Morrison government quietly mothballs laws to protect gay students and teachers

The Morrison government has quietly mothballed an inquiry which would have paved the way for long-promised laws to protect gay students and teachers from being expelled or sacked from religious schools.

The Australian Law Reform Commission has not yet started work on the inquiry, which was first referred to it nearly a year ago. President Sarah Derrington requested the deadline be extended until 12 months after the government's Religious Discrimination Bill passes Parliament - which is not guaranteed - making it highly unlikely any recommendations will be legislated before the next federal election.

Attorney-General Christian Porter made the change on March 2 but it was not announced by the government. The amendment appeared on the relevant webpage on the ALRC website last week.

Mr Porter told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age the delay "makes good sense as it will enable the commission to take into account the extraordinarily far-reaching public consultation process we undertook in developing the Religious Discrimination Bill".

But Anna Brown, a lawyer and the chief executive of LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Australia, said it was "irresponsible" to make the inquiry contingent on the bill's passage. "This spells danger and discrimination for students at religious schools, whichever way you look at it," she said.

The ALRC's general counsel Matt Corrigan said the commission asked for an extension because it was impossible to conduct the inquiry while the Religious Discrimination Bill was being considered by Parliament.

"We will not be starting on this inquiry until either a bill is passed or a final decision is made by [the] government," he said. "The two are inexorably linked and it's not possible to look at them separately."

Mr Morrison's initial 2018 pledge to protect gay students from being expelled or turned away from religious schools followed public outcry over the recommendations of Philip Ruddock's review into religious freedom, which revealed freedoms few realised existed under the law.

But later in the year the government back-tracked on that promise and referred the matter to the ALRC for a review, after failing to agree on a deal with the Labor opposition led by Bill Shorten.

In 2019, the government amended the terms of reference of the review to remove the issues being dealt with by the Religious Discrimination Bill, leaving the ALRC to focus on LGBTQ teachers and students. It also delayed the reporting date to 12 December 2020, with a discussion paper to be released in "early 2020".

The review has now been delayed for a second time, with an indefinite deadline of "12 months from the date the Religious Discrimination Bill is passed by Parliament". That bill has itself been delayed and reviewed multiple times, with no guarantee it will ever pass. The discussion paper's due date is now "TBA".

Even if the Religious Discrimination Bill becomes law this year, if the ALRC reports by late 2021 it is highly unlikely its recommendations would be legislated before the next election, due in 2022.

Mr Porter said the government still expected the bill to pass the Parliament. "But let's not forget that it was the former Labor government that introduced the exemptions allowing schools to exclude gay students," he said.

"That decision could have been overturned in the last Parliament, but Bill Shorten refused to allow a conscience vote, effectively blocking attempts by the Coalition to change the law."

Ms Brown said many faith-based organisations did not want the exemptions they currently enjoy under the law, and it was "irresponsible" to make the ALRC's long-awaited inquiry contingent on a bill that was "deeply flawed" may not pass.

"In the instance where the strong and broad community opposition to the bill prevails and it doesn't pass, the Prime Minister's promise to protect kids in schools looks destined to remain unfulfilled," she said.

There are relatively few instances of LGBTQ teachers being sacked or forced out of schools, and fewer still cases of LGBTQ students being expelled or turned away. But religious schools retain this power to discirminate and some of the major churches have expressed a desire to keep it.

For example, Sydney Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies apologised after a backlash to a letter he facilitated, signed by 34 church schools, which argued for the preservation of the schools' power to discriminate against gay students and teachers.

SOURCE  






Waverley's kids are reclaiming the streets from cars

Like most adults, Waverley Council's mayor Paula Masselos remembers playing in the street as a child. Concerned too few children today were playing outside with neighbours and spending too much time inside and online, Cr Masselos announced last month that four streets would close to cars on Sunday afternoons in a six-month trial of street play.

So many other residents expressed interest in street play that the council has opened applications – subject to approval from the council's traffic engineers – to any resident to apply to close their street for play for a few hours on any day of the week.

"People are very excited by this. They see it as important because it brings the community together," Cr Masselos said. "It's about reclaiming the streets, and bringing them back to the people."

During a visit to Cox Avenue, Bondi, last Sunday – a cul-de-sac participating in the pilot – a car revved by. "Slow down," yelled Cr Masselos who said there would always be some people who would ruin the experience of others.

Most people, though, were "pretty cool" with the closure, said local resident Alex Unsworth. Until Cr Masselos was appointed, locals from Cox Avenue had unsuccessfully applied to the council for permission to hold street parties. They went ahead anyway, said Mr Unsworth. Residents bought their own high-vis vests, a 'road closed' sign and red traffic cones, and learned how to politely usher cars in and out of the area.

"You've not been allowed to close the street for anything until now," Mr Unsworth said. Previously the street's application was treated the same as a big event like Sculpture by the Sea.

"We didn't have portable toilets, and an emergency evacuation plan, all that sort of stuff. So we kept on complaining and complaining. The reason we closed the street was that kids were playing and it was the only way to make it safe was to block traffic with the road closure sign," Mr Unsworth said. Residents didn't have insurance, and the pilot program by Waverley will provide that.

Older residents, neighbours without children and others have also joined in the street parties.

Patricia Puiu, whose children played on Cox Avenue after she moved there in December 1975, was "gratified" to see street play bringing people together. "It's a return to the old ways, the good ways, the civility, courtesies, and the children playing."

In a move unrelated to Waverley's trial, a group called Play Australia has received funding from Sport Australia to run a pilot program of street closures for children's play and community events in Perth, Melbourne and on the Gold Coast.

Play Australia's Barb Champion said street closures were as much about creating a sense of community as allowing children to play. "Over the past 20 to 30 years, people no longer know their neighbours. They don't get together, this is as much about community [connection] as it is about children's play."

SOURCE  






LNP gives Pauline poll lift

THE liberal National Party will tell its supporters to preference One Nation second in two upcoming state by-elections in a move that will add pressure to Labor's bid to hold on to Bundamba

LNP President announced the party would preference Labor last in the March 28 by-elections in Bundamba and Currumbin, but denied there was a deal with One Nation.

"There are no deals. Labor goes last; so other parties logically have to go before them," Mr Hutchinson said. "We'd rather not issue preferences at all, except that Labor has rigged the system to benefit themselves."

The move will deliver a boost to One Nation in the Ipswich-based seat of Bundamba, which was the centre of Pauline Hanson's political rise more than two decades ago.

Labor is likely to retain the seat vacated by rebel former MP Jo-Ann Miller, but the party also fears a surge in protest votes for One Nation.

Ms Miller held her electorate by a very safe margin of 21.55 per cent. Former LNP MP Jann Stuckey had a much slimmer hold on the seat of Currumbin, suggesting it could be a closer contest

One Nation operative James Ashby recently claimed the LNP planned to preference Labor ahead of the minor party and warned this would damage the Opposition's chances.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" of 14.3.20







Queensland bail houses are a failure

MORE than 80 per cent of young criminals who have been placed in the Palaszczuk Government's controversial bail houses have reoffended. The Courier-Mail can reveal that 121 of the 145 offenders who were part of the program between when it began in late 2017 and last month went on to commit more crime after leaving.

Slammed as "another complete failure" by the Opposition, the extraordinary revelation comes just a day after the government announced a crackdown on child criminals who are running riot and fuelling public anger across the state.

Minister for Child Safety, Youth and Women, Di Farmer, who has already committed to scrapping the program if it is found to not work, yesterday revealed the bail houses were now able to house homeless youths at risk of falling into a life of crime.

The change follows two reports released late last year highlighting problems with the Townsville, Logan and Carbrook centres, including that young offenders were not following house rules.

"We made a commitment to reevaluate the program at the end of this year and if Supervised Commmunity Accommodation is not proving to be successful after the implementation of reccommended  changes we will swcrap the program," Ms Farmer said.

Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington seized on the figures, slamming the houses as "another complete failure" while pledging to scrap them. "The LNP will shut the revolving door of justice by giving our police tough new laws and the resources they need to protect Queenslanders and their property," she said.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" of 12.3.20

 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

Rebuttals to climate skeptics

Every now and again some keen Warmist offers answers to climate skeptics.  I have commented on their arguments often over the years.  See here.  So I do not feel any pressure from the latest effort in that direction. 

The comments below are from a series of articles in news.com.au under the general heading "Time Is Now". The arguments presented are all rather old hat and deceptive but one of their arguments amused me.  Under the heading STARVING TO DEATH! we find the comment from Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick reproduced below

But the comment is not right.  Lots of Greenies DO want to shut down the coal industry right away.  They are very vocal about it. Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick does give herself an interesting "out" there however.  She speaks of "no reasonable person".  So by that criterion a lot of her fellow Greenies are not reasonable persons.  I must say I agree

And what she says should happen is as far as I can see exactly what the conservative Morrison government is proposing! It looks like Australia's Morrison government ARE reasonable persons in her book!

So she is a rather odd Greenie whom many other Greenies would disown.  She certainly does little to dent climate skepticism


“Firstly, no reasonable person is proposing we shut down the coal industry tomorrow and see what happens,” Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick said.

Reducing humanity’s reliance on fossil fuels is a big part of the long-term solution to combat the dire consequences of a changing climate.

But no one’s expecting people to sit in the dark by candlelight or to watch the economy collapse.

“Change is slow and that’s OK. But it needs to happen,” she said.

A transition to renewables would be gradual and managed to limit the social and economic impacts, and it would provide a wealth of new opportunity.

“It will be possible in the future to run off renewables,” she said.

“The technology now means it’s reliable, increasingly affordable and widely available. And the tech is getting better.”

