Australian Politics
Great Barrier Reef undergoing mass bleaching event
Hoagy is back! Professor Hoegh-Guldberg is once again being an alarmist. He went silent for a few years when his own research showed the reef to be very resilient against damage. But he seems to like attention
Less excitable people below, however, give a more positive and much less alarming picture
The Great Barrier Reef has been hit by its fifth mass coral bleaching event in the past eight years. That event has led experts to ask whether Australia's environmental icon has reached a tipping point.
One of the world's leading coral authorities, Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland, is worried it has.
"I know that's shocking … but that's the type of system we're working with at the moment," Professor Hoegh-Guldberg told 730.
The chief scientist for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA), Roger Beeden, believes such a call is premature.
"Right now, what we've got is a system is that is actually bouncing back from particular events," he said
But he does concede the repeated mass bleachings are taking a toll. "There is no doubt that these events are a clear alarm signal that we all need to be acting on climate change," he said.
The GBRMPA declared a mass bleaching event was underway in Australia last week but how it effects the reef remains to be seen.
"We won't know how significant that is until it plays out, and that's going to play out probably over the next six to eight weeks," Dr Beeden said.
The worst affected areas appear to be in the southern region of the reef.
And when 7.30 showed Professor Hoegh-Guldberg video and images taken recently by the media company, the Undertow, he was alarmed. "I think it's devastating," he said.
"This is an advanced bleaching event and I think a lot of coral is going to die.
"Not only are the branching corals bleaching, which are the sensitive ones, but the bommies, really large long-lived corals are also bleaching severely.
"And these bommies have been around for 200 years, so the fact that they're dying under these conditions should set off the alarm."
Not all bleached coral dies – some of the severely bleached coral from a 2016 event in the north of the reef has survived.
"For those areas that were affected by coral bleaching you can see some recovery in some places. Other places there's no recovery and you can see that full spectrum of things," Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said.
He says that while it's vital to ensure reefs remain resilient through programs such as improving water quality, repeated bleaching events make recovery harder each time.
"What we do know is that if you increase the events that damage coral and you don't give them enough time to recover, you end up losing coral," he said.
"We've seen bleaching come and go, and what we're seeing here in this 12 to 18 months is that we will see the tipping point exceeded and the system crash."
"As to what that means exactly in terms of species and how that will play out, the ebbs and flows, we don't fully know," Dr Beeden said.
"It's certainly clear from the global science that we're putting pressure on reefs."
But the GBRMPA chief scientist also says the Great Barrier Reef has shown remarkable resilience.
"Given enough time, and a lack of other pressures, coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef are still able to bounce back from these kind of events."
A 2022 survey by the Australian Institute for Maritime Science showed coral cover across the Great Barrier Reef was at its highest level since it began records 37 years earlier.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-14/great-barrier-reef-mass-bleaching-coral-devastated/103588726
************************************************Sydney University will recruit hundreds of new teaching-focused academics in what it says is a bid to improve student experience and place a higher value on teaching in higher education.
This is just more dumbing down of education. Getting research published is the guarantee that the teacher's knowledge is at cutting-edge level. Take that away and a teacher might have no expertise to share. The students might just as well read the latest book on the subject. I did a lot of research in my academic career and I always had a LOT to say in the classroom that was not in the books
Vice chancellor Mark Scott said the roles would carve out a new career path for teaching specialists in academia, allowing them to fill some of the most senior roles at the university.
However, some are unhappy about the plan, suggesting it creates two tiers of academics by removing a focus on research.
The university will on Monday launch an international campaign to recruit more than 150 tenured academics after an initial appointment of internal applicants across 55 new roles.
The teaching-focused positions will be for every career stage, from lecturers to full professors and senior leadership roles across a broad range of disciplines.
Scott said for students the key engagement with the university is around what happens in the classroom, not in the research lab.
“Our most brilliant teachers should be as famous and revered in the institution as our most brilliant researchers are today,” he said.
“I have a view that we owe every student a transformational experience here at the university.
“They’re paying higher fees than students have ever paid in this country.
“So to prioritise appropriately teaching and learning as important as we do research - that’s what we need to do. I think that’s what the great global universities do.”
Teaching-focused academic roles are controversial among many academics who see the roles as career-limiting and involving intense workloads.
The jobs came about as part of protracted EBA negotiations with staff which concluded last year. The university agreed to introduce 330 new permanent academic roles to reduce casualisation of the workforce but 220 of those were to be teaching-only positions.
