Bill Shorten says he will make it easier for more Chinese immigrants to come to Australia

For a former union boss, Bill sure is clueless about the workers.  The unions LOATHE Chinese immigrants.  Bill seems to think he is fogging them by saying he will only bring in parents of Chinese already here.  But it will take the unions no more than 5 minutes to work out that most of the parents will be competing for jobs within hours of stepping off the plane.  Not all parents are elderly and even elderly Chinese work

Bill Shorten has promised a Labor government led by him would make it easier for Chinese immigrants to bring their family to Australia. The Opposition Leader made the pledge as he delivered an address to 500 Chinese-speaking voters on a WeChat live online forum.

If enacted, his social media promise could mark the biggest change to Australia's immigration system since 1996, when former Liberal prime minister John Howard changed the balance from family reunion to skilled migrants.

In a Wednesday WeChat audio message, seen by The Australian, Mr Shorten vowed to make it easier for immigrants to obtain visas for their ageing parents. Under this new temporary sponsored visa, immigrants would be allowed to bring one set of parents to Australia.

'Labor wants to make sure you never have to pick which parents you want to bring to Australia,' Mr Shorten said on WeChat, in a forum where he gave one-minute audio answers to questions submitted and translated from Chinese.

A spokeswoman for Mr Shorten stressed a Labor government would not be returning to the immigration balance under former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, which favoured family reunion over skilled migration.

'A temporary sponsored parent visa is a temporary visa and does not impact the permanent migration program,' she told Daily Mail Australia on Thursday. 'Labor has no plans to change the balance of the permanent migration program.'

Mr Shorten's bid for the Chinese vote was made just days after Labor lost the New South Wales election, following revelations the party's former state leader Michael Daley had told a politics in the pub forum at the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, that Asians were taking the jobs of young Australians.

'Our young children will flee and who are they being replaced with? They are being replaced by young people from typically Asia with PhDs,' the then-deputy Labor leader said in September last year. 'So there's a transformation happening in Sydney now where our kids are moving out and foreigners are moving in and taking their jobs.'

Mr Shorten has this week condemned Mr Daley's comments, after reportedly putting pressure on NSW Labor to stand down their former leader so his controversy wouldn't overshadow the ALP's federal campaign.

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Crackdown on gang members sees 20 violent thugs deported with 19 more from Sudan, New Zealand and Samoa facing visa cancellation

Victoria has cancelled the visas of 20 gang members over the past three years in a crackdown on youth violence. Nineteen more visas are 'under active cancellation consideration', The Australian reported.

Those who have had their visas cancelled include people with convictions for drug trafficking, assaults or armed robberies.

Others had convictions for kidnapping, police assault, weapons offences and sexual assault.

Within the group of 39 visas were people of Sudanese, New Zealander or Samoan descent - others were deemed 'stateless'.

Last September it was revealed Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton had ordered monthly reports of 'non-­citizens linked to Victorian youth gangs'.

The reports came amid strong criticism of State Government and its youth gang crisis, and have since been spruiked as an effective way of protecting the community.

In total, 81 people have been referred to the Department of Home Affairs since April 2016.

According to the reports, the department is also 'reviewing cancellation processes in relation to minors, in discussion with legal division and child wellbeing branch.'

The report also notes that 42 people whose visas are no longer 'under active cancellation consideration' have been flagged on the internal systems.

'Should any of the individuals apply for another visa or citizenship, the processing area is ­advised to seek penal checks and contact the ‘character and cancellation branch’ prior to any grant/approval,' the department said.

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Climate change: the NSW election non-issue

It was utter bunkum; but typical self-delusion by those ideological crusaders determined to do whatever it takes ‘to save the planet’ – at whatever the cost. ‘Climate change is now a more pressing matter for NSW voters than hospitals, schools and public transport’ asserted the green-left Sydney Morning Herald in the run-up to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s outstanding victory. And to reinforce the message against carbon emissions, it added that among the top environment concerns was coal. Other media within this inner-city bubble of group-think unreality included SBS which warned pre-election that ‘Climate change will be a vote changer’, while the ABC inevitably listed environment on top, claiming that ‘Voters in dozens of seats appear to be signalling to parties that without a clear plan to address climate change they will be punished at the polling booth’.

But climate change played no role in determining the outcome. The Greens, the Coalition and Labor all of which had climate policies that, to differing degrees, imposed heavy cost burdens on the economy and energy consumers involving job losses in industry, all lost some ground. The Coalition, especially the Nationals, should heed the lesson that the only big election winners were the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party that won three lower house seats despite the New Zealand gun massacre news. And, contrary to the warnings from the left media, the SFF election policy took strong objection to the major parties’ anti-emissions rhetoric. ‘Environment laws should not be aimed at appeasing minority city-based extreme green viewpoints… Affordable and reliable energy is the key to success… Government should not divert large sums of public money into intermittent energy sources; with the increasing saturation of renewable energy comes greater risks to energy reliability that is best provided by large coal-fired generators. We believe that it is logical to construct two new baseload High Efficiency Low Emission (HELE) coal-fired power stations in the Hunter Valley’.

If the Nationals were unhappy before the election with the Liberals’ ‘Labor-lite’ emissions limitation policies (the NSW Liberal target is zero net emissions by 2050 as against Labor’s 100 per cent by then and 50 per cent by 2030) it is unlikely they will wear them after losing seats to the SFF. And the federal Nationals have every reason to be worried about the threat to their regional seats of the SFF energy policy. The outcome of the coming federal election may depend on whether the Nats’ concerns and pressure for reliable affordable energy (including coal) will have a greater impact on Morrison than the fears of Josh Frydenberg that Kooyong could turn into another climate-dominated Wentworth unless due obeisance is made to the emissions gods. And, unlike the USA, that the government will stick with the Paris Agreement targets, despite their having inconsequential effects on the world’s greenhouse gasses.

But despite the clear evidence that the only impact of emissions policy in last weekend’s NSW election was a positive one for the SFF, Morrison is reluctant to embrace HELE coal-fired generation that, contrary to anti-coal propaganda, is booming overseas. According to the authoritative S&P Platts report, China is adding 1,171 coal-fired power stations to its existing 2,363, Japan is adding 45 to its 90, South Korea another 26 to its 58, the Philippines 60 to its 19, India 446 more to its 589, South Africa 24 to its 79, Turkey 93 to its 56 and even the EU (with some prominent anti-emissions members), is adding 27 to its 468. Most will be potential customers for Australian coal, which is already our major export.

But the sovereign risk of potentially antagonistic political decisions means that despite their economic viability overseas, there has been no investment in even one HELE generator here. So Australian energy gets increasingly expensive and unreliable to the benefit of our overseas competitors.

Berejiklian promised after last weekend’s impressive victory to help Morrison in May’s federal election. Her greatest contribution would be for her government to shut-up about climate change – and ensure that cabinet members like her factional friend Energy Minister Don Harwin, cease publicly undermining federal Liberal colleagues on emissions policy. Energy in NSW might be a more appropriate portfolio for a Nat.

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Left’s racism claims ‘silence border debate’

Former deputy PM John Anderson.

Senior Coalition figures are warning that legitimate debates over population levels, refugees and border protection are being hijacked­ by claims of racism and argue that left-wing policies — includin­g ending offshore processing — are more likely to stoke racist sentiment than any of the immigration policies implemented by Scott Morrison.

In the wake of the Christchurch massacre in which an Australian shot dead 50 Muslim worshippers, former deputy prime minister John Anderson told The Weekend Australian it was essential for honest debates to be held about complex issues such as the social integration of migrants and refugees. The Nationals leader from 1999 to 2005 expressed concern that, among the intelligentsia, there was a “loathing of Western culture and an idea that it is to blame for everything”.

“The Australian people are not mugs. I don’t believe they are particularly racist,” he said. “I don’t think Australians think all belief systems are the same or that we should not be discerning about what those belief systems might allow.”

Mr Anderson warned that open-border policies were far more likely to result in social issues arising from the settling of a “large number of new people from a number of cultural backgrounds” — a problem he suggested German Chancellor Angela Merkel was still grappling with but which he said the Coalition had avoided by properly managing the migrant and refugee intake.

Labor immigration spokesman Shayne Neumann warned yesterday that the Morrison government had engaged in dog whist­ling by saying rapists, murderers and paedophiles were being held in offshore detention and suggesting that refugees would take jobs and hospital beds from Australians. “Leaders have a responsibility to be truthful, not misrepresent the facts or stoke fears for political gain,” said Mr Neumann. “Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton often fall short of this standard.”

Howard government immig­ration ministers Philip Ruddock and Amanda Vanstone, while not commenting on the rhetoric used by the Prime Minister or Home Affairs Minister, strongly rejected suggestions that tough border protection­ policies were racist.

