Now’s our chance to rebuild Australia

But it would require Greenies to compromise

It’s the greatest issue of our times, eclipsing even the War on Terror. As measured by the disruption and economic misery, the coronavirus pandemic is having a bigger impact than any event since World War II. And while more Australians will die each year from, say, cancer than from COVID-19, the precautions that shuttered large parts of the economy racked up debts that will hobble our recovery for years to come.

Coronavirus is disrupting the way we think, and it is resetting our priorities. In previous eras, such a contagion would have been interpreted as an act of God. Indeed, the clergy would have proclaimed that all this misery was divine retribution for humanity’s wickedness: “Repent now, lest the Lord wreak further havoc upon your wretched souls!”

Yes, well, humanity might have been able to conveniently blame God for disease, pestilence and famine in the past, but less so now. These days we are more scientific in our thinking and fairer minded in our search for a cause. I think most Australians are open-minded about where coronavirus began and how it spread. It may have come from Wuhan’s wet markets, but we are content to wait and see what the evidence suggests.

Today the cause of a natural calamity of this scale is likely to be attributed to a wilful disrespect for the environment – which, when you think about it, is a form of wickedness that demands contrition and personal change. Early in the virus’s spread there were attempts to make such a link: experts would talk about how mankind’s encroachment into native forests brings us into closer contact with wild animals, thus increasing the risk of cross-species infection.

Summer’s bushfires and the preceding drought were a case in point, too: both were “obviously” the result of climate change, exacerbated by the intransigence of denialists and vested interests. There is no doubt that during the bushfires most Australians supported action to mitigate the effects of global warming. But then came coronavirus, and our national priorities were reset. Out-of-control global warming by 2030, let alone by 2050, does not exert the same immediate threat to our lives as does the prospect of contracting coronavirus or losing our jobs.

Yet while our priorities are being reset, we have an opportunity: this is our chance to rebuild Australia in a way that is sustainable, that focuses on industries without trashing the environment, that delivers energy solutions without exacerbating global warming. Conversely, the urgency for action on climate change must now be viewed through other lenses such as the need for rebuilding the economy, strengthening the health system, delivering supply chain sovereignty, and perhaps shoring up alliances.

It’s a big agenda, and requires both climate change sceptics and environmentalists to make concessions. Maybe gas is a reasonable resource to exploit until renewables can deliver baseload power? Maybe acquiescing to global demand for coal is sustaining an industry that causes long-term damage to the environment? Maybe we should be having the discussion (again) about nuclear power? Maybe living in the suburbs and commuting to an inner-city job is an outdated concept?

Sometimes, adversaries are so fixated on winning that any concession is regarded as a loss. The way forward, I believe, involves both sides acknowledging that there is a better Australia to be built in the years to come, and that this will require concessions. And, more to the point, I don’t believe I am being overly optimistic in my hopes for the future.

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'Her views are something we would never endorse': Sonia Kruger is DROPPED from a popular podcast - following her controversial comments on Muslim immigration

Given the various attacks on Australians by Jihadis, it is surely reasonable to want to restrict the sub-population they come from

Sonia Kruger has been dropped from Mamamia's beauty podcast, You Beauty. As reported by The Daily Telegraph on Friday, administrators announced on Facebook that they have removed her episode this week on sensitive skin.

The lifestyle website informed followers that the decision was based on Kruger's past comments relating to Muslim immigration, that some found to be 'deeply hurtful'.

In February last year, a tribunal found Kruger, 54, vilified Muslims when she called for Australia to close its borders to followers of Islam because she 'didn't feel safe'.

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal delivered their decision almost three years after Kruger's explosive comments were made on the Today Show in July 2016.

The tribunal found Kruger's 'vilifying remarks' had the ability to 'encourage hatred towards, or serious contempt for, Australian Muslims by ordinary members of the Australian population'. 

Kruger shocked former colleagues David Campbell and Lisa Wilkinson when she discussed a column written by conservative commentator Andrew Bolt following a terrorist attack in Nice on Bastille Day.

'I mean, personally, I think Andrew Bolt has a point here, that there is a correlation between the number of people who are Muslim in a country and the number of terrorist attacks,' she said.

'Now I have a lot of very good friends who are Muslim, who are peace-loving who are beautiful people, but there are fanatics.

'Personally I would like to see it (immigration) stopped now for Australia. Because I want to feel safe, as all of our citizens do, when they go out to celebrate Australia Day.'

The tribunal decided Kruger was 'calm and measured' in her comments and believed she made it clear she did not think every Muslim person was a fanatic.

'Broadly, the Tribunal accepts that the purpose of the discussion in question was to have a debate about the size of the Australian Muslim population, the levels of Muslim migration and whether an increase in the level of either increases the likelihood of future terrorist attacks in Australia,' the Tribunal said.

'Further, the Tribunal accepts that to have a public discussion on such matters was in the public interest.'

While the tribunal accepted Kruger and Nine acted in good faith and without malice, they could not accept that her remarks were 'reasonable'.

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'What is wrong with you people?' Jacqui Lambie chokes back tears as she slams 'un-Australian' Black Lives Matter protesters

Lambie is an independent conservative

Jacqui Lambie has held back tears as she tore into 'un-Australian' protesters who took to the streets across the country for Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

Protesters gathered in their tens of thousands across Australia's largest cities on Saturday to rally against Aboriginal deaths in custody and the death of George Floyd allegedly at the hands of a white police officer in America on May 25.

But the Tasmanian senator hit out at the logic of gathering in such large numbers when the threat of a COVID-19 second wave still hung over the nation.

'Not only have Australians gone through the bushfires for months on end, we've now been through COVID-19 and people's mental health is really not dealing with this,' she told Today show host Allison Langdon on Thursday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison also slammed the protesters, saying the rallies were the 'only legitimate blocker' to relaxing coronavirus lockdown measures further.

'We actually don't know right now whether those rallies on the weekend may have caused outbreaks. And we won't know, my health advice is, for at least another week,' he said.

'It just puts a massive spanner in the works. By all means, raise your issue but by doing this they've put the whole track back to recovery at risks and, certainly, any further action on this front would be absolutely unacceptable.'

Ms Lambie appeared to choke back tears as she called out the protesters. 'Quite frankly, I'll call it out today. I just find this [the protests] really, really reckless and if black lives matter so much then why are you putting them at risk and doing this?,' she said.

'What is wrong with you people? It is so bloody un-Australian.

'This is not good for the cause. Please don't do this. There are other ways around doing this.'

She also defiantly defended Australian police officers - calling on those who are criticising them to 'go spend a day in their shoes'.

'There are many out there suffering with their own mental health but still go to work every day to make sure we keep peace on our streets,' she said.

'For a couple of bad eggs, this is just unacceptable. Everybody in society has bad eggs but to blame everybody for that action, that's not on and that's once again un-Australian.'

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PM wants protesters charged if they breach COVID-19 restrictions this weekend

Scott Morrison says he wants to see protesters charged if they ignore coronavirus gathering bans to attend rallies this weekend.

The Prime Minister told 3AW's Neil Mitchell this morning there was “no doubt” the government would have been easing COVID-19 restrictions sooner if not for last weekend’s protests.

“I really do think they should (be charged),” Mr Morrison said.

“The issues of last weekend were very difficult, but I think people carrying it on now, it’s not about that. It’s about political people pushing a whole lot of other barrows now, and it puts others lives and livelihoods at risk.”

He said protesters were being selfish. “Millions of quiet Australians have done the right thing and they didn’t seem to be that concerned about their health, or their businesses, or their jobs,” he said.

“People who would turn up to a rally this weekend would be showing great disrespect to their neighbours. It’s a free country and we have our liberties but the price of that liberty is exercising it responsibly.”

His comments came hours before a person who attended a protest in Melbourne tested positive for coronavirus.

Authorities say the individual, who developed symptoms on Sunday, the day after the protest, wore at mask at the protest.

“They weren’t symptomatic at the time,” Victorian Chief Health OfficerProfessor Brett Sutton said. But he said it is possible the person was infectious at the time they attended the protest.

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

Trachoma among Aborigines

This is another desperate effort to blame whites for black failings.  He rightly notes the vast amount Australian governments spend on trying to help Aborigines with little result -- but goes on to say that yet more should be done.

He uses the example of trachoma incidence as an example of something that should have been fixed by now.  But he glides over the main reason why trachoma is so prevalent among Aborigines:  Dirty faces, particularly the dirty faces of children.

Aborigines do not have good facial hygeine.  I wash my face at least twice a day and I doubt that many whites do less.  But it is not an Aboriginal custom.

There are many contribhuting causes of trachoma among Aborigines but just keeping the kids' faces clean would break the chain of transmission.  I had Aborigines in my classes in primary school and I remember those dirty faces well

So what is the government supposed to do? Are they supposed to go around washing black faces?  It's not going to happen.  And it will not happen because of practicality, not racism


A common remark in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests around Australia shows many of us are still missing the point about race and inequality.

Australia spends billions of dollars on Indigenous affairs every year and yet the challenges facing communities don’t seem to ever get any better.