SOURCE  





Coronavirus: it’s fatalities that count, not the numbers infected

When the Japanese bombed Darwin­ in World War II, killing more than 240 people, the Curtin government kept the news quiet for as long as it could. How would panic in Sydney and Melbourne help the war effort?

Truth, they say, is the first casual­ty of war.

In the social-media age every new case of coronavirus, no matter how mild, is pored over with lurid fascination.

As the health and economic ­crisis precipitated by COVID-19 deepens, authorities need to tread a fine line between urging calm, remainin­g publicly optimistic and ensuring people comply with measures to contain the virus.

It might seem like it, but this isn’t the world’s first flu pandemic. In 2009 H1N1 — known as “swine flu” — infected 61 million people and killed about 590,000 globally, 80 per cent of whom were younger than 65.

In 1968, the H3N2 flu killed one million people, including 100,000 in the US, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

About a decade before that, the H2N2 flu pandemic killed 1.1 million people.

None of the previous pandemics caused a recession, let alone a near 30 per cent drop in global stock prices.

This is, however, the first flu ­epidemic where everyone has a digital megaphone.

There’s no reason why this corona­virus should be far more deadly than those previous flu pandemics, provided the death rate ends up lower than feared.

On Friday, there were more than 47,000 people who had contracted COVID-19 outside China, including 128 in Australia.

If the number of infections grows at 15 per cent a day, more than 3.4 million people, including more than 9300 in Australia, will have the virus by Easter. If it grows at 20 per cent, about the average so far, it’ll be 12.6 million and 34,800, respectively. That’s still far fewer than caught swine flu in 2009.

It’s the apparent death rate, espec­ially in Italy, which has struck fear in the community.

The World Health Organisation’s official death rate of just less than 4 per cent for COVID-19 has naturally drawn comparisons with the devastating Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19, which killed between­ 50 million and 100 million people globally.

But 3.6 per cent must be an overestimate. Logic dictates many thousands more people have been infected with COVID-19 than the 125,000 official cases. The disease is highly contagious. International travel has only very recently been curtailed.

Most of all, the incentive for someone to volunteer him or herself for testing is very weak. Even in victims, such as Melbourne doctor­ Chris Higgins, in his 70s, who controversially kept working, symptoms can be very mild.

While it might not be in the interest­s of public health for an individu­al with cold or flu-like symptoms, discreet recuperation in ignorance seems a better option than seeking a test.

Quite aside from the hassle and costs of getting a test, a positive finding would cause significant disruption, including potentially forced quarantine or even loss of job.

Telling friends you have a cold, rather than coronavirus, goes down much better at social events.

The number of deaths from COVID-19, more than 4700 glob­ally as of Friday, is therefore a far more reliable and relevant statistic than the number of infections. And this death toll, while sure to surge, is a long way from the millions killed by virulent flu outbursts in the 1950s and 60s, when the economy was booming.

Finally, populations today are far healthier and more resilient than in the aftermath of World War I, before antibiotics existed to cauterise the secondary infections that flu can induce.

“Extrapolating from the mortality­ rates reported for the Spanish flu to 2004, 96 per cent of the projected 50 million to 80 million fatalities worldwide might occur in developing countries,” writes Walter Scheidel in his 2017 economic history of war and disease­, The Great Leveller.

Researchers are much more likely to find a vaccine quickly in 2020 than 1920 too. But what if develop­ed countries can’t control the virus, as China, where infection rates have tapered off, appears to have done?

Health experts have criticised the US and Australia for doing too little too late, failing to cancel large gatherings, close schools, and compel workers to stay at home. “The US response has just been appalling,” says economist Saul Eslake.

“If we can believe the Chinese data, at some point people will draw sharp contrasts between China’s response and how the US has dealt with it, in ways that won’t be helpful to those who believe in the superiority of US-style ­democracy.”

Democracies can’t so easily compel their citizens to quarantine; governments with an eye to re-election want to upset as few voters as possible.

Indeed, large private companies, perhaps fearful of potential lawsuits, have been far stricter in their quarantine and precautionary policies than state and federal governments.

German Chancellor Angel Merkel reckons up to 70 per cent of her country will contract the virus.

Even if the mooted death rate proves an overestimate, widespread contraction of the COVID-19 will cause major economic and social disruption.

How much is impossible to predict­. Economic forecasts, includin­g the effectiveness of the so-called stimulus, are based on what’s happened in the past.

We don’t know household and business spending and investment patterns in the grip of a deadly viral pandemic.

As toilet-paper hoarding illustrates, herd mentality can erupt in unexpected ways.

It remains to be seen whether house prices, which have a much bigger effect on household confid­ence than shares, slump in sympathy with shares.

Central banks, with official rates already practically zero everywhere, are rapidly running out of ammunition to keep proppin­g up asset prices.

The US government, heavily indebted and already borrowing about $US1 trillion ($1.56 trillion) a year, has little scope to introduce a major stimulus package.

If 70 per cent of the over-80s contracted the coronavirus, even with a 2 per cent death rate, almost 14,000 would perish in Australia alone — an extraordinary tragedy. Health workers, hospitals and aged-care homes would come under severe strain.

Severe pandemics, argues Scheidel, for all their horror, have tended to improve income inequalit­y by creating a shortage of workers, increasing wages, while reducing the value of assets, which mainly hurts the rich.

Whatever its ultimate spread, COVID-19, which attacks largely the elderly, appears poised to ­deliver all of the horror and loss of wealth, with no increase in wages.

SOURCE  






University O-Week censors excel themselves

“Free speech crisis? What crisis?” Uttered in freaky unison, this frequen­t denial from university vice-chancellors has allowed them to resume normal programming.

That consists of VCs putting their heads in the sand rather than confronting those trying to nobble intellectual diversity on campus. It includes VCs sending long emails about how proud they are of their diversity programs, with no sense of the irony that diversity of opinion is not part of that program. And it means VCs devoting more energy to attracting foreign stud­ents than defending freedom of expression.

How much longer can univer­sity leaders ignore the accelerating rhythm to raids on free speech at Australian universities? Today, the most brazen opponents of free speech within universities are those who control student unions. Funded by other students’ money, the leaders of student unions use their union muscle to control what other students hear, read and learn. Not content with running social events, defending students’ rights or holding university management to account, a small group of students have assumed a new role as campus censor. And they imagine that if they provide a band and a BBQ, they can flex their polit­ical arm without reproach.

On Tuesday afternoon, the student association at Melbourne’s Monash University, which runs Orientation Week stalls, BBQs and other events aimed at offering students “a diverse introduction to Monash”, rejected an application from Generation Liberty to be part of the program’s activities.

Generation Liberty is a program run by the Institute of Public Affairs for young Australians, includi­ng university students, introduc­ing them to ideas, arguments, and perspectives that they may have missed at school or university. The program is a big hit; its growth, especially over the past 12 months, points to a real hunger for knowledge not addressed by schools and universities.

In an email, events officer Michel­e Fredregill from the Monash­ Student Association told fellow Monash student Luca Rossi, a Generation Liberty co-ordina­tor at the university: “We have carefully reviewed your booking request and discussed it internally. Regretfully we must decline your booking application on the basis of our terms and conditions. Generation Liberty’s positions on issues such as climate change do not align with MSA’s.”

This is what happens when zealotry is threatened by facts. There is nothing in the terms and conditions to justify denying Genera­tion Liberty’s application to be part of O-Week, which kicks off on Monday.

In any case, a student union, or any other body, cannot use “Ts & Cs” to contract out of obligations under Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act 2010 not to discriminate against a person on the basis of their political beliefs or activities.

More sinister is MSA’s reference to not aligning with “Generation Liberty’s positions on issues such as climate change”. Neither Generation Liberty nor the IPA has a “position” on climate change. The 77-year-old research organisation and its younger offshoot, known as Gen Lib, produce research­ based on facts: the rest is left up to who is reading, listening or watching IPA papers, podcasts or YouTube videos.

Rossi, 19, has hit back at this MSA censorship. “As a student at Monash, it is insulting for your ­student association, who supposedly represents you, to basically say you can’t be trusted with your own thoughts, we have to think for you.”

The Monash law/arts student features in a series of Gen Lib YouTube videos launched late last year called What I Wasn’t Told.

At last count, What I Wasn’t Told … About Climate Change had attracted just shy of 200,000 views. The video includes links for the curious to read the research that justifies every statement.

Rossi says had Gen Lib been given the chance to join O-Week, “we would have set up a stall, handed out some stickers and badges, and if some students want to have a chat with us, then we give them the idea of freedom. And that’s it.”

What exactly are the officeholders of the student union at Monash afraid of? That some ­inquisitive students might grab a vegan burger from the MSA BBQ, then wander over to the Gen Lib stall and pick up a free sticker ­carrying the Jordan Peterson quote “In order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive”?

Or maybe they fear the badge carrying these words from Ricky Gervais: “Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right.”

Another badge says: “Make ­Orwell Fiction Again.”

The only steadfast position taken by Gen Lib is a belief in open inquiry and students thinking for themselves. Clearly this belief in intellectual diversity does not align with the MSA.

Rossi, one of 16 Gen Lib campus co-ordinators at 15 Australian universities, is frustrated by the lack of transparency, too. “It’s shady,” he says, alluding to the decision by MSA president James McDonald to fob it off as an “operations issue” in answer to Rossi’s request for more details as to why the student union rejected Gen Lib’s application.

“It’s basically as little transpar­ency as possible: ‘You’re not allowed­ to be here because we don’t agree with your views. Now please go away’,” says Rossi.