Mr Ruddock told The Weekend Australian: “Border integrity is not about discrimination. It’s about ensuring you have the capacity to help those who need it the most.” The NSW Liberal Party president also took aim at critics suggesting Australia should “only help those who are free enough to travel, with money to pay people-smugglers”.

“I think in relation to these matters there are some people who believe the only people we should help are asylum-seekers who say, ‘Look at me, look at me. I’m the most important person you should be helping’,’’ Mr Ruddock said.

“And having come to that view they go out of their way to essential­ly demonise those who are wanting to manage the process and manage it sensibly and approp­riately.’’

Ms Vanstone said former Labor immigration minister Mick Young had argued that, as a major ­migrant nation, it was important to keep the intake at a level with which Australians were happy.

“If you overstep that you will put one of the key elements of our national character at risk. And I think, to me, that is such an obvious point to make … That’s not a racist remark,” she said.

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

Another young man tossed out of his college following a rape allegation

Bettina Arndt

I’m tackling serious stuff in my YouTube video this week – another young man tossed out of his college following a rape allegation.



This one happened a few years ago at the University of Western Australia. You will see from my interview with the male student in question – I’ve called him ‘Nathan’ – that he readily admits didn’t handle his sexual relationship with his new girlfriend very well. The relationship was only a few weeks old, his girlfriend clearly had sexual issues. But the appallingly biased handling of the inquiry by his college  gave him no opportunity for a fair hearing, he was given no legal advice before being expelled from college after his girlfriend, led on by her feminist friends, misrepresented what happened between them.

Here is the classic believe-the-victim scenario which has led to so many American college students winning big legal payouts due to a university’s failure to protect their due process rights.

I have absolutely no doubt this is now happening at universities across Australia. Last year I made a video with a PhD student at Adelaide University who was pursued by a university committee following rape allegations. I will be making further videos regarding a number of similar cases I am following up at the moment – in some I need to wait for the completion of legal action before going public.

Listen up, people. This is happening on our watch. We are allowing our universities to be bullied into getting involved in adjudicating these criminal matters, using grossly unfair semi-judicial processes which have no place in institutes of higher learning.

I’m currently preparing a detailed letter to send to all members of the University of Sydney Senate, urging them to  seek a proper explanation from the administration as to why the University is embarking on this course. I am providing them with detailed evidence of the huge costs and damage to the reputations of American colleges from becoming involved in such matters, explaining that the Trump administration is now acting to restore due process rights on campus. 

As members of the governing body of the university, I will be urging these people to make it their business to thoroughly investigate how the administration proposes to avoid the expensive and damaging likely consequences of this move and suggesting they seek legal advice on the desirability and consequences of this new direction.

I’m hopeful that the large, varied group included in the Senate will include some independent folk prepared to start asking tough questions. I’m starting with Sydney Uni because I am still awaiting news of their investigation of my complaint about the violent protest against me last year.

I’ll be following up with similar letters to board members at other universities, initially targeting those we know to have introduced regulations regarding this issue. But since I know of two cases at UWA which does not appear to have officially moved in this direction, I suspect similar cases are happening under the radar at campuses across Australia.

Email from Tina -- bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au






Fake charges of racism deepen our divisions

The intake of Lebanese Muslims in the '70s WAS poorly conceived and executed

Our history — in its good and bad aspects — is deeply compromised by the culture wars as exemplified by the media campaign unleashed against the “racist” Liberal Party for its many sins, one of the most conspicuous being the issue of Lebanese Muslims allowed here by the Fraser government.

In his celebrated interview with Scott Morrison, host Waleed Aly presented this as a primary item in his accusation: “Does your party and your Coalition have a problem of Islamophobia?” The essence of Aly’s critique was Peter Dutton’s suggestion “that Lebanese immigration in the 70s was a mistake or that mistakes were made around it”.

This was condemned as unacceptable and dangerous. A number of journalists took up the same theme. They pointed to Dutton’s 2016 remarks that Fraser had made a mistake in the entry of Lebanese Muslims fleeing the civil war and nominated this as evidence of Liberal racism or Islamophobia, or both. Aly, highlighting the Coalition’s anti-Islamic problem, asked Morrison: “Why single out the Lebanese community in that context?”

The first point to be made is that politicians from all sides should do better in canvassing ­racial and religious issues. The second point is that this arena is loaded with hypocrisy, with most politicians and media adopting one side or the other in the culture war and running polemics to suit their cause.

Asked for his view on this issue, former immigration minister Philip Ruddock, known for his ties with the Lebanese community, said: “The Lebanese Concession was recognised to have been a policy mistake and it was closed down in a relatively short time. The only test required was to have relatives in Australia, but even that could not be adequately enforced and there is no doubt it was abused.

“Malcolm Fraser properly insisted that the entry be based on non-discriminatory grounds but the entry criteria were such that the policy did not meet the normal Australian standards of integrity that should characterise our immigration program.”

Fraser initiated the policy through his immigration minister, Michael MacKellar, given the plight facing many Lebanese who fled their country. Prominent Christian Lebanese business leaders had approached Fraser and urged him to take action — in short, to bring Christian Lebanese to this country.

The entry criteria were exceptional. People did not have to qualify as refugees and were given no assessment to this effect. Nor did they have to meet normal immigration entry standards in relation to skills, qualifications, language or resources. The only alleged test applied was having relatives in Australia — and there was plenty of scope for this to be manipulated and abused.

On January 1, 2007 the cabinet documents for this period were released. Advice from the Immigration Department had been that too many Lebanese Muslims were being accepted without “the required qualities” for successful integration, a lethal conclusion violating the principles governing the success of Australia’s immigration program.

The Fraser cabinet was told many of the entrants were unskilled, illiterate and had questionable character and health standards. This was a collapse in normal entry standards. The cabinet documents explicitly confirm the humanitarian decision to accept entry was made on conditions that fell far short of Australia’s normal entry criteria. MacKellar said most applicants were sponsored by relatives living in Sydney’s southwest and many settled around Lakemba. Officials reported that many were misrepresenting their background during interviews in “deliberate attempts to conceal vital information”.

In a November 2016 column the Sydney Institute’s Gerard Henderson said: “Immigration Department staff sent to the region to administer the program had no way of checking whether the applicants had a relative in Australia.” Officials have privately confirmed this to the writer. One said: “We lost control over what was happening.”

Interviewed at the time by The Australian’s Matthew Franklin, Fraser confirmed the government’s relaxed entry criteria on humanitarian grounds. The submission said that as many as 90 per cent of the entrants were Muslims, suggesting many Christians, ironically, were not interested. In his memoirs, co-authored with Margaret Simons, Fraser wrote that of those who came “nine out of 10 were Muslim” and conceded this represented a significant change in the nature of immigration from Lebanon because previously “migrants from Lebanon had been mainly Christian”.

In his book Fraser said there had been a mistake but claimed it was in resettlement and planning. This is undoubtedly true. But his understandable effort to deny any mistake on entry policy cannot be sustained given the facts, cabinet documents, chaos surrounding the process and admissions by the minister and department about the flawed entry criteria.

Indeed, this is worse than a mere mistake. The evidence suggests it is one of the most significant failures in the immigration intake over the past several decades. While cause and effect are hard to directly prove, the southwest of Sydney was subsequently the location of Islamic gangs, crime, violence and racial and religious baiting. Do people believe that when you abandon the integrity of the intake — even for a short time — there are no consequences?

It is morally and intellectually dishonest to raise this 70s episode as evidence of Liberal Party Islamophobia, as Aly did, along with criticising any minister who calls it a mistake while ignoring, concealing or seeking to deny what really happened.

The next question is: Should Dutton have made these comments in 2016? His remarks were provocative because he drew the link between the 70s entry and the high number of second and third-generation Lebanese Muslims charged with terrorist-related ­offences, saying they constituted 22 out of 33 people.

Dutton made clear he did not seek to discredit an entire community. He called it “a particular issue” and told parliament he would not allow the community “to be defined by those people doing the wrong thing”. This, however, was the exact charge against him — by Bill Shorten, the Greens and much of the media.

Dutton was branded a racist and a bigot and much of the media agreed — as they agreed with Aly last week. At the time Shorten accused Dutton of engaging in “lazy disrespect, wholesale labelling of entire communities for the actions of a tiny minority”.

In his defence Dutton said Australia had a highly successful humanitarian program of 18,750 people and an immigration intake of 200,000, but when things were not working “we should own up to our mistakes”.