And so, the failing must naturally lie with Indigenous people, who are either unwilling or incapable of helping themselves.

That’s an argument I’ve seen and heard countless times in recent weeks, since Black Lives Matter protests erupted across Australia, seeing tens of thousands of people take to the streets.

The truth is that an extreme inequality exists in Australia that seems to disproportionately affect Indigenous people.

To illustrate this, I want to tell you about a horrific eye disease that was all but eradicated in developed and wealthy nations a century ago.

Trachoma causes an infection in the eye that sees the eyelid swell and scar, causing the eyelashes to turn inward and repeatedly scratch the eyeball.

It makes blinking excruciating. The sensation is akin to have a handful of small rocks stuck in your eye, with no relief possible.

Those with Trachoma slowly and painfully go blind. It’s one of the leading causes of preventible blindness.

I saw the horrific impacts of Trachoma while on a trip to Ethiopia with the charity The Fred Hollows Foundation a few years ago.

There, some 160 million people have the condition. It’s preventable and treatable, and if caught early enough, blindness can be avoided, and that’s what Fred Hollows is doing on the ground.

You know the other major hotspot for Trachoma? Remote and regional Indigenous communities in Australia.

We are the only developed country in the world where Trachoma still exists at endemic levels.

Surveillance in 131 remote and regional Indigenous communities conducted in 2016 found that 30 per cent of the population was experiencing Trachoma.

That rate puts us on par with Afghanistan. And yet, we haven’t seen it in the mainstream population for almost 100 years. Why does no one care?

Why is it up to charities to try to address this preventable but seemingly ignored problem and not our health system, which we’re told is one of the best in the world?

Indigenous communities are also plagued with higher instances of preventable disease, higher risk of acute illness, lower life expectancy and higher childhood mortality.

Access to health services, poor provision of care and systemic failure at the community intervention level contribute to these unnecessary problems.

With a disease like Trachoma, poor water and sanitation are typically to blame.

While we might spend billions on Indigenous affairs, it’s clear this money is being poorly administered or wasted.

But the public health experts I’ve spoken to tell me that it’s rarely the fault of the communities themselves.

Bureaucrats make spending decisions without the consultation of communities, who typically know what the challenges are and how they should be addressed.

Put simply, it seems those in government departments don’t trust Indigenous Australians to make their own decisions and do it for them. The results have been dismal, I think we can all agree.

When a wealthy nation leaves people behind on multiple fronts, and those people are all black, then you have to ask if race plays a role in our apathy.

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If separatism is such misery, do we try integration?

Henry Ergas does not seem to agree with affirmative action. He puts up in an intellectual way the "one nation" argument of Pauline Hanson

That indigenous Australians, who make up 3 per cent of this country’s population, account for 30 per cent of its prisoners is a national disgrace. That by the time they reach the age of 23, 75 per cent of young indigenous people in NSW will have been cautioned by police, referred to a youth justice conference or convicted of an offence in a criminal court — compared with just 17 per cent of their non-indigenous counterparts — makes the disgrace all the more searing.

And the fact that just in the past five years nearly a quarter of the indigenous male population has been arrested and more than 10 per cent jailed, while one indigenous child in five has, at some stage, lost a parent to prison, raises that disgrace into an outrage.

However, the worst of it is that the fault does not lie in the criminal justice system. After all, were these shocking outcomes due to racial bias, the path to a solution would be straightforward.

But indigenous Australians are not imprisoned at such appalling rates because our system of law enforcement treats them unduly harshly.

Rather, they are disproportionately represented in this country’s jails, and in the deaths that occur in those jails, because they are far more likely to commit violent offences. Nor is that seriously in dispute. On the contrary, as Don Weatherburn, perhaps Australia’s most eminent criminologist, concludes in a recent paper with Hamish Thorburn, “the overwhelming weight of evidence” confirms that “differences in rates of offending (and reoffending) account for most, if not all, of the difference in imprisonment rates” between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

And with indigenous women being nearly 40 times more likely to be hospitalised for intentionally inflicted violence than are Australian women generally, it is also beyond dispute that the harm those offenders inflict falls most grievously on indigenous Australians themselves.

Yet none of that lets non-indigenous Australians off the hook. It was not indigenous Australians who destroyed thousands of Aboriginal jobs in country areas by suddenly raising the wages of cattle station labour in 1965; it was the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission.

Nor was it indigenous Australians who decided, just as the commission’s judgment was having its devastating effects, to massively subsidise remote Aboriginal settlements, condemning generation after generation to inadequate housing, an education scarcely worth having and a future shorn of jobs and hope; it was the Whitlam and Fraser governments.

And it was not indigenous Australians who removed the prohibitions on the consumption of alcohol by, and the sale of alcohol to, Aboriginal people that had been in force throughout Australia since 1929.

It was state and territory governments that, in keeping with the 1960s zeitgeist of self-determination, repealed those controls and decriminalised public drunkenness, plunging fraying Aboriginal communities into a spiral of alcohol-fuelled violence and helping to ensure that indigenous offenders are nearly three times more likely than non-indigenous offenders to be intoxicated when they commit their crimes.

The result, as one Aboriginal community after the other succumbed to the epidemic of substance abuse, was that indigenous incarceration rates, which had been falling since World War I, began to soar.

Far from slowing that rise, the explosive growth in welfare outlays that followed the onset of the crisis perpetuated the pathologies by allowing dysfunctional communities to survive. And instead of frankly confronting the root causes, successive governments relied on grandiose statements of good intentions and on torrents of cash in an increasingly futile attempt to paper over the cracks.

Had the thousands of Australians who marched last week learned from that history and drawn its lessons, one could only have cheered them on.

Of that, however, there was no sign. Epitomised by the participants’ slavish imitation of the ritual gesture of kneeling — which has clear resonance in America because of the prominence of the kneeling slave in the imagery of the abolitionist movement, but which lacks those associations in Australia — the rallies were copycat protests at which self-proclaimed representatives of indigenous people could vent imported rhetoric in tones of punitive hysteria.

No doubt the slogan-mongering went down well with the crowd, many of whom had been chafing at the bit to return to protesting, regardless of the health risks that imposes on the community as a whole.

And it would have been mother’s milk to the young Australians who had been taught since childhood that Europe’s expansion was a plague on the skin of the earth, that its civilisation was a monstrous imposture and that its arrival on these shores 2½ centuries ago heralded the destruction of a Garden of Eden.

But demeaning the past does nothing to heal the present. Nor, for that matter, does setting ambi­tious targets that we do not know how to achieve, as the government seems intent on doing.

Rather, what is needed is honesty and clear-sightedness. And the starting point must be to confront some uncomfortable realities. It is, to begin with, clear that much-touted nostrums, such as diverting juvenile offenders from the court system, have been tried and largely found to fail, with most studies concluding that they do not decrease the risk of reconviction, the time to reconviction, the seriousness of further offending or the number of reconvictions.

And it is equally clear that while those approaches are not a viable solution, imprisonment does reduce the extent and incidence of serious offending, as well as shielding, at least for a time, the victims of violence from their tormentors.

That hardly implies we should simply accept the dreadful costs mass incarceration imposes on indigenous Australians and on the moral fabric of the nation.

What it does mean, however, is that we face an alternative. We can salve our conscience by retaining the unstated premise that has led to the current calamity: that indigenous Australians are essentially a separate race, who should be funded to live at enormous expense in places where there are no viable jobs, where supplying basic services is prohibitively costly and where alcohol and drugs are the only antidote to squalor, boredom and despair.

If that is our choice, today’s pathologies, and the mass incarceration that is their symptom, will persist for decades to come.

Or, while recognising the deep and enduring scars, we can reconsider the whole notion of racial separateness, reaffirm our commitment to the ideal of integration and begin the transition to a country whose principles, policies and ways of life are genuinely colourblind.

The one thing we cannot do is pin the repeated failures on anyone but ourselves. They are a tragedy of our own making. And more than ever, they are our responsibility to repair.

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Two jokes derail a young Australian conservative

The money box joke is explained below and the second joke turns on the fact that "Fuehrer" in German simply means "leader".  To most people who know no German it is known only as a common title of Hitler. 

The student below however did know the meaning of the term and used it in that sense -- to indicate in a jocular way his admiration of a student who was critical of ties with China.  He was saying that he too was critical of ties with China. 

The Australian "Young Liberals" are a conservative group


A young Liberal who was fired as an MP's staffer over 'racist' social media posts has said his sacking was 'unfair' and political correctness has 'gone mad'.

University of Queensland economics student Barclay McGain, 20, said he reached a 'mutual agreement' to leave Coalition MP Andrew Laming's office this week after two offensive social media posts were unearthed.

One was a snapchat which he sent to friends and family showing him holding a money box featuring a picture of an indigenous person with exaggerated features.

The other was a Facebook post in which he called suspended student Drew Pavlou 'Mein Fuhrer' - German for my leader - alongside an altered video of a scene showing Adolf Hitler in the movie Downfall.