Alas, passing the buck about incursio­ns into intellectual diversity happens at the highest levels about an issue that should be embedded in the DNA of every serious ­university.

When the student guild at the Queensland University of Technology refused Gen Lib’s applic­ation to be part of Market Week last month, vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil learned about it from the media and responded by ­saying QUT was committed to “a variety of contesting viewpoints”.

But when this asserted belief in contesting viewpoints has not filtere­d down to the student guild, it is clear that intellectual diversity is not embedded in QUT’s culture.

The dirty little secret is that stud­ent unions are baying campus censors, too. And it takes only a handful of students who control events such as Market Week at QUT and O-Week at Monash to undermine intellectual diversity for the rest of the student popul­ation. IPA research compiled last year revealed that 59 per cent of students believe they are sometimes prevented from voicing their opinions on controversial issues by other students.

For student unions, freedom of speech is a controversial issue.

It is a stark failure of logic and leadership when VCs try to dodge responsibility by saying stud­ent unions are “independent” from university administration. Student unions hold functions on campus, they are meant to represent other university students, and student unions are partly funded by ­compulsory student services and amenities fees paid by every stud­ent, except international ones.

Who then, if not university ­administrators, will hold these student censors to account?

It is not unreasonable for VCs, acting on behalf of all students, to require students within student unions or guilds to commit, in practice, to freedom of expression, open debate and intellectual diversity. That starts with O-Week ­activities.

Instead, there is a failure of accounta­bility right up and down the line. Just over a week ago, new Tasmanian Liberal senator Claire Chandler questioned professor Nick Saunders, chief commissioner of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, the body charged with holding universities to their part of the funding deal — universities receiv­e federal funding from taxpayers in return for delivering intellec­tual inquiry on campus. Saunders said the regulatory body has no authority to rein in censorship by student unions.

Chandler tells Inquirer: “One of the real policy questions that has to be answered here is: does a university’s obligation to promote free speech on campus extend to student unions … given that these unions are getting funding from universities, through services and amenities fees that are compulsory?”

Of course it should. More than that, it is time to restart the battle over compulsory fees that prop up these student censors. Whereas the Coalition government abolished­ compulsory student unionism in 2005, the Gillard governmen­t reintroduced them in 2010 in the form of the services and amenities fee. Ten years later, stud­ent unions are using these compulsory fees to fund their censorship­ of ideas and people on campus.

Chandler, who is passionate about universities fostering ­genuine intellectual freedom to sharpen young students’ minds, says that if the model code recommended by former High Court chief justice Robert French in his review of free speech at Australian universities doesn’t capture oblig­ations of student unions to free speech, then this “gap” needs to be addressed.

Fill the gap, by all means, but a code will not necessarily change a culture.

I saw a similar problem up close as a member of the ABC board for five years. There was, and remains, a deeply embedded culture among journalists, producers and higher levels of the tax-funded media behemo­th opposed to the intellectual diversity that is explicitly requir­ed under its charter.

Internal codes which purported to commit the ABC to their legislative charter made no difference up against that culture. Instead­, even egregious cases of bias by journalists were routinely met with management claims that editorial policies are too vague, dodging any finding of a breach of the policy. Management would suggest the ABC board redraft the policies, a useless “make work” exercise­, to remove areas of grey.

When another glaringly obvious episode arose of bias, often from the same journalist — recidiv­ists were not hard to find — the board would receive the same response. It’s all rather grey so we can’t do anything. In other words: go away, our ABC culture trumps a code and even a legislative charter mandating intellectual diversity.

The same scenario will unfold across Australian universities. Even the most beautifully crafted free-speech code will count for nothing until there is meaningful cultural change.

And that will not happen until the Morrison government moves to reduce funding to universities that do not implement cultural change.

Over to Education Minister Dan Tehan to walk the talk, remembering too that academic freedom was thrown under the bus when James Cook University decided­ to sack professor Peter Ridd on a bogus code of conduct claim. JCU has committed to spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend that action in courts, rather than defend intellectual ­diversity.

In the meantime, we are left to ponder the state of a higher educatio­n where codes, laws, regul­ators and the media are needed to remind VCs and student union­s about the core business of a ­university.

SOURCE  






Passing the buck for out-of-control youth crime in Queensland

Do-gooder laws backfire

THE Palaszczuk Government has launched an extraordinary attack on the judiciary, blaming them, rather than its own laws, for out-of-control youth crime.

Announcing a $15 million "five-point plan" to deal with child criminals repeatedly flouting the law, Police Minister Mark Ryan gave a stinging rebuke to magistrates he said weren't keeping with the spirit of the new Youth Justice Act to maintain public safety and were letting too many "hardcore" offenders out on bail.

But Queensland Law Society president Luke Murphy said magistrates were simply following the laws. And the Opposition called for the same "catch-and-release" laws to be ripped up.

In his extraordinary broadside, Mr Ryan said the courts were not properly locking up child criminals, arguing the "intention" of the laws to protect public safety was clear. "The courts are not immune to criticism, and they should be called out when they get it wrong," he said.

"And quite frankly I think they have gotten it wrong in a number of instances recently. "They have to make decisions which fulfil the intention of the legislation and the intention of the legislation is clear — community safety comes first."

He gave an example of an 11-year-old boy who was only denied bail on his 11th offence. "Police have advised me they are aware of numerous examples where bail has been granted in circumstances that create concern for the community."

But Mr Ryan also admitted the Government was considering changing the laws again "if that intention is not clear to the courts".

"There is active consideration now about whether that intention is clear and what changes would need to be made to make that intention clear."

The Government's Youth Justice Act changes were clearly designed to ensure children must only be remanded to custody as a last resort. The Bill's explanatory notes said the legislation removed legislative barriers that were contributing to children being refused bail, breaching bail, or remaining in detention or on remand for extended periods.

And a statement issued by Youth Justice Minister Di Farmer at the time — entitled "New laws to help young people stay out of detention" — said police and judges would decide bail using their discretion to ensure community safety: "Whenever it is possible and safe to do so, we want young people out of detention, especially when they have not been convicted."

Mr Murphy  yesterday said Mr Ryan's attack was not justified and police had always had the power to appeal decisions if desired. "There is nothing to our knowledge that indicates any magistrate has incorrectly applied the Youth Justice Act since it was amended by the Palaszczuk Government last year," he said.

"Unless there is some dear indication that a magistrate has incorrectly applied the law, it is not appropriate to criticise them."

The Government yesterday confirmed its "five-point crackdown" on the 10 per cent of youth offenders who were committing half the crimes, as revealed in The Courier-Mail. It will see more police prosecutors put on to strengthen applications in which police oppose bail, and appeal decisions police disagree with.

On-Country rehabilitation will begin mid year in Townsville, Cairns and Mt Isa to help Indigenous offenders reconnect with society, school and employment and $2 million will be available to community organisations to devise local action plans.

A 24-7 Police Strike Team will include youth justice workers to case manage high-risk offenders into housing, school and employment.

Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers said that the union would now lodge a submission with the Government on how it needed to strengthen the Youth Justice Act 'to ensure juvenile repeat offenders could be taken off the streets and kept off the streets".

The changes come after months of community anger over youth crime waves in Townsville, Cairns, the Gold Coast and Brisbane that have seen some children bailed multiple times, only to continue to reoffend

Deputy Leader Tim Mander said the only way to solve "Labor's crime crisis" was to change the government. "The youth justice laws need to be changed; breach of bail as an offence needs to be reintroduced and we need to scrap Labor's catch and release laws as well," he said.

Townsville cleaner Julie Bird will not let juvenile offenders rule her life after a vicious bag snatching incident. The 54-year-old, who works at Stoddand Shopping Centre, often sees the crimes in action but never thought she would become a victim.

The grandmother was reading a book outside her work when two juveniles ran towards her, snatched her handbag and ripped her off a seat in the process. Despite the terrifying incident, Ms Bird said that she was determined to not let the young thieves get to her. "You just have to move on and still go to work," she said.

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" of 11/3/20

 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

English language takes a battering in pursuit of power

Graham Richardson

How is it possible that in a country as bold, big and beautiful as the US, there seems to be great difficulty in finding a leader who is ­literate, with Donald Trump continuing to wrestle with the ­language and fluff and flounder his way through his presidency?

The first George Bush had some idea of English but his son was an absolute shocker. Just how Americans feel when they hear their commander-in-chief fumble his words time after time I can only imagine. The American public, and Trump himself, obviously believed the transition from successful businessman to successful politician would be little trouble. They simply did not understand the skills required in each endeavour are very different.

Trump made his money as the deal-maker. When your life is consumed by the next deal, it is too easy to forget the welfare of all those who voted for you, those who voted against you and, the real majority in the US, those who did not vote at all.

Trump has the knack of knowing how to pitch an argument to the America many voters would like to see rather than the one it actually is; for example, “Make America Great Again”. He will never revive the smokestack cities Bruce Springsteen sings about, but he lets Americans dream that it might happen.

Meanwhile, back in the land down under, the advantages of ­incumbency are on display. Over the long summer break, MPs and senators continued to try to make their points to electors. The ­Coalition has more MPs than Labor so they have an automatic advantage, but the big head start they get comes from the ministerial offices. Chockers with staffers and hangers on, they continue to churn out propaganda.

I have never been too sure whether the majority of this stuff is ever read or merely tossed in the bin. I suspect the latter. Undeterred, the activists continue, oblivious as to whether anyone reads the stuff they are disseminating.

Last weekend, I was privileged to be allowed into the home of the leader of the Nationals, Michael McCormack. In the beautiful southern NSW town of Wagga Wagga, where he has spent his whole life, McCormack is happily ensconced with wife, Catherine, who is also a girl from Wagga.