It contrasts with the existing deal for academics which guarantees they spend 40 per cent of their time on research, 40 per cent on teaching and 20 per cent community engagement.
English and linguistics academic Nick Riemer, the university’s National Tertiary Education Union branch president, said there was a clear effort from senior management to break the teaching and research nexus.
“There should be more academic jobs at the university because at the moment it has an overreliance on casualisation and that just involves outright exploitation,” he said.
“But we are very seriously concerned that university management seems intent on separating teaching and research, which are academic functions which intrinsically belong together.
“If you’re not researching in your fields you’re passing on doctrine.”
Riemer said the education-focused roles that exist at the university were subject to high levels of overwork.
“And there’s every reason to think uni management see teaching focus roles as just a cheap way of getting staff to do a lot of teaching without giving them the time for the research they need to do to stay up to date,” he said.
But Scott said teaching at higher education level had been undervalued, and the roles would create viable career options for teaching specialists.
“We’re creating a career pathway that says to the very top end of the professoriate, people who are teaching experts can have a career pathway to the very top,” he said.
One of the first internal recruits for the roles, Louis Taborda, senior lecturer in project management, said he chose teaching because he saw it as a noble cause.
He began his career as a high-school maths and computer science teacher, then worked as an IT consultant before moving to academia.
“I felt right at the beginning that getting into teaching was something that was noble, pure and unadulterated,” he said.
“It’s absolutely a pleasure to watch students grow.”
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South Australia introduces sweeping reforms to REDUCE the availability of rental accomodation
The more you restrict what owners can do, the more reluctant they will be to let their properties out
From March 1, rent price increases are now capped at one increase for every 12 month period.
There is a dramatic lift in penalties for landlords who discriminate against a potential tenant who has children, with the maximum fine rising from $2500 to $25,000.
And a landlord who falsely states he or she requires possession of a rental premises in order to terminate a tenancy can be hit with a maximum fine of $50,000 from an earlier maximum penalty of $2500.
The changes follow the illegalisation of rent bidding – the practice of landlords or real estate agents soliciting higher bids for a rental above the listed price – in September last year.
The change means landlords can no longer able to advertise properties with a rent range, put properties up for rent auction or solicit offers over the advertised rental price, with a penalty of up to $20,000 in place for breaches.
Later this year, a third tranche of reforms will stabilise the rental experience ever further.
South Australia will extend the notice period to end a tenancy from 28 days to 60 days, permit tenants to have pets in rentals with “reasonable conditions” and ensure rental properties comply with minimum housing standards.
Consumer and Business Affairs Minister Andrea Michaels said the government’s reforms struck the “right balance” between protecting both the rights of tenants and landlords.
“At a time when South Australian tenants are facing unprecedented levels of housing insecurity, we want to ensure tenants have the best possible protections in place including stronger rights, more financial stability and better long-term security,” she said.
“Landlords also deserve protection to ensure their property is being properly taken care of, which is why we have also increased penalties available for those tenants who fail to live up to their responsibilities.”
Tenants who intentionally cause serious damage to a rental property now face fine of $25,000 from $2500 before the changes.
What the numbers show
Data from SQM Research shows average weekly rents for both houses and units continue to rise across much of Australia.
Some cities have recorded double digit growth in rent prices in the past 12 months, including Adelaide, which recorded a 13 per cent rise in combined house and unit rent prices.
Adelaide has a vacancy rate of 0.5 per cent while Perth’s market is the tightest, with a vacancy rate of 0.4 per cent.
Sydney’s rate is 1.1 per cent.
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Complaint filed to Human Rights Commission against WA child protection department
Great! Absolute silence on WHY Aboriginal children are still being removed wholesale from their families by social workers. If you have seen how brutal Aboriginal men often are towards women and children you will know that the removals often save lives. How incorrect that is!
A law firm has lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) against Western Australia's Department of Communities over the allegedly discriminatory removal of First Nations children from their families.
It is the second of four complaints filed against state government child protection departments and Shine Lawyers is claiming that widespread racial discrimination has led to the unlawful and unjust removal of Indigenous children into state care.
Shine Lawyers also says government departments have failed to reunify these children with their families.
First Nations woman Lisa* was removed from her family when she was six and lived in at least 10 different foster homes.