In an interview with Daily Mail Australia, Mr McGain - who was suspended from the Young LNP in December over a video of him laughing at a racist joke - apologised for the posts but said he should not have been sacked.

'I think it's unfair. My posts have been misconstrued and misinterpreted,' he said. 'All the things that have been tabled against me have been taken gravely out of context.

'The picture of me holding my stepfather's money box was to display the irony of me being cast in the media as some-one who disrespects indigenous culture when in reality I've grown up for the last 12 years with an indigenous stepfather who always respected an honoured his heritage,' he said.

'The Mein Furer comment to Drew was a joke and in no way insinuates that I sympathise with the despicable actions committed by the Third Reich in WWII. That's not the case.

'If anyone who wants to heavily misconstrue it that way then I apologise that they've taken offense. That was not my intention.'

Drew Pavlou is fighting his suspension by the University of Queensland for allegedly breaching its code of conduct by holding anti-Chinese government protests on campus. 

The 20-year-old, who yesterday left the LNP youth wing to focus on his studies, said he thinks his sacking is 'definitely linked' to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of African-American security guard George Floyd.

He railed against the resulting 'cancel culture' which has seen demonstrators in the US and the UK topple statues they deem offensive while streaming services pull old shows they perceive to be racist, including Netflix which has axed Sydney comedian Chris Lilley's work.

'I think this is political correctness gone mad. My gripe with this is that companies are completely virtue signalling and telling us that we can't watch an Aussie icon's comedy without being racist,' Mr McGain said.

'I disagree with that assumption and I don't think them censoring anything on their platforms changes any racial attitudes that still exist today or any issues facing indigenous people today.'

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Sydney shows how to do it

Demonstrators stay peaceful.  No riots, no looting under a conservative administration

Hundreds of police officers in face masks have congregated at a banned Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney - and have warned they won't hesitate to arrest protesters. 

A rally calling for an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody - planned for Sydney Town Hall on Friday evening - was deemed unlawful by NSW Police because they weren't formally notified. 

Police officers showed up in force two hours early and protesters decided to move the gathering to Hyde Park in a last-ditch attempt to avoid authority.

'Due to the overwhelming police presence at Town Hall, we will now be starting from the Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park,' a Facebook post read.

Police followed the activists to Hyde Park at 6.30pm and immediately attempted to disperse the crowds.

One protester who had also attended Saturday's Black Lives Matter protest said there were 'a lot more police than last time'.

Protesters chanted 'we'll be back' as they were moved on by officers.

The demonstrators were moved on by police from Hyde Park at about 6.45pm. Some protesters walked to Town Hall but were again followed by officers and told to disperse.

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

Aboriginal Today host Brooke Boney says comedies showing blackface SHOULDN'T be banned



Like most Aborigines who make it into the media, she is effectively white, with only a little Aboriginal ancestry.  Unlike most such, however, she is not a whiner

Brooke Boney has slammed streaming services for removing controversial shows featuring blackface and offensive racial stereotypes, claiming the move will not create real change.

The Indigenous Today show host spoke out after it was revealed Chris Lilley's controversial comedies were being pulled from Netflix in light of the Black Lives Matter movement.

'If these companies truly want to make lasting change and not just virtue signal in a moment of turmoil, then they need to support new talent,' Boney said on the show on Thursday.

'They need to open doors that have been closed to people of talent before.

'So if they truly want to make a difference in the way that we tell stories about who we are in society, then we don't do that by deleting things we've done in the past we do it by making sure we don't do it again in the future.'

Boney explained it was important not to remove the shows as they served as important reminders of how people of colour were viewed in the past.

'If I have children, I don't want them to see and to think that that is how they fit into the world. But I'd also like to show them how poorly our people were thought of and treated in the past,' Boney said.

'These things hurt because it feels lie these people are punching down. It's easy for people who are on the bottom rung of the ladder.'

On Wednesday, Deadline revealed four of Chris Lilley's shows - Jonah From Tonga, Angry Boys, Summer Heights High and We Can Be Heroes - had been removed from the service in Australia and New Zealand.

In the past, those shows raised questions about racial discrimination as several of the characters were portrayed in blackface and brownface.

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Must not speak Chinese to a Chinese person (??)

She was greeted in both Mandarin and Cantonese but neither was any good, apparently

I speak some German and some Italian and during my lifetime I have always found that German and Italian people were pleased when I tried to speak their language.  But we now live in more negative times, it seems


Newly eliminated MasterChef star Sarah Tiong accuses an Australian radio station of 'racism' after being greeted by the host in Mandarin Chinese

Newly eliminated MasterChef contestant Sarah Tiong has lashed out at an Australian radio station after they greeted her in Mandarin Chinese.

In a series of posts on Instagram Stories on Wednesday, the 29-year-old said she 'felt uncomfortable and shocked' by the incident. 

'Today, in an Australian radio interview with Triple M Sunraysia, the host greeted me by saying "ni hao ma",' she explained.

'I do not believe this went to air. However, I felt uncomfortable and shocked. The call was immediately ended. This is racism. What an insensitive, tone deaf thing to say. Please, check yourself and do better.'

A fan then responded to Sarah's post, asking why she thought it was racist, prompting the MasterChef: Back to Win star to explain further.

'It is racist to assume I identify as Chinese and speak the Chinese language,' she continued, after the fan commented that they thought it was 'respectful'.

'Even if I have referenced such heritage or knowledge in the past, it is privileged and ignorant to assume anything about me based on the colour of my skin.

'It is rude and privileged to assume that I understand that Asian language, just because I appear of that descent.'

Sarah continued, revealing the unnamed host had then asked her if it was 'lei ho ma' instead.

'The mere presumption that I speak or want to speak Mandarin or Cantonese with you followed by the flippant dismissal of distinguishing the two different languages is racist,' she added.

'It is not funny, or clever. It just illustrates how deep rooted racial toxicity is in this country, and anyone with a voice in media should know better,' the 38-year-old added.

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Global cooling!

If this drop had been a rise it would have "proved" global warming

Icy blast hits Australia as temperatures drop to their coldest in 75 years in some parts of the country – and it's only going to get worse

Temperatures have plummeted below zero across South Australia, with one part of the state shivering through its coldest June morning in 75 years.

A record low of 0.9 degrees was recorded at the West Terrace weather station at Adelaide hills, the coldest overnight temperature since 24 June 1944.

However the rest of Australia is being lashed with rain, and the wet weather isn't disappearing anytime soon.

The weather was so cold in Adelaide on Wednesday morning wet clothing was producing steam outside

The Perisher Valley in NSW reached a low of -6.6C on Tuesday morning with snow showers expected for alpine regions in NSW and Victoria at the weekend.

Snow is also forecast to hit the New South Wales alps at the weekend.

In the top end, Darwin will continue through the dry season with high temperatures of around 32C with sunny days and blue skies.

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Chinese international students defend Australia as a 'safe' educational destination

Chinese international students have defended Australia as a "safe" destination for study, despite a travel warning issued by the Chinese Government urging students to reconsider.

In a statement published on Tuesday, China's Ministry of Education cited both the risk of COVID-19 and "racist incidents targeting Asians" in Australia.

Anti-discrimination groups have reported a rise in anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, and media outlets, including the ABC, have covered cases where people of Asian appearance were targeted due to the coronavirus.

Chinese international student Mr Zheng, who did not want his first name used, told the ABC that Chinese people in Australia — including international students and Chinese-Australians — were having a hard time as the diplomatic tension between China and Australia escalated.

The 28-year-old, who is studying a masters degree in biomedicine at the University of Adelaide, said he felt safe in Australia over the last four years, and felt the warning was more of a Canberra-Beijing spat than a genuine concern for the safety of millions of students in China.

"The first warning [over the weekend] for travellers was not even necessary, and this one for students has gone too far," Mr Zheng said. "It's not even truly protecting its citizens, but a political debate in the guise of addressing racism."

Mr Zheng said he believed students in China should continue to be entitled to choose their destination to study abroad, and told the ABC that he still recommended Australia as a good place for interested Chinese students.

"I hope Chinese students who had an intention to study overseas would make their decisions based on their own career and life-planning," he said. "I hope they won't prioritise the authorities' warning for where they are going."

One of Mr Zheng's friends, 28-year-old Chinese student Primo Pan, who is currently studying a PhD in the University of Adelaide, told the ABC the warning was "over the top", even though he had been subject to racism a few times during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There was an increase in racism targeting Chinese people in Australia, but it’s still a safe place where your personal security is not threatened," Mr Pan said.

"Ordinary Chinese people are caught up in the crossfire between Australia and China." 'I don't believe this allegation has any sort of solid ground'

"Finally education needs to give way to politics," Weibo user Zhenningyue said.

"The political sense is way more meaningful than the actually scenario. I live in Australia and I feel very well," another Weibo user said.

But Dr He-Ling Shi, an associate professor in economics at Monash University, told the ABC Beijing's allegation was unfair.

"I don't believe this allegation has any sort of solid ground. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Australian universities have taken various measures and tried to help overseas students ... and also facilitated their studies in Australia," he said.

