Australian Politics
Monday, February 08, 2021
Bike riders should be held more accountable for carnage they cause
Riding two abreast was once banned. It is a curse to other road users
Cyclists should pay a fee to be registered and licensed and be banished from footpaths and arterial roads because they are a danger to themselves and pedestrians.
The massive pandemic-led surge in cyclists on our roads has sparked fresh calls for bike riders to be more accountable. It may well signal the end of the MAMIL (middle aged men in lycra). Many are saying enough is enough.
If it’s good enough for those getting around on motorised scooters to be registered – they too don’t lack anything in the aggression stakes – cyclists should now be subject to the same laws as vehicle users.
If a cyclist can be charged with being drunk on our roads, why are they not subjected to the same stringent rules that apply to motorists? Some may suggest registering and licensing cyclists and banning them from main roads is going overboard. But this is deadly serious.
They are a menace to themselves and others. In 2018, 82,000 people signed a petition to stop cyclists being able to ride two abreast. It follows legislation in NSW which now requires motorists to leave a minimum gap of one metre when passing a cyclist when the speed limit is below 60 km/h. Loss of demerit points and fines apply to motorists who do not adhere to the law, angering some car bodies.
But what of the rights of pedestrians and motorists? Take the example last year of a 93-year old man who was fatally struck by a cyclist while out walking. Charlie Embrey was struck by a cyclist as he walked near his home in Burpengary, on Brisbane’s northside.
The cyclist was a man, 43, who was not injured. Police said they collided when travelling in opposite direction near Reynolds Court. Surveys conducted by Victoria Walks – which represents walkers – show 40 per cent of the elderly say they don’t go on footpaths because of cyclists.
“In crashes between pedestrians and cyclists the most serious injuries are sustained by the pedestrian because of secondary impacts such as a head hitting the ground,’’ a Victoria Walks report said.
In the 12 months to June last year, 48 cyclists died on Australian roads, up from 34 in the corresponding year, with fatalities doubling in the past three years. Queensland is a wonderful state for cycling, and there has been a big spike in bikes being purchased and used during the pandemic, sparking suggestions Brisbane was in its biggest cycling renaissance since the 1970s.
Contributing to the popularity boom is the way in which councils have spent tens of millions of dollars on new and improved cycleways, aimed at getting bike riders off the roads they share with vehicles. A joint state and council committee has been established to focus on cycle safety after a spate of bike deaths in recent years.
The Active Transport Advisory Committee has been meeting regularly for seven months, and the main concern appears to be regulation of heavy vehicles. But the reality is that heavy vehicles will never be banned from using roads because the transportation of groceries and goods in this decentralised country of ours is vital.
So where does that leave cyclists, many of whom are playing Russian roulette on the roads with cars each day? It’s simple. They need to be banned from major roads. For their own protection, as much as the motorists who are faced each day with dodging them.
Major thoroughfares such as Gympie Road, Wynnum Road, Ipswich Road and Abbotsford Road are death traps for cyclists. Motorists are now funding cycleways through rego taxes. Councils are pandering to these cyclists by annexing sections of roads, causing even more congestion for car and truck users.
We need to stop the cyclist carnage on the roads. The best way to do that is banish them from busy roads altogether and introduce laws where they must stick to the cycleways.
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Leftist olive branch to Christian voters
OPPOSITION leader Anthony Albanese will seek to offer an olive branch to religious voters who turned their back on Labor in 2019, saying “respect of their views” and potentially conscience votes on some contentious issues would be a part of a Labor Government led by him.
Mitochondrial donation, a cutting edge treatment for a rare disease also known as “three-person IVF”, would be an example of where conscience votes could be offered.
Labor’s election post-mortem found religious voters and Christians in particular had been turned off the party, with party insiders having said “they were scared of us”.
In the wake of the review, Labor members including Deputy Leader Richard Marles began holding began holding roundtables with religious organisations, but the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions curtailed much of this.
Mr Albanese told The Courier-Mail that he had continued to meet with leaders of different communities, including Catholic, Anglican and Greek Orthodox churches.
“People are looking for respect and for respect of their views,” he said. “I’m someone who, I don’t try to go out there and put my views out there. But I was Catholic raised and engaged there. “But I also engage with religious leaders across the board.”
He said he was support of conscience votes on appropriate issues. “I’ve been a strong supporter of conscience votes and have argued that consistently within the Labor Party and publicly for a long period of time,” Mr Albanese said.
The Mitochondrial donation was an example of where he would support a conscience vote for the Labor Party. Mitochondrial disease is a potentially fatal genetic disease in children which robs the body’s cells of energy.
Mitochondrial donation is an assisted reproduction treatment which uses DNA from three people, with donated eggs, to prevent parents transmitting the disease to their children.
Health Minister Greg Hunt told the Coalition party room last week that a laws to legalise the process would be coming up in the parliament and they would be allowed a conscience vote on the issue.
Mr Albanese said he too believed it was an issue that should be appropriately dealt with through a conscience vote.
The UK in 2015 became the first country to legalise the process.
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How Scott Morrison's huge 'Fortress Australia' gamble to stop endless Covid state border closures and let the lucky country thrive could mean we're cut off from the world for YEARS
Scott Morrison's decision to keep the international border closed has been hailed by business leaders as the key to Australia's economic success - but may leave Aussies banned from going abroad for at least another year.
While other nations struggle under the weight of growing Covid cases and mounting deaths, Australians are - with a few exceptions - going about their normal lives, other than flying overseas.
On Friday, Mr Morrison signalled millions will soon enjoy even greater freedoms as he looked to end snap border closures that have left families separated and people fearing booking interstate travel.
His decision to close Australia's international borders on March 20 last year is fast approaching its first birthday, and some of the country's top CEOS - including Qantas CEO Alan Joyce - have said it is the key to the nation's economic health.
But Mr Joyce also called for more consistency with snap border closures after some states locked down entire cities after recording a single case.
'We're a victim of our success, in a way. We have state borders slamming shut with just one case. Now, some will argue that's how we stay successful, but the NSW experience shows otherwise,' he told the AFR.
He explained the airline is supportive of the hard border system continuing if it allows domestic travel to stay open across the country - calling snap closures 'confusing and confidence sapping'.
While Qantas' domestic flights are set to return to 60 per cent capacity of pre-Covid levels, snap lockdowns could see this fall to a even lower level.
'I think we need to put more trust in the testing and tracing systems we've built through COVID and the incredible levels of co-operation shown by the community,' Mr Joyce said.
Mark Steinert, chief executive of Stockland, also called for more consistency between states, and asked others to adopt an approach similar to that seen in New South Wales - where border closures are avoided in all but the most serious outbreaks.
'Once state borders remain consistently open, with a targeted approach to deal with community transfer, we are confident we will see a further increase in economic activity and jobs growth,' he said.
Elizabeth Gaines, who heads up Fortescue Metals, also backed the government's hard international border closure, calling it a 'considered, thorough approach'.
While border closures between states could soon be a thing of the past, a reluctance to allow in foreign travellers is weighing heavily on universities which relied on international students.
Universities lost an estimated $1.8billion in revenue and had to cut 17,300 jobs last year compared to 2019, according to Universities Australia.
On top of this, the tourism industry has been decimated thanks to the lack of international tourists, as well as domestic closures.
The lost of international flights has cost the economy more than $61billion since the pandemic began, and overall the value of Australian tourism is expected to fall from $138million to $83billion, according to Tourism Research Australia.
But thanks to the international border closures, Australians have been able to spend millions in their own backyard by taking trips in their own state, as well as eating out at restaurants and cafes.
Mr Morrison recently hinted international borders could open sooner than the predicted 2022 date if it's proved the vaccine is stopping transmission and not just illness and deaths.
'The key thing I think is going to impact on that decision, is going to be whether the evidence emerges about transmissibility, and how the vaccine protects against that,' the prime minister told News Limited during a Facebook Live on Wednesday.
'If it indeed does stop transmission between people, then that could be quite a game-changer, but that will not be evident for some time yet.'
Chief Medical Officer, Brendan Murphy, last month said he expected the hard borders to be shut for the remainder of the year.
During the Facebook live, he echoed Mr Morrison's statements, and said it would be a waiting game to know how effective vaccines were in stopping transmission.
