Australian Politics
ABC fears for Indigenous staff as ‘evil’ comments on the rise in lead-up to voice referendum
The abuse that Stan Grant and the ABC copped over their coronation coverage was to be expected. Such hate-filled commentary was totally inappropriate to the occasion and deserved replies in kind. Hate elicits a return of hate but the Left can't take that. Hate should be their sole prerogative, they seem to think
And criticism of the ever-whining Grant is well overdue. As a man who has achieved success and prominence in white society, he does not have much to complain about. And he deserves real ridicule for his heavy use of fake tan these days. He was originally only light brown in skin colour. One wonders how much more of him is fake
The ABC is worried about its Indigenous staff in the run-up to the referendum on the voice to parliament, managing director David Anderson has told parliament.
“I’m worried about Stan [Grant] but I’m also worried about our other staff,” Anderson said.
“I’m worried about our First Nations staff as we head towards a referendum on the voice to make sure that they are sufficiently protected.”
Grant recently stood down as Q+A host after receiving racist abuse that worsened after he spoke about the impact of colonialism in the lead-up to King Charles III’s coronation.
The ABC told a Senate estimates committee that Grant had taken eight weeks’ leave.
Anderson said the ABC had protective measures in place for staff, including blocking emails and turning off notifications, but “evil” comments still got through and were increasing.
Radio presenters who were live on air had watched their chat stream – a radio text line – fill up with racial abuse, Anderson said he had been told in recent days.
The ABC’s news director, Justin Stevens, revealed that every time Grant appeared on television there was a “particular spike” in the amount and volume of the racial vitriol received. The volume had increased since he appeared on the pre-coronation panel earlier this month.
Stevens said the ABC wanted to do more to support staff and to champion Indigenous perspectives, and one recent move had been the creation of the Indigenous reporting team led by Suzanne Dredge.
“She’s a fantastic journalist and editor who I’ve also appointed to my executive,” Stevens said.
Anderson and Stevens were asked why they invited journalists from News Corp on ABC shows such as The Drum, Insiders and Q+A when the company was a major critic of the public broadcaster.
They said they would not censor journalists or put a “blanket ban” on anyone who works for News Corp, despite earlier singling out the company out for its “relentless campaign” against the ABC.
On Monday Stevens accused News Corp of targeting the ABC because it was “trying to chip away [at] people’s sense of trust in what we do because we threaten their business model”. News Corp Australia has denied it played a part in Grant’s decision to stand down from hosting Q+A and has accused Stevens of misleading and unsubstantiated claims.
Stevens said the Murdochs employed some good journalists who had gone on to work at the ABC, including political reporter Nour Haydar, RN Breakfast host Patricia Karvelas and Insiders host David Speers.
“It’s not the journalists who work for these businesses who are necessarily making the decisions,” Stevens said.
Anderson confirmed the ABC had received 59 editorial complaints about the coronation coverage which would be investigated by the ABC ombudsman but he stood by the decision to have the discussion panel on the day of the coronation.
Grant along with lawyer and Indigenous writer Teela Reid, Liberal backbencher and monarchist Julian Leeser and co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement Craig Foster were invited to discuss the relevance of the monarchy and the impact of colonialism. The panel discussion lasted 45 minutes in the lead-up to the coronation and was over hours before the event itself.
Anderson said some “good faith” complaints had said it was “not appropriate to have the discussion”.
“It just was not what they were expecting, really reflecting that we hadn’t set the audience expectation about this,” Anderson said.
Anderson said the ABC received 169 “good faith” responses from viewers, 59 of which have been referred to the ABC ombudsman for a possible breach of editorial standards.
However, “hundreds” of others were racist attacks on Grant, he said.
The total number of audience contacts about the eight-hour coronation broadcast was 1,832 but 1,663 of those were discarded because they were comments not requiring a response – such as criticism of a presenter’s outfit – or they were “racist, abusive or insubstantial”, according to ABC figures.