SOURCE  

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

Three out of four Australians hold a racial bias against indigenous people: New survey reveals shocking invisible barrier faced by Aboriginal community

This is discredited science.  The IAT was presumably the instrument used.  All it does is detect response time.   Why the response time is fast or slow can only be conjectural.

In the case of racial stimuli, the most probable reason for a slow response is caution when faced with something potentially controversial.  There is NO evidence that a slow response to a particular stimulus indicates ill-will towards that stimulus.

In fact there is evidence that the test does NOT detect racial bias.  Very anti-racist people often score high on it.  See here for background

No matter their age, gender, job, religion, education level or income - the majority of people on average held an unconscious negative view.

The findings from an Australian National University study released on Tuesday revealed an invisible barrier, author Siddharth Shirodkar says. 'It was certainly shocking ... but it also wasn't necessarily surprising,' he told AAP. 'It says something, not so much about indigenous people, it says something more about the rest of us.'

Men were more biased than women against First Australians.

Western Australians and Queenslanders showed higher levels of unconscious prejudice, while people in the Northern Territory and ACT showed less.

People who identified themselves as 'strongly left wing' still showed signs of negative views against Aboriginal people, while those who put themselves on the right-wing side displayed higher levels of bias.

Australians showed the same level of bias against Aboriginals as people held against African Americans in the United States.

The study tested 11,000 Australians over a decade since 2009.

It looked at the response time of online volunteers to an association test, which flashed images of white people and Aboriginal Australians as well positive or negative words.

It found the majority of Australians showed a preference for white faces.

Mr Shirodkar said while Australians might hold an unconscious bias, they still could choose whether or not to act on it.

'(If) we don't challenge that, then that can seep into our everyday decision making,' he said.

He said some demographics were over-represented in the survey, including capturing more women, left-leaning voters and university educated people.

This meant the level of implicit racial bias may be under-reported.

The report came as thousands of Australians protested against Aboriginal deaths in custody over the weekend.

Mr Shirodkar said the report's release was a coincidence, but the Black Lives Matter protests worldwide had given people a reason to pause and reflect.

'The study can maybe help us think more about internally how we treat one another but also how we think about one another,' he said.

SOURCE 





'Comrade Anna' claims lockdown HASN'T hurt the economy as she fights to keep restrictions in place - despite ZERO community infections Australia-wide and fury from business owners

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says her state's border closures have not caused hardship for businesses and is determined to keep them shut - despite the entire nation recording no new COVID-19 community cases overnight.

A handful of business owners and individuals are challenging the state's hard border closure in the High Court, arguing the measure is 'irrational' and causing them 'financial harm'.

But the state government on Tuesday refuted the claims in documents filed to the court, saying it 'does not admit' financial hardships are directly related to border closures.

Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said he was astonished by the state government's defence.

'That is possibly the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard,' he told The Gold Coast Bulletin.

The stunning development comes after Premier Palaszczuk on May 19 publicly acknowledged the impact border closures would have on the state's $12billion tourism industry.

'It has been heartbreaking to make tough but unavoidable decisions; for example, the decision to close our borders and place hard restrictions on the industry knowing they would hurt, while at the same time understanding they were absolutely critical to save lives,' she said when announcing the policy.

Ms Palaszczuk's refusal to open the border, against the advice of federal health experts and despite the pleas of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, has earned her comparisons to fellow Labor Premier Daniel Andrews, who is accused of holding back the economy by relaxing rules too slowly in Victoria.

While Victoria's Liberal Opposition has dubbed him 'Chairman Dan' - after former Chinese Communist Party leader Chairman Mao - while Ms Palaszczuk has been mocked as 'comrade Anna' by some of her critics frustrated by her uncompromising stand on border closure.

Australia recorded zero new locally acquired cases of coronavirus on Tuesday for the first time since the peak of the pandemic, with two new cases in New South Wales identified as returned travellers who remain holed up in quarantine hotels.

While the milestone is great news for the nation, it is little comfort for businesses if it doesn't result in restrictions being eased. 

Nuccia Fusco, co-owner of Italian restaurant Costa D'Oro in Surfers Paradise, told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday night the lack of interstate traffic and gathering restrictions had crippled her business since they closed their doors on March 23.

'Restaurants should be working together and demanding change... I think that will happen very soon,' Ms Fusco said.

Ms Fusco hopes strength in numbers will encourage state governments to reassess current measures. 'I'm meeting with a group of restaurateurs and bar owners tomorrow to start a Facebook group to give us a voice,' she said.

Ms Palaszczuk has faced increased calls to completely reopen her state by the July school holidays to inject much needed funds into the economy.

'It's not good for the economy, particularly as we go into this next school holiday season. Those tourism businesses need that support,' Prime Minister Scott Morrison previously said.

'So those individual states, they'll have to justify those decisions themselves because it wasn't something that came out of national cabinet.'

Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham also previously said the state was more reliant on tourism than most others in Australia, and would haemorrhage money.

SOURCE 





Five Australian universities crack the top 50 on list of the world's best places to get a tertiary education

Five Australian campuses have made a list of the top 50 universities in the world. The QS World University Rankings has published its annual list of the top tertiary institutions across the globe for 2020.

The top place to get a higher education in Australia, according to the list, is the Australian National University in Canberra.

The university tied at number 29 with the Universirty of Toronto in Canada - with the two finishing just behind the University of California, Berkeley at number 28.

The number one place internationally to earn a degree is the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, popularly known as MIT.

Stanford University and Harvard University rounded out a clean sweep of the top three places by the United States.

Oxford University was the highest ranking English institution, with the famous college town at number four.

The California Institute of Technology, or Caltech, was number five.

Researchers said the majority of American universities had been slipping in the individual ranking indicator scores, while Australian scores had been improving.

They said this was largely because Australia was earning a reputation as a quality destination for international students.

Other local universities to make the top 50 included the University of Melbourne jumping several places from the previous year to number 38.

The University of Sydney reached number 42 while the University of New South Wales followed at number 43.

The University of Queensland was Australia's only other top 50 entry at number 47.

The list, which ranks 1,000 universities in total, uses six performance indicators.

Academic reputation, is the major indicator, which was scored using the survey  responses of 94,000 individuals in the higher education space about the quality of work done at each institution.

Employer reputation was also scored by questioning nearly 45,000 employers.

Citations per faculty was also included - measuring how many times other academics referenced a university's work in research papers.

International student ratio was measured as an indicator of global awareness and brand reputation, which is a strong point of Australian institutions.

And lastly, faculty staff to student ratio  numbers were included as a measure of teaching quality, with Australian universities slipping in this category since the 2019 rankings.

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After years of drought, good rainfall will boost Australia's grain production by 50 per cent this year

Well-timed late summer and autumn rainfall, combined with a promising winter and spring outlook, will see grain production jump over by 50 per cent this season.

ABARES is pegging the winter crop; wheat, barley, canola, chickpeas and oats; at 44.5 million tonnes, 5 per cent above ABARES 10-year average to 2019.

The area planted to winter crops is tipped to expand by over 20 per cent from last year.

In Dumosa, 250 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, grain grower Brent Sheahan is enjoying the rare prospect of two good seasons in a row in the Victorian Mallee.

"We've had a near-perfect start," he said.

Like many growers in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, Mr Sheahan said between 20 and 30 millimetres of rain in the spring would be enough to ensure a good harvest.

Despite 90 per cent of NSW remaining in drought, the good early rains have forecasters tipping a huge boost to production.

"Last year, NSW produced 3.3 million tonnes, and this year it's forecast to be 12.1 million tonnes. That's a big jump," said ABARES senior economist Peter Collins.

Until recently the Bureau of Meteorology had been forecasting a high likelihood of above-average rain for large parts of inland Australia this winter.

But the latest outlook has revised down the chances of above-average rain for the coming three months.

The change has been attributed to cooling in the Indian Ocean and forecast onset of a positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), resulting in high pressure dominating southern Australia.

Trouble in the west

Many Western Australian growers are still waiting for a decent shower, between 10 and 20 millimetres, to get this year's crop ticking along.

It is especially pronounced in the state's usually reliable southern regions.

In Ravensthorpe, nearly 500 kilometres south-east of Perth, Andrew Constance said the crops would suffer without good rainfall.

"We've had patchy rain over the farm —some parts are wetter than others, so we're just waiting for a big one."

ABARES is still predicting a bigger harvest in the export-focussed west than last year.

Mr Collins said the sudden announcement of steep Chinese tariffs on Australian barley came too late for grain growers to alter their sowing plans.

The tariffs send the price of barley tumbling, at a time when production, according to the ABARES Crop Report is tipped to grow by 17 per cent to 10.6 million tonnes this year, compared to the 2019/20 season.

"They may not get the same price they'd get in the Chinese market, but there's still overseas markets that will buy Australian barley," Mr Collins said.

Last year, large volumes of grain from WA, South Australia and Victoria were sold into drought-stricken NSW and Queensland to feed livestock, with local prices higher than export prices.