'If, as we suspect these vaccines are effective at preventing transmission, the sooner we get the population vaccinated, the sooner people - not only will they be protected, but we will get on this path towards good herd immunity, and that will speed up the return to international travel,' he said.
Under a taskforce led by Philip Gaetjens, Secretary for the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, new strategies are being put forward in alignment with the rollout of the vaccine to return life to normal.
Mr Morrison said the country would soon be able to treat Covid-19 like other virus, such as the flu, which does not require lockdowns or even social distancing - although this isn't expected to change the government's hard stance on international borders anytime soon.
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Home affairs failing to meet Australia's freedom of information deadlines, watchdog finds
The home affairs department is failing to meet lawful deadlines in a huge proportion of freedom of information cases, a problem exacerbated by the involvement of ministerial staff, poor training and the need for greater senior-level departmental support, an investigation has found.
The freedom of information system is a critical plank of transparency and accountability in Australia, but data shows it is currently deteriorating considerably, with delays, complaints and refusals all on the rise.
The department of home affairs is by far the biggest recipient of FOI requests but frequently struggles to meet its obligations to process requests within lawful timeframes.
In October 2019, after receiving a series of complaints about home affairs, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner started an own-motion investigation of the department’s FOI handling.
The report released on Friday found the department missed the lawful deadline in more than half of the FOI requests for non-personal information it received each year for the past four years.
It found there were “inadequate processes” for escalating requests and finalising decisions, and the department was using non-FOI staff with inadequate training to work on some requests.
“The department has implemented an approach for processing FOI requests for non-personal information that requires significant engagement by the staff in the business areas to which a relevant FOI request relates,” the report found. “The training and resources made available to those staff does not facilitate processing FOI requests within the FOI Act statutory processing periods.”
The department also lacked “senior-level support for embedding policies, procedures and systems for compliance”, the investigation found.
The involvement of media teams and the minister’s office in FOI requests also “limits the ability of the department to meet” its deadlines.
The OAIC recommended the department immediately appoint an “information champion” to make sure the department is complying with the FOI act. It should also prepare an operational manual to instruct staff on how to process FOI requests within the lawful timeframes, train its staff in FOI, and conduct a broader audit of its performance.
The department said it accepted all recommendations and has had a program of continuous improvement under way since October 2019 to improve its performance.
“As a result of the continuous improvement program, the department more than doubled the finalisation of requests for non-personal information in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19 (1,789 compared to 870),” a spokesman said.
It’s not the first time the department has come under fire for its FOI handling.
In 2019, the Guardian revealed that its delayed handling of FOI requests had led to almost 8,000 requests being automatically refused.
It has also been accused by a whistleblower of breaking freedom of information law to withhold documents about alleged legal breaches during pay negotiations with staff.
When the independent senator Rex Patrick asked about the department’s compliance at Senate estimates in October 2019, the home affairs secretary, Michael Pezzullo, said he was attempting to “spread finite resources across every single piece of legislation this parliament sees fit to pass”.
“It’s within it’s your prerogative to pass laws as you see fit,” he said. “Like my colleagues in the portfolio and more generally across government, I have to apply finite resources, which allow us to comply to the maximum extent we can.”
Patrick said the report had “properly rapped Mr Pezzullo over the knuckles”.
“As the principal officer for home affairs responsible for FOI, his performance does not meet the expectations and professional responsibilities for the chief executive of a federal government department,” Patrick said.
“But I live in hope and will be following it up at March’s estimates committee hearings.”
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Sunday, February 07, 2021
Taxi service under fire for ‘Australian’ driver requirement
I use Taxis a fair bit and most drivers I encounter are Indians with very limited English. It can be very frustrating when you are trying to give directions and keep them on the right path. So having drivers who spreak good English would be a relief
But we should nonetheless be thankful to the Indians. It is a dangerous job and not many "old" Australians are willing to risk it. I was myself a taxi-driver many years ago and, although I was wary enough to avoid getting hurt, there were some hairy incidents. Something like half of one's customers are drunk
A taxi company is under fire after revealing it only hires Australian drivers whose first language is English.
Eureka Taxis launched its service in Ballan, about 78km northwest of Melbourne, on Monday, announcing the news to locals by posting in a community Facebook group. In the post, Eureka Taxis’ Matthew Matters said people in Ballan would be able to book a taxi and “be picked up by an Australian driver”. “All drivers are: Australian drivers, fully insured (and) have current working with children checks,” he wrote.
The majority of commenters seemed excited about having a new taxi service but not everyone was impressed with the prerequisite for drivers. “Up your arse I’m a wog,” one person wrote.
Co-owner Vivian Wilson responded to the man, pointing out she is from a European background and has no problem with the requirement for drivers to have English as a first language. “I have no issues when businesses ask for drivers to have English being your first language. I personally don’t take offence to it,” she said.
On another post Mr Matters made about Eureka Taxis, a few other locals questioned what the “Australian drivers” requirement meant. “Australian drivers means that English is their first language and they hold an Australian driving licence (not an international licence),” Mr Matters responded.
Ms Wilson clarified to The Ballarat News that English as a first language was a strict requirement for drivers but they could come from any background.
She said there are a lot of “multicultural drivers” where the company is based in Ballarat and Eureka Taxi’s requirement for their drivers to hold an Australian licence was based on customer demand.
“You’ve got drivers that will sit there and talk their own language while they have customers in the car which is quite rude,” she told the publication.
“The attention to the customer isn’t 100 per cent, so we are fulfilling that gap.”
Phony emission targets
Lofty emission reduction “plans” are to virtue-signalling governments what positive life-affirmation mantras and essential oils are for trainwreck alcoholics.
You can wear all the crystals and dreamcatcher tattoos you want – but it won’t clean the back of the taxi after last night’s shenanigans.
After winning the 2019 election by promising not to follow Labor’s path on climate policy, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has now started musing on Australian carbon neutrality by 2050.
A closer look at our nearest neighbours reveals their emissions plans are bulk ambition, a bit of pragmatism and doused in so much positivity gibberish that it would challenge even Oprah.
New Zealand, where 43.5 per cent of emissions are from the country’s dairy and sheep herds, celebrates “net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases” – except for the methane produced by cows and sheep.
New Zealand’s methane emissions are higher per capita than ours in Australia (5.83 t per capita versus 4.95 t per capita).
But we are the bad guys according to New Zealand because we haven’t adopted a net-zero emissions policy – even though they haven’t either.
Being the positive-thinkers they are, New Zealand legislators have kept their target open for review every few years on the chance that scientists find a way to stop cows burping.
Fiji, which slammed nations who hadn’t signed up to the net zero 2050 target when it did as “selfish”, has just 117,561 vehicles in the whole country and doesn’t expect all households to swap open fires for electric ovens until 2030. And they conveniently exclude emissions from international flights full of tourists that buoy its economy.
We can see what Fiji looks like without tourists. COVID-19 closed international borders and left 115,000 people newly unemployed or on reduced hours. That’s a third of Fiji’s workforce, with around a third of those women.
And who picked up the bill? We did. Australia provided $304.7 million to help Fiji run during COVID-19. And they call us selfish …
Fiji’s climate change strategy includes costings of USD $600 million to buy efficient new planes and notes it will need “international help” to pay for them.
If Fiji can exclude international flight emissions to protect their biggest industry (tourism), and New Zealand can exclude methane emissions to product their nation’s dairy industry – then Australia can sign up to a 2050 “net zero emissions” too – so long as we ignore all emissions from the industries that make us money, primarily mining and agriculture.
Wollongong Council, which launched its net zero policy with the ABC headline “Australia’s steel city commits to be carbon neutral by 2050”, actually only commits to reducing emissions from council operations by 25 per cent.
Their own policy says: “That Council is submitting this target on behalf of the community … and that Council is not solely responsible for the implementation of actions to achieve this target.”
Wollongong, still the home of the steelworks, is expanding a gas capture system over the town dump.
It’s a tangible development that could have been celebrated without pretending to magic away all emissions.
Sydney City Council, which in 2008 launched plans to be an urban oasis by 2030, has promoted its ”zero-waste city” for more than a decade – but the actual target, buried in the fine print, is just 70 per cent recycled waste.
You can profess all the holiness you like, but you are not emissions free, or greenhouse gas free, or even “net zero”.
