us hope they require fundamental reform to make our politicians accountable 24/7, just as they are in Switzerland.

As Ian Plimer jokes, the best politician is a frightened politician.

In the meantime, Leith Van Onselen points to a range of factors which explain Australia’s declining living standards and associated poor labour productivity.

Australia, he says, is unique in that it pays its way in the world primarily through the sale of its fixed mineral endowment.

A drover’s dog would realise that importing huge volumes of people through immigration distributes these mineral riches among more people, resulting in reduced wealth per person.

That is exactly what the Albanese government is now doing.

In fact Australia’s population has ‘ballooned’ by 8.1 million people (43 per cent) this century alone, with business investment, infrastructure investment, and housing and hospitals failing to keep pace.

Like so many New South Wales and Victorian state politicians, rather than standing up to Canberra, Premier Minns is acting as its lackey, planning to ruin Sydney by turning vast parts into canyons of high rise slums with hopelessly congested transport, roads, schools and hospitals.

Another factor is that the Reserve Bank, having kept interest rates very low, has significantly increased them in a highly concentrated mortgage market now more sensitive to such changes.

(There was a time when, with the presence of, for example, mutually owned building societies and government-owned banks, there was some protection against Reserve Bank variations.)

Leith Van Onselen argues that the biggest cost consequence of concentrated markets is in the energy market, especially on the east coast, which operates through a cartel which exports 80 per cent of the gas. There is little effective regulation over this and, unlike Western Australia, there is no domestic gas reservation policy requiring a certain amount of gas to be sold at fixed prices.

As we all know, we cannot depend on the much-vaunted so-called renewables, when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun is not shining. We need a backstop. And gas has the great advantage that it can be turned on very quickly.

So without a sensible reservation policy, when the international gas price goes up, Australians’ electricity prices go up and this is why we’re seeing such massive increases in household bills.

Among other factors for our declining living standards are the amount of bracket creep in personal income tax which is not indexed, as well as the increased excise on petrol and diesel.

This is notwithstanding the specially designed cosmetic change to taxation for the by-election, which involved the Prime Minister breaking innumerable promises.

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

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

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

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

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

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

http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs

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