"I felt like [the Department of Child Protection] destroyed everything that I could have had with my family," she said.
Lisa said she lost connection with her mum and cried for her every day when she was sent to live 600 kilometres away.
"I still cry for them," she said.
"I still miss them and I still don't get it back — I never get the love back."
Now 20, Lisa said she relived her childhood trauma when her six-week-old daughter was taken from her and placed into care.
"Since I lost my connection with my mother, I don't want to lose it with my daughter," she said.
Lisa does not want her baby growing up thinking that she is not loved.
"I never got a chance to love her before they decided to take her away from me," she said.
Shine Lawyers special counsel Caitlin Wilson said despite legislative intervention, inquiries, policies and reports, and the fact that these statistics have been reported for years, the over-representation of Indigenous children in the child protection system had not decreased.
"Sadly, Western Australia has the highest over-representation rate in the country," Ms Wilson said.
"We're seeing a real failure when someone is identified early on during their pregnancy, a failure of the department to wrap support around that person and help them with housing issues or domestic violence, substance disorders, whatever it might be.
"Instead they're removing the child at birth and it's too late for anyone to do anything at that stage."
The complaint in WA follows one in New South Wales in January and class actions are set to be launched against government departments in four states, including South Australia and Victoria.
WA Minister for Child Protection Sabine Winton said she could not comment specifically on the case in the AHRC, but she was proud of her department's work.
"Aboriginal children are over-represented in the out-of-home care system, there's absolutely no doubt of that," she said.
"We are working hand-in-glove with the federal government to meet our national commitments to closing the gap."
Ms Winton said recent changes in the out-of-home care system showed the direction the department was moving in.
"We now have 16 organisations who support young children in care … of those, six are now Aboriginal-controlled organisations," she said.
"This time last year there was only one Aboriginal-controlled organisation.
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Battery Storage Plans Fan Community Bushfire Fears
A northeast Victorian community is fighting plans to build battery storage in an area of extreme bushfire risk, as the state government closes one avenue of appeal.
Mint Renewables and Trina Solar plan to build two battery energy storage systems (BESS) near the Dederang terminal station in the Kiewa Valley.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Dederang’s Sharon McEvoy, who owns farmland next to the proposed sites, told AAP.
“It’s north-facing, and backs right up next to the bush ... surrounded by bushfire management overlays.”
Ms. McEvoy led a community meeting, as more than 200 frustrated residents of Dederang and nearby communities filled the recreation reserve hall and spilled out onto the deck and foyer.
“We know the fire risk,” she told the crowd on March 14.
Battery fires can burn for several days and release toxic and flammable gasses, as seen in 2021’s four-day fire at the Tesla Big Battery site near Geelong, west of Melbourne.
“We care about the environment, the waterways, and the land where we live and work,” said Ms. McEvoy, while fighting back tears.
“The government is sacrificing the wellbeing of rural communities.”
The meeting came hours after the Victorian government announced plans to fast track new renewables projects, including stripping the ability of third parties to appeal planning decisions in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
“Once the reforms come into effect, new permit applications for batteries can be considered under this new accelerated pathway,” a spokeswoman for the department transport and planning told AAP.
“Our accelerated pathway for renewables projects will help deliver cheaper and cleaner energy to Victorian households sooner.”
The department has not yet received permit applications for either of the Dederang battery storage projects, and applications made from April 1 can be considered for fast tracking.
The state government maintained community voices would continue to be protected, despite the curtailing of VCAT access.
“Third party objections will still have a place in the approvals process, but this change prevents time-consuming and repeated delays that hold these projects back for years,” the Victorian government said on March 14.
Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said the issue went far beyond a state planning issue.
“What is happening to your community is happening right across the country,” Senator McKenzie told the crowd.
“We’re all on the journey to net zero, but we need to share the burden.”
Both Chinese-owned Trina Solar and Mint, owned by Infratil and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation, opted not to attend the meeting.
“We are updating our design and developing mitigation measures to ensure the project is well-informed by local knowledge,” Mint said in a statement.
“We will continue to be open and responsive to questions and constructive feedback.”
Ovens Valley state MP Tim McCurdy said residents should direct their concerns to Victoria’s minister for planning, Sonya Kilkenny.
“We’re not anti-renewables, we just want communication,” Mr. McCurdy told the crowd.
“We want to know what’s going on.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/battery-storage-plans-fan-community-bushfire-fears-5607927
************************************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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