According to a recent Rabobank report, with a more favourable exchange rate, lower domestic prices and the boost in production, Australia will have more grain to sell overseas.

But, according to Rabobank's Dr Cheryl Kalisch Gordon, "finding a home for those exports will be challenging."

"Stagnant global demand, low shipping costs and depreciation of Black Sea region currencies will continue to challenge Australia's competitiveness in traditional markets," Dr Kalish Gordon said.

SOURCE 

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

'Peaceful protests don't work!' Indigenous actor is overcome with emotion during racism discussion before delivering a powerful monologue about being black in Australia

Nothing works.  Australian governments, State and Federal have tried everything to bring average black lives up to white standards but in almost all ways most blacks remain at the bottom of the heap.  If the angry guy has something to suggest that has not been tried already, everyone would like to hear it

He himself would appear to have found a niche in white society so it is understadable that he is angry that not all Aborigines have done so. Rage is good theatre but it will do nothing useful


An Aboriginal actor delivered a powerful speech about racism in Australia during an emotion-charged episode of Q&A last night.

It comes three days after a 40-year-old Aboriginal man died after he collapsed at a medium security prison in Western Australia.

'It's still happening right now, to this day. Last Friday, a brother boy died in Western Australia. We're still talking about it now. It's a denial of what's happening right now,' Wyatt began.

'These institutions are killing us - it's just a continuation. The whole time, since 1770. It's the same thing. We're demanding justice. And those protests in America - they're not protests, they're demanding it.

'There are riots and people are talking about "order". Who cares about order if there's no justice? We want justice. I'm sick of talking about "order". It doesn't work. Being peaceful [and] peaceful protests - don't work.'

Wyatt later recalled how he was first searched by police at age 10 or 11 and said he hasn't trusted authority since.

'I was terrified. [But] that becomes fear, anger. When I see things around the world and I see my brother boys in my own country - how do you think I'm going to feel? I'm going to be scared from the get-go,' he said.

Wyatt was among tens of thousands of Australians who took to the streets for the Black Lives Matter mass protests on Saturday.

He admitted his lawyer's number was written on his arm in permanent marker when the protests were originally deemed illegal before the court ruling was overturned at the 11th hour.

'Who cares about the pandemic? The pandemic is Indigenous lives are dying. Black people are dying,' Wyatt said.

'It's been happening for thousands of years. That's the pandemic. That's why people are marching.

'That's why people are out there. That's why we're angry. And we're sick of it. We're tired of it. I'm tired of it. I don't know how else to put it.'

The program ended with as much emotion as it began as Wyatt delivered a powerful four-minute monologue from his play City of Gold about the struggles of being indigenous in Australia.

'Sometimes I want to be seen for my talent, not my race. I hate being part of some diversity angle,' he said.

'It's not your fault you have white skin, but you do benefit from it. You can be OK. I have to be exceptional. I mess up, I'm done. There's no path back for me. There's no road to redemption. Being black and successful comes at a cost.'

The monologue concluded with Wyatt calling for the end of deaths of Aboriginal inmates in custody. 

'Black deaths in custody - that s**t needs to stop. Never trade your authenticity for approval. Be crazy. Take a risk. Offend your family. Call them out,' he said.

'Silence is violence. Complacency is complicit. I don't want to be quiet. I don't want to be humble. I don't want to sit down!'

Wyatt has since been inundated with overwhelming support from viewers.

SOURCE  





Governments challenged to shake up 'Byzantine' vocational education system

A shake-up of the prices of vocational education courses, abolishing unnecessary regulators, expanding access to student loans, introducing government-funded vouchers for training and simplifying subsidies are among proposals floated by a Productivity Commission report.

In the interim report to be released on Friday, the commission calls on state and federal governments to fix the vocational education and training sector, which it says is "underperforming, excessively complicated and suffers from ad hoc policy approaches".

The findings support Prime Minister Scott Morrison's push for an overhaul of the national skills and workforce agreement, which governs federal, state and territory support for the training sector – viewed as a critical element of the country's economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

The report found the current "Byzantine" approach was overdue for replacement and the total $6.1 billion spent by governments could be used more effectively. It found providers needed to be more responsive to the needs of students and employers.

Commissioner Jonathan Coppel said some of the options being put forward in the report were "pretty radical" and intended to provoke discussion about improvements needed in the system.

"The way in which we fund access to training can be done in a way where you get a bigger bang for your buck," Mr Coppel said.

A key issue highlighted by the report was the disconnect between accessible higher education loans that have fuelled university enrolments and the "extremely restrictive" loans scheme for vocational education.

Mr Coppel acknowledged the widespread rorting that arose under the previous VET FEE-HELP loans scheme, which damaged the reputation of the sector, but said that was a "symptom of poor policy" and an expansion of loans should be accompanied by better regulation.

"We would envisage further safeguards and integrity measures if those options were to be the ones that get embraced," he said.

The commission's review also highlighted significant variations in government subsidies provided in different states and territories. It noted the subsidies for one popular course, the certificate 3 in individual support used in the aged care or disability care sectors, varied by up to $3700 across the country.

A total of 13 new fee short courses are now available online to assist anyone across the State who wants to upskill and prepare for the workforce post-pandemic.

It suggested a number of ways to phase out the complexity, including a common and more transparent method for devising costs and simplifying rates across different courses.

One provocative option put forward by the commission was a shift away from government subsidies towards the introduction of vouchers for students, in a bid to support their choice and make providers more responsive.

There are about 4.1 million Australians in the vocational education system, with about 30 per cent of training hours offered by TAFEs and 60 per cent by private providers.

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'Sick to my stomach': Indigenous activist Jacinta Price slams 'virtue-signalling' Black Lives Matter protesters and says they 'aren't interested' in Aboriginal deaths - unless they are killed by a white man

Aboriginal activist Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has slammed Black Lives Matter protesters as ignorant 'narcissists' who don't understand indigenous problems.

'Just watching the footage of protesters and the conversations around white privilege makes me sick to my stomach,' she told Sky News.

'These are narcissists ... they don't have to do any hard work just appear as though they care.'

Ms Price, a Warlpiri woman and Alice Springs Town Councillor, said more Aboriginal people die outside of police custody than within it, with the majority of Aboriginal people killed and maimed by other Aboriginal people.

But because the violence is out of sight, out of mind, protesters don't care, she said. 'You don't care because the perpetrators are also black, and that's the big problem,' she said.

'People only care if there's seen to be a white perpetrator.'

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2014–15 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey, more than one in five or 22.3 per cent of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged over 15 had experienced physical violence or threats in the previous 12 months.

Half of all of those who had experienced physical violence over the 12-month period said that their most recent attacker was a family member. 

'This is the reality that goes on in the remote communities that these protesters care zero for,' Ms Price said.

'They do not care one bit. They stand there virtue-signalling and acting as though they're so terribly sorry for the racism that Aboriginal people are faced with.

'It's not racism that is sexually abusing our kids and it is not racism that is killing our people - it's the actions of our own people.' 

Ms Price's own nephew died on Friday - allegedly stabbed to death during a wild fight in Alice Springs.

NT Police said more than a dozen people had been 'fighting with weapons' at a home in the Central Australian town when the 36-year-old man was stabbed. He bled to death at the scene despite the efforts of ambulance paramedics and police officers to stem the bleeding and to save him with CPR.

There were more than 12 people involved in the mayhem but only two men were arrested, ABC News reported.

Ms Price said Aboriginal people are the most incarcerated people in the world - because of violent crimes and that if people were serious about protecting Aboriginal lives then they would focus on lowering the rate of family violence in indigenous communities.

'It's a horrible cycle that continues and the ignorance is gobsmacking,' she said.

'If you wanted to reduce the rates of incarceration then you would begin with being honest about the fact that almost 70 percent of Aboriginal people - men and women incarcerated - are incarcerated for acts of violence against their loved ones,' she said. 

Ms Price said for women it was largely because they were fed up with repeated beatings and had retaliated.

'On the other side of the coin we've got nasty individuals who think it's their right to hurt and maim and kill their own loved ones,' she said.  

SOURCE  






Top wages of Australia’s highest-earning public offices revealed

A new list ranks the highest-earning public servants in the country, with the job on top earning close to $1 million — and way more than the PM.

You’ve probably never heard of them, but the people leading Australia’s top public offices are earning close to $1 million a year, new figures reveal.

A list of publicly available figures from the Australian Government Remuneration Tribunal ranks the top 10 highest-paid full-time public office jobs in the country, with the highest wage exceeding $880,000.

The list does not include parliamentary secretary positions or chief executives of government-owned businesses, 9 News reports.

The top total remuneration — which includes superannuation and benefits — goes to Wayne Byres, who earns $886,750 as the chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

The second-highest remuneration of $775,910 is earned by three individuals: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims, Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman, James Shipton, and Solicitor-General, Dr Stephen Donaghue QC.

In fourth place on the list is Services Australia chief executive Rebecca Skinner with $748,210.

Three positions are in fifth place, receiving remuneration of $720,480. They are Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Reece Kershaw, Commissioner of the Australian Public Service, Peter Woolcott and Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence, Nick Warner.