That justification is far too convenient. Greens senator Nick McKim clarified the paradox, saying: “Just because something is fact doesn’t mean it is reasonable or productive to talk about it.” That can be right — but, on the other hand, outright suppression of core realities cannot help anybody. Dutton, however, was unwise in his language given the intelligence agencies’ rely on the co-operation of the Muslim community. He should not have linked the 70s intake with the problem of foreign fighters in 2016, despite being factually correct in that Lebanese Muslims were manifestly over-represented among terrorism offenders.

This leads, however, to the final question: how much damage is being done by the progressive forces as they parade their manic virtue branding and hang the accusation of racism and Islamophobia on every hook they see? This is not helping the country; it is exacerbating, not repairing, our divisions. At the time Malcolm Turnbull as PM held Dutton’s critics to account for the consequences of what they were doing — saying they sought to “inflame unrest, animosity and racial hatred”.

Turnbull was right. We need to understand that branding our political leaders as racists and agents of Islamophobia constitutes its own form of counterproductive extremism; witness the unjustified comments that Morrison had contributed to the atmosphere leading to the New Zealand massacre. Consider the historical method at work. The progressive quest is to lay on the table every sin of the White Australia policy, every racial, colonial and sexual injustice since European settlement — and that constitutes a multitude — yet when there are historical issues that do not suit the progressive agenda, they must be hidden, disguised or suppressed. Spare us the hypocrisy.

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Lebanese Muslim Australian father-of-four is sentenced to four months in Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison for stealing a $1,250 Gucci handbag




A Sydney father has been sentenced to four months in Bali's notorious Kerobokan prison for stealing a $1,250 cream designer handbag.

Bilal Kalache, from Merrylands in Western Sydney, was convicted on Monday of taking the Gucci handbag from a duty-free store in the popular tourist destination of Kuta without paying, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The father-of-four was holidaying with his wife and children at the time of the theft on January 10.  

The 43-year-old had been shopping with a friend and his son when he stole the cream handbag after the shop assistant left the store front to retrieve an item from the back.  

He claimed he simply forgot to pay for the expensive designer bag after purchasing another black Gucci purse and a pair of sunglasses.

The bag was found in Kalaches' son's suitcase as they tried to board a plane home to Australia.

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The Greens' extraordinary plan to BAN coal in Australia - calling it 'the new asbestos - despite exports earning $66BILLION every year

They know there is no hope of this being enacted.  It is just an attempt to make themselves look good and wise

The Greens have unveiled their radical plan to ban coal despite it bringing Australia more than $66billion every year.

The party on Thursday released a new climate plan, which sets 2030 as the target year for the nation to be running on 100 per cent renewable energy.

The policy - which comes with a call to arms from Swedish school student Greta Thunberg - shows how the Greens would push a Labor government if elected in May.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale described coal as 'the new asbestos', saying the party wants to shut down every coal power plant in New South Wales, The Daily Telegraph reported.

'We once used asbestos in our buildings because we thought it was safe. But we now know better, so we have banned it. Now it is coal's turn,' the Greens' policy stated.

The party wants to put an end to thermal coal burning by setting a yearly limit on coal exports from 2020 and reducing it every year until it hits zero in 2030.

At the same time, the party is pushing for the nation to be running on 100 per cent renewable energy by the time the coal industry ceases trading.

The plan would include a $65billion carbon tax, and an immediate ban on new coal mines, fracking and conventional onshore and offshore gas and oilfields. 

Industry experts said the economy will suffer under the plan.

Coal was the highest earning export commodity in Australia last year, accounting for $66million in revenue, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures.    

Last financial year, coals exports brought the NSW economy about $17billion, with thermal coal exports reaching 164.6million tonnes. 

NSW Mining CEO Stephen Galilee told Daily Mail Australia the overall economic cost of banning coal would send the state into a deep economic recession.

'The Greens policy would cost NSW its most valuable export industry and over $17billion in export income, as well as over $2billion a year in mining royalties, which help pay for schools and hospitals.

'Over 20,000 NSW coal miners would lose their jobs, devastating mining families and communities, and over 130,000 more jobs across NSW would also be potentially affected,' Mr Galilee said.

The CEO said more than 7,000 businesses currently part of the mining supply chain would also be hit, threatening even more jobs.

'Electricity supply to families and businesses across NSW would also be at risk of price rises and blackouts which would affect a range of energy-intensive industries including manufacturing, transport and construction,' he said.

Mr Di Natale has denied his party's plan to shut down all coal-fired power stations and phase out thermal coal exports will cost Australians jobs. 

The Greens want a $1billion transition plan for workers affected by banning coal, which Mr Di Natale believes will create more than 170,000 new jobs.

'We will lose no jobs because under our plan we will have a national authority, a publicly-owned authority, with express intent to manage this transition,' he told ABC Radio National on Thursday.

'The reality is this is happening already, people are going to lose their jobs because the economics are making it so.'

Mr Di Natale said unlike the major parties, the Greens planned to create a jobs boom in the renewable energy export industry. 

As part of the plan, the Greens want the nation to stop using gas - despite experts saying the energy source is an essential part of future energy sources.

Phasing out petrol cars and moving to electric vehicles was another key objective mentioned in the Greens idealistic plan.   

Luxury fossil fuel cars would be hit with a 17 per cent tax to help pay for scrapping registration fees, import tariffs, GST and stamp duty on electric vehicles.

The Greens have also proposed establishing a new public energy retailer and re-regulating electricity prices to address price gouging following the coal ban.

Mr Di Natale said the mining and burning of coal remained the single biggest cause of climate change in Australia and around the world.

'You need the Greens in the Senate to push Labor to make sure we do what needs to be done,' he said.

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

 ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is having a laugh about the Media reaction to the Mueller report






Schools to promote "Stolen generation" story

This is fiction, not history.  One or two dubious cases of "stolen" Aboriginal children have been put forward but nothing outside the usual incidence of social worker misjudgment. There have been far more incidences of regrettable social worker actions in England.

So the idea of a stolen "GENERATION" (i.e. 40,000 children or thereabouts) is the wildest fantasy. It is however a dangerous fantasy.  It has made modern-day social workers very reluctant to remove Aboriginal children from neglectful and abusive families, resulting in some avoidable deaths and much suffering


Australian history and the curriculum that teaches it will today receive a boost as new lesson plans detailing the lived experience of the Stolen Generations become available to school children.

Developed by The Healing Foundation in consultation with Stolen Generations members, teachers, parents and curriculum writers, the new resources promote greater understanding about an often overlooked part of Australia’s history in a safe and age appropriate way.

The Stolen Generations Resource Kit for Teachers and Students will be officially launched at Trangie Central School near Dubbo in regional NSW this morning, one of the schools involved in testing the resources.

Including compulsory modules on the Stolen Generations in school curricula was first recommended in the landmark 1997 Bringing them Home report. The report identified education as an important part of the reparation process, with awareness of the history of child removal seen as key to preventing a repetition of such human rights violations.

The Healing Foundation’s Chair Professor Steve Larkin said sharing the truth of Australian history is an important part of healing for the thousands of children who were forcibly removed from their families between 1910 and the 1970s.

“Despite the traumatic impact that the Stolen Generations policies continue to have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities, very little about this chapter of our history has been taught in schools - particularly from an Indigenous perspective.

"We hope these resources will foster greater respect and understanding of the past and influence a different relationship with our communities,” Professor Larkin said.

Trangie Central School’s Deputy Principal Dimiti Trudgett said learning about the Stolen Generations encourages reconciliation for all Australians.

“As an important part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, it supports the healing process for those impacted both directly and indirectly by acknowledging, comprehending and correcting the past,” Ms Trudgett said.

“We have trialled a number of activities from the resource kit with our secondary students and the response has been positive. The resources are not only educational, but are genuine and engaging. Our students particularly enjoyed the video case studies and computer components.”

The Healing Foundation’s Stolen Generations Reference Group Chair Ian Hamm said the activities draw heavily on the stories, music, dance, art and writing of Stolen Generations members and their descendants and showcase the strength and resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture

“While the policies and suffering of the Stolen Generations is only one part of the ongoing story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people it is an essential one to learn as part of developing a full understanding of the history of Australia,” Mr Hamm said.

The kit includes suggested lesson plans for Foundation Year through to Year 9, mapped to the Australian Curriculum, as well as professional learning tools for teachers.

Each year level includes four activities that can be taught over a day, week, month or term and align with National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week.

To mark the launch of these important new resources, The Healing Foundation is offering $700 micro grants for schools to hold events about the Stolen Generations between National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week 2019. To find out more or apply visit www.healingfoundation.org.au/schools

The lesson plans, case studies and other resources are available on The Healing Foundation website. Hardcopy versions of the kit can be ordered by emailing community@healingfoundation.org.au.