It’s the equivalent of showing off your kale and gratitude smoothie on social media in the hope your mates forget you were thrown out of the pub again the night before.
NSW Minister for Carbon Tax Matt Kean leans on Norway’s electric car case studies for his net zero by 2050 strategy, but fails to mention that the Norwegian taxpayer subsidises them by nearly $20,000 a car.
Norway, about four per cent the size of Australia, hiked taxes for other new vehicles to the world’s highest, while subsidising tolls, parking and road taxes for EV drivers.
But Kean blames NSW’s limited public charging points, the $45,000 price tag for the cheapest barebones Hyundai hybrid, and that “most garages in Norway are powered to prevent vehicles from freezing during winter”.
He also doesn’t mention that an electric car in NSW is in fact a coal-powered car because our grid is 70 to 80 per cent coal.
If we can learn anything from the “net zero” commitments of councils, states and neighbouring countries, it’s that they believe the universal laws of attraction free them of their emission addiction as long as they repeat it enough.
Universities facing $2 billion loss as job cuts total more than 17,000
Australian universities axed at least 17,300 jobs last year and more losses are expected this year, as the sector braces for a further $2 billion revenue shortfall caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Peak body Universities Australia, which has calculated the financial hit to the sector over the past year, will use the new figures to urge the Morrison government to develop a long-term plan for research funding ahead of the May budget.
Chief executive Catriona Jackson said the scale of job and revenue losses varied between universities but no institution was spared financial pain, with the decline in international student revenue the major cause of budget pressures.
“As a sector, universities have gone from being $2.3 billion in surplus in 2019 to being $369 million in deficit in 2020,” Ms Jackson said. “Budgeting was really tough right across the sector. A very large city university with lots of international students will have had a big hit. In some universities in regional areas there are very serious challenges around delaying really important capital works.”
Universities Australia, which represents the country’s 39 universities, calculated at least 17,300 jobs were shed from Australian campuses in 2020 - slightly lower than the 21,000 jobs it estimated were at risk in April. The figures comprise full time and casual positions.
It found universities’ operating revenues fell 4.9 per cent, or $1.8 billion, compared with 2019 figures, and predicted a further $2 billion decline this year.
Foreign students’ fees are a highly lucrative revenue source for universities, which collectively banked $10 billion from these fees in 2019, accounting for 27 per cent of their total operating revenue.
But the ongoing uncertainty around Australia’s international border, which has been closed for 10 months, has exposed the over-reliance by universities on the fees to cross-subsidise research programs.
In December, many universities reported steep declines in early applications and enrolments for semester one, fuelling concerns Australia was at risk of losing market share to rival countries such as Canada and the UK, which have opened borders to offshore students.
Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge warned the sector last month that it would be “very difficult” for international students to return in large numbers to campuses this year as he appealed to offshore students to begin their studies online.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews similarly described the prospect as “incredibly challenging, if not impossible”, while NSW has shelved plans to return 1000 international students each week.
Elite research universities, including the University of Sydney, the University of Melbourne, and the Australian National University, were among the institutions that slashed hundreds of jobs through voluntary or forced redundancies programs last year.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack says the Government might consider excluding agriculture from future long-term climate change targets
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared his goal is to reach net zero emissions "as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050", although he has not committed to it.
Mr McCormack said Australia could follow New Zealand's lead in exempting emissions from the agriculture sector.
"Indeed, that could well be one of the options, but as I say, it's a long way off," the Nationals leader told Sky News.
"New Zealand, well yes they've said that 2050 is a target but they've also had that caveat with their agriculture.
"Well if that's what it takes, well that's what it takes, but we're not going to hurt regional Australia, we're not going to hurt those wonderful people who've put food on our table."
New Zealand has set a 2050 target of reaching net zero emissions "of all greenhouse gases other than biogenic methane".
McCormack 'not worried about what might happen in 30 years'
Mr McCormack said he did not want to see regional areas disproportionately affected by Australia's climate change response but argued his immediate focus was on other issues.
"There are huge challenges in 2021 and we're not worried, well I'm certainly not worried, about what might happen in 30 years' time," he said.
"The concentration at the moment indeed for me, for the National Party and indeed for regional Australia is getting back on our feet after what's been a very challenging year."
Asked whether agriculture should be exempted from a potential 2050 target, Deputy Labor leader Richard Marles said Australia needed to reach carbon neutrality "across the economy".
"That's what Paris requires and that's the commitment that we have made," he told the ABC's Insiders program.
"Labor has made a commitment, we didn't hear that from the Government this week.
"I'm not sure what he heard from the Prime Minister, it might have been a hope, an aspiration, 'inching' I think is the word, but what we did not hear was a commitment."
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Saturday, February 06, 2021
Bob Brown Foundation loses Federal Court bid to end native forest logging in Tasmania
The Bob Brown Foundation took the Federal and Tasmanian Governments, along with Sustainable Timber Tasmania, to court in what environmentalists billed as "the great forest case".
It argued the state's Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) contradicted federal laws and was therefore invalid. It submitted Tasmania's RFA did not protect endangered species, particularly the swift parrot.
The foundation posted on social media saying the decision was "just a setback" and did not change its campaign to end native forest logging.
Bob Brown said "this will simply invigorate our campaign to protect Tasmania's forest and wildlife". "Tasmania's forests will be free of chainsaws before too long," Mr Brown said.
He said the foundation would now look at options to appeal to the High Court.
The foundation's case came after the Federal Court ruled last year that state-owned timber company VicForests breached environmental laws by logging sections of the Central Highlands inhabited by the critically endangered Leadbeater's possum.
The forest industry and government ministers said the decision was a "win" for forestry workers.
Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonno Duniam said Mr Brown must now accept the judgement. "This is a victory for every hard-working man and woman in forestry across the nation," Senator Duniam said in a statement.
"Bob Brown said himself that 'it's time for a big winner' when it comes to the native forestry industry, and today's decision confirms forestry is that winner."
Tasmanian Forest Products Association chief executive Nick Steel said the outcome was good news "for Tasmanian jobs, the environment, and the Tasmanian community".
"Regional Forest Agreements were set up to provide an appropriate balance between the environment and jobs and to provide certainty to all parties, and the public can now be reassured about this balance by today's decision," Mr Steel said.
Tasmania's forestry industry employees more than 5,000 people, both directly and indirectly.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-03/tasmania-bob-brown-landmark-forestry-decision/13116326
Australia makes HUGE move against China as it offers $10million for a key industry the communist government has dominated for decadesThe Tasmanian Government will put $10million towards helping to revive a King Island mine to produce tungsten, a mineral seen as critical to national security.
China currently controls about 83 per cent of the world's tungsten production - a near monopoly on global supply.
The Trump administration in 2018 declared tungsten one of 35 minerals 'essential' to the United States' economic and national security, though the country does not have a mine producing tungsten.
Australia meanwhile currently only has a small working deposit, located in Tasmania, leaving the two countries vulnerable to controls on exports.
The King Island Scheelite company's Dolphin Mine has been closed since 1992 due to a downturn in global tungsten prices. It had been producing Scheelite, a form of Tungsten since 1917 on the island, located halfway between Tasmania and Victoria.
The price of tungsten, the second hardest mineral after diamonds, has rebounded in recent years with the mineral used widely in automotive and aerospace industries.
Tungsten is used to manufacture passenger vehicles, fighter jets, weapons, drill bits used in the mining industry and in mobile phone screens.
'Tungsten is a strategically significant metal and a key input to industries that are vital to national security,' King Island Scheelite Executive Chairman Johann Jacobs said.
'We note that several Western governments have recently identified a crisis in the supply chain for critical minerals, particularly tungsten, for which North America currently has no mines in production.
'We see a close alignment between the company's development objectives, the Tasmanian Government's interests in maintaining and growing both Tasmanian jobs and export revenue, and the strategic objectives of the Australian Government as implemented by Austrade and the Critical Mineral Facilitation Office.'
Tasmania's minister for state growth, Michael Ferguson, said the government had offered a $10 million commercial loan, repayable over 10 years, to help progress the Dolphin Mine.
'King Island Scheelite's Dolphin Tungsten Project has the potential to generate significant investment, create jobs and boost the economy on King Island,' he said.