The APRA deputy chair receives $709,390, and three positions round out of the list with $665,070: the APRA member position, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general of security, and the Australians Signals Directorate director-general.

The remunerations were compiled as of May 2020 and took effect from July 1, 2019, according to 9 News.

And they top the wage of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, whose base salary as a member of parliament of $211,250. When added to his 160 per cent loading as prime minister, his salary is just shy of $550,000.

In April, the Federal Government announced a six-month freeze on Commonwealth parliamentary, ministerial and public sector wage increases, in order to “share the economic burden” of COVID-19.

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

How can 60,000 go to protests when Anzac Day marches were banned and there are still strict limits on weddings and funerals? Outrage over 'double standards'

The decision to allow enormous protests on the streets of Australian cities has led to a flurry of calls for all COVID-19 restrictions to be lifted completely.

Over 60,000 Black Lives Matter protesters flooded the streets of Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide on Saturday afternoon, despite being urged not to by their governments.

Sydney protesters were controversially given the green light at the last minute, after organisers launched a successful appeal against the NSW Supreme Court's decision of a day earlier which had ruled the protest illegal.

The Court of Criminal Appeal's decision outraged many, who claimed it was insulting to the millions of Australians who have suffered but done the right thing over recent months.

They include business owners - some of who have been financially crippled forever - and families who have been unable to attend the funerals or weddings of loved ones.

Rules vary across Australia, but in NSW - where the court ruled protests legal - pubs, clubs, cafes and restaurants can have no more than 50 people. Funerals and church gatherings have the same limit, while weddings can have no more than 20 guests.

Former federal senator and long-time broadcaster Derryn Hinch pointed out that just a few weeks before the protests, Australians were banned from gathering on Anzac Day to remember our fallen soldiers.  'You weren't allowed to honour our fallen on Anzac Day but thousands can breach lockdown rules and social distancing in Melbourne and Sydney,' Hinch tweeted.

While the protests - sparked by the death of American man George Floyd - received approval from the courts, they were opposed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australia's leading health officials.

Brendan Murphy, the nation's Chief Medical Officer, said while people have a right to protest, mass gatherings were 'dangerous' in the midst of a pandemic.

But the government's finance minister Mathias Cormann went further, slamming those who protested as 'selfish' and 'incredibly self-indulgent'.  'It does impose unnecessary and unacceptable risk onto the community,' Mr Cormann told Sky News on Sunday morning.

In the wake of the decision by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, talkback lines were flooded with calls from irate listeners.

Many had been forced to shut down their businesses, unable to attend a loved ones' funeral or had to forgo seeing elderly relatives for months because of a ban on visits to nursing homes.

Mark Levy, who was hosting the Saturday afternoon program on Sydney radio station 2GB, was at a loss to explain to listeners why the protest can go ahead without social distancing but crowds could not attend sports games.

'I don't have a problem with people protesting, but at the moment when we're trying to get the economy back, we're trying to get people back to work, people are being told to social distance,' Levy said. 'We can't got to the football, we can't go to pubs or clubs in big numbers, I don't know how people are able to take to the streets in their thousands.'

NSW Liberal politician Jason Falinski echoed those sentiments on Twitter and said it was unfair to give the green light to the protests but not everything else.  'Before you can have equality, you must have equality before the law. You can't apply health orders to weddings, funerals, and ANZAC Day but not to protests' Mr Falinski said. 'Otherwise you can't have equality.'

Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman said that after the protests received the go ahead, the continuing with any other restrictions was 'illogical'.

In particular he pointed to the continued closure of Queensland's borders which has been crippling for the state's tourism operators.

'If we can have this protest then there is no justification for the ongoing (illogical) restrictions on our lives,' Mr Newman said. 'I bet the protesters details weren't recorded as would be required at any pub, club, restaurant or gym. And by the way, have some courage and open the border now.'

Queensland funeral director Wes Heritage told The Courier Mail he had watched on as grieving families struggled to come to terms with the fact only 10 people could attend the service for their loved ones.

Mr Heritage said any outbreak caused by mass gatherings would only make things even harder.  'We've nursed grieving families through the tough restrictions on funerals and now we're really happy to where we've got to - we don't need a backward step,' he said. 'We've been so strict and successful and would hate to see this protest create an issue that imposes further restrictions on families.'

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China tourism warning against Australia 'just the tip of the iceberg'

A furious China has let rip at the government saying guidance for its citizens to no longer visit Australia may be “just the tip of the iceberg”. It has warned that Australia could soon “completely lose the benefits of Chinese consumers”.

It’s a further ratcheting up of China’s animosity towards Australia which has already seen it impose tariffs on barley and accuse Canberra of being at the beck and call of the US.

The comments have come in weekend editorial from English language Chinese newspaper The Global Times. The paper is widely seen as a Communist Party mouthpiece that does Beijing’s bidding and accused Australian politicians of “attacking” China.

The editorial zeros in on Australian objections to recent guidance from the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism for its citizens to think twice before heading off to Australia in the future. The warning, issued on Friday, said there had been a “significant increase” in racist attacks on “Chinese and Asian people”.

There have undoubtedly been a number of attacks on Chinese Australians during the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, the Australian Human Rights Commission reported that one in four people who lodged racial discrimination complaints in the past two months were targeted because of COVID-19.

In April, news.com.au reported on a shocking video that showed a gang allegedly attacking a pair of Chinese students as they were on their way home in Melbourne.

A Hong Kong student was also reported to have been punched in the face in Hobart for wearing a mask, during the early stages of the pandemic.

However, Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham rejected Beijing’s claim that Australia was unsafe for Chinese visitors.  In a statement on Friday he said Australia was “the most successful multicultural and migrant society in the world”.

“The Chinese Australian community is a significant and valued contributor to that success story,” he said.

“Millions of tourists from all corners of the world demonstrate their confidence in Australia as a safe, welcoming and amazing destination by visiting each year, often returning multiple times.”

But the Global Times editorial hit back, naming Mr Birmingham directly as well as Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack who also criticised the travel warning.

“Their objections are feeble in the face of the facts,” the editorial stated. “Even the Australian media outlets have repeatedly reported stories of Chinese-Australian or Asian-Australian people experiencing increased racist attacks across the country.

“It is unlikely for those Australian politicians to overlook such overwhelming media coverage on increased racism, but political motives may probably make them turn a blind eye to it.”

The paper said the politicians were pushing back against the travel advisory because the government was “nervous” at the loss of Chinese tourists which pump more than $12 billion into the economy and account for 27 per cent of foreign spending by visitors.

“Australian politicians have always readily launched attacks against China even when they know clearly that their assertions are unjustified, because they are too easily swayed by US political attitude and too eager to win US favours.”

Australia’s supposed dependence on the US has been a recurring theme in Chinese media diatribes against Canberra in recent months.

The increasingly angry rhetoric has coincided with a number of Australian policy decisions that the government has made against Beijing’s wishes.

China was apoplectic with rage at Australia’s leading role in the push for a World Health Organisation inquiry into the origins of COVID-19 and only reluctantly backed the investigation last month. It continues to suggest the inquiry was at the US’ behest.

Tensions had also been simmering over Canberra’s decisions to lock out Chinese tech firm Huawei from the building of Australia’s 5G network.

In recent months China has urged international students to “be cautious” about studying in Australia. China has also announced an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley and black-listed four major beef exporters due to labelling violations.

Beijing has denied the new trade measures are a retaliation.  “It is Australia’s unfriendly attitude, not the travel alert, that may really scare away Chinese tourists and students,” this weekend’s editorial said.

“From its push for a US-led inquiry into COVID-19 to its interference in the Hong Kong affair and the upcoming overhaul of its foreign investment rules that are expected to tighten scrutiny over foreign investment, Australian politicians are demonstrating their antipathy toward China.

“It is what they do, not what they say, that really determines which direction China and Australia will go.”

The paper suggested China could launch further action against Australia unless it modified its behaviour.

Certainly, Beijing would be keen for less international attention on its chipping away at Hong Kong’s autonomy which gives citizens there far great freedoms than their mainland counterparts. There have been suggestions Australia would look favourably on Hong Kongers looking to emigrate.

“If Australia wants to retain the gain from its economic ties with China, it must make a real change to its current stance on China, or it will completely lose the benefits of Chinese consumers,” it ranted. “The tourism loss may be just a tip of iceberg in its loss of Chinese interest.”

It’s an ominous threat from China that knows all too well that Australia, like many other nations, needs to kickstart its economy following pandemic-related lockdowns.

China is Australia’s number one export market with minerals, food and beverages some of the most in demand Australian commodities.

According to figures from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade figures, China imported over $100 billion worth of iron, coal and gas from Australia and $123 billion in goods and services in 2017-18.

Last month it was reported that China had drawn up a list of other Australian products to hit.

These include wine, seafood and fruit which could see more thorough and time-consuming customs checks, increased tariffs and even consumer boycotts spurred on by China’s state-controlled media.

