ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is very contemptuous of Malcolm Turnbull. 

Turnbull is the second allegedly conservative Prime Minister of Australia named Malcolm who turned out to be more Left than Right. Conservatives still remember "Trousers" Fraser with anger.






'A change was needed': Principal at exclusive $17,000-a-year Christian school BANS girls from wearing skirts or dresses - replacing them with shorts and pants

Incredible feminist rubbish. Girls behave differently from boys because they ARE different, not because of the clothes they wear.  As a general rule, boys are naturally more active and outdoorsy

A $17,000-a-year Melbourne private school has decided to ban young girls from wearing skirts or dresses. Teachers at the exclusive school claim the change will lead girls to participate more in school life.

The move by Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School came after they conducted an 18-month audit and found the uniform its female pupils were asked to wear was not 'fit for purpose'.

It is believed to be the first policy of its kind in Victoria.

The traditional school uniform for girls will be replaced with pants for pupils in kindergarten, prep and year one. 

A choice including shorts, jumpers, shirts and dresses will be available for girls from year two and upwards, according to The Herald Sun.

Principal Elisabeth Rhodes said: 'We know research that points to the fact young girls are not as active as their male counterparts and we looked at things that might inhibit them.'

'We wanted to encourage them if they wanted to hang upside down on the monkey bars or run around outside. 'A change was needed.'

The new pants have been custom-designed for girls, according to Ms Rhodes, and a year-round wardrobe has been designed for pupils to reflect the school's contemporary values.

Lowther Hall's policy change comes after Victoria implemented new laws last year mandating all state schools to give girls the choice of wearing either pants or shorts.

Private schools were exempted from the rules, however, and school councils are still responsible for deciding dress codes.

The laws were partly inspired by six-year-old Catholic school student Asha Cariss - who won the right to wear trousers at school in 2016 after her mother launched an online petition.

SOURCE 





Bureaucracy (1)



Safety concerns have forced a famous restaurant tram off the tracks, leaving owners of the iconic restaurant furious and hundreds of customers with cancelled bookings.

Colonial Tramcar Restaurants ground to a halt after Yarra Trams suspended the famous restaurant from its usual route circling Melbourne's inner city.

A recent inspection found the structural elements of the three trams badly weathered.

It concluded the trams - built in 1947, 1948 and 1950 - posed a safety risk in the case of a collision.

'While we appreciate that this decision is disappointing for the restaurant tram, patrons and employees, we cannot allow trams on the network that do not meet safety standards,' a Yarra Trams spokeswoman told the Herald Sun.

Customers have been offered an immediate refund, the option to hold their booking for a later date, or to eat in a stationary car on the tracks near the Southbank depot.

Belinda Arlove had planned months ahead to eat at the restaurant for an annual catch up with friends she's known for 57 years. She said that's not going to happen anymore.

'There's no way I'm going to sit in a stationary tram in a depot instead,' she said. 

Colonial Tramcar Restaurant CEO Paul O'Brien said in a statement the award-winning restaurant was seeking an urgent intervention from the Victorian Government. 'We reject suggestions from Yarra Trams that our iconic rolling restaurants are not safe,' he said in the statement. 'Yarra Trams has inspected our trams weekly since 2010 and up until two weeks had given us the all clear to run.

'How we can go [sic] from safe one week to unsafe the next? It is perplexing to say the least.'

O'Brien said safety had been at the front of the restaurant operation's mind since it started 35 years ago without one single serious incident. 'We are calling on Minister [for Public Transport Jacinta] Allan to urgently intervene and set a deadline which will actually be possible to meet so we can convert our trams to the department's new standards and save the jobs of more than 60 Victorians and an iconic Melbourne tourism attraction.'

A government spokesperson said that they were advised Yarra Trams began safety discussions two years ago.

'The Minister does not have the power to overrule a safety decision, however has asked Public Transport Victoria to ensure the works that need to be carried out are prioritised within our current schedule of city circle tram upgrades,' the spokesperson said.

SOURCE 





Bureaucracy (2)



LOCALS are calling "bullsh*t" over a council decision which has led to residents voluntarily cancelling a popular Christmas lights display in southeast Melbourne.

Homeowners at Hugo Court, Narre Warren, made the announcement on Facebook that they were pulling the plug on the annual display.

It followed a decision by Casey Council to declare the light show an "event", meaning residents would need to supply insurance and traffic management.

Residents said the costs for traffic management would be close to $23,000 alone, but stressed the financial burden was not the only reason the event would not go on this year.

"I have some sad news. Due to the huge support we have had the last few years with thousands of people coming to check out our Christmas Court we now have now got too big," organisers wrote.

"Due to the number of visitors we are getting we are now classed as an event and to run an event we must supply traffic management and public liability insurance which is in the tens of thousands of dollars.