Media release from The Healing Foundation, a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation.  Media contact: Ben O'Halloran - 0474 499 911 or ben@healingfoundation.org.au







Australian history lecturer is caught defaming Anzac heroes who fought at Gallipoli as 'killers'

Gallipoli was a WWI campaign to assist Russia -- and by killing 300,000 troops of Russia's enemy, Turkey, it certainly did that. But it was not the big success against Turkey hoped for. And the allied soldiers were of course killers.  That was their job.  It appears however that the Lecturer was denouncing them for doing their job, which is grievous to the relatives of the over 8,000 Australians who died at Gallipoli. 

There are no survivors left but there are many younger relatives alive, of whom I am one.  Men who did a difficult and onerous task honourably and bravely in response to their country's call do not deserve disrespect


A lecturer has been caught teaching students at a prestigious Perth university that Australian soldiers who fought at Gallipoli were 'killers'.

Dr Dean Aszkielowicz, from Murdoch University, also told students that Anzac Day commemorations were a 'cliché' and that many of the young people who attended Anzac Day services in Gallipoli were 'drunk,' according to The Australian.

An audio recording of one of Dr Aszkielowicz's lectures obtained by the publication contained the statements, leaving some students questioning whether they are being taught a biased version of history.

When asked by one student if Anzacs who fought during the First World War should be viewed as murderers, Dr Aszkielowicz said that he didn't see why 'that isn't a viewpoint that shouldn't sit alongside this other version of how we look at the Anzacs'.

'If you go and you kill people, whether it's in a foreign campaign or not, then you've killed people and you're a killer,' he said.

More than 8,000 Australian soldiers died during the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, which ran from February 1915 to January 1916.

Many Australians and New Zealanders view the campaign as the moment the young nations lost their innocence and became proudly independent. 

The comments on the Gallipoli campaign come as students at the same university were told that both the federal government and 'right-wing media' were misinforming the public about refugees on Manus Island and Nauru.

Anne Surma, an English and Creative Arts lecturer, urged her students to read a book by Manus Island asylum seeker Behrouz Boochani, who she described as 'prisoners'.

The University issued a statement that said it was important for all viewpoints to be taught to students – as well as the tools to allow them to form their own opinions.   

The interim pro-vice-chancellor of the College of Arts, Business, Law and Social Sciences, Professor Rikki Kersten, said that they actively encourage students to draw from arguments that range across the political spectrum.  

'They might not agree with all the viewpoints they hear or read, but it is important they understand them and have the tools to form their own views.

'In the context of these lectures, our academics provided informed but challenging comment respectfully — this is academic freedom in action.' 

SOURCE  





The Greatest Generation VS the Greenest Generation

by Viv Forbes

My grandfather was part of the Great Generation. Toughened by wars and depression they were patriotic nation builders.

Their monuments are long-term productive assets like the Mount Isa and Broken Hill mines, smelters and refineries, the Wollongong Steelworks, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the transcontinental railway, the overland telegraph line, the Yallourn coal mines and Power stations, the Renison and Mt Lyell mines and railways, the Kalgoorlie Goldfields, the Weipa and Gladstone bauxite industries, Pilbara Iron, the Perth-Kalgoorlie pipeline, the Kidman Cattle Empire, the world’s biggest merino flock, QANTAS, the Holden car, Southern Cross windmills, the Sunshine Harvester and a network of roads, railways, towns, power lines, ports and airports.

The pioneers survived floods, droughts, bushfires and plagues of mice, rabbits, locusts and prickly pear to develop an agricultural industry that provides food and fibre for millions of consumers. They were frugal and inventive. They built everything themselves with corrugated iron, shingles, guttering, poles, posts, nails, rivets, solder and wire – houses, humpies, haysheds, milking barns, sheep yards, shearing sheds, water tanks, grain stores, dairies, meat houses, dog kennels, chook sheds and the dunny up the back. They created parks and planted orchards and forests for timber and paper.

They welcomed boat-loads of hard working migrants from many countries to farms and factories and celebrated the arrival of “clean coal energy by wire” to every home.

The Great Generation made sure their kids behaved at school and did their home-work. Mostly kids were “seen but not heard”. The kids walked, rode bikes or horses to school, and parents reinforced school discipline. That generation loved and trusted the ABC which provided unbiased news and weather forecasts and wholesome entertainment.

Our lives are now controlled by the Green Generation, who follow a Globalist agenda. This generation has devalued science, engineering and trade skills and pollute education curricula with the mantras of the green religion. They encourage the climate alarm, anti-enterprise, anti-family bias evident on the staff-controlled, taxpayer-funded ABC. And now they mobilise noisy truant kids for political rallies.

Too many of the Green Generation specialise in obstruction, destruction and delay, while themselves consuming the assets of the past. They cheer the demolition of coal-fired power plants and use green law-fare to stop or delay almost everything else. Among their battle trophies are South Australian and Victorian coal mines and power stations, most new industry proposals in Tasmania, much offshore oil exploration, new dam proposals in every state, and every new proposal for coal development, gas exploration or fracking. They hope to hang the scalps of Adani Coal, Rocky Point Coal, Wandoan Coal and all Galilee Basin developments on their trophy wall. Australia has a huge uranium resources but nuclear power is banned.

Nowhere is the contrast between the generations more stark than in the Snowy Mountains.

The Great Generation planned, financed and built the Snowy Hydro-electric Scheme (without UN direction or advice). This nation-building project captures Snowy water, uses it to generate reliable electricity, and diverts the water to irrigate towns, orchards and crops on the dry western plains.

The Green Generation supports Snowy Hydro 2, a hollow-shelled project that steals electricity from the grid and water from Snowy 1 to pump water uphill and then recovers part of that electricity by letting the water run back down again (when their intermittent green energy fails). It will be a big, power-consuming, expensive battery.

The sad history of Whyalla is instructive. The Great Generation built an iron mine, a steel works and a great shipbuilding enterprise there. Most of it is idle now. This generation of techno-phobes looks like trying to build foreign nuclear-powered submarines there but with diesel-electric engines (presumably running on bio-fuel.) The British navy that ruled the world ran on coal for the war-ships and bread, salt beef, lard, limes and rum for the sailors. Today’s green dreamers hope to feed the multi-sexual crew on nuts and raisins and use the alcohol to power the motors.

The Great Generation created our present world and left many useful assets as their monuments.

The Green Generation is destroying our future. The way things are heading, the lasting monuments to the Green Generation will be the skeletons of abandoned solar “farms” overgrown by lantana scrub, the concrete foundations of bankrupt wind “farms”, and spider-webs of useless sagging transmission lines and towers.

These memorials will serve to remind the next generation of the long, costly and futile war on hydro-carbon energy and the many failed climate forecasts.

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The NSW election: Labor the true believer of its own false rhetoric

Graham Richardson

The pollsters are looking a little silly at the moment. The result of last Saturday’s NSW election shows a two-party-preferred swing of slightly better than 2 per cent, where the polls have been calling it dead even for months.

Anecdotally, I never felt Labor and Michael Daley had much of a chance. The biggest single problem facing Labor, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, has run a pretty good government. She and her more-than-capable Treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, have been able to prod­uce surpluses while still pouring heaps of dollars into some big infrastructure programs which will serve the state well into the future.

While state cabinets usually only bat down to No 4 or No 5, she has a reasonably strong cabinet. Apart from Perrottet, it includes Planning Minister Anthony Robert­s, Transport Minister Andrew­ Constance, and Health Minister Brad Hazzard. Most ministers have performed well, with the only obvious failures being Gabriel­le Upton and Don Harwin.

The Liberals did well in Saturday’s election but the same cannot be said for their Coalition partner the Nationals. Still smarting from the horrors Barnaby Joyce provided­ them with over the last 12 months, the Nationals just can’t get out of their own road. The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party took a couple of seats from them and will pose a real danger in the May federal election.

Preferences are optiona­l in NSW, so as many as 70 per cent of votes will exhaust after the vote is counted initially. This is different to a federal election, where a full preference on the ballot paper is necessary to render it formal. In seats where Labor preferences might matter, preferences will be watched anxiously by Nationals scrutineers.

For Labor, the result was dis­appointing. Being unable to win one seat in metropolitan Sydney except Coogee, where a very tight victory looks assured, gives the party a great deal to think about.

The result should have been enough for Daley to take it on the chin and resign.

Instead, until he announced last night that he would not run again, he thought he should be rewarde­d for his failure by being given the leadership once more.

He should have been immed­iately honest with himself about just how badly he performed during the last week of the campaign. He is renowned for not being across his brief and was caught short three times during the last days of the campaign.