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Australian doctor calls for Black Lives Matter protesters to self-isolate amid coronavirus fears

President of the Australian Medical Association Tony Bartone said there was a real "risk" of a virus flare-up.

"If everyone was wanting to keep the rest of the community safe, anyone who attended those rallies really should stay home and keep away from the rest of the community for at least two weeks," Dr Bartone told 3AW's Ross and John.

"More importantly, if they develop any symptoms they need to get tested immediately."

Rally organisers distributed masks among crowds on Saturday, with demonstrators told to use hand sanitiser and social distance where possible.

But Dr Bartone said the safety measures did not annihilate the risk of the virus spreading.

"No matter how much hand sanitiser, no matter much the masks were being worn, for those periods of time there is a risk of the virus passing," he said. "They should really think about what they've done over the weekend."

The bold suggestion comes as infectious diseases physician Sanjaya Senanayake told Today that recent protests could trigger a spike in infections. "I think from a public health point of view in the middle of a COVID crisis it was a risky thing to do," Associate Professor Senanayake said.

But Prof. Senanayake said that quarantining "tens of thousands of protesters" may not be a feasible option for authorities.

Australia's chief health officers will today meet to discuss the next step in easing coronavirus restrictions, which could see gatherings of up to 100 people, most employees returning to their workplace and interstate travel.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee would consider the mass rallies which occurred when assessing the national cabinet's three-step plan for states and territories.

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Pacific islands plead to join Australia-New Zealand travel bubble

Countries have contained Covid-19 but tourism drought is causing severe economic damage

Tony Whitton recently swapped managing one of Fiji’s largest luxury resorts to handing out food parcels to 550 of his staff who were furloughed because of Covid-19.

Now he has joined hundreds of tourism operators in an appeal for Pacific island nations to be included in an Australia and New Zealand “travel bubble” that could rescue their businesses and some of the most tourist-dependent economies in the world.

“This virus is literally a dagger right through our hearts,” said Mr Whitton, who owns Rosie Group, a family business established in 1974.

“We have had no new cases in Fiji for a month and we are moving towards eradication. I view this travel bubble as our only hope during hopeless times.”

New Zealand and Australia have both suppressed the spread of Covid-19 and are progressively reopening their economies and hope to open a “Trans-Tasman travel bubble” by September.

We have had no new cases in Fiji for a month and we are moving towards eradication. I view this travel bubble as our only hope during hopeless times

Pacific nations are lobbying to join the proposed zone. Most governments in the region closed their borders in March to halt the spread of the virus, which health experts warned could decimate communities that have limited access to healthcare and suffer from high rates of diabetes and other ailments.

The closure kept the virus out of a dozen Pacific nations. But it came at a massive economic cost to a region reliant on tourism, which accounts for a third of jobs in Fiji, Palau and Vanuatu, and at least 40 per cent of gross domestic product. The IMF forecasts the island economies will shrink by 5.8 per cent, 3.3 per cent and 11.9 per cent respectively in 2020.

“A travel bubble that includes Fiji alongside Australia and New Zealand would do far more good than any aid or assistance,” said Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Fiji’s economy minister, who has warned government revenues could halve in 2020-21 due to the pandemic.

Fiji is trialling a contact-tracing mobile app to boost its case for inclusion.

The loss of Australian and New Zealand travellers, who make up almost two-thirds of tourists in the region, is crippling Fiji’s economy. Up to 340 hotel and resorts are closed and at least 86,000 people are out of work, according to the Fiji Hotels and Tourism Association.

“Tourism has the proven ability to bounce back and drive the recovery of other sectors, we need to kick-start the tourism industry as early as is safely possible,” says Fantasha Lockington, FHTA chief executive.

Travel bans are not just hitting tourism. They are disrupting seasonal work schemes that enable tens of thousands of Pacific islanders to travel to Australia and New Zealand to undertake farm jobs and send money back to their families. The World Bank has forecast a 13 per cent decline in remittances in the Pacific this year.

Pacific airlines will require state bailouts after spending A$2.5bn ($1.7bn) on new planes over the past three years, according to a report by the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think-tank. Last week, Fiji Airways laid off half its workforce and requested a A$227m government loan.

The Asian Development Bank also warned that reduced air and sea links would increase food security concerns for small island nations with limited agricultural production.

“Because there is less trade demand in the world there will be less ships going with food to these countries and other important imports,” said Emma Veve, deputy director-general of the ADB’s Pacific department. “Some countries are already stockpiling food.”

New Zealand and Australia have indicated Pacific nations will probably only be considered for inclusion in a travel bubble after it has been established, in part to protect vulnerable populations.

“The last thing we want to do is imperil those populations,” said Winston Peters, New Zealand’s foreign minister.

Some health experts say it might be safer for New Zealand, which is on course to eradicate the virus completely, to create a travel bubble with Pacific nations that are virus free rather than Australia, which is still reporting a handful of cases.

“It would be more logical to start the bubble with [Pacific nations completely free of the virus] once New Zealand has eliminated it,” said Nick Wilson, professor of public health at the University of Otago.

He said some virus-free Australian states, including the Northern Territory and Western Australia, could also join such a bubble as long as they kept their borders closed to states where the virus was still present.

Such an outcome would provide a lifeline for Pacific tourism operators and communities that rely on them for income, say advocates.

“We could all stay in our rooms out of fear forever, in which case we’d probably die of starvation. Or we could venture out, take a calculated risk and manage those risks,” said Mr Whitton.

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

Taking Australia back: PM announces tough new measures to stop foreigners buying our land and assets

This will be a popular measure on both the Left and the Right but it is not well thought-out.  Banning Chinese purchases of land is particularly silly.  The Chinese can't pick the land up and takes it back to China -- so what is achieved?

The Chinese normally employ Australian managers for their farm purchases so even the management remains mostly under Australian control.

Purchase of companies is less clear-cut but once again one has to ask what is achieved?  In the rare instances where there are commercial or scientific secrets that could be revealed, then by all means restrict those purchases but what else could go wrong?  The new owners will have the same motivation to make a profit so production of what the firm makes should be little changed


Foreign investment laws in Australia will be completely overhauled as part of tough new rules to protect the country's national security.

The federal government's zero-dollar approval threshold will mean all foreign bids for companies from large telecommunication businesses to small defence providers will be vetted by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will also have the power to force a sale or impose conditions on foreign acquisition of Australian assets even after a purchase is made.

Previously the treasury could only block foreign purchases of Australian assets which exceeded a takeover threshold of $1.2billion.

The new laws follow a series of recent controversial takeovers by Chinese-owned companies - including the lease of the Port of Darwin to Chinese Communist Party-linked Landbridge Group in November 2015.

The deal was called into question by then-US President Barack Obama at the time, leading former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage to say Australia had 'blindsided' its ally.

Government sources have claimed the agreement with the group's subsidiary Landbridge Australia would not have been approved had the FIRB's rules been in place, The Australian reported.

'Through the introduction of a new national security test, stronger enforcement powers and enhanced compliance obligations, we will ensure that Australia can continue to benefit from foreign investment while safeguarding our national interest,' Mr Frydenberg said.

In 2016, then-treasurer Scott Morrison also overturned a Chinese bid for energy company Ausgrid over national security concerns.

The intervention just 10 days before the deal's deadline led to the Chinese government accusing Canberra of 'discrimination' and 'protectionism'.

Chinese buyers spent $24billion on Australian real estate during the last year, making them by far the largest group of foreign purchasers.

China is also the largest foreign stakeholder in the Australian water market - with Chinese investors owning 732 gigalitres or 1.89 per cent of the water.

It comes as Australia strengthens ties with India as relations with China, its largest trading power, continues to sour.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi signed off a new agreement in a virtual summit on Thursday.

It aims to boost economic trade between the two countries, build closer partnerships around science and technology and strengthen defence cooperation.

SOURCE  






Student suspended for criticising his university's China ties is banned from his own appeal hearing - as 'victim' speaks out in his defence

A student who was suspended from the University of Queensland for two years after criticising its links to China has been banned from attending his own appeal hearing.

Drew Pavlou was banned from completing his philosophy degree until 2022 on Friday after the university accused him of 11 cases of misconduct, which were detailed in a confidential 186-page document.

The 21-year-old revealed he had been banned from the proceedings to review the penalty on Friday, and his lawyer planned to include proof from an alleged victims that one of the complaints against him was 'manufactured'.

'Despite being an elected representative to the UQ Senate, I've been barred from attending a meeting reviewing my expulsion. Kangaroo court!' he Tweeted.

The UQ Senate is reviewing his suspension in an out-of-session meeting, and Mr Pavlou will be banned from accessing the minutes of the meeting as well, due to conflict of interest concerns.

UQ vice-chancellor Peter Hoj, who was referenced in the complaints against the activist, will not attend for the same reason.

'I don't understand why, as a democratically elected representative of UQ students on the senate, I'm being barred from this meeting,' Mr Pavlou told the ABC.

'They are taking all these steps to ensure there is as murky a process as possible, that the Australian public does not know how they are making these decisions.'