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New push to lower speed limits for SUVs and other high-emission vehicles in Australia to combat climate change
Lowering the speed limit for larger vehicles must seem easy for an academic but would be murder for drivers. A less onerous policy might be to make the registration costs so high that only those who need big vehicles for work would buy them
A top professor has called for Australia to lower motorway speed limits for SUVs and other high-emission vehicles to combat climate change.
Australia's love for dual-cab utes, large SUVs and older vehicles is making the country one of the biggest petrol consumers in the world, a new report by The Australia Institute found.
Professor Lennard Gillman from Auckland University of Technology said one way to drastically reduce petrol consumption and carbon dioxide emissions is to drive slightly slower.
He believes Australia should introduce differential speed limits for high-emission and low-emission vehicles so cars that put out more pollution are forced to drive slower to reduce their environmental impact.
'Lowering the speed limit for high emission vehicles has the double effect of cutting emissions but also incentivises people to buy low-emission cars,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'In a vehicle like the Ford Ranger V6 you'll be expending 260g (of fuel) per kilometre. That's more than twice as much as a Toyota Corolla.'
He believes Australia should introduce differential speed limits for high-emission and low-emission vehicles so cars that put out more pollution are forced to drive slower to reduce their environmental impact.
'Lowering the speed limit for high emission vehicles has the double effect of cutting emissions but also incentivises people to buy low-emission cars,' he told Daily Mail Australia.
'In a vehicle like the Ford Ranger V6 you'll be expending 260g (of fuel) per kilometre. That's more than twice as much as a Toyota Corolla.'
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Qld schools accused of covert gender counselling without involving parents
Queensland parents have come forward to accuse school guidance officers of advising students as young as 12 on how to go about changing their names, pronouns, and gender – without including parents.
School guidance officers are advising students as young as 12 on how to go about changing their names, pronouns, and gender – without including parents.
Two Queensland families say they were cut out of the process for weeks, with one claiming a guidance officer encouraged their child to lie to support a potential case to cut ties with their parents.
The Department of Education said consent is needed for students to receive ongoing guidance officer support, but officers can judge whether a child be considered a “mature minor” – a legal test of a child’s intelligence and understanding – and consent to services themselves.
The allegations come after The Courier-Mail revealed teachers are being forced to deceive parents when a student asks the school to help them change their gender, pronouns or name.
In fresh claims, a mother to two daughters who both changed to male names and pronouns, said her younger child was “groomed” by the guidance officer at her Queensland state school.
The mother said her daughter – referred to as “Claire” – was groomed into believing her home was not safe if her parents did not affirm her new identity.
The mother claims Claire was encouraged by the guidance officer to make a false allegation against her mother’s husband, to support her case if she wanted to be considered a “mature minor” and move out of home in the future. In the end, Claire withdrew the allegations.
“It is telling anxious kids that their mother and father are not safe because they will not affirm (their new identity), they’re being exploited by these school counsellors,” Claire’s mother said.
Meanwhile, a father said his daughter spoke to her state school in late 2020 about changing her name and pronouns. Plans were made for this change to take effect in Term 1, 2021.
But the father was only informed by the school days before it resumed about his daughter’s planned name and pronoun changes and that she would wear a boy’s uniform.
The father believes his daughter spoke to the guidance officer for three months before he was informed. He said his daughter did not want him to know.
“They were going to put it (new gender identity) in place without telling me initially, just a flick of the switch. There was no communication and no support plan,” he said.
“I felt that the school took over that parental role.”
A Department of Education spokeswoman said guidance officers may refer students who require specialised support, for a range of reasons, to external support services.
“Consent for students to receive ongoing support from a guidance officer must be obtained,” the spokeswoman said.
“The Department provides comprehensive information to assist school staff, including guidance officers, in making decisions that ensure gender diverse students receive appropriate support, tailored to their individual needs.
“While consent is often provided by parents, guidance officers use their professional judgment to determine if a student has sufficient maturity and understanding to be considered a mature minor and therefore consent to services.”