McCormack has always had an interest in journalism and was the editor of the local Wagga paper at the tender ago of 27. My brief look at this other world showed me why people want to return to the bush. Clean air, spacious grounds with friendly, open neighbours.

Like so many people in the bush, he also believes that country racing is just as much about an ­opportunity for a family day out as it is about the races themselves.

When you get to know him, you can see he is bright, hard-working and diligent. Suffice to say he is safely entrenched in his rightful place.

SOURCE  





Fluorescent pink slug, unique to Australian mountaintop, survives bushfires



A fluorescent pink slug, found only on a single mountaintop in northern New South Wales, has survived the bushfires that burnt through much of its alpine habitat.

Around 60 of the brightly coloured Mount Kaputar slugs, which can grow to a size longer than a human hand, were spotted by National Parks and Wildlife Service rangers after recent rainfall in Mount Kaputar national park.

The Kaputar fire burnt through the area for more than six weeks from October to December 2019, affecting more than 18,000 hectares of land.

The mountain was formed by a now-extinct volcano, and is home to at least 20 species of snails and slugs found nowhere else in the world. The area has been identified as an endangered ecological community, the first of its kind in Australia.

Some of the fluorescent slugs would have managed to survive the fire because they had “retreated into rock crevices” in the heat, the Australian Museum malacologist Frank Köhler said.

But around 90% of the slug population, which also hibernates in bark and trees, would have been killed in the fire, he said.

Much of the slug’s food sources – fungi, moss and mould – would also have been burnt by the fire, but Köhler said these species should recover relatively quickly.

In coming months the slug might be at risk of being seen more easily in the burnt landscape by hungry birds and mammals, said Köhler, but the bright colour could also act as a warning to dissuade the predators.

The unmistakable slug is a “poster boy for snails and slugs” because of its distinctive colour, Köhler said, “but it comes with a number of other species that are similarly threatened by the fires that don’t get the same attention”.

SOURCE  






'Political correctness on steroids': Perth principal's birthday cupcake ban backfires

An attempt by a Perth primary school principal to ban cupcakes on birthdays has backfired after the state government stepped in to put the policy on hold in the wake of widespread outrage.

The move by Arbor Grove Primary School principal Glen Purdy was chided by both sides of politics, with WA Education Minister Sue Ellery voicing her support of birthday treats and Opposition Leader Liza Harvey labelling the move "political correctness on steroids".

The Ellenbrook school's note to parents raised eyebrows after telling them the school executive had been mindful of the increasing number of students with food allergies and intolerances, the cultural diversity of the school, and the beliefs and traditions of those cultures.

The note asked parents to no longer send students to school with cupcakes, lolly bags or other unhealthy options to share with their classmates when celebrating their birthdays.

If a student arrived with such items, teachers would no longer hand them out, instead returning them with the student at the end of the day.

"I acknowledge that this may not be a universally popular decision, however it does avoid the risk of a child suffering a potentially life-threatening health issue that may arise should they ingest an item they are allergic to, is respectful to the cultural diversity within the school maximising inclusivity, and supports the School and Education Department focus on healthy food choices for students," the note said.

But Ms Ellery said the move went too far, telling ABC Radio she was not aware of which "cultural sensitivities" there would be around cupcakes.

She told the Department of Education to ask the school to reconsider the policy, and in an updated notice to parents Mr Purdy said the school had put the new policy on hold, pending the outcome of a survey canvassing the school community.

"I will meet with members of the P&C and also provide the opportunity for all parents to have their say through an online survey," he wote.

Ms Ellery said ensuring parents were sensitive to students with allergeies was "perfectly reasonable and indeed appropriate".

"But banning cupcakes for cultural reasons is a bit beyond me," she said.

Ms Ellery said birthdays were important for students and was confident it was possible to find a way to celebrate birthdays with food "in a way that is safe and inclusive for all".

Opposition Leader Liza Harvey asked where common sense had gone.

"For goodness' sake. We shouldn't change our culture for other people's cultural reasons," she said.

A parent at the school told 6PR Radio her son had brought cookies for his kindergarten friends to enjoy on his birthday, but the following day the principal's decision was made public. She said parents were happy to work around allergies.

Mr Purdy told 6PR the school's focus was to put children's safety foremost and sharing food was not allowed. The issue of allergies and intolerances was a serious consideration.

"We do have a diverse culture clientele and some of our families do not have animal byproducts in their food offerings," he said.

"We have always as a school supported the celebration of birthdays and will continue to do so."

Western Australian Primary Principals’ Association president Ian Anderson said the majority of primary schools would have policies in place around students bringing cakes, treats and certain foods to schools due to allergy concerns and health issues.

“My understanding is that teachers will still celebrate birthdays in their classrooms and that the new policy is simply around bringing treats that could potentially develop an allergic reaction in a student," he said.

SOURCE  





The dark side of political correctness

“The PC movement is mad and dangerous,” says popular author and Australian Catholic University Fellow Kevin Donnelly.

“Instead of being able to discuss issues in a rational and impartial way, debate is shut down and reduced to ad hominem attacks based on emotion and politically correct groupthink.”

It’s a message he makes clear in his new book ‘A Politically Correct Dictionary and Guide.’

Though the book has a satirical nature and is accompanied with tongue-in-cheek cartoons by Johannes Leak, Donnelly highlights the underlying danger is kowtowing to political correctness.

“This is becoming a problem because it’s enforcing what I call ‘cultural left groupthink’, and cultural left language,” says Donnelly. “If you argue, for example, that multiculturalism isn’t the right thing, you’re attacked as xenophobic or racist.

“If you say a boy should be a boy, a girl should be a girl, if you’re against the whole LGBTQI transitioning movement, you’re attacked as homophobic or transphobic.

“There is a real problem I’d argue now in Australia in terms of the cultural left taking over institutions like schools and universities and enforcing this very strong ideological view of language and groupthink.”

A frequent writer for the Catholic Weekly’s comment pages, Kevin Donnelly has established a reputation as one of Australia’s leading conservative commentators and authors fighting against the cultural-left ideology and group think which many believe is poisoning society and stifling free and open debate.

Sky News commentator, journalist and former Chief of Staff to Tony Abbot, Peta Credlin describes Donnelly as “a rare and forthright warrior for common sense in a world where it’s more desperately needed than ever.”

“With his third book-length polemic against political correctness in just over a year, Dr Kevin Donnelly is on a veritable crusade against what he thinks is poisoning our teaching institutions, weakening our economy, and even sapping our ability to think clearly,” says Credlin.

“[His] latest work is full of telling examples of the cultural self-doubt that we need to recognise and resist.”

Donnelly remains optimistic, but is very aware of the potential dangers that can stem from political correctness. As he likes to quote from George Orwell’s 1984; “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.”

“It used to be I think, therefore I am,” says Donnelly. “Now it’s I feel, therefore I’m right. They’re not coming from a rational, critical aware point of view, it’s just emotion.

“And that’s the danger, once arguments are reduced to emotion, you’re on the short road to totalitarianism.”

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

Unis must be brought to book on funding

For waste and perverse incentives it’s hard to go past the nation’s 39 universities, which, recent events notwithstanding, wallow in billions­ of taxpayer dollars.

As productivity growth and graduate starting salaries stagnate, it’s time to question whether reforms­ to higher education have worked in the interests of tax­payers and students.

They’ve certainly worked in the interests of universities, whose swol­len bureaucracies have be­come­ ground zero for highly paid BS jobs in “strategy, engagement, culture” et cetera. Almost 60 per cent of the 120,000 staff at our universities are administrators, rather than teachers or researchers.

Direct commonwealth funding for universities has more than doubled since 2009, when the Labor government removed a cap on publicly funded places, to about $9.8bn this financial year.

An even bigger problem is the surging take-up of Higher Educa­tion Loan Program loans, whose number exploded from 308,000 in 2010 to 522,000 in 2015. From 2010 to last year the stock of outstanding HELP loans soared from less than $20bn to more than $62bn.

Taxpayers are making huge losses on these loans — only $75 in every $100 is expected to be repaid. That means many graduates, who have to begin paying loans back when their incomes rise above about $46,000 a year, aren’t earning­ enough to do so.

The Parliamentary Budget Office­ warned in 2016 that the cost to the budget of these loans would rise to about $11bn a year by 2025 — more than double the budget surplus pencilled in for this financial year.

For all the deluge of public funds, little was done to ensure quality control. Many academics concede privately that standards have fallen — grade inflation is rife and there is pressure to pass stud­ents, especially from overseas.

That’s not surprising given more of the population is being pushed into university education, when the students and the economy might be ultimately better served by an alternative vocational career. Economist Andrew Stone offers­ two excellent ideas for improving value for money in his new book Restoring Hope, a must-read for anyone sick of hearing vague calls for “reform” without specifics.

Universities should have more skin in the game, he argues. At the moment they enjoy direct and indirec­t taxpayer funding, via HELP loans and grants to universities, without having to worry too much about whether students and taxpayers benefit.

If universities want to be “businesses”, they should have to accept risks like businesses do.

“The current financing system gives universities a large financial incentive to enrol students who academically ought not to be there, and by failing to impose any accountability for whether or not these students actually receive any benefit from their studies,” Stone writes.

Put unis themselves on the hook, in part, for students debts. HELP loans would become joint loans, under Stone’s plan. Universities would be required to pay an annual interest charge on loans that weren’t being repaid. This would focus the minds of univer­sity administrators on the quality of their courses and the wisdom of enrolling students who are likely to benefit little from them.