'While the project is still contingent on a number of other requirements, which the company is progressing, this is an important step in moving it forward. 'This will allow the company to continue the additional capital-raising necessary to bring it to fruition.'
Mr Ferguson said the company estimates the project could create up to 90 full-time equivalent jobs during construction and about 55 ongoing full-time equivalent jobs. 'It would be great to see a clever, job-creating mine up and running again under this proposal, producing significant social and economic benefits for the King Island community,' he said.
King Island Scheelite is still hoping to obtain $15million in federal government funding and further money from equity and debt markets.
China’s Ministry of Education has issued another warning to students wanting to study in Australia
Chinese students have again been warned against studying in Australia in a move that could worsen the already strained relationship with Beijing.
State-owned media has reported that China’s Ministry of Education on Friday told students to make a “full risk assessment” about studying in Australia following reports of racism and concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
“It noted that a series of vicious attacks on Chinese students that have happened recently in multiple places in Australia have posed a serious threat to their personal safety,” the Global Times wrote.
“The raging pandemic also makes international travel risky.”
Australian universities rely heavily on the Chinese, who make up the largest cohort of international students.
Beijing first cautioned students about racist incidents against Asians and the pandemic in June last year in the midst of Australia’s plans to allow international students to return to the country.
However, the burgeoning number of Australian citizens wanting to return from overseas and restricted quarantine capacity has thrown a spanner in the works of returning planeloads of international students to campuses nationwide.
The Global Times reported that the education department warning was evidence that Australia had “poisoned” the relationship with China.
Shanghai-based Australian scholar Chen Hong – who had his visa cancelled by Australian officials after an intelligence investigation – said the “worsening discrimination problem” that Chinese students face in Australia has reached “an alarmingly high degree”.
“The Australian government’s continuous attacks against China, which have been echoed by the media especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, has misguided the local Australian people to generate hostility toward the Chinese,” he said.
The Scanlon social cohesion study released this week found there was a “relatively high level” of negative opinion towards Asian Australians in 2020.
Three in five Chinese Australians responded the racism in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic was a ‘very big’ or ‘fairly big problem’.
The UK and Canada have been raised as alternatives for Chinese students wanting to study overseas, heightening concerns from Australian universities that they could lose their pre-pandemic share of the market.
Google opens paid-for Australian platform in drive to undercut Government's proposed content payment laws
Google has launched a platform in Australia offering news it has paid for after striking its own content deals with publishers.
It's part of a drive to show that world-first legislation proposed by the Federal Government to enforce payments is unnecessary.
Only rolled out previously in Brazil and Germany, the News Showcase platform was originally slated for launch last June.
But Alphabet-owned Google delayed plans when the Government moved to make it a legal requirement for Google and Facebook to pay Australian media companies for content.
The tech giant, still lobbying the Australian Government in private meetings, has previously said was the legislation was "unworkable" and would force it to pull out of the country altogether if implemented.
With the legislation now before a parliamentary inquiry, the launch of News Showcase in Australia will see it pay seven domestic outlets, including the Canberra Times, to use their content.
Financial details of the content deals weren't disclosed, and Canberra Times publisher, Australian Community Media, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Google said it looked forward to striking agreements with more Australian publishers, whose position has been bolstered by Canberra's aggressive push back against Facebook and Google.
"This provides an alternative to the model put forward by the Australian Government," said Derek Wilding, a professor at the University of Technology Sydney's Centre for Media Transition.
"What remains to be seen is if larger publishers sign on to the product."
Last month Reuters said it had signed a deal with Google to be the first global news provider to Google News Showcase. Reuters is owned by news and information provider Thomson Reuters Corp.
Google declined to add a further comment when contacted by Reuters.
Last month, Google and a French publishers' lobby agreed to a copyright framework for the tech firm to pay news publishers for content online, in a first for Europe.
Crushed: Digital giants vs Australian media
Within a couple of years the likes of Google and Facebook will devour more than half local ad revenues, leaving only crumbs for traditional media players.
Under the proposed legislation in Australia, Google and Facebook would have to pay publishers and broadcasters for content included in search results or news feeds as well.
If they failed to strike a deal with publishers, a government-appointed arbitrator would decide the price.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Friday, February 05, 2021
Corrections officer charged over shooting death of Indigenous man
Why? It was part of an officer's duty to fire on a fleeing offender to prevent him escaping. The Aboriginality of the offender explains the charge. Blacks are innocent, don't you know? All shootings of blacks are therefore suspect
It is true that shooting a fleeing felon in the back is disallowed for police -- with some justification. But prison officers have their own rules and they are allowed to shoot at a fleeing felon if the felon would otherswise escape.
And the guy fleeing in this case was a real bad egg who had previously got away with heaps. So there was no call for mercy
A NSW Corrective Services Officer has been charged with the manslaughter of an Indigenous prisoner who was fatally shot while handcuffed outside a hospital in northern NSW.
Wiradjuri man Dwayne Johnstone, 43, was shackled and running away from two corrections officers at Lismore Base Hospital when he was shot in the back on March 15, 2019. He was immediately treated in hospital but died a short time later.
Richmond Police District established Strike Force Degance to investigate.
Mr Johnstone’s death was the subject of an inquest before State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan, who on the third day of proceedings referred the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Police say that, following extensive inquiries, a 57-year-old man attended Lismore police station on Friday and was issued with a court attendance notice for an allegation of manslaughter.
He is due to face Lismore Local Court on March 29.
The inquest heard Mr Johnstone, who had a history of escaping custody, had been taken to hospital while on remand after having an epileptic seizure in the cells of Lismore Court House, where he had been denied bail on assault charges.
As he was escorted back to the van by two corrections officers – one of whom was armed with a revolver – he “elbowed” the unarmed officer who had a grip of his pants, throwing him off balance, and started running. The officers cannot be named for legal reasons.
The inquest heard the armed officer fired three shots, and the third shot hit Mr Johnstone in the mid-back, going through his aorta, liver and diaphragm.
Counsel assisting the coroner Peggy Dwyer told the inquest in October that armed corrections officers carry guns but, unlike police, are not equipped with non-lethal weapons, such as Tasers, extendable batons or capsicum spray.
She said corrections officers might legally discharge firearms in a number of circumstances, including “to prevent the escape of an inmate” – with a number of provisos, including that a warning must be given and there cannot be reasonable grounds to believe the shot could hit another person.
Morrison government rules out subsidies in electric vehicle strategy
Australian businesses will be encouraged to invest in plug-in hybrid and electric car fleets in an attempt to increase private uptake by flooding the second-hand market with new vehicle technologies at lower prices.
The Morrison government has ruled out offering taxpayer subsidies for the private uptake of plug-in hybrids and battery electric cars, arguing in its long-awaited strategy that subsidies would not represent value for money in efforts to drive down carbon emissions.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor will argue a “fleet first” strategy for new technology passenger vehicles is the smartest way to help Australia’s “planned and managed” transition to low-emission cars, while ensuring charging infrastructure and the national energy grid can support a switch.
Low-emissions vehicles are a key plank in the government’s technology road map, which it will rely on if it is to meet both its Paris emission targets and a potential commitment to net zero by 2050.
Releasing a discussion paper informing the development of Australia’s Future Fuels Strategy, the federal government has identified five priority initiatives it says will make the most impact, including commercial fleets, essential infrastructure and improving information to motorists.
The strategy argues subsidising cars for private sales would cost taxpayers $195 to $747 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent, depending on the vehicle type and usage. It said that figure did not present value-for-money when compared to the Emissions Reduction Fund price of $16 per tonne of carbon emitted.
Mr Taylor said it was clear the future of road transport in Australia would be a mix of vehicle technologies and fuels and that Australians were already making the choice to switch to new vehicle technologies where it made economic sense.
“We are optimistic about how quickly the technology cost will reduce for other electric vehicles compared to traditional cars, making it an easier choice for consumers,” Mr Taylor said.
Hybrid sales almost doubled in Australia in the past year, increasing from 31,191 vehicles in 2019 to 60,417. Hybrids made up about 70 per cent of Toyota’s Camry and Rav4 sales, and about half of all Corolla sales in 2020.
Industry experts have criticised the federal government outlook for electric vehicle uptake over the next decade. They argue projections of 26 per cent in December’s Australian greenhouse gas emissions trends to 2030 were overly optimistic because it assumed numbers would spike despite a lack of policy and new state taxes slugging clean cars.