Nationals Leader and Deputy Premier John Barilaro did well to hang on in the marginal seat of Monaro. Even in Labor’s supposed­ stronghold of Queanbeyan, Barilaro made serious inroads­. He is going to prove partic­ularly difficult to dislodge.

In this, its third election, you would have though the Coalition might be vulnerable. It had good plans for the construction of big infrastructure projects, which augur­s well for the state’s econo­mic future. Only that wretched light rail, the greatest cock-up in building rail I have ever witnessed, holds them back.

Unfortunately for the government, it is the one project which has the Premier’s fingerprints all over it. In this campaign Labor never really pinged the catastrophe on Berejiklian. That was a major failure.

For Labor, the next problem is what to do after Daley. The problem is you need to have someone else to run, and I just can’t see who the phantom­ leader is right now.

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

Bill Shorten in all-out campaign to destroy Australian jobs

Many businesses, particularly in retail, are barely breaking even. Adding big wage rises  to their costs will send them broke, putting their employees on the dole.  Target, for instance, is only keeping afloat through the support of their corporate parent.  Can you imagine the unemployment if they shut all their stores?  Their corporate parent would do better to close all the steres and sell off any real estate they occupy and own.  Shorten might well incentivize that

Shorten's attack on penalty rates would also lead to the destruction of a lot of weekend jobs -- particularly in hospitality.  And those are often the jobs that low skilled people resort to in order to get ahead.  "Let the poor stay poor" is presumably Shorten's reaction to that problem

A Labor government would radically overhaul workplace laws to give Australia's lowest-paid workers a 10 per cent wage increase. Under Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's 'living wage' policy, Australia's 1.2 million lowest-paid workers would receive an extra $73 a week.

Labor wants to give the Fair Work Commission the power to give battlers 60 per cent of median full-time earnings, which now stand at $1,320.

That would see cleaners and shop assistants receive an extra $73 a week, or $792, compared with the current national minimum wage of $719 a week.

'A living wage should make sure people earn enough to make ends meet, and be informed by what it costs to live in Australia today - to pay for housing, for food, for utilities, to pay for a basic phone and data plan,' Mr Shorten said.

'We will fix the law so that the Fair Work Commission has the tools to deliver a living wage for Australia's low-paid workers.'

Mr Shorten described the announcement as huge news for working Australians, who are struggling with flat wages, rising electricity bills and unaffordable housing, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.

'Everywhere I travel in Australia, people tell me that everything is going up, except their wages,' Mr Shorten said in a video posted to social media on Tuesday.

'Adults in Australia should be able to, if they do full-time work not be in poverty and be above the poverty line.'

He also vowed to get rid of the 'dreadful' penalty rate cuts, which he claims will be better for the economy.

'That's what Labor will do, get wages going again and a fair go all round because when people are getting wage rises, everyone wins,' Mr Shorten said in his video.

One in 10 workers, or 1.2 million Australians on the national minimum wage would benefit, including those on the adult national minimum wage, those not paid at the award rate, and those on junior, apprentice and disability rates of pay.

The living wage would not automatically flow through to workers on award wages.

Labor's proposed policy is strongly opposed by employers.

The Australian Industry Group said the policy would result in low-skilled workers being paid more than workers with higher skills.

'Today's living wage policy announcement by the federal Opposition would have perverse impacts on the Australian labour market,' it said in a statement.

The employer group argued that under Labor and the Australian Council of Trade Unions's policy, an unskilled labourer would be paid close to the rate of an electrician or fitter

'It would further reduce the incentive for people to undertake apprenticeships or other forms of new training, it would most likely lead to many people leaving the trades, and it would reduce employment opportunities for low-skilled people – such as new workforce entrants,' it said.

The proposal has already sparked a backlash from voters on social media.

'Raising incomes is the most laziest action ever. We need to lower costs of living, not raise incomes,' one man tweeted.

Another added: 'No, not everybody wins. People end up working long hours just to pay higher tax. Honesty would go a long way Bill.'

Others pointed out the effect the policy would have on businesses.

'You will now pay more for groceries and cup of coffee and take away. How else are these  businesses going to pay their employees when wages rise. Same goes for water, gas, electricity? Enjoy the pay rise. We will cop more than the pay rise,' one voter tweeted.

But not everyone was negative about the policy.

'Great initiative, if you can deliver in a timely manner. Australia seems to be going backward instead of forward. I have never in my life been more worried about my future or my country's future than I have at the present time,' one woman said on Facebook.

The ACTU has called for the minimum wage to be boosted over two years.

They want a six per cent increase from July, taking the minimum full-time wage to $762 a week, followed by another 5.5 per cent increase in 2020, taking pay levels to $804. 

That level is significantly above the poverty line for a single adult living alone, which the Australian Council of Social Service defines as $433 a week.

But the ACTU's proposed minimum pay level is less than ACOSS's poverty line calculation of $909 for a couple with two children.

Under Labor, the Fair Work Commission would be asked to determine what a living wage should be under the first stage of the plan before inviting community organisations, business representatives and unions to submit their feedback.

The commission would also consider Australia's social wage - the amount of tax people pay, and any family tax benefits or other transfers they receive.

The second step would be for the Fair Work Commission to consider the time frame over which the increase should be phased in, taking into account the capacity of businesses to pay, and the potential impact on employment, inflation and the broader economy.

Further public submissions would be taken on this before the commission determined a fair and responsible phasing in of a living wage.

The first living wage case would take place as part of the next annual wage review after the legislation passes parliament, with wage increases to be phased in from the July 1 after that review.

The living wage would not automatically flow through to award wages, but rather only apply to those receiving the national minimum wage.

Labor would keep an annual wage review to determine award wages.

'Labor believes in a fair day's pay for a fair day's work and a living wage is fundamental to achieving that goal,' Labor's workplace spokesman Brendan O'Connor said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison admitted last week the minimum wage would be hard to live on, but pointed out most Australians were paid above award rates.

Under the Coalition government, the minimum wage has gone up each year at a faster rate than inflation and wage growth across the economy. 

SOURCE  






Labor’s negative gearing changes will raise rent costs by nearly $5000 in Brisbane

Renters could face a hike of nearly $5000 a year if Labor win the election and follow through with proposed changes to negative gearing, a new report claims.

Data from property market analysts SQM Research also says the property market will fall further, losing between 5 and 12 per cent nationally by 2022 if a Bill Shorten government ditches the concession for existing properties and halves capital gains tax discounts to 25 per cent.

Rental prices would remain stable but begin to rise from the end of next year, SQM’s founder and analyst Louis Christopher said.

“There is likely to be upward pressure from 2021 due to the current slump in building approvals which will be aggravated by the loss of negative gearing,” he said in a report.

“The slump in approvals has now fallen below underlying demand requirements which may create a shortage of dwellings from late 2020.

Based on the forecast, Brisbane renters will cop the sharpest rise with a potential lift of 22 per cent. This would equate to more than $90 a week, or about $4700 a year, for a median two-bedroom unit, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said.

SQM Research reports Perth rentals could jump 20 per cent, Melbourne and Adelaide 15 per cent, while Sydney, Canberra and Hobart may rise 10 per cent.

The already struggling Melbourne and Sydney housing market will fall 16 and 14 per cent respectively, the report says.

“This is the latest in a string of reports warning against Labor’s housing taxes,” Mr Frydenberg said in a statement.

“Labor need only look at their last failed attempt at changing negative gearing in 1985, which SQM found resulted in a 23.7 per cent fall in housing commencements nationally and rent increases in the majority of capital cities.

“Bill Shorten must stop ignoring the warning signs.”

Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen slammed SQM’s modelling as being confused and “all over the shop”.

“Labor’s housing affordability reforms enjoy the support of many Leftist
independent economists and think-tanks like the Grattan Institute and Saul Eslake, as well as international economic agencies like the International Monetary Fund,” he said.

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Facebook executives could face JAIL if they fail to remove extremist content in new laws touted by Scott Morrison

This is crazy.  Everybody sees things on Facebook that they find offensive or "extreme".  If they all were allowed to order deletion of what they dislike on Facebook, there would be no Facebook left.  And in the face of criminal penalties, Facebook execs would have to try to please everyone.  Even pictures of cats might go.  Vegans regard them as "carnivores" (which they certainly are) and that to Vegans is deeply offensive

Tech titans would be breaking Australian law if they didn't take down footage of terrorist acts as soon as they learned about it, under proposed changes the prime minister will put to their top brass.

Scott Morrison will discuss violent offences being broadcast on social media platforms such as Facebook and YouTube during a meeting in Brisbane on Tuesday.

The meeting comes less than two weeks after the Christchurch mosques massacre, in which 50 people were killed.

A video of the terror attack, in which a lone gunman opened fire at two mosques during Friday prayers, was live-streamed on social media.