A spokewoman from the university told Daily Mail Australia that the meeting was to brief the Senate on the outcome of Mr Pavlou's disciplinary matter.   

'It would be inconsistent with standard conflict of interest procedures if Mr Pavlou or Senate members directly involved in the appeal process were to attend,' she said. 'The Vice Chancellor will also not attend.'

Mr Pavlou also revealed that his lawyer, Tony Morris QC, was contacted by one of students Mr Pavlou had allegedly 'harassed, bullied, threatened or abused' on social media.

The student wrote that not only had he not made a formal complaint nor felt 'distressed' as written in the complaint, he had not been contacted by UQ.

'Apparently the complaint mentions that I was "distressed" which is from my point of view laughable,' the student wrote in an email viewed by the ABC.

'While I think it was characteristically crass of him to write to a female friend the way he did I feel this complaint has been largely manufactured.' 

Over the weekend the Chinese Communist Party-controlled tabloid Global Times rubbed salt in the wound of Mr Pavlou's suspension, citing anonymous students celebrating it.

The article labelled Mr Pavlou an 'anti-Chinese rioter' while saying his peers were celebrating that 'justice finally came'.

Four anonymous Chinese and Australian students were quoted in the piece accusing him of inciting violence and racism while smearing Chinese students.

In response Mr Pavlou claimed Chinese state media had directed UQ to expel him, and said the university was dependent on income from Chinese students and donors.

'Chinese state media have just decided to go full mask off, endorsing my expulsion from UQ,' he wrote on Twitter.

'UQ relies on the Chinese market for 20 per cent of its income. Moral courage!'

A statement from University of Queensland confirmed fees from Chinese students make up about 20 per cent of revenue.

The campus has the fifth highest international student fee income in Australia, and about 18,000 of the 53,000 students enrolled are from overseas.

Nine thousand of those students are from China.

Mr Pavlou will be able to continue his studies until the verdict of the appeal.

He is due to complete his degree in six months, meaning he may graduate before his suspension begins.

The politics student believes his university caved to pressure from Chinese influence to suspend him.

He led a series of campus demonstrations last year, in support of Hong-Kong's pro-democracy movement.

The activist also posted messages to social media criticising China's authoritarian regime and denounced the university's close financial ties with the Communist Party

SOURCE  





Black Lives Matter protesters in Australia are just ‘rent-a-crowds’

Dr Anthony Dillon (Dr Anthony Dillon is a lecturer at the Australian Catholic University and commentator on Indigenous issues)

An Indigenous academic says the Black Lives Matter protests were “ridiculous” and the “rent-a-crowds” did not care about the real issues.

So much has been said this past week in response to the shocking death of a Minnesota man and the hands of a dumb police officer.

All can agree, that this (former) officer’s actions, and that of his colleagues who stood by and watched him, are atrocious.

Sadly, the fallout from this act of stupidity has had a flow on effect in Australia.

Some activists reading that last sentence will reply with “Oh but it’s important, it’s solidarity …”

No, it’s just an excuse to protest for the sake of protesting.

I am all for people fighting for a cause they feel strongly about and taking to the streets if they feel that is the best way to deliver, what they believe, is an important message.

But what we are seeing now is ridiculous. If this was just a comedy show I would be laughing. But the antics of activists, social justice warriors, and their rent-a-crowds only move Australia backwards.

These professional protesters are latching onto the Aboriginal deaths in custody issue to enable them to justify their confected outrage and go out marching with their protest signs that say: ‘Black lives matter’.

For them, an Aboriginal death in custody is proof positive of racism.

For Aboriginal deaths in custody, let’s provide some context here. Aboriginal Australians in custody are less likely to die than non-Aboriginal Australians in custody.

An Australian Government publication, The Health of Australia’s Prisoners: 2015, states: “Indigenous Australians were no more likely to die in custody than non-Indigenous Australians” and “With just over one-quarter (27 per cent) of prisoners in custody being Indigenous, and 17 per cent of deaths in custody being Indigenous, Indigenous prisoners were under-represented.”

The ‘outrage’ from protesters for deaths in custody is about as authentic as Australia Day protests.

I and others have been asking for a long time: “Where is the outrage regarding the high rates of violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities?”

In early May there was a report of a young Aboriginal woman (mother of two) found dead in a wheelie bin.

On the WAtoday webpage it was reported “a Martu elder stood in the boy’s place to receive a punishment dealt out according to customary law”—the boy referred to is the person charged with the woman’s murder. Where was the outrage?

I could give plenty more examples of hypocrisy but won’t.

I want to talk about why tension exists between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, because by understanding the cause, we can find a solution.

Most Aboriginal people are either partnered up with a non-Aboriginal person or the product of the union between an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal person.

It seems that we generally get along with one another. Of course, there are exceptions, as there are with the mixing of any groups or races.

Those exceptions can range from simple disagreements to acts that are outright vicious and fatal.

But here’s the problem, as humans we have quirky ways of thinking and analysing the world around us.

The exceptions I just referred to can be used to create a belief that simply is not true. Contrary to common opinion, psychologists tell us that people do not make observations and then draw conclusions, rather, they select theories that are consistent with their personal values, attitudes, and prejudices (often hidden from consciousness) and then go out into the world to make observations to validate their theories.

Observations not consistent with a pre-existing belief are discarded while confirmatory ones are clung to tightly.

Applied here for the person who believes Aboriginal people are the victims of endless racism, a death in custody or an altercation with a white police officer is seen as evidence of racism. Or even witnessing a true case of racism, it will be used to validate one’s personal belief that Australia is a racist country towards Aboriginal Australians.

Of course, non-Aboriginal people are just as capable of distorting their views of Aboriginal people, but I don’t believe it happens to the same degree as it does with Aboriginal people having distorted views of non-Aboriginal people.

There have been stories in the media describing atrocious acts of violence where an Aboriginal person kills a non-Aboriginal person, and not once have I heard of any movement or any individual that as a result of these atrocious acts, promotes the lie that Aboriginal people are a danger to non-Aboriginal people.

More succinctly, Goethe said “people find what they look for, and they look for what they believe.” Maybe it’s time we band together and start looking for the good in each other? There are no winners with the race riots and protests.


SOURCE  






Australian bank reveals findings from compliance review

Australian lender Westpac Banking Corp (WBC.AX) on Thursday blamed “faults of omission” and “not intentional wrongdoing” for breaching anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws.

Last November, Australian regulator AUSTRAC filed a civil lawsuit, accusing the bank of presiding over 23 million payments that violated anti-money laundering protocols, including those made by Australians to child pornography purveyors in the Philippines.

The country’s second-largest bank last month admitted to charges of breaching money laundering laws, but denied accusations it enabled illegal payments between known child sex offenders.

Unclear accountabilities as well as a lack of understanding and expertise caused compliance failures, the company said in a statement.

The bank, which concluded its investigation into issues raised by AUSTRAC, said that the failure to correctly report international transfer of funds was due to a mix of technology and human error going back more than a decade.

“Consequences that have been applied to individuals include significant remuneration impacts and disciplinary actions,” Westpac Chief Executive Officer Peter King said. “A number of relevant staff had already left the company.”

The allegations from the regulator have led to a string of senior management changes at the company, including the chief executive and chairman roles. Earlier this week, the bank announced that the head of its institutional bank was retiring.

A report from the advisory panel review into the charges noted that the directors could have recognised the systemic nature of the crimes the bank was facing earlier.

Westpac said it would continue to engage with AUSTRAC on the legal process.

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

SILENT protest in solidarity for Black Lives Matter

YOUNG Wadawurrung woman Macaylah Johnson calls for unity and respect for all races as Ballarat grapples with the ripple effects of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Much more civilized than what we have seen in the USA

Parts of the USA have reverted to the law of the jungle in response to the George Floyd death

Ms Johnson will be part of a silent stand against Aboriginal deaths in custody in Camp Street on Saturday, joining with representatives from the city's African community and Ballaarat Allies (non-Indigenous supporters). The demonstration is made in solidarity with calls for equality in justice after the death of African American man George Floyd in custody.

Silence speaks more than shouting or blame. This is not about whites versus blacks, this is about everyone against racism and discrimination.

Ms Johnson said she was a firm believer all lives matter but she could not comfortably follow the emerging all lives trend while there were statistical gaps and disadvantage due to skin colour and race. This includes casual racism.

I think a lot of the time racism has a lot of excuses...It gets swept under the carpet with the language and jokes we say but really it can be hurtful for a lot of people.

"I want to help educate what is happening here and happening close to home for our indigenous and refugee communities - indigenous communities aren't the only ones discriminated against," Ms Johnson said.

Ms Johnson's call is echoed by a cross-section of community cultural leaders across Ballarat. This includes Indian-Australian man Ronnie Singh, who has been hurt by verbal abuse as a black man and called for greater respect and understanding between cultures.

Respect and reflection is why the Camp Street demonstration, organised by Ballarat Allies, will be silent.

https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/6781826/protest-in-silent-solidarity-aims-to-speak-louder-than-blame-on-race-issue/