Several car manufacturers, including General Motors, have pledged to end production of petrol engine vehicles within the next decade while Britain has set a 2030 target to ban combustion engines.
The EV sector has also claimed the decisions by Victoria and South Australia to aim road-user taxes at drivers of electric vehicles would prevent the states from reaching their goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The plan justifies a focus on fleets because business vehicles generally travel greater distances than private vehicles, delivering better value-for-money through fuel and maintenance savings from new technologies and offsetting the price premium of buying the new technology.
“Supporting commercial fleet investment in new vehicle technologies will also drive uptake from private users, as fleet vehicles are generally replaced more regularly than private vehicles,” it says.
“This benefits the second-hand market and provides private consumers with second-hand vehicles at lower prices.”
Mr Taylor said the strategy would be underpinned by “significant” government investment, including the $74.5 million Future Fuels Package to invest in charging infrastructure at workplaces and in regional “blackspots”.
A move to electrify Australia’s passenger vehicle fleet was a centrepiece of the 2019 federal election campaign as the Morrison government aggressively criticised Labor’s election pledge that half of all new cars sold in 2030 would be electric.
How is Australia travelling with the switch to electric cars?
Mr Taylor said the Coalition’s policy was focused on enabling consumer choice and supporting natural uptake, with government modelling showing Labor’s EV policy would have increased the price of cars by up to $4863 to “force people out of the cars they love and into EVs”.
The transport sector makes up 18 per cent of Australia’s carbon pollution with passenger vehicle emissions projected to drop 1.2 per cent every year to 2030 amid greater uptake of hybrid, electric and fuel-cell vehicles in the national fleet.
Electric Vehicle Council chief executive Behyad Jafari has described the federal government as out of step with other leading economies over its electric car future.
Following leaked details of the strategy in December, he said Australia was “miles behind” in the transition.
“In the US, drivers are offered a $10,000 tax rebate for buying an electric vehicle, and American consumers get access to much cheaper electric vehicle options because of their long-standing vehicle emission standards,” he said at the time.
'World-leading' bill banning gay conversion therapy passes Victorian parliament amid a VERY heated debate
No freedom of choice if you want to escape deviancy
A 'world-leading' bill banning gay conversion practices has passed Victorian parliament, despite a last-ditch attempt by the opposition to pause its progress.
The Change or Suppression (Conversion) Practices Prohibition Bill passed the Legislative Council 29-9 just after 10.30pm on Thursday following a lengthy debate.
Labor had the support of crossbenchers Rod Barton from the Transport Matters Party, Andy Meddick from the Animal Justice Party, Reason Party MP Fiona Patten and Samantha Ratnam of the Greens.
The bill outlaws practices that seek to change or suppress a person's sexual orientation or gender identity.
Those found to have engaged in conversion practices that result in serious injury will face penalties of up to 10 years' jail or up to $10,000 in fines.
In supporting the bill, Mr Meddick described himself as the proud father of two 'perfect' transgender children.
'They do not need fixing. Nor do any other children or adults who do not fit an often religiously held belief that sexuality and gender are binary only,' he said.
Labor's Harriet Shing, the first openly lesbian member of Victorian parliament, acknowledged conversion therapy victims and survivor groups who have advocated for the ban for many years.
'(Their experiences) have had the effect, directly or indirectly, of breaking them or of trying to break them,' she said.
Ms Shing called out the 'cognitive dissonance' and 'doublespeak' of MPs who were opposing the bill despite supporting a ban on conversion practices.
'It is not acceptable that in a debate like this victims and survivors and our communities - my communities - are denied the opportunity to have our equality, our pain and hurt and trauma, on a footing which is of the utmost importance,' she said.
Ms Shing's speech was interrupted by Liberal MPs when she began naming coalition members who abstained from voting on the bill in the lower house.
'She is the only person in this chamber from an LGBTIQA+ community. As such, deserved a hell of a lot more respect than she got,' Mr Meddick said.
Ms Shing told AAP the Liberal MPs were 'literally shutting down the speech of the first and only openly gay woman in the Victorian parliament'.
The coalition did not oppose the bill but moved a number of amendments that failed, including one to pause its progress for further consultation.
Liberal MPs Bernie Finn and Bev McArthur voted against the bill.
Advocates including the Brave Network, the LGBTQIA+ committee of the Uniting Church in Australia, and Rainbow Catholics, have described the bill as the 'world's most significant achievement in legislation curtailing the diabolical influence of the conversion movement'.
The bill goes further than one passed in Queensland last year in that it prohibits harmful practices not only in healthcare settings but also in religious settings.
This includes 'carrying out a religious practice including but not limited to, a prayer based practice, a deliverance practice or an exorcism'.
A number of religious leaders have raised issue with the bill, including Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Peter Comensoli and Bishop Brad Billings of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.
Medical professionals have also raised concerns it could compromise the practice of psychiatry and psychotherapy.
'This bill does not outlaw prayer. It does not prevent health professionals from doing their job. It does not stop parents from talking to their kids about their views about sexuality or gender,' Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes said. 'To suggest anything to the contrary is rubbish.'
The legislation will now go to the Victorian governor for royal assent. It will not come into effect for 12 months.
Read the 'sexist' real estate agent advice for 'single ladies' on how to buy a home which has gone viral for all the wrong reasons
A bit old-fashioned, I suppose. But there are a lot of old-fashioned people around. We are not all "woke"
A 'sexist' real estate article offering tips for 'single ladies' who are trying to get on the property ladder has sparked outrage online.
Bathurst Real Estate in rural New South Wales posted the 'Buying as a single lady' guide to Facebook in an attempt to help women snap up their first home - but the article was labelled 'disgusting and backwards'.
The independent agency who were forced to delete the viral post later revealed the outsourced blog post was actually written by a woman.
The article starts off by saying that being content to 'not have a ring on your finger' means you won't have the 'emotional and financial back-up of a spouse' when it comes to buying a home.
It also suggests that purchasing property can be more difficult when there is 'no man beside you to offer logic to the situation'.
'Both single and married women are well known for reasoning with their hearts, not their heads,' the article said.
The blog post also stresses that women can 'go wild' when hunting for a home so it urges potential buyers to not spend over 30 per cent of their after-tax income on a mortgage.
'Whatever you do, stand by this number (rather than a man),' the article said.
Commenters savaged the independent agency calling the post 'offensive'.
'Obviously Bathurst Real Estate think that women are complete idiots and can't function without a man!' one female Facebook user wrote.
'Whoever wrote it and whoever agreed to it, need to lose their jobs and join the 20th Century.'
Others wrote: 'this is the most offensive piece of s**t I have ever read' and 'this is so misogynistic it's almost comical.'
Bathurst Real Estate said the article was not written by anyone at the local office.
'This article was actually written by a woman, who Bathurst Real Estate outsource our blog posts to and we were unaware that this post had gone live on our website,' the real estate posted on their Facebook page. 'We had it removed from our website as soon as it was brought to our attention.'
They offered an apology and said the post is in no way reflective of the team's personal views.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Thursday, February 04, 2021
Another white Aborigine
A Pilates instructor who's proud of her indigenous ancestry has blown up on TikTok at followers who questioned her Aboriginal heritage.
Lily Hodgson, 23, who posts under the account Thrlils, recently got a tattoo of the Aboriginal flag on her arm, prompting some social media users to dispute her racial identity.
One commenter said: 'You are white! Stop pretending like you understand the struggle that a real Aboriginal has been through, quite insulting.'
But the proud Wiradjuri woman hit back at trolls, calling them 'rude, uneducated, ignorant and racist' - and said being Aboriginal has nothing to do with skin colour.
The TikTok star from the New South Wales Central Coast told Daily Mail Australia she felt the need to speak out after copping a 'magnitude of bigotry' on the platform.
'It's tiring that others feel the need to pressure me to explain myself or any other indigenous individual,' Ms Hodgson said.
In a video posted on social media, she told her critics: 'You don't know that my father was part of the stolen generations and you don't know that my aunts and uncles were beaten and raped.'
'Being Aboriginal has nothing to do with my skin colour. I have 60,000 years of blood within me.'