Second, the government should oversee a standard set of tests accessible to all that people could use to demonstrate their literac­y and numeracy to employers — and far more cheaply and quickly than slogging through a three-year arts degree.

University is mainly about signal­ling one’s ability to employers compared to others, and too often not about learning anything vocationally useful. Employers can’t simply ask job candidates how good they are.

Sure, students with degrees tend to earn more than those ­without them, but that has little to do with what they have actually been taught at university. Anyone can sit in university lectures, for free, and binge on knowledge for as long as they want. But without the piece of paper at the end, it’s all, vocationally speaking, a waste of time.

“Young people feel the need to obtain tertiary qualifications — potentially spending several years in further study, accruing sizeable debts and forgoing substantial earnings — even though the training they receive is of little or no value, either educationally or in terms of specific job skills ­acquired,” Stone says.

In economic language, a big chunk of university study is consumpt­ion, not investment.

Each year, samples of graduat­ing students from all 39 univer­sities should also be required to sit these new, standard tests, so university grades could be compared consistently. Public and private high schools are already subject to similar quality control through ­national standard tests.

Outside narrow disciplines such as medicine, it’s hard to see how much of what is taught at universi­ty today is useful for any occupation. The vast bulk of graduate jobs, which are typically white-collar, require skills that are learned on the job.

Universities, understandably, will recoil at these two ideas, but they are both very much in the interests of the broader community. Especially as the economy turns down, we can’t afford to keep mindless shovelling scarce resources — both money and people — at universities.

SOURCE 






NRL defends divisive new TV ad after fans slammed its 'politically correct' focus on Indigenous issues and gay marriage

The NRL has defended its controversial new TV campaign featuring Tina Turner after fans slammed the ad for its 'political correctness' and embarrassing blunders.

NRL chief commercial officer Andrew Abdo said the commercial is not intended to be political and showcases highlight moments for the game over the past 30 years.

The two minute ad divided rugby league fans and sent social media into meltdown when it aired for the first time on Monday night, 11 days out from the start of the season.

Fans criticised the ad for being too being politicised after scenes of Latrell Mitchell draped in an Aboriginal flag and the famous footage of women's State of Origin couple Karina Brown and Vanessa Foliaki kissing after a match last year.

US rapper Macklemore's pre-match tribute to same-sex marriage at the 2017 Grand Final is also featured - as fans criticised his inclusion given his tenuous association with rugby league.

Mr Abdo stood firm, telling the Sydney Morning Herald the campaign was a showcase of the code's proud history.

'We’re not forcing anyone to believe in one thing or another,' he said. 'Those events have happened. Latrell is a superstar for us, Macklemore performed at the grand final in a moment we were really proud of. That brought our fans together and his performance was great.

'This campaign is not intended to be political. It’s a showcase of our history; our people, our events that shaped where we are today. The intent of the campaign is to embrace what’s happened in the last 30 years, but also to give a nostalgic feeling for people who are new to the game to understand the moments that have mattered so they can feel part of it.'

SOURCE






Hydrogen test at Stanwell

This is a reasonable idea but cost is likely to be the killer

A SMALL-scale hydrogen power test station is on the cards for central Queensland to operate alongside one of the state's biggest existing power plants.

The Morrison Government will today announce $125 million to go towards a feasibility study for cutting edge renewable energy technology. It will go towards seeing if a hydrogen plant can operate alongside the Stanwell power station near Rockhampton and how it can benefit to the existing power grid.

The proposal would be the largest hydrogen electrolysis plant in Australia if it goes ahead.

Being located next to the power plant would allow it to  be ramped up to generate hydrogen at peak times when there's an excess of solar power being generated. It could then be used to pump power back into the tern when needed.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor said hydrogen production could be a job creator as well as helping with the power supply.

Australian Renewable Energy Agency CEO Darren Miller said if it was feasible it could lead to more hydrogen plants across the country. "This will create opportunities across the domestic economy and help to position Australia to become a major renewable energy exporter!"

From the Brisbane "Courier Mail" of 11/3/20






Should the ABC sell news?

A digital news report last month by Brisbane-based ABC journalists Kate McKenna and George Roberts was disturbing reading.

It was also insightful, arguably a case of the national broadcaster working at its best, serving its audience just two days after deranged former rugby league player Rowan Baxter had murdered his family by dousing them with ­petrol and setting them alight.

With the nation still coming to terms with the horror of the crime, McKenna and Roberts pieced together Baxter’s abusive tactics leading up to the tragedy, based on witness accounts, and showed how a domestic violence order did not work.

Yet there was something seemingly unusual with this ABC story if readers stumbled across its ­publication on a news website called InQueensland.

At the top, next to the ABC’s story headline “Stalked and controlled: Hannah Clarke’s terrifying final days”, was a BMW advertisement. The sassy ad for the latest “Ultimate Driving Machine” urged readers to “Register your interest”. Immediately below was another ad for Griffith University, “rated in the top 2 per cent of universities worldwide”.

A quick scroll down revealed a third ad for Gadens law firm. Underneath the story appeared an ad for Q Super: “Welcome to Super without surprises.”

Could this be content from our taxpayer-funded, ad-free ABC? Is the public broadcaster’s news and current affairs up for sale — with advertisements? Apparently so.

This is not light infotainment, where it’s often hard to distinguish reportage from product placement, but the journalistic core of the ABC. And if this is creeping commercialism, it couldn’t come at a worse time.

Last week brought news of the closure of Australian Associated Press, the 85-year-old syndicated national newswire service that has been a staple back-up for media organisations around the country.

Its demise leaves a potentially huge gap in the impartial reporting of political, legal, sporting and other cultural life, and is a symptom of a wider problem for public interest journalism.

The rise of digital platforms such as Google and Facebook, enriched from exploitation of journalism painstakingly created by others, is destroying the commercial incentive to do the news and current affairs reporting vital for democracy.

The ABC’s recipient of its brand content, InQueensland, is a commercial website that offers free reader subscriptions while running paid ads. It was started on February 10 by media entrepreneur Eric Beecher and his business partner at Solstice Media, Paul Hamra, to cash in on a lucrative, untapped media market in the sunshine state.

As InQueensland’s publisher Peter Atkinson explains, there was room in Queensland’s market to appeal to the “AB demographic” of professionals, business leaders, public servants and other media consumers wanting “journalism with insights”.

Atkinson says the objective is not to compete directly with Brisbane’s The Courier-Mail — owned by News Corp Australia, publisher of this newspaper — but to fill a commercial niche. There are plans to sell off more than half of the Solstice-owned publication within 12 months.

On the same day InQueensland published the McKenna and Roberts bylined “Stalked and controlled” report, the ABC ran the same story by the same reporters in the same media market on its own domestic digital platform.

Atkinson says no extra taxpayer dollars were expended for InQueensland’s use of the ABC-branded content because it was pre-created. The McKenna-Roberts story led the InQld.com.au homepage because it was “breaking news” while other recent ABC reports on cyclone threats or a youth crime wave in far north Queensland had not featured so prominently, he said.

Loophole for ads

This duplication or multi-purposing of news is undeniably lawful under the ABC Act that regulates the national public broadcaster. It bans ads on the ABC (a taboo) but allows content sales with the loophole that ads can be wrapped around content originating from the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster, once it is sold to private interests. The ABC says it uses revenue generated from such sales — received outside its triennial $3.2bn budget allocation from the federal government — to “fund the production and promotion of ABC content”.

ABC chair Ita Buttrose told an annual “ABC Friends” dinner audience in September that she got angry at commercial colleagues sometimes claiming “the ABC has it easy — that we have guaranteed funding” when budget cuts meant that funding levels were not assured.

While accepting the ABC needed to meet its “charter” responsibilities, Buttrose said the organisation had to operate differently. “Things are evolving too quickly and, when faced with evolution, those who adapt survive,” she said.

Solstice’s Paul Hamra — who personally negotiated the InQueensland commercial agreement with Scott Kimpton, the ABC’s sales manager, current ­affairs, ABC content sales — told The Australian the arrangement was “transparent” and he understood it was one of many instances of the ABC syndicating news and other content to commercial third-party platforms over the past 15 years.

According to Hamra, he settled on a standard contract late last year with a monthly fee payable to the ABC for InQueensland to receive a “news feed” of approved content. The deal reached with Kimpton had to go “higher up” in the ABC organisation (it is not clear where) to gain a final sign-off.

Hamra takes the view that the ABC should broadcast or publish its content in as many places as possible.

With six permanent staff at InQueensland, including former News Corp journalists Sean Parnell, Dennis Atkins and Christine Jackman, he regards the ABC’s coverage, republished on his company’s site, as valuable in freeing up limited resources available so staff can focus on investigative and other reporting for the intended niche market.

“As a small operator, in addition to our reporting staff, we need syndication services that can contribute to resources. We are contracted out to AAP — and the ABC,” Hamra says.

Kimpton, the ABC’s content sales negotiator, declined to speak to The Australian, instead deferring to the broadcaster’s media team, which requested a list of questions.

An ABC spokeswoman said she could not comment on syndication matters that were “commercial in confidence” and reiterated, without going into any detail, that the ABC had provided syndicated content to commercial third parties for many years.

Can’t say too much

The ABC spokeswoman refused to answer some questions that did not seem to touch on commercial-in-confidence issues. They included basic detail of Hamra’s approach to Kimpton last year that Hamra was happy to confirm, and which ABC executive higher up the management chain (managing director David Anderson?) was responsible for final approval of the InQueensland syndication agreement and others.

The Australian asked for notable examples of agreements that were similar to InQueensland’s if, as the ABC claimed, syndication of news content was historical and commonplace. The ABC refused to provide any. Perhaps there is nothing directly comparable.