"For us to pay these costs it is no longer fun so unfortunately Hugo Court Christmas Lights is no longer. There will be no lights this year at all.

"I do need to make it clear though that it is not just a monetary reason for the lights not being on this year. To organise everything that we now have to do as an event is very time-consuming; we would have to basically form a committee, creating an official group to be able to apply for the insurance and to handle the money side of things.

"We are all extremely busy and just don't have the time to organise all of the requirements."

They said the lights display had become a burden for neighbours in surrounding streets, too.

"They have to put up with not being able to get into their properties, noise, rubbish, people parking on their lawns, even people urinating on their front lawns.

"We all love the lights and the Christmas spirit but it has just got too big for us to handle."

Supporters had offered to help pay the costs, but residents refused to allow donations.

Social media users were clearly disappointed. Sharyn King wrote on the group's Facebook page that the pressure from council to force residents to pay was "absolutely bullshit".

"Every home is able to celebrate Xmas if they so want. If there are loads of people looking at your homes why is that expense yours?"

In a statement, Casey Council said the residents of Hugo Court had "made the decision not to conduct their much-loved annual Christmas lights display this year.

"Sadly it appears it has become a victim of its own success, following concerns around traffic management and anti-social behaviour over the past few years, including from Victoria Police."

SOURCE 






A nasty man Australia's lucky to be rid of

A sore loser and a weak character

So much for Malcolm Turnbull’s maxim that former prime ministers were “best out of parliament, not in it”.

Turnbull’s abrupt exit was starting to look like the ultimate revenge of an aggrieved former leader. He had not only resigned as prime minister but quit his seat and disappeared to New York. Once there, he claimed to be a ­private citizen, getting on with his life, but meanwhile indulged ­remotely in the sort of sniping and destabilising for which he had ­attacked Tony Abbott and others.

Despite an early tweet, ­Turnbull could not be persuaded to come out with active support for Dave Sharma, the Liberal candidate standing in his place, when the Liberals needed it most.

A series of opinion polls indicated independent Kerryn Phelps was on track for a historic win that could bring the government to a premature end, but Turnbull had no intention of helping out.

Nor did he intend coming home before Wentworth voters went to the polls — instead taking a roundabout route home with a stopover in Singapore to visit his son Alex, whose persistent social media messages to voters had an unequivocal ring: “Don’t vote for the Liberal Party in the Wentworth by-election.”

With the by-election over, Turnbull flew into Sydney from Singapore this morning, avoiding the media at the airport.

Morrison yesterday confirmed that repeated approaches were made for Turnbull’s support during the campaign to hold his former seat but were turned down.

“Quite a number of us asked for that support, not necessarily in the form of a letter,” he said. “There are many other ways in which people can choose to ­express their support.”

Even a plea from the replacement candidate for help left Turnbull unmoved. A key sticking point, apparently, was the ousted prime minister’s demand that any endorsement also rake over the uncomfortable reasons behind his own removal.

“There were even approaches made by Dave himself,” the Prime Minister said. “What impact they would have had, ultimately, is for others to judge.”

Michelle Landry, the Liberal National Party MP from Queensland, voiced her upset with Turnbull yesterday for failing to back Sharma in Wentworth. “He hasn’t supported Dave Sharma. He just left the parliament and I think that is wrong,” she told SBS.

Holding one of the most marginal seats in the country, Landry recalled how Turnbull had called her after the 2016 election to offer congratulations: “Michelle, you’ve saved the nation.”

Turnbull had proved anything but a saviour, the MP for Capricornia said, “so I’m pretty annoyed”.

Nick Greiner, the former NSW Liberal premier who is now the party’s federal president, seemed equally perplexed yesterday at Turnbull’s “precious” behaviour.

“I understand his pain, anger, bitterness, whatever the emotions are — it’s a natural human response,” Greiner said. “On the other hand, whether it possibly would have made a huge difference, I don’t know, but he could have tweeted something, in my judgment. There are understandable emotions behind him becoming precious, but he could have sent out a tweet that said ‘Sharma is the best candidate and you should vote for him’.”

Tweeting from far-away New York on political matters during the Wentworth by-election campaign was apparently easy for Turnbull. Ten days after he jetted off to New York in early September, he made an unsolicited personal intervention in the furore of whether Peter Dutton was eligible to remain in parliament under section 44 of the Constitution because of his financial interest in two Brisbane childcare centres that had received $5.6 million in taxpayer-funded rebates.

“The point I have made to @ScottMorrisonMP and other colleagues is that given the uncertainty around Peter Dutton’s eligibility, acknowledged by the Solicitor-General, he should be referred to the High Court, as Barn­aby was, to clarify the matter,” Turnbull tweeted.