Her aunt Elizabeth Hodgson is an acclaimed author who wrote Skin Painting - a memoir which examines the struggles of Indigenous Australians.
The book reflects on the stolen generations, a period between 1905 to 1967 when a number of Aboriginal children were removed from their families by church missions on the orders of the Australian government.
'The stolen generation was basically to bleed the Aboriginal blood out of society so there could be a supreme white Australia,' Ms Hodgson said in one of her TikTok clips.
'Hence the reason why I don't have beautiful dark hair, dark eyes or seriously dark skin… because they tried to bleed us out.'
A flood of TikTok users had repeatedly pestered the content creator with requests to show photographs of family members with dark skin.
Although Ms Hodgson said she feels in no way obligated to prove her identity to 'a bunch of people on the internet', she eventually showed followers a photo of her indigenous father.
'It's tiring how people, who have absolutely nothing to do with Aboriginal culture think that they can dictate and gate-keep race to people like myself,' she said.
The outspoken activist created controversy in a previous video where she appeared to say that Europeans have 'no culture'.
She later clarified the comments in another clip saying her mother's side of the family, who are non-indigenous, do not have any 'cultural connection' to Europe.
'People are thinking I'm saying Europeans have no culture. I am not saying that,' she said. 'I understand that in genealogy they have English, Irish, Scottish or whatever and that's fine, but my family do not celebrate anything like that.
'Her (ancestor's) family were sent to Australia on a boat to work in service.'
Ms Hodgson said it's important for Australians to look beyond appearance when it comes to Aboriginality and be more respectful about cultural identity.
'If somebody tells you that they are Aboriginal and they don't fit whenever your idea of what an Aboriginal person is supposed to be… it is not an invitation to pic that person's life apart,' she said.
Annastacia Palaszczuk under pressure to approve New Acland coal mine
Pressure is mounting from both sides of politics on the Palaszczuk Government to step in and approve the long-delayed New Acland coal mine expansion with hundreds of jobs on the line.
There are calls urging the State Government create new laws protect and push forward with the mine’s expansion, as the Bligh Government did in 2007 with the Xstrata Wollombi mine.
It follows the High Court sending the controversial case back to the Land Court for reconsideration, despite the saga having lasted almost 14 years.
There are fears continued delays could scare off international companies looking to invest in resources projects in Queensland.
But the Oakey Coal Action Alliance, behind the court challenges, say they will continue to fight to “protect water and land … for future generations”.
There are 125 jobs on the line, with the existing operations nearing their end later this year, while the project’s proponents say $7 billion and 450 direct jobs will be created if it goes ahead.
New Hope, the company behind the mine, is seeking an urgent meeting with the Palaszczuk Government, with its CEO Reinhold Schmidt saying the departments had all the information they needed to make a decision.
“What we need from the Government is a road map for how we get the project up and running because more delays equates to more job losses,” he said.
Federal Labor MP Shayne Newman and Senator Anthony Chisholm renewed their consistent calls the state to act to sign off on the project. Senator Chisholm said a solution was urgently needed in the economic circumstances. “I have been consistent for years now urging for a solution to be found so that jobs aren’t lost,” he said.
Mr Neumann said urged the Palaszczuk Government to do everything it could to facilitate the expansion. “There’s billions of dollars and hundreds of jobs on the line here,” he said
Federal Resources Minister Keith Pitt said it was a classic example of activists using courts to delay projects, but there were options available to the State Government to resolve the issue.
“There is an opportunity for Annastacia Palaszczuk to follow the lead of her predecessor Anna Bligh who introduced legislation in 2007 to protect Xstrata’s Wollombi coal mine and the 190 jobs it provided,” he said.
LNP Senator Paul Scarr, who has a business background in developing mining projects overseas, said the ongoing case sent a terrible message to investors. “If this is the result of the Queensland mining approval process, then the system is broken,” he said.
Acting Premier Steven Miles said the government would be looking at the High Court decision closely and consult with the department. “We’ll abide by the court decision,” he said.
New Acland mine worker Andy Scouller said he feared there would be more redundancies coming. “There is life after mining but I guess the frustrating part is that we’re a viable business and employ a lot of people here who contribute to society, and that’s just all going to be wiped out basically with the stroke of a pen,” he said.
The High Court on Monday unanimously ruled that the future of the site’s stage three expansion go back to the Land Court for reconsideration, despite what one judge referred to as “the unfortunate history of this appeal”.
The initial hearing in the Land Court was held five years ago, with a new directions hearing set for February 11.
The first hearing lasted 100 sitting days spread over more than a year in what Justice James Edelman referred to in today’s judgment as “the longest hearing in the history of that court”.
The judgement was made on the basis that previous appeals had been impacted by the apprehension of bias from an earlier judgment.
A cheap, blood-thinning drug could kill off COVID-19
Australian researchers have turned a cheap 100 year blood thinning drug into a nasal spray that could block COVID-19, stop it spreading and treat the illness.
The team of Melbourne scientists, which includes Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton, is seeking funding to test the product, containing the blood thinning medication heparin, on people in hotel quarantine — to see if it works.
It comes as human trials begin to gauge whether AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 injection also works as a nasal spray.
Australia’s leading science research body, the CSIRO, had tested the vaccine as a nasal spray in ferrets — ahead of the human trials — and was waiting for the publication of promising results showing its impact on stopping infection spread.
“We’re confident. We have preclinical studies which are impressive at the moment,” CSIRO’s Rob Grenfell told News Corp.
“We also understand that our colleagues in the UK are conducting various ways of administering, in particular the AstraZeneca vaccine to demonstrate … whether or not it can actually cause what we call nasal neutralisation,” he said.
Another COVID-19 busting nasal spray being developed by Australian company ENA was also in preclinical trials.
And, Melbourne-based pharmaceutical company Starpharma hoped to roll out a nasal spray in Europe next month that is 99.99 per cent effective against COVID-19 when applied before or after exposure.
Nasal spray formulations would work as an accompaniment to COVID-19 vaccinations.
In the case of heparin, Australians would still receive COVID-19 vaccines but the nasal spray would be used three times a day during virus outbreaks, long haul travel and by frontline health and quarantine workers to provide immediate protection by blocking the virus entering the body through the nose.
And, unlike vaccines, heparin would work to block even mutated forms of the COVID-19 virus.
The medication is off patent, so would cost just $10 per bottle to produce and likely retail for $20 a bottle.
“The concept is that the intra-nasal heparin will, in fact, prevent the virus from locking onto the ACE2 receptor (in the nasal passage), and prevent it from being internalised and replicating and be associated shedding and spreading,” Monash University pharmacy expert Professor Michelle McIntosh said.
“We’ve been able to show in a petri dish that this concept works. And we have commenced some animal studies,” she said.
The team working on the heparin spray includes researchers from the Peter Doherty Institute the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, University of Melbourne, St Vincent’s Hospital, Northern Health, Monash University and the CSIRO.
They needs $4 million for clinical studies, which would see the nasal spray tested on 100 people in hotel quarantine in Melbourne and at the Howard Springs centre near Darwin.
The trials would focus on whether the spray blocks the virus and stops infected people shedding the virus.
Majority of Australians in favour of multiculturalism but also integration, survey finds
This is another Scanlon report so you can be sure that the data from the survey was twisted to within an inch of its life to deliver a pro-immigration finding. They are past-masters of leading questions
Australians overwhelmingly think that having a multicultural society is a good thing, but only if people who immigrate here adopt "Australian" values and integrate, a report has found.
As the nation was in the grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Scanlon Foundation conducted two national surveys to assess the state of Australian society and resilience when faced with a crisis.
One survey was held in July and another in November, involving more than 2,500 and 3,000 individuals, respectively.
The report found 84 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement that "multiculturalism has been good for Australia", while 71 per cent believed that "accepting immigrants from many different countries makes Australia stronger".
But it also found "substantial negative sentiment" towards people from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with a majority of respondents opposed to the Government providing assistance to ethnic minorities to maintain their own customs and traditions.
"Endorsement of multiculturalism does not extend to majority support for cultural maintenance," the report found. "Irrespective of the exact question wording … majority opinion continues to favour the ideal of integration."
This year's results showed that 60 per cent of people agreed with the statement that "too many immigrants are not adopting Australian values", which is slightly higher than 2019.