Much of what the ABC sells is not news but post-produced, post-aired drama and documentaries to overseas buyers.

One local news and current affairs example often quoted is the ABC deal struck with Yahoo7 in 2013. Yet this agreement, as a ­“content sharing” agreement for a joint online news operation, is not similar to InQueensland’s.

Several joint exercises in journalism between the ABC and the former Fairfax Media group, before the latter’s sale to Nine Entertainment, are also not comparable, although the ABC’s content engagement with a newspaper group that ran ads did raise some eyebrows. Advertising has also popped up next to the public broadcaster’s content on YouTube channels.

The New Daily, an online news site for which Hamra company Motion Publishing (owned by Solstice Media) is contracted to provide content, pays for video services from the ABC. It runs a special ABC-provided feed called “The News in 90 seconds” but has no agreement in place to run ABC-­syndicated content, as InQueensland does.

What will be made of the opportunity opened up by media outlets no longer having recourse to the quick, politically straight and plentiful news reports from the AAP wire?

It has already been suggested by Kevin Rudd, among others, that the ABC should fill the void. Yet to do so could impinge further on the ABC’s original non-commercial purpose and contradict its charter.

The ABC declined to comment on whether it was contemplating a future role in offering syndicated news content services to commercial media across the board. One senior source said it was “too early to say”.

With AAP’s pending closure, Hamra argues “someone” should keep funding this historically important wire service.

Guardian Australia editor Lenore Taylor, whose publication has used AAP to cover courts and events her publication cannot, was noncommittal when asked if she would consider approaching the ABC for a news syndication agreement to replace the closing wire service, but it appears options are under consideration.

“Some of the smaller media organisations are in discussions about how they might fill the gap,” Taylor told The Australian.

Beecher, a former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald in its 1980s heyday with a track record since as a successful media business entrepreneur, has been a fierce defender of independent media throughout his career.

As proprietor of his company, Private Media, which owns Crikey and The Mandarin, and as chairman of Solstice with a small shareholding, Beecher has also been a noted past critic of the ABC, even challenging its right to exist in 2014 for trying to compete against commercial media in areas “that are already well served”.

Beecher’s main beef, then, was that the ABC’s charter was a “fuzzy motherhood manifesto” unclear about priorities and open to interpretation by the managing ­director. He spoke at the time, with more than a hint of bitterness, about the ABC spending its vast budget regardless of the “commercial impact on independent media”.

Beecher also gave the ABC a big serve in 2010 about its venturing into commentary with The Drum. “Operating in the commercial space, we expect vigorous competition from other commercial publishers,” he told The Australian then.

“But to see the ABC roll up on our lawn was bewildering.”

The media businessman does not resile from these views, regardless of his company’s pragmatic decision to deal with the ABC now. But he says he supports the sale of ABC content and believes the broadcaster should do more in the area of selling news and current affairs, once created, to defray costs and help finance production.

Beecher sees no conflict between what is happening in news syndication and the ABC’s charter. Nor does he see a difference between ABC third-party sales to overseas markets of programs such as Four Corners or Foreign Correspondent, and the sale of ABC news stories into the home market where the ABC publishes the same material, even on the same day.

“As one of its 25 million owners, I’m a huge advocate of the ABC selling the content it has already created to generate revenue to improve its budget,” Beecher told The Australian.

“If that content appears on websites or screens that also, ­separately, carry ads — which are clearly not on the ABC’s own platforms — there’s no issue.

“I’d be fairly sure that my co-owners (of InQueensland) would agree with anything that enhances the ABC’s bottom line and retains the full integrity of the content.”

Don’t flog the news

A former senior ABC executive says he has no problems with the broadcaster’s sale of drama series and documentaries, or with foreign co-productions. But he draws the line at selling news and current affairs. “When I was there, I said ‘we’re not doing that’. He sees a risk to the ABC as an independent broadcaster from a blurring of the lines with the sale of news content.

“I thought there were problems with the ABC teaming up on stories with The Sydney Morning Herald, as a commercial operation.

“The ABC has always had syndication around the world, but it’s not with ads all around them.”

Former ABC TV news and current affairs host Quentin Dempster, also formerly a staff-elected ABC board member, says he accepts the ABC has sold news content lawfully for many years in return for a service fee, and websites do “wrap ads” around some ABC-supplied content. Nonetheless, ads wrapped around ABC content bother him. “It’s a worry,” Dempster says.

His main concern, he says, would be if news syndication deals enable the ABC to collect a proportion of the advertising revenue generated, saying it would be a “distortion” of the ABC charter’s clear non-commercial purpose and an entree to “dangerous commerciality”.

“Public broadcasting exists to treat its audiences as citizens in a democracy, and not as consumers to be aggregated and offered up to advertisers,” Dempster says.

“That’s for the private sector. Good luck to ’em.”

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

Is the paper panic over?

I walked into my local Coles supermarket at about 10am yesterday morning to find myself face-to-face with two pallets of toilet paper.  There was nobody around it at all.  There were packs there for anybody who walked in.  Some people doing their shopping would add a pack to their basket but there was no suggestion of a shortage.

I think the one pack per person rule has probably worked its magic.  It was in any case just a minority of lamebrains who bought up trolley-loads of the stuff. Any unusual demand -- even demand emanating from a small minority -- will upset the supply chain and lead to shortages.  I am quite confident that most Australians kept their cool  -- JR.




Minding the carbon offset gap: bringing net emissions down to zero

Australia’s carbon offset industry will need to grow exponentially if the country is to reach a net zero emissions target, underscoring the challenge facing policymakers trying to weigh up achieving climate targets while also sustaining lucrative coal, oil and gas industries.

Data released by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources and the Clean ­Energy Regulator last week shows the massive gulf that exists ­between the volume of carbon emitted by Australia and the amount captured through abatement measures.

Less than 3 per cent of the ­nation’s emissions are being offset under the federal government’s emissions reduction fund.

Labor has adopted a target of Australia becoming carbon-­neutral by 2050, with leader Anthony Albanese flagging that the coal industry could continue to exist under such a target because of offsets in the likes of forestry and agriculture.

But the latest data reveals the daunting scale of the task of relying on offsets to achieve the target, with the equivalent of 33 tonnes of CO2 emitted across Australia for every one tonne of CO2 captured through official offset programs.

The latest edition of the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory showed a slight fall in carbon emissions for the year to September last year, with the total falling 1.4 million tonnes, or 0.3 per cent, to 530.8 million tonnes.

That fall was achieved only as a result of the drought that crippled much of rural Australia last year, which reduced emissions by 4.1 million tonnes because of declines in livestock populations and a drop in fertiliser use.

Emissions linked to the oil and gas industry jumped significantly as new liquefied natural gas projects continued to ramp up.

The total emissions volumes dwarf the progress made under the federal government’s Emissions Reduction Fund, which Energy Minister Angus Taylor said this week had issued just under 15 million carbon credit units last year. Each credit is the equivalent of one tonne of offset carbon emissions.

Limited options

The carbon offset industry in Australia broadly revolves around planting trees and vegetation in areas degraded through historical agricultural practices, or preserving forest previously earmarked for clearing. Savanna fire management — in which areas of grassland are burnt off early in the dry season to avoid larger-scale fires from longer grass later in the season — also has become a significant area of activity. Offsets also involve investing in renewable ­energy projects.

Increasingly affordable renewable energy sources are forecast to make strong inroads into emissions associated with electricity generation — which is the largest single source of emissions in Australia, accounting for more than a third of all carbon pollution — in the years ahead.

But the path to offsetting the emissions of other sectors, such as the mining industry, oil and gas, transport and agriculture, is less apparent. Last Friday Taylor said the government would look at the “biological sequestration” techniques used in offsets as well as ­hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, lithium and livestock feed supplements as part of the government’s plans to reduce emissions.

While Taylor held fast against setting a 2050 emissions target, both the federal opposition and every state government have adopted net zero by 2050 policies.

And the Business Council of Australia, global mining giants BHP and Rio Tinto, and big oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum have all put their support behind a ­target of net zero emissions by 2050.

The broadening support for a net zero emissions position means the role of carbon offsets is expected to grow significantly.

But the practice, which predominantly involves planting trees or preserving forests, has had a chequered history and has been a point of contention among environmental groups.

The Climate Council says “there is no room for carbon offsets” in meeting any net zero target, and instead says emissions need to be cut “deeply and rapidly at their source”.

Conservation Council of Western Australia executive director Piers Verstegen says scaling up the nation’s carbon ­offset industry to the level needed to offset large-scale emissions would be “problematic”.

Many of the easiest sources of abatement in Australia have already been tapped, he says, while looking overseas for offsets poses problems of transparency and credibility.

While Verstegen says an expanded carbon offset industry in Australia can be a big source of job creation and investment, the recent Black Summer bushfires showed the challenge of relying on planting trees to offset emissions.

“You can grow trees, but how can you guarantee they’re going to be there in five, 10, 20 or 50 years, particularly when we are facing changing climatic conditions and increasing bushfire risk which might make the offset impermanent?” he says.

No guarantees

Globally, the offset industry has been marred by problems of credibility and effectiveness.

US-based environmental advocacy group the Natural Resources Defence Council has warned of the perils of consumer-levels offset programs, noting there can be big differences in the quality of different offsets.

First, it says, the offset needs to be real, verified and enforceable — that the promised tree, for example, will actually be planted and that the company or individual responsible will be held accountable if it is not.

Even more difficult, the NRDC says, is ensuring the offset is permanent and additional. A tree that is cut down soon after it is planted is of limited value, as is any offset investment that was going to happen anyway.