Mr Morrison and ministers will ask the tech executives what they're doing to prevent such footage festering online and stress the government will take action if it doesn't believe they are going far enough.

In that regard, the government is drafting laws that would make it illegal for the platforms to not remove footage of extreme violence as soon as they become aware of it.

'We cannot have a situation persist where a 10-year-old Australian, or any Australian for that matter, could log on to Facebook and witness mass murder,' Attorney-General Christian Porter told Nine's Today program on Tuesday.

'That is totally unacceptable.'

The proposed legislation would also allow the government to declare footage of an incident filmed by a perpetrator being hosted on such sites as 'abhorrent violent material'.

That would allow federal authorities to ask social media providers to remove the material, with the platforms receiving greater penalties the longer it is left up.

It is based on existing laws dealing with child exploitation material.

Mr Porter says the government's pressure on social media companies after the Christchurch massacre is akin to the Howard government ramping up gun control after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.

'What we are doing as a government is what Howard did as a government and responding to the threats as they arise to make Australians safer.'

Facebook took down 1.5 million posts of the footage of the Christchurch shootings but says none of the 200 people who watched the live video of the massacre immediately reported it.

The first user report about the original video was made 29 minutes after it was posted - 12 minutes after the live broadcast ended - the company said last week.

The online giants are also being urged to ensure they protect the personal information of Australians who use their platforms, with the government planning far harsher penalties for privacy breaches.

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Do we really want to glorify political violence?

Or is the NZ shooter not a problem?

The Project co-host Lisa Wilkinson has defended an interview with 'Egg Boy' Will Connolly after fans criticised his appearance on the show.

Connolly, 17, egged right-wing Senator Fraser Anning in Melbourne in response to the politician's comments on Muslim immigration in the wake of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

In his first public appearance on The Project on Monday night, Connolly said although his actions were 'not the right thing to do' he had 'united people' and raised money for those affected by the massacre.

Unhappy viewers took to social media to voice their disapproval of Connolly:

'[Lisa Wilkinson] so you think it's okay to smash eggs on someone in public view? If he did it to you because [he] disagreed with your views would you still make him a hero for his behaviour?' one person commented underneath a post by The Project on Instagram.

'What does this teach our young about respectful behaviour? I don't care what was said by Anning we should not be promoting this kind of behaviour.'

Wilkinson took to the comments section herself to defend the programme, saying they had not made 'Egg Boy' a 'hero'.

'We are news program. He has been a huge news story. He has been hounded for interviews by just about every TV, online and radio show in the world,' Wilkinson said.

'As well as every major publication you could imagine. He approached us because he felt we would be fair and balanced in presenting his story. And I believe we were. That's it. Cheers, Lisa.'

Another unhappy watcher said 'Egg Boy' did not deserve attention.

'Fraser Anning is an idiot no doubt about that - but it is not OK to hit someone you disagree with with an egg or anything else - imagine the furore if this was done to a female politician or the Prime Minister or anyone that you disagreed with!' they said.

The 17-year-old shot to internet fame after he was captured on video smashing an egg on Queensland Senator Fraser Anning's head in Melbourne on March 16

The controversial incident was captured on video at the Conservative National Party meeting in Moorabbin, Melbourne on March 16 and later went viral.

After the egging, Connolly was smacked in the face twice by Senator Anning and was tackled to the ground and put in a choke-hold by four of the senator's supporters.

Senator Fraser Anning later defended physically lashing out at the teenage boy who publicly egged him saying it's what 'most sensible people would do'  

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

 ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is cheering the conservative victory in NSW





Morrison can learn from my victory: Premier

Gladys Berejiklian has vowed to take NSW “to the next level” as she declared majority victory and ­became the first popularly elected female premier in the state’s history.

But she now faces a difficult cabinet reshuffle after promising positions to MPs in key seats and must deal with the fallout from the shock resignation of her water minister and deputy leader of the Nationals, Niall Blair. Mr Blair announced yesterday he was quitting parliament a day after he was returned for an eight-year term in the state’s upper house.

With her government on track to claim 47 or 48 seats in the 93-seat lower house and the Liberals likely to lose only one seat to Labor, Ms Berejiklian said her government’s victory proved Scott Morrison could win the looming federal election.

But her opponent, Labor leader Michael Daley, faces the axe, after a disastrous final week of the campaign saw its primary vote fall a point to 33 per cent from the 2015 election.

It appeared last night the government had lost Coogee and possibly the Nationals seat of Lismore to Labor and Barwon and Murray in the state’s far west to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers.

With 73 per cent of lower house votes counted, the ­Coalition had 46 seats — 34 for the Liberals and 12 for the Nationals — one seat away from retaining the right to govern as a majority. It was considered a good chance of winning Dubbo, in central NSW, and East Hills, in Sydney’s southwest.

Ms Berejiklian promised to address concerns caused by drought — and water policy — in far-western NSW. She pledged to be a “good listener” from the result and ­address the clear concerns voters in the far west had shown.

Ms Berejiklian yesterday said she felt “grateful” and “relieved” at Saturday night’s result and admitted there were times when she felt she could lose or the government would be forced into minority government.

“This term of government is about taking our state forward to the next stage,” the Premier said.

“I have a lot of positive plans, not just in finishing the projects we started or building new projects but also in making sure NSW really is a place of opportunity, and I think we have an opportunity in many social areas in particular to put our stamp on how we can ­improve the experience of a lot of citizens.

“My party has not had a third term in this state for half a century. It’s not something that is achieved easily.

“What the people of NSW are saying is ‘yes, you’re doing things. You’re doing things perhaps a bit quickly, you haven’t done everything perfectly but we’re trusting you and we want you to keep going’.”

Mr Blair cited family reasons for his retirement, as well as the difficulties he faced over the water policy. Mr Blair, whose wife has had cancer, confirmed that contro­versy over the water policy and threats he had received had contributed to his retirement.

Barwon and Murray voters ­believed the Nationals had given too many concessions to cotton farmers in their water policies. Deputy Premier John Barilaro said it appeared the Murray-Darling Basin Plan had “failed NSW”.

As well as Barwon and Murray, the Nationals appear to have only just beaten off an independent in the seat of Dubbo, but the result is still close to call. Wagga Wagga is also held by an independent.

Ms Berejiklian called the vote in the west of the state “a cry for help from western NSW”. “A lot of families are struggling, especially in western NSW … it’s my responsibility to support them at this difficult time.”

The expected results would take the government numbers to 48 (down four), Labor to 36 (up two), Greens three, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers three and independents three.

Ms Berejiklian yesterday told The Australian the Morrison government should follow her lead and get outside the “insider bubble” in its re-election bid, saying she feared the effect of a Shorten Labor government on NSW.

“Federal and state elections are very different propositions, but the weekend’s election showed that if a government focuses on what ­really matters, the community will recognise that,” the Premier said.

“This means not being distracted by what’s being said in the ­insider bubble, but actually getting out there and talking to people and listening. “Naturally, I will be doing what I can to support Scott Morrison.

“I’m worried about the prospect of a Shorten Labor government, especially what it would mean for the economy.

“NSW has the strongest economy in the nation. I’m worried that a Shorten Labor government will drag down NSW. “We’ve all worked too hard in NSW to put that at risk.”

NSW Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos said the victory was a major opportunity for Ms Berejiklian. “Gladys now has four years to complete projects and for the electors in NSW to see the results,’’ he said.

“This was a very important election for her to win, and it’s given her the breathing space to bring these projects in.”
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'If he can say it, why can't I?' Principal sparks outrage after using the N-word three times during a school speech

A school principal has been criticised after he used the N-word during a school assembly to highlight racism following the Christchurch terror attack.

Principal Richard Minack at Brighton Secondary College, Melbourne, said 'n*****' three times during the assembly as he tried to explain changing values.

The racial slur has since been used frequently in the playground, with one student claiming: 'I think their theory behind it is if the principal can say it, why can't we?'

In front of the school, Mr Minack said: 'Mission brown paint was originally called n***** brown paint.'

'So mission brown paint is only a tiny step in language away from n***** brown paint.'

There were 1400 students at the assembly, including the teenager who become an internet sensation after he egged Senator Fraser Anning.

According to Yahoo7, one student said: 'You can't say that in front of a school, especially one as multicultural as ours.'

Mr Minack emailed the students, apologising for using the term and explaining why he felt it was necessary. 

'I hope you understand that I used it to call out and criticise racism and bigotry,' he said.

'Sometimes we have to use offensive words to explain why they are offensive.' 

SOURCE  






Primary school BANS parents from buying and delivering their children McDonald's and KFC fast food for lunch

Bureaucratic ignorance and snobbery.  Fast food is highly nutritious

A primary school has been forced to ban fast food to stop parents from delivering McDonald's and KFC meals to their children at lunchtime.