It found 47 per cent of respondents held negative views towards Chinese Australians.
Asian Australians also expressed the highest level of concern about discrimination, with 39 per cent of participants born in an Asian country reporting that it had increased during the pandemic.
Nearly half of all participants also expressed negative feelings towards Iraqis and Sudanese, and above 40 per cent held negative attitudes towards Lebanese Australians.
When it comes to religion, intolerance towards Muslims remains far higher than any other faith group with 37 per cent indicating a "negative view" towards those who follow Islam.
Minister for Immigration and Multiculturalism Alex Hawke acknowledged that racist attitudes persisted in Australia. "There are too many racist views … that we see towards particular communities, particularly Asian communities and still Muslim communities," he said on Sky News. "The Government rejects racism and racist views.
"Overwhelmingly there has been an increase in support for immigration and support for multiculturalism and I welcome that.
"The Government's got a lot of measures in place to enhance social cohesion and this year we will be announcing more measures to enhance social cohesion."
Opposition multicultural affairs spokesman Andrew Giles has used the findings to demand the Morrison Government implement a national anti-racism strategy.
The Scanlon Foundation has conducted research on social cohesion, immigration and population issues for 13 years.
This year's surveys were both conducted with participants randomly recruited via their landline or mobile phone through Australian National University's Social Research Centre.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Tuesday, February 02, 2021
Fallen footy star Israel Folau could be back in the NRL within months as team offers a two-year contract and lobbies to reinstate him – two years after Wallabies sacked him over homophobic posts
Israel Folau and the St George Dragons are lobbying the NRL to allow the the fallen star to play this season after homophobic posts derailed his career.
St George Illawarra Dragons boss Ryan Webb confirmed the club formally applied to the NRL to allow them to sign Folau on a two-year contract on Tuesday.
Folau had his Wallabies and Super Rugby contracts ripped up days after an Instagram post warning gay people 'hell awaits you' in April 2019.
The NRL is now speaking to relevant parties and reviewing the proposal before deciding if Folau will be allowed to play.
'We are always on the lookout for great players,' Mr Webb told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'We have enquired with the NRL about Israel and we will work with them to hopefully see him join us in 2021. 'We understand there will be a range of opinions in regards to this decision, but we believe he would be a good addition to our club.'
The club board has reportedly approved the move to sign Folau and they have informed their sponsors such as St George Bank and Jeep.
It's understood Wests Tigers also expressed interest in the dual international in May last year.
'Wests Tigers were just feeling out the situation. It didn't go too far and nothing will come of it,' a source close to Folau told the Daily Telegraph.
Folau signed a new one-year contract with French club Catalans Dragons in June 2020 but returned to Australia after the birth of his first child this summer.
He had his $4 million Wallabies contract ripped up in May 2019 after he twice uploaded religious posts which Rugby Australia found homophobic.
Folau's post from 2019 read: 'Hell awaits drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolators.'
He captioned the picture with: 'Those that are living in Sin will end up in Hell unless you repent. Jesus Christ loves you and is giving you time to turn away from your sin and come to him'.
ARLC chairman Peter V'landys has previously made his views known on the saga. 'The game is inclusive. Israel's comments are not inclusive,' V'landys told reporters in November 2019.
'With due respect to Israel, what he says, young kids listen to. He is a role model. They act on it. And when you're a kid at school and you get bashed up because you're different, I don't think that's a good thing.'
Whether the league will change its tune 18 months later will be hotly debated by powerbrokers over coming weeks.
New push to force Australians to wear badges saying 'I'm a mother' or 'I'm a son' and ban 'sexualised' uniforms at work to stop harassment and violence
Thank goodness these are only suggestions
Sexualised uniforms could be banned and employee badges may be made mandatory in a bid to stop sexual harassment and violence in the workplace.
Government agency Safe Work Australia made the suggestions in its new national work health and safety guidelines released on Monday.
The guide said employers should 'avoid sexualised uniforms and ensure clothing is practical for the work undertaken' to prevent sexual harassment of employees.
The guide to prevent workplace violence and aggression also made a number of suggestions, including one to wear badges.
'Provide your workers with badges to remind customers and clients that a worker is part of the community e.g. labelled with "I'm a son" or "I'm a mother",' the guide read.
The sexual harassment guide warned 'working from home may provide an opportunity for covert sexual harassment to occur online or (by) phone'.
'Keep records and screen shots if inappropriate behaviour occurs online or through phone communication,' the guide read.
Businesses should also 'reinforce what behaviours are expected of workers' to stop sexual harassment at work events like office Christmas parties.
Workplaces with 'hierarchical structures' such as the police, medical and legal industries can 'increase the likelihood of sexual harassment,' according to the guide.
Sexual harassment can include unwelcome touching, hugging, cornering or kissing, suggestive comments or jokes, sexualised nicknames, sexually explicit pictures and circulating sexually explicit material.
Persistent unwanted invitations to go out on dates, requests or pressure for sex and intrusive questions or comments are also considered sexual harassment.
Workers who experience sexual harassment can either tell their harasser to stop if they 'feel safe and confident' doing so or report it to their superiors.
Sexual assault, stalking, indecent exposure and obscene or threatening communications are criminal offences and should be reported to police.
Workplace violence and aggression includes physical assault, intentionally coughing or spitting on someone, verbal threats and abuse or yelling and swearing.
Hazing or initiation practices, domestic violence in the workplace, gendered violence and sexual assault or harassment also fall under the same umbrella.
Chau Chak Wing: Billionaire businessman wins defamation case against ABC, Fairfax Media
The ABC and Nine say a judge’s decision to award billionaire Chau Chak Wing $590,000 in a defamation case will have a “chilling effect” on media freedom in Australia.
The Chinese-Australian philanthropist and political donor will walk away with the sum and a sense of vindication after winning a lawsuit against the two media companies over a Four Corners episode in June 2017.
The program, titled “Power and Influence”, investigated Chinese interference in Australian politics.
Dr Chau sued the ABC and Fairfax Media, now owned by Nine, alleging the program painted him as a corrupt Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spy who paid a bribe to a UN official.
Federal Court Justice Steven Rares largely ruled in Dr Chau’s favour on Tuesday morning.
He found the program defamed Dr Chau by suggesting he engaged in secret lobbying for an arm of the CCP, made huge political donations as bribes to influence pro-China policies, and paid a $200,000 bribe to former United Nations General Assembly president John Ashe.
But the judge said the program did not suggest Dr Chau, who has been an Australian citizen since 1999, had “betrayed his country” to spy for the CCP, nor that he knew associate Sheri Yan was a spy.
The ABC and Nine hit out at being forced to defend these allegations only for the judge to find they were not contained in the program.
“This case has again starkly demonstrated fundamental problems with Australian defamation law and pre-trial procedures being heavily skewed in favour of a plaintiff,” the companies said in a statement.
They urged state and territory parliaments to reform defamation laws as a matter of urgency.
Dr Chau told the court at trial he had been in “agony” after hearing about the broadcast. “I couldn’t sleep for days, and I couldn’t eat well for days, and my blood pressure went very high, and I had to make a number of visits to the doctor, and I was in breakdown, and I lost many weight,” he said.
Justice Rares said it was “no small thing” for Four Corners to direct such serious accusations at Dr Chau, noting they were false “on the evidence before me”.
“For a man who mixed with prime ministers and provincial vice-governors, leading bankers and businessmen to be publicly and falsely accused of bribery of the president of the General Assembly of the United Nations and of Australian political parties and to be a member of a clandestine arm of the Chinese Communist Party was calculated to inflict on Dr Chau, as I found it did, personal and public humiliation and disgrace,” he said.
“The imputations struck at the core of Dr Chau’s previously high reputation for integrity, philanthropy and the promotion of a positive relationship between Australia, of which he was a citizen, and China.”
Dr Chau has previously won a defamation case against Fairfax Media and settled a defamation case against News Corp publisher Nationwide News.
Brisbane economy 'bouncing back' after coronavirus lockdown, council data reveals
The Brisbane economy has started to "bounce back" from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, with retail spending in the 2020 November-to-December period one of the biggest in a decade, new data released by the Brisbane City Council shows.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said foot traffic was steadily returning to the CBD, currently at 58 per cent of its normal capacity.