Then there is the risk of “leakage” — paying an Amazonian farmer not to sell his plot to a logging company, the NRDC says, is cancelled out if the logging company just buys a different plot instead.

Room to expand

Looking overseas for offsets adds another layer of complexity, given the jurisdictional challenges of verifying them.

In Australia, the offset industry falls under the watch of the Clean Energy Regulator, which assesses the eligibility of projects and the methodology they use.

Brendan Foran, chief executive of established carbon offsets group Greening Australia, says there is enormous potential to expand the use of offsets in ­Australia.

There are 90 million hectares of cleared land across the country, he says, that could be tapped for offsets but the sector has been held back by constrained support. Foran says the industry typically has revolved around short-term funding and grants, which has limited its ability to ­execute the sorts of large-scale projects that would increase the amount of offsets and bring down their costs.

Foran is all too aware of the vast gap between emissions and offsets in Australia. “That’s basically the problem that I’m trying to solve at the moment,” he says.

He says he is starting to see some change because of moves in the corporate sector.

Last year Greening Australia struck a deal with Woodside, which has identified offsets as a key plank of its plans to be net zero by 2050.

That deal, Foran says, will see Woodside bring not only money but also the sort of large-scale project execution skills and data analysis needed to significantly expand Greening Australia’s operations and bring abatement costs down.

Globally, he says, there is a vast pool of money looking to invest in offset assets, but there is a shortage of suitable deals.

However, even with a significant growth in offsets, Foran says, there will need to be enormous cuts in the amount of emissions if the gap is to be narrowed.

“I’m not trying to create an impression here that planting native trees is the total answer. It’s just part of the answer,” he says.

“It’s not enough just to stop or reduce your emissions, we actually need to draw carbon out of the ­atmosphere as well.

“We need to do both.”

Foran also notes there is a wide range in the quality of offsets on the market. There is a big difference, for example, between simply planting one type of tree in continuous rows compared with Greening Australia’s approach of establishing biodiverse systems.

New technology

While the gap between offsets and emissions looks huge today, Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst Leonard Quong says the world will be a very different place by 2050.

Factors such as the forecast improvement in offset technologies and processes, efficiencies in mining practices and the erosion of global demand for carbon-­intensive commodities such as coal mean offsets are likely to make larger inroads into the world’s emissions by 2050.

Big miners increasingly are looking towards solar and wind to power their operations, global coal demand is already starting to ease, and hydrogen fuel technology is gathering pace and could well be a reality in 30 years.

There’s also potential technological leaps — such as in direct air capture that strips carbon dioxide out of the air — and further refinement of carbon capture and storage systems that could occur in the coming decades.

Those sorts of factors, Quong says, mean the pool of emissions requiring offsets in 2050 will be a lot smaller than it is today.

“Can you get today’s economy completely offset with today’s offset systems and practices? Probably not. But we’re not trying to do that and I don’t think anyone would seriously consider that,” Quong says.

“It’s a factor of everything ­moving — the economy, society and politically — and the abatement technologies that we apply to that.”

SOURCE  






Should governments be able to raid journalists in an effort to trace "leaks"

No compromise agreed

PRESS freedom advocates have slammed a proposal asking journalists to hand over confidential documents to avoid police raids on their homes as "meaningless", "window dressing" and proof the Morrison Government "had not listened" to concerns about the public's right to know.

The new proposal, made by the Australian. Federal Police and Department of Home Affairs, would allow police  to request documents and the names of confidential sources from journalists without the use of force, and could allow news organisations to "challenge" requests.

But the new regime would be voluntary and, according to the proposal, would "not limit the ability (for police) to apply for a search warrant on a journalist or newsroom.

The submission to the parliamentary press freedom inquiry followed months of campaigning for the public's right to know and legal reform by media organisations, and came as the ABC slammed the raid on its newsroom last year as an assault on public-interest journalism.

The proposed new system, called a “Commonwealth Notice to Produce Framework,” could be written into the Crime Act, and used to request sensitive information from the media as part of police investigations.

“This would offer an alternative to executing a search warrant in person, give parties more flexibility to serve and produce material, and provide an opportunity for professional journalists and media organisations to put forward any strong, countervailing arguments not to produce material pursuant to such an Notice,” it read.

But News Corp Australia executive chairman Australasia Michael Miller said the proposal overlooked “genuine concerns held by all media over government overreach and secrecy,” misrepresented legal reforms sought by the industry, such as contestable search warrants, and came nine months after media raids.

“The Federal Government has made clear that its preference is to maintain the bad laws which enable governments to hide from Australians what they are doing,” Mr Miller said.

“The offer of a notice regime rather than contestable warrants offers no comfort and is nothing more than window dressing.

“If anything, it provides even more powers preventing journalists from telling Australians what their government is doing.”

SOURCE  






Brisbane teachers fail kids in maths

NEARLY three-quarters of students in years 8-10 were taught maths by teachers from outside the field, a survey of Brisbane students has found.

The revelation is in a survey by Australian Catholic University mathematics education lecturer Dr Michael Easey, who surveyed 423 students.

Having an out-of-field maths teacher made a staggering difference to which level of mathematics students chose to study in years 11 and 12. "From this study, it is very evident that if teachers are qualified to teach mathematics, students were more likely to select more mathematically demanding upper-secondary mathematics courses, mathematics B but especially mathematics C," Dr Easey said.

"In this study, some students choosing to study mathematics B or mathematics C provided written comments that suggested a feature of their experience of learning mathematics were teachers who were 'expert', 'enthusiastic', and `challenging'."

Of students surveyed, 274 identified which subject level they would choose, with 22 per cent opting for mathematics A, 30 per cent choosing mathematics B and only 12.5 per cent choosing mathematics C.

Students who had no, or only one, out-of-field mathematics teacher across years 8 to 10 were more than 20 times More likely to choose maths C over maths A in senior years. Students who had two out-of-field mathematics teachers were only three times more likely to choose mathematics C over mathematics A.

Data from the Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute (AMSI) shows one in three secondary mathematics classes is taught by an out-of-field teacher around Australia.

AMSI schools program manager Janine Sprakel said it was of great concern that the number of students choosing to study mathematics in senior secondary school and university was dropping. "Our future is STEM - that is well established," she said.

"It makes sense that the teachers who are trained in mathematics suggest to their students that they would be capable of undertaking mathematics at a higher level in Year 12 and in university."

She said while there were great teachers without a background in mathematics teaching, specialist teachers had a different level of understanding and enthusiasm.

Queensland Teachers' Union president Kevin Bates said there were shortages of specialist teachers, particularly in mathematics, sciences and information technology design, which increased workloads.

From the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" of 8.3.20

 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

Senate motion condemning Bettina Arndt a 'complete freedom of speech violation'

Bettina Arndt is Australia's no. 1 critic of feminist hate.  Feminists are therefore out to shut her down in any way possible.  They got a big help with their campaign when she speculated why a dire murderer did what he did.  The man murdered his wife and children and then suicided.

And it wasn't even Bettina's own  speculation. She simply repeated a speculation from a cop on the case.

Bettina's big mistake was to take an interest in why the murderer did it.  Apparently you are not allowed to do that.  You are not allowed to ask what drove a man to a horrible crime

Why not?  I don't think there was any rational reason.  In such circumstances you are just supposed to emote.  Your emotions are all that is needed and anything more is dangerous

Like myself Bettina has qualifications in psychology and for both of us it is elementary to ask WHY a thing occurred. That is science. It is totally anti-intellectual to do otherwise.  But the Left are always the loudest voices so their purely emotional reaction was taken as the morally right one. So they "got" Bettina on a charge of inappropriate emotions.  That examining the facts might be by far the most useful thing to do was not considered

For the record I agree entirely with what Bettina said.  She was the only truth seeker in the whole affair.  Emotions are not enough

Those few who have defended Bettina normally disown what she said.  That is just a weak way out.  I challenge them to point out WHAT she said that was in any way wrong.  To some it was clearly wrong emotionally but surely we can do better than that

The headline above refers to the fact that the Australian Senate did a brainless emotional pile-on too.  It was good virtue signalling to condemn Bettina, apparently

I have put up my dissection of the motives of the murderer here.  Subsequent reports showing him to have been be aggressive from childhood on would seem to confirm my analysis


"Outsiders" host Rowan Dean says while he was "deeply disturbed" by Bettina Ardnt's comments on Hannah Clarke, he thinks the Senate motion to condemn her was a "complete violation" of freedom of speech.

Mr Dean said there was no “justification or excuse for the horrific terrifying murders committed by Rowan Baxter" and he did not support Ms Ardnt's comments but would defend her right to express her views.

"I don't support Bettina Arndt's comments, but I do defend her right to express them and for anyone else to express their opposition to them," he said.

Mr Dean said because the Senate decided to pass a motion condemning Ms Arndt for the controversial comments, it was “using the overwhelming power of government to crush one individual's reputation for expressing a point of view”.

“Only two senators were brave enough to vote against the motion - One Nation senators Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts.

SOURCE 






ABC seeks extra $5m for cynical campaign on climate

The delinquency of the ABC on climate issues knows no bounds and we must continue to call it out because if we don’t, who will?

The annual expenditure of more than $1.5bn of taxpayers funds in public broadcasting ought to be used to inform the public rather than to try to deceive them and campaign against their interests.

Not content with repeatedly and dishonestly asserting that global warming was the critical factor in our summer of bushfires, the national broadcaster has now been ghoulish and crass enough to try to use the tragedy of those fires, together with their disingenuous spin on climate change, to demand even more taxpayer largesse.