Canley Vale Public School in Sydney's west recently posted to Facebook asking parents to stop feeding students unhealthy food.

Principal Ben Matthews said parents should provide their kids with a packed lunch or to order from the school canteen.

'Lately a significant number of parents have been delivering fast food to the school for their child's lunch. This includes McDonalds, KFC etc,' Mr Matthews wrote on social media.

'Please note that as of today we are no longer accepting these deliveries.'

A parent of a Canley Vale student said 'the kids love' fast food.

'McDonald's is commercial junk and shouldn't be at school,' the parent told the Daily Telegraph.

Parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson said parents had a responsibility to provide their children with a healthy lunch.

'This doesn't seem like it in the interest of the children at all,' he said.

Nutritionist Joel Ferren said parents should be providing their children with packed lunches including sandwiches, salads, fruit, vegetables, eggs and yoghurt.

A New South Wales Department of Education spokesman said students were advised about making healthy choices at school.

'Canley Vale Public School promotes healthy eating and active lifestyles. As such, it has requested parents not deliver fast food to the school,' the spokesman said. 

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Melbourne Man, 27, bashed by a group of up to 10 armed African thugs was targeted as he stepped out of his Toyota sedan

A 27-year-old man fighting for his life after he was ambushed and brutally beaten by a group of up to ten African men in Melbourne likely knew his attackers.

The man was hit on the head with a blunt object as he stepped out of the passenger seat of a black Toyota sedan at 4.30am on King Street in the city's west in the early hours of Sunday.

He was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a critical condition with serious head injuries.

Police returned to the scene of the crime just before midday today where they began scouring the area for CCTV footage.

A camera situated outside an Audi car dealership on King Street is pointed directly at the area where the attack took place.

Detectives at the scene refused to discuss the case as they entered the dealership.

But one police officer claimed the injured man was not believed to have been a random victim of African gang violence. 'We're just cross checking that,' the officer said. 

An anonymous witness said two red cars boxed in the Toyota.

When the victim stepped out of the car, the men started 'flooding' from the vehicles and attacked him, the witness said. 

'That's when people just started flooding out of the other cars and it was all of them on one,' he said to The Daily Telegraph.

'The worst part was when you saw this metal bar, potentially even a baseball bat, come up in the air and swing down on to his head.

'That happened a few times and by the end of it you had to wonder how he was alive.'

The attackers fled when an ambulance approached the scene.

'It was quite brutal and quite confronting,' said Acting Detective Sergeant Simon Watts.

'The offenders are perceived to be of African appearance,' a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

'It is believed the offenders may have been travelling in two vehicles, a red Subaru and a red Mitsubishi.'

The driver who dropped off the victim is helping with police inquiries.   

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

Shooters party, who want to ease Australia's strict gun regulations,  take two lower house seats with MASSIVE swings in State election - just one week after 50 people were killed in Christchurch mosque massacre

Clearly, country people are worrying about what IS happening rather than what MIGHT happen

A minor party that wants to weaken gun laws has tripled its number of lower house seats in Australia's biggest state - just one week after 50 people were shot dead in the Christchurch massacre.

The Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party retained Orange with a 37 per cent swing towards them and picked up two more seats, Barwon and Murray, with massive double digit swings against the National Party.

They now have the same number of seats in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Greens following Saturday's state election, with more than 100,000 voters backing them.

Third-time Shooters party candidate Helen Dalton resoundingly defeated Nationals candidate Austin Evans in the seat of Murray, which stretches along the Victorian border.

She secured a swing of 27.8 per cent against the Nationals, more than overcoming a 3.3 per cent margin in a seat previously held by former state education minister Adrian Piccoli.

Ms Dalton confirmed her victory on Saturday evening, writing on Facebook that Mr Evans had called to concede defeat.  

'I'd like to congratulate him on a gruelling and hard fought campaign,' she said. 'This has been an amazing performance by all of you. I'd like to offer my sincere thank you to every volunteer and every person who voted for me. 'I'm extremely honoured to be able to end 35 years of National rule and look forward to representing you as YOUR member for Murray.'

The Shooters are also on track to grab the state's largest seat, Barwon, which stretches from Walgett, Narrabri and Coonabarabran in the east to Broken Hill and the South Australian border.

Shooters candidate Roy Butler led the race on Saturday night with a 21.5 per cent swing against the Nationals.

The Shooters party won the seat of Orange in a 2016 by-election. Philip Donato retain that seat on Saturday with a 37.2 per cent swing. His primary vote of 50.6 per cent was double that of his National Party opponent Kate Hazelton.

The Nationals, previously known as the Country Party, had held this seat in the state's Central West from 1947 until the 2016 by-election.

The Shooters want the government to stop recording ammunition sales and are pushing a controversial plan to allow former police and army officers to grant gun licences and exempt them from paying any fees.  

Former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, who was also a state Country and National Party MP for 13 years, said the Shooters party was influenced by the American National Rifle Association and presented a real threat to gun laws in NSW.

'It's not helped if the Shooters party were to win an outright balance of power and multiple seats in both houses,' Mr Fischer told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.

'The National Rifle Association in the USA is still a presence on the internet.'

Mr Fischer, who championed national gun laws in 1996, said 'any wholesale chipping away of the gun laws' was a risk to 'children's safety and community safety' in the aftermath of the Christchurch massacre.

Outgoing Shooters MP Robert Brown hit back at Mr Fischer's suggestion his party was influenced by the NRA and downplayed the possibility of them securing changes to gun laws.

'Bulls***. You can quote me on that,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 'Tim Fischer is telling lies.'

The massive swings come just one week after 50 Muslim worshippers were gunned down during Friday prayers at two mosques in Christchurch.

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A fading national party is a problem for the PM

Maybe but the "lost" votes went to other conservative parties -- and coalitions are routine among right-leaning parties

The NSW elections have sent confidence-jolting shudders through the Nationals federally and will have the Morrison Coalition government wobbling at the knees.

The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and One Nation went from fringe presences in non-metropolitan areas to conspicuous rivals to the Nationals, previously the sole political proprietors of those electorates.

The guns-are-fun crowd and a party linked to racist views did well, as if the 50 Christchurch mosque murders just over a week earlier had no impact on NSW voters.

The central question for Prime Minister Scott Morrison now is: Wentworth or the bush?

Do the Nationals and Liberals concentrate on the issues such as climate change important to voters in the east Sydney electorate formerly held by Malcolm Turnbull? Or cater for the competing priorities of non-metropolitan Australia?

For example, does it bow to the coal mining/burning ambitions of central Queensland or the pursuit of renewables strongly pushed in Brisbane electorates?

And the shake-up which might be needed to bring the Nationals back into favour, could be just as uncomfortable as the NSW lessons.

“People who want to give rifles back to farmers are getting votes,” former Nationals federal leader Barnaby Joyce repeatedly said on Seven’s election night coverage.

Mr Joyce would then deny he supported the lifting of firearm restrictions, arguing he was pointing out the movement of votes, not calling for a policy change. But it was not clear.

Because Mr Joyce also raised complaints by non-metropolitan electorates they were being deprived use of river water which was being directed to environmental priorities, not their direct access.

And the former federal Water Minister was certainly calling for policy changes there.

Barnaby Joyce is campaigning as much for his return to the party leadership as much as for a reshaping of policy priorities, and not all his colleagues believe he has been helpful.

Liberal MP for North Sydney last night told ABC viewers Mr Joyce should “spend more time in Tamworth and less time on TV”.

The wannabe returned party leader made no mention of how much his private life might have turned off voters, particularly women.

There was little joy for Labor, of course, and a lesson in hoping negatives will give it federal victory.

The final campaign week blunders by state Labor leader Michael Daley cannot be held solely to blame for voter rejection.

NSW was the muscle of the ALP nationally and the failure Saturday was a further sign of political atrophy.

Just as the Morrison Coalition needs Queensland to hold firm, the ALP wants to maintain its NSW holdings at least in the election expected in May.

And it needs a demonstrable improvement in its standing in western Sydney, one which was not obvious on Saturday.

Prime Minister Morrison will rightly take heart from the result, aside from the Nationals’ embarrassments.

There is no equation connecting state election results to federal outcomes, but a winning party is easier to lead than one used to losing.

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Larger home units on the way?

I am not at all sure of the logic here.  Owner-occupiers want big properties?  Some might but young people starting out are usually going to need small, affordable units to get a foot on the ladder

The property downturn may finally spell the end of the “dog box”.

As local and overseas investors flee en masse, property developers are struggling to get funding from banks, with a growing number of apartment buildings being delayed or abandoned altogether.