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‘It’s like they are trying to change the meaning of property ownership’: Landlords threaten to sell up over further reforms
Leftist governments can be truly moronic at times
MORE than 80 per cent of property investors have warned they may sell up altogether if the Queensland government continues to hit them with reforms, in what is a troubling outlook for the state’s already strained rental market.
A survey of more than 3300 Queensland property investors, conducted by the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ), canvassed sentiment towards some of the ‘hot button’ changes proposed in the State Government’s stage two rental law reforms.
Those proposed reforms include making it easier for renters to install safety, security and accessibility modifications, to make minor personalisation changes, balance privacy of tenants with owners’ entry rights and need for information on their investment, changes to the rental bond process and to what fees and charges can be passed on to a tenant.
The REIQ survey revealed that 81.4 per cent of respondents said that recent and proposed tenancy law changes had influenced the likelihood that they will sell up.
To put that number into perspective, if all of those 81.4 per cent of the 3300 landlords who responded to the survey followed through on their threat, Queensland could lose nearly 2700 rental properties from the market.
While 62 per cent of respondents said they had considered selling their rental property in the past two years, 27 per cent said the primary reason for doing so was on account of rental law reforms.
REIQ CEO Antonia Mercorella said they had received an overwhelming and passionate response from Queensland rental providers, who may walk away from property investment due to yet another round of rental law reforms.
“The REIQ is concerned with ongoing and consistent rental law reforms in Queensland which are progressively eroding property investor rights along with their confidence,” Ms Mercorella said.
“Further withdrawal of properties from the rental pool amid the critical rental crisis in Queensland will have dire consequences on the market in both the short and long term.
“This wholesale reform of the rental market is in direct contradiction with what all stakeholders seem to be in furious agreement about – the need to boost rental supply.”
The survey revealed that 98.6 per cent of rental providers were opposed to tenants making any property modifications without their consent – citing various concerns regarding property value, safety regulations, unqualified works, costs to rectify or fix damages and insurance implications.
Further, if rental providers could only refuse a property minor modification by going through the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT), 83.7 per cent said it would impact their decision to keep the property.
More than half (64.5%) were opposed to minor personalised changes to rental properties without the owner’s consent and were apprehensive about the lack of definition of ‘minor’.
For example, 79.8 per cent of the survey respondents did not consider painting walls of the rental property to be minor.
Other concerns surrounding minor personalisation changes related to the risk of costly damages and repairs falling back onto property owners to rectify.
The potential cost burden of the various changes were frequently referenced in the respondent’s commentary, with the survey revealing that 75.6 per cent said that the current rent they charge does not cover all of their outgoings to hold the property.
The REIQ said that private investors were doing the majority of the heavy lifting when it came to the provision of rental housing in this state, and is cautioning against further reforms.
Ray White AKG CEO Avi Khan, who has over 2000 rental properties on his books, said the survey reflected what his team were hearing on the ground. “It is like they are trying to change the meaning of property ownership,” he said. “I had one landlord saying he felt like he was losing control of his own asset.
“Landlords are feeling like they no longer have 100 per cent ownership of their own properties as reforms move in favour of the tenant and it is causing huge confidence issues for investors in Queensland.
“It is like the people making these proposals don't own investment properties.”
Mr Khan said the number of investors seeking appraisals was “through the roof”, adding that the vast majority were interstate investors who perceived that the government was taking control of their own assets away from them.
“And if that continues, it will only make the rental crisis worse,” Mr Khan warned.
“We have to keep in mind that with interest rates rising as fast as they have, and borrowing capacity crashing, it is not like it will be tenants who will be buying these properties if an investor decides to cash out.
“In terms of trying to address the housing crisis, they (the government) are just shooting themselves in the foot.”
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Evelyn Rae, a 
Sahara Ray is undoubtedly a good-looking woman. Since she is Australian-born there is even a possibility that we may be distantly related
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