“We estimate it’s going to cost an extra $5m per annum from next financial year, where we’re going to have to build up our capacity to respond — this being the new normal,” said ABC managing director David Anderson before Senate estimates.

That the government has neither condemned this tactic nor ruled out this request speaks volumes about the Coalition’s crisis of conviction. But let me unpack some of the travesties in this request.

First, there is the false assertion the bushfires were somehow different or worse than fires or other natural disasters we’ve seen before.

Second, there is the false assertion, linked to climate alarmism, that we can expect this annually from now on.

Third, there is the outrageous proposition that an organisation generously funded by taxpayers to cover news is suddenly complaining that, because it covered bushfire news this summer, it requires more money.

Fourth, there is the rank opportunism of using the damage and deaths of the nation’s worst bushfire season for a decade to bolster its bid for extra cash.

Frankly, the ABC should have $5m stripped from its funding as a punishment for this effort. Instead, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has asked the ABC to detail its case.

But back on honesty in reporting, readers of The Australian or viewers of Sky News will be aware the CSIRO was caught out burying a significant fact when it comes to bushfires and climate change.

In a recent two-page document, The 2019-20 Bushfires: A CSIRO Explainer, the organisation outlined the impact of weather and vegetation on bushfire behaviour, the need to better plan and prepare for them and said climate change was already making fire seasons longer and more intense.

But it did not include important information contained in the CSIRO’s technical report, Climate Change in Australia. That document is more than 200 pages long and on page 51 talks about increases in fire weather conditions but noted: “However, no studies explicitly attributing the Australian increase in fire weather to climate change have been performed at this time.”

This has only come to light because of questioning by Senator Matt Canavan in an estimates committee hearing last week. The embarrassing pauses and jumbled explanations from the CSIRO representative made for excruciating theatre.

Yet the story was not covered by the ABC. This is par for the course — inconvenient facts are censored and only the alarmist line or information to support it will be ventilated by the national broadcaster.

Remember, the ABC has failed to report and analyse the scientific conclusions of Professor Andy Pitman, the director of the ARC Centre for Excellence on Climate Extremes at the University of NSW, when it comes to drought.

His conclusion that there is insufficient evidence to directly link the current (almost past) drought to climate change has been studiously ignored by the ABC — except for pathetic attempts by Media Watch host Paul Barry to pretend his detailed findings were turned on their head by the ex post facto inclusion of one word; “direct link” rather than “link”.

This is crucial because it has been the drought-induced drying of vegetation that has helped create the bad fire conditions, along with the weather which delivered record highs in some bushfire-affected areas in early summer.

The science on all this is highly relevant and deeply interesting. The most recent peer-reviewed research says observational data reflects a higher frequency of fire weather extremes, but that it is too early to separate natural variability from climate factors.

“Impacts of anthropogenic climate change on fire weather extremes and fire season length are projected to emerge above natural variability in the 2040s,” says ScienceBrief Review’s summary.

Against this backdrop the ABC last week conducted a fact check on a crucial point made by Liberal MP Craig Kelly when he was engaged in a slanging match on British television in January over our bushfires and whether climate change was to blame. Kelly insisted that “the first 20 years of this century we’ve had more rainfall in Australia than the first 20 years of the last century”.

To those who have read a bit on these issues, this will not have been a surprising claim but the ABC and its fact-check partners, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, decided to test it.

They shared Bureau of Meteorology records and a graph showing a long-term average increase in Australian rainfall.

“Data collected by the Bureau of Meteorology shows an increase in Australia’s annual average rainfall for the first two decades of this century compared to the years 1900 to 1919,” the fact-check article duly reported.

In other words, the assertion made by Kelly was 100 per cent accurate — no ifs, no buts, just demonstrably correct.

So, what was the ABC/RMIT fact-check verdict? “Mr Kelly’s claim is flawed,” it declared. I kid you not.  Flawed claim ... or flawed fact-checking?

This is how far from their charter the ABC has strayed; how far our universities have wandered from searching for truth.

These publicly funded institutions now demean the truth and seek to either hide it or mischaracterise it. They have arrived at a bad place and we all ought to be deeply concerned.

The justification for this “flawed” finding is that national rainfall averages, experts argue, are not the best way to measure climate effects because rainfall patterns vary region by region.

While the nation is receiving more rain, some parts are receiving less, others more, and others still, might be receiving less when they need and more when they don’t.

While these are facts — other facts and relevant facts — they don’t disprove, undermine or render “flawed” the empirical fact shared by Kelly. Introduce such facts into a debate to provide context or support your different conclusions, sure. But don’t pretend they render false or “flawed” other facts cited by others.

It is dishonest to take a known fact and pretend it is not correct. The only reason anyone would attempt to portray claims, data and facts in this way would be to deceive the public in pursuit of an ideological agenda.

Fact check that.

SOURCE 






Easier university admission for girls outrageous, says PLC principal Kate Hadwen



The principal of Australia’s largest private school for girls has ­described as “outrageous” the ­decision by the University of Technology Sydney to lower entry standards for female students who want to take STEM courses.

“We don’t need it, do we, girls? No,” said Kate Hadwen, head of Pymble Ladies College, one of the best-performing schools in the country.

The scheme, announced by the UTS for 2020, says girls can enter STEM courses with 10 fewer Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank points than boys.

The girls are then encouraged to aim at careers in science, engineering, IT and maths.

Dr Hadwen was asked for her opinion about the program by one of her students during a Women and Education event hosted by The Australian for International Women’s Day.

Dr Hadwen replied: “It’s outrageous. The thinking is to try and encourage girls into STEM. But I just think that it’s absolutely saying women need help. We don’t need help. We’re great as we are, thanks very much.”

Dr Hadwen said only 40 per cent of students used the ATAR to access university. “So 60 per cent of students will get a university placement through a portfolio and a multitude of other entries,” she said. “You have to earn your place there … I’m a believer in that.”

UTS declined to comment, saying it had nobody available to ­defend the “ATAR-adjustment” program for girls.

The university was criticised when the program was announced last year, prompting Verity Firth, director of UTS Centre for Social Justice and Inclusion, to say: ­“Reviews were oddly mixed. The word ‘merit’ was thrown around like a javelin.”

Women comprise half of all university students, but they don’t tend to do the courses that are still seen as “male” such as engineering, IT and building and construction. Men don’t do the courses seen as “female” either: arts and communications.

The federal government has several programs designed to ­encourage girls to study STEM subjects, such as Curious Minds for talented girls in Years 9 and 10.

Program manager Vanessa Kates said the program, delivered by the Australian Mathematics Trust and Australian Science ­Innovations, identified excellent candidates through a competition, “and the girls, when we contact them, often don’t realise how well they are performing”.

“Very often, they say: Are you sure you mean me? We say ‘Yes, we think you are talented, you are fabulous, you can do this’. And they are often surprised.”

She agreed “something needs to be done” to encourage girls “but I fear that it (ATAR adjustment) may entrench the prejudice against girls, if people are able to say, ‘Oh, you only got in because of the special credit they gave you’.

“The girls we see are … intelligent and have many options, and it’s up to us to say give it a crack, you’re actually excellent.”

The University of South Australia has a STEM Girls program, targeting Year 11 students, some of whom are thinking of dropping maths and science in favour of subjects thought to be “easier”.

“It’s because there is so much emphasis on the ATAR,” she said. “We hear things like: I don’t think I should do the harder subjects, or subjects that are perceived to be harder, like high-level mathematics, because then I won’t get the ATAR I need.

“But if you don’t go on with high enough level mathematics, you can’t actually get the STEM career you want.”

SOURCE 






Students’ reasons for right-wing ban ‘wrong’

A student guild was wrong to cite the non-alignment of values as a reason to veto participation in its Market Week by a right-wing youth group, a vice-chancellor says.

The Queensland University of Technology Student Guild ­refused to offer the group, Generation Liberty, a stall in Market Week, which is held the week after the university’s Orientation Week.

Vice-chancellor Margaret Sheil said on Friday that Market Week, which was run by the Student Guild, not the university, did not host stalls from any political group. “But Generation Liberty was wrongly advised that its ­application had been declined on the basis of its values,” Professor Sheil said.

The Student Guild had provided Generation Liberty “an ­incorrect reason for the decision”, she said.

Professor Sheil said her statement was intended to correct the record. “Any assertion that I or the university have exercised bias or failed to protect free speech are factually incorrect,” she said.

Professor Sheil was backed by Nicholas Saunders, chief commissioner of higher education regulator the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, who told a Senate estimates committee hearing on Thursday night that after investigating QUT’s ­actions, it considered the matter closed.

Professor Saunders told the committee that Professor Sheil had learnt through media reports of the Student Guild’s rejection of the Generation Liberty application for a stall.

“The vice-chancellor took immediate steps to remedy the matter by first informing the Student Guild that the university considered its response to Generation Liberty as inadequate, and it emphasised to the guild that it was expected to operate in ­accordance with the university’s commitment to academic freedom and freedom of expression,” Professor Saunders said.

“Secondly, the vice-chancellor invited Generation Liberty to participate in the university-run Orientation Week, which ­occurred in the week preceding Market Week. “I understand Generation ­Liberty did not accept the university’s offer.”

Professor Saunders said the QUT Student Guild was “quite separate from the ­university”. “It has its own legal status, it has its own governance and its own management. “It runs Market Week, not the university,” he told the Senate estimates hearing.

He said TEQSA was empowered to regulate universities, and did not regulate the QUT Student Guild.

But he said he had seen The Australian’s report that Generation Liberty, which is the youth arm of libertarian think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, had made a complaint to the Human Rights Commission alleging discriminatory behaviour by the QUT Student Guild.

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