Non-bank lenders are increasingly stepping in to fill the gap — and the focus is turning away from the 20-storey high-rises and tiny one-bedroom apartments favoured by investors to larger units in smaller-scale developments targeted at owner-occupiers.

“There is a tailwind in terms of the demographics, especially the baby boomers who have more capital, as they make that transition to apartments for lifestyle reasons,” said David Chin, founder of investment advisory firm Basis Point.

“The larger two- and three-bedroom apartments still have a market. In Europe and (places like) Paris, it is quite common for apartments to be very large, three bedrooms, almost like homes. It sets the higher density living in three- four-, five-storey buildings, not high rises. It works and I think that will be more common in Australia.”

Mr Chin hosted a Deloitte seminar this week titled “Preparing for Pain and Gain in Western Sydney”, which discussed the coming “fast and furious times” amid the property downturn, slowing Chinese capital flows and US-China tensions.

Speaking on a panel discussing the role of non-bank lenders — both Australian “old money” and new “Chinese money” — Dorado Property co-founder Peter Packer highlighted the role of the sector in cushioning the falls in Brisbane.

“We were reading headlines about how that was going to crash and burn,” he said.

A number of major banks had funded construction projects without being covered by sales, which “meant you had expiring bank debt at completion of projects”.

“But us and a number of private lenders jumped into that market and refinanced that debt, usually with 18- to 24-month terms, putting requirements on the developers to slowly sell down their stock,” Mr Packer said.

“What it meant was that market never had the crash that (people) were talking about. That’s where non-bank lenders can help.”

Dorado Property is currently funding a number of projects in Perth and Brisbane. Mr Packer said successful developers were turning to “smaller projects, more boutique, higher-density areas, good locations”.

“They’ve generally moved away from investor focus (which meant) internal bedrooms, small floor plans,” he said.

“You’re getting more light, bright, airy apartments, they’re getting larger. Well designed, good apartments that owner-occupiers want to live in, but smaller-scale projects where you don’t have to go out and get a huge number of presales. That’s typically what needs to happen in a down market.”

REA Group chief economist Nerida Conisbee said the flood of investors and offshore buyers had “led to a lot of projects starting that would have otherwise not been able to start”.

“In many cases, particularly in Melbourne, developers selling to Asia were able to get projects up and running from that buyer group which from there have been sold more broadly into the market,” she said.

Concerns about apartment quality, amenity and overdevelopment have led to a number of states implementing minimum size requirements in the past few years to clamp down on so-called “dog boxes”.

Ms Conisbee said the changing environment meant developers were now having to set their sights on the three owner-occupier groups — first homebuyers, downsizers and upsizers.

“Downsizers are a key market, what they’re looking for is often quite bespoke apartments. They want greater choice in the layout, bigger apartments, they’re a bit more fussy about the type of fit-out,” she said.

First homebuyers, while more price driven, are also more discerning. “The better developers at the moment are looking at more communal areas, more places to hang out,” she said.

“They’re trying to create places that people want to live in as opposed to small apartments that don’t offer the best sense of community.”

David Mao, executive director with real estate investment firm White & Partners, told the Deloitte conference he still saw plenty of opportunities in the falling market.

“We see value everywhere — western Sydney, the north, the south,” he said. “We’re maintaining our discipline as long as we find the right asset at the right price.”

White & Partners sees the market as “not so much a down market but more of a moderating market”. “The run-up particularly in the last five years has been quite tremendous because of the low interest rate environment,” Mr Mao said.

“You saw asset prices reach historical highs. What we’re seeing currently is not so much that it’s down but it’s moderating such that the long-term average is reached.”

Paul Zahara, executive director of Austar Fund Management, was optimistic about the outlook for the market.

“I think we’re in a fortunate position where if you look at previous downturns there’s been grave imbalances between the supply and demand situation,” he said.

“We’ve got generally a balance between supply and demand at the moment. Even though we’ve got affordability issues, the supply and demand situation isn’t bent out of shape. That’s a dramatic contrast to previous downturns, 1991, 1974.”

A property cycle can come off a peak in one of two ways. “It’s like a balloon, you can either pop the balloon or you can let the air out,” Mr Zahara said.

“This time we’ve done a pretty good job of letting the air out of the balloon, we haven’t seen the major pop. For me 1991 was a major, major crisis. We’ve done a very good job this time of managing that decrease in the property market.

“The banks pulled back, the government’s gotten involved, developers have realised what’s going on.”

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A realistic population policy?

We did not get that this week from Prime Minister Scott Morrison. We got an announceable. He announced that net immigration will be capped at 160,000 a year for the next four years. Previously it was nominally 190,000, but even so it was only a tad over 160,000 last year anyway.

So there is really no change from the short-term growth mania that profits the big end of town who are all donors to major parties, particularly the Coalition.

But so close to the election we have to have an annouceable that something is being done about congestion. Part of that was a populist system of work visas that demands that recipients live away from of the major cities for three to five years or forfeit any chance of permanent residency.

This is the great ebb and flow of Australian politics. Promise what the people really want in the weeks leading up to an election in the most imprecise but expansive terms possible and afterwards just pander to the big-growth donors.

The Coalition’s so-called population policy has no chance of reducing congestion or infrastructure shortages.

While fish are dying in Murray-Darling and we are facing droughts, floods, under-employment, unemployment, homelessness, housing shortages, crowded schools and hospital waiting lists, the message should be that Australia is full.

Now is precisely the wrong time to lock in four years of 160,000 net immigration – that is 640,000 people or one and a half Canberras.

Canberra has struggled to build just one short track of light rail over the past decade. Its schools and hospitals struggle, yet it is considered among the nation’s best.

The infrastructure maths, like exponential growth, is little understood.

But look at it this way. Given the average piece of infrastructure – road, hospital, signpost, fence etc – lasts about 50 years, you have to spend 2 per cent of the nation’s capital every year just to keep up existing infrastructure. But if you increase the population by 2 per cent a year, you have to add another 2 per cent of the nation’s annual capital expenditure just to keep the same amount of infrastructure per head.

In short, a 2 per cent population increase, which Morrison has more or less locked us in to, means we have to double our infrastructure spending each year. But we are not. That is why people are rightly upset.

This may sound like a lot of statistical babble. But consider algae in a lake or cancer in the body without treatment. Each doubles every six months. So the lake looks okay for 30 years until the algae takes up half the lake. “Oh, it will be another 30 years before the other half gets overtaken with algae.” Wrong. It will take six months.

Same with cancer. The cells grow exponentially. The last doubling to fatal size can be alarmingly quick after a person has coped with it for quite some time.

Australia is but a small example of the global population problem. Globally and nationally we must do whatever we can to control the exponential growth in population before it controls us.

Morrison’s “population policy” is far too little for too short a time.

Australia is full. Like most other countries we should not have an economic immigration policy, just a humanitarian one. Clearly the economic program has not helped the vast majority of Australians over the past decade or more.

Further, the population growth, even under this week’s announcement, understates the true position. We have to add the 30,000 illegal immigrants a year who come in by air.

Unlike boat people, more than 95 per cent of whom had a legitimate claim of persecution, those who come in by air have no claim. They are coming with the illegal intention of overstaying. But they do not make dramatic media footage so can be safely ignored.

Yes, we should stop the lethal boats, but let’s not pretend we have our borders and population policy under control.

And this must have nothing to do with race. The white, English-as-a-first-language tourist overstayer is foreign.

The hijab-wearing Muslim who speaks English as a second language and got her Australian citizenship yesterday is not. She is one of us. Her chances of a job, access to good infrastructure in Australia, and a liveable environment have to be protected against the growth fanatics and any influx of overstayers, many of whom are British, New Zealanders and American.

So let’s remove race from the population and immigration question and concentrate on the environment and the living amenity of the people already living here.

If we did that we would have a sensible population policy not, as we have now, the irrational immigration policy based on bringing in as many consumers and low cost employees as possible for the profit of the big end of town.

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Jobless rate falls to eight-year low

The national unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in eight years but signs are growing the jobs market may be easing, with large increases in jobless rates in NSW and Victoria.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday reported the unemployment rate edged down to 4.9 per cent in February from 5 per cent. It is the lowest jobless rate since December 2010 and below market expectations of 5 per cent.

But the fall was due to a drop in the number of people looking for work. The total number of Australians in work in February rose by just 4600. Markets had been expecting a 15,000 increase.

The number of people holding a full-time job actually fell, down by 7300.

The biggest impacts were in NSW, where the jobless rate jumped to 4.3 per cent from 3.9 per cent, and in Victoria, where it lifted to 4.8 per cent from 4.6 per cent.

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 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