The tweet was most unhelpful for Morrison, who was trying to put the best opposite spin possible on the Solicitor-General’s advice saying Dutton was “not incapable” of sitting in parliament.

Morrison swung into gear, urging Turnbull to stop undermining his government. It wasn’t the first time that damaging claims and leaks about Morrison’s new team had surfaced.

Morrison’s office tried to hose down Turnbull, urging his supporters to tell the disgruntled former PM that he should desist.

Barnaby Joyce was direct. He accused Turnbull of campaigning to “remove us as the government” — and agreed it amounted to “wrecking and sniping”.

“What is the purpose behind an individual deciding that their goal now in life is to bring down the government which they weren’t just a member of — they were the leader of?” Joyce said on Sydney’s 2GB radio. “People say: ‘What is wrong with Malcolm Turnbull?’ I think we’re starting to find out.”

Asked if he believed Turnbull was seeking revenge, Joyce said: “If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, you’ve got a pretty good chance of saying it’s a duck.”

Turnbull retreated into silence at the $3.2 million apartment he owns with wife Lucy on New York’s upper west side, but not for long. His party critics say he must have known comments he made a fortnight later to a young leaders’ forum would leak. Turnbull declared he was not driven by hatred but nonetheless seized on the “crazy” Liberal leadership crisis, and hit out at his predecessors.

“When you stop being prime minister, that’s it,” Turnbull said. “There is no way I’d be hanging around like embittered Kevin Rudd or Tony Abbott. Seriously, these people are like, sort of miserable, miserable ghosts.”

The gibe predictably stirred up Rudd and Abbott, but also turned the political heat on Morrison once again, in the midst of the Wentworth by-election campaign.

If there was any doubt about Turnbull’s keen interest in the Wentworth campaign, and suggestions he was interfering behind the scenes, his “like” last week of a Kerryn Phelps campaign worker’s tweet confirmed it.

The tweet had said: “Back handing out policy info and how-to-vote cards for Kerryn Phelps at Waverly Oval pre-polling station. No longer wondering ‘Where’s Malcolm?’ Just hoping for a strong independent win on Saturday.”

Was this Turnbull’s hope too? He did not expressly say. While he did remove the “like” soon after, there was still no late endorsement for the Liberals’ Sharma.

Then there was the social media intervention of Alex Turnbull, who lives in Singapore, where he runs his own hedge fund company. He posted many tweets and several online videos of himself throughout the campaign, first advocating a vote for Labor candidate Tim Murray and later appearing to switch to Phelps as she became the favourite. He was adamant his father’s party should not win.

As the by-election date neared, Morrison said he disagreed with Alex Turnbull and claimed on ABC radio, without evidence, that “His father Malcolm Turnbull is heavily supporting Dave Sharma, the only Liberal candidate running for Wentworth”.

Alex Turnbull also put out a remarkable list of those he rated the Liberal Party’s top five “crazy” MPs, headed by Abbott, whom he called a “singularly destructive human being”.

He said Dutton at No 2 was “obviously another one”, Angus Taylor at No 3 was a “champion of fossil fuels and determined opponent of renewables,” while Kevin Andrews and Eric Abetz tied in fourth place as “hard-right faction leaders”.

Like his father in New York, he used the word “crazy” to describe the Liberals involved in Turnbull Sr’s downfall.

Alex denied he was acting as a “proxy”, telling the ABC he was absolutely not doing his father’s dirty work. “He’s a private citizen, I’m a private citizen, we can both do as we please,” he said.

He said he was advocating a vote against his father’s party because of its inaction on climate change, and no longer felt obliged to stay silent after his father’s exit from politics.

Greiner says the intervention of Turnbull’s son in the Wentworth by-election was “unusual” but he recalled his own daughter commenting on his own departure from politics in stormy times. “Young master Turnbull can do whatever he likes. That’s a matter for him,” Greiner said.

In the last week of the by-­election campaign, Morrison and Sharma made a final plea to Turnbull to record a “robocall” that could be sent out to the voters of Wentworth in an effort to tip the scales the Liberals’ way. Turnbull refused.

Morrison then decided to ask John Howard to fulfil the role. Howard not only agreed to record a robocall, he spent a day on the hustings.

Howard is believed to think Turnbull could have avoided the mess in Wentworth by remaining on the backbench until the general election. One party insider put it this way: “Howard believes he owes the Liberal Party. Apparently Turnbull doesn’t take the same ­approach.”

SOURCE 

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).    For a daily critique of Leftist activities,  see DISSECTING LEFTISM.  To keep up with attacks on free speech see Tongue Tied. Also, don't forget your daily roundup  of pro-environment but anti-Greenie  news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH .  Email me  here