"The Queen Street Mall today is a very different picture than it was in 2020," Cr Schrinner said. "In April 2020, foot traffic plummeted to just 20 per cent of pre-COVID levels, but now we see more and more shoppers, workers and visitors returning to the CBD.
"It's still down significantly — there's still growth to happen and that's one of the reasons why we're encouraging people to come in and there's signs that things are getting busier this week."
Foot traffic peaked over the Christmas period, with people coming in to the CBD to shop. "Foot traffic on the Queen Street Mall peaked at about 80 per cent of pre-COVID levels, exceeding the long-run average in 2020 for the first time since the city went into lockdown earlier that year," Cr Schrinner said.
"In Brisbane, spending with a bank card was also up 6 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019, with retail spend hitting more than $23 billion, which is an increase of about $1.4 billion," Cr Schrinner said.
"The biggest spenders were in our outer suburbs, which reflects the introduction of State Government restrictions and more people working from home.
"Virginia recorded the largest increase in electronic retail spend in 2020, with an increase of $122 million, followed by Belmont, Milton, Everton Park, Eagle Farm, Oxley, Hamilton, Salisbury, Manly and Newstead.
"Data shows that in December 2020 electronic retail spending in the CBD was on par with 2019 levels for the first time, which is fantastic news for our local businesses, and I hope this trend continues."
National Retail Association (NRA) chief executive officer Dominique Lamb said consumer confidence was down during lockdown but had since grown, with people more willing to spend money on luxury items, dining out and short holidays closer to home.
"Add to this the recent back-to-school spending, and it has been a very promising start to the year," Ms Lamb said. "We are confident that this trend will continue into 2021."
BCC economic development chair Krista Adams said job numbers were also on the rise and were on track to recover to pre-pandemic levels by March 2022.
More jobs are also expected to be created through local infrastructure projects after a $40 million cash injection into the Brisbane City Council from the Federal Government.
The stimulus funding will be used to upgrade bikeways, install additional lighting and build new footpaths among other small-scale projects.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-02/brisbane-covid-19-economy-business-retail-comeback/13111920
************************************Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Monday, February 01, 2021
Retired judge hammers ‘soft’ punishments on juvenile offenders
A retired District Court judge who was renowned as Queensland’s toughest lawman has condemned the Children’s Court as a ‘revolving door’ where kid criminals are given ‘a slap on the wrist’.
Speaking out after the Alexandra Hills horror, Clive Wall QC said it appeared ‘nothing has changed’ since he slammed the court’s failings in a judicial broadside eight years ago.
In a 2013 speech after a wave of violent juvenile crime on the Gold Coast, Judge Wall said child offenders often walked from the court ‘smiling and laughing’ after receiving a reprimand or good behaviour order.
The veteran judge, whose hard line sentences attracted among the most appeals of all the state’s judges, called on the judiciary to enforce the Youth Justice Act and order parents of child criminals to pay compensation to their victims.
A rarely-used section of the Act allows such orders to be made if slack parenting contributed to the offence happening.
He echoed sentiments made in 2013 that the focus was too often on the child offender and not on the victim or the community.
Judge Wall, who retired in 2016 after 20 years on the Bench, told the Sunday Mail: “Just from what I’ve read in the press, nothing’s really changed.”
“The Children’s Court is still a revolving door and juveniles are still getting a slap on the wrist.”
Judge Wall called for public safety to be taken into account when releasing juvenile offenders on bail.
“You wouldn’t normally lock a juvenile up for a first offence of unlawful use of a motor vehicle (car stealing) but if they are a repeat offender, the risk to public safety should certainly be considered,” he said.
“I’m not so sure it is at the moment.”
He said lenient sentences meted out by Children’s Court magistrates needed to be more regularly reviewed.
Canberra emergency department wait times are the worst in the country
It took five hours for Kathryn Harradine's six-month-old son Andy to be treated for a lung infection at Canberra Hospital's emergency department.
The excruciating wait for the Canberra mum was difficult to endure, but not an uncommon tale.
Fewer than half of Canberra's emergency department (ED) patients are seen within clinically recommended times — they should be discharged or admitted within four hours of presenting. Only 32 per cent of patients met that target.
But when Andy, who spent time in neonatal intensive care for serious bowel obstructions when he was younger, started "becoming more and more unwell," Ms Harradine took no chances and went straight to the ED.
He was diagnosed with bronchiolitis and, while it is common in babies, Ms Harradine said she had no choice but to present at the ED for the diagnosis because it was outside general practitioner hours and her son was too young to be seen at Canberra's walk-in centres.
"You can't go anywhere else. That's the whole thing," Ms Harradine said. "There's one place you can take your kids and that's the paediatrics emergency department at Canberra Hospital.
"We were actually taken into the adult area of the hospital because the paediatrics area was just overflowing that evening, and we were there probably until about 2am. There's just not enough space."
Fed up with the poor performance, Rachel Stephen-Smith wants to be the ACT health minister to finally turn around these blown out emergency department waiting times. Her goal is to have 70 per cent of ED patients seen within clinically acceptable times by October this year — that gives her nine months.
"The emergency department is really challenging and it has been a challenge for a long time, both at Canberra Hospital and Calvary Public Hospital," Ms Stephen-Smith acknowledged. "Our target — and the national target — is 70 per cent. We are nowhere near that at this point in time. We want to get to that target within 9 months. "I am personally concerned that we haven't started seeing that change as quickly as we would have liked."
And while no-one would argue against Ms Stephen-Smith's intentions, many would be sceptical of the system's ability to achieve the goal in only a matter of months — after all, the most recent national scorecard again placed the ACT's public hospital ED departments worst in Australia.
But Ms Stephen-Smith said Canberrans would not have to wait years until the much-anticipated Canberra Hospital expansion was completed before improvements would be seen.
Part of her plan involves Canberra Health Services trialling having a doctor at the triage point of the ED, with the aim of improving patient flow.
Based on her recent experience, Ms Harradine has urged Ms Stephen-Smith to improve the triage process so people who can be diagnosed and discharged are not left with a "distressing" wait. "Things need to change. Something needs to be done," she insisted.
Ms Stephen-Smith said she had heard anecdotes similar to Ms Harradine's and hoped that the trial to embed a doctor earlier in the process would be a solution.
"It's about triaging people appropriately and making sure they're in the right stream [and] also determining whether a nurse or a doctor can start a treatment process straight away," she said. "For example, ordering diagnostics and blood work that they know is going to be required for that patient."
Ms Stephen-Smith's nine-month goal also hinges on the establishment of a discharge lounge for patients who require some level of care up until being released despite no longer needing a bed, such as people returning to aged care residences.
A further change being trialled to reduce bed block was "ward huddles" which Ms Stephen-Smith said would help staff prioritise discharging patients in a timely way.
Ms Stephen-Smith said she was meeting with Canberra Health Services weekly to discuss the changes — which have been trialled over the past 18 months — and the same questions were being asked.
"How are we going? How are these processes becoming embedded? And when are we going to start to see change?" she said. "I am personally concerned that we haven't started seeing that change as quickly as we would have liked." Nonetheless, she expressed confidence change would be evident within nine months.
More than 1,000 patients overdue for elective surgery
The emergency departments are not the only facet of Canberra's public health system plagued by long waiting times.
A quarter of all patients who needed elective surgery like hip or knee replacements in the ACT waited too long in the 2019-20 financial year.
Data from November 2020 showed there were 5,127 people on the elective surgery waitlist, more than 1,000 of which were overdue for treatment.
Canberra orthopaedic surgeon Paul Smith recently told ABC Canberra he decided to work through the Christmas break to conduct 65 surgeries in just over a fortnight, to improve the quality of life of people who had been languishing on a waitlist.
In response to Professor Smith's interview, hundreds of people contacted the ABC to share their experiences of waiting too long for surgeries in the ACT.
One of those Canberrans was occupational therapist and former nurse Ruth Palavestra, who spoke out over her father's treatment. Ruth said her elderly father had waited so long for scans and an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon, that by the time he was seen, his injury was inoperable. "Dad's gone from being completely independent, completely fit, to needing to use a walking stick and a wheelie walker," Ruth said. "The surgeon told him he'll be on the wheelie walker permanently now."
Despite approaching his 90th birthday, Ruth's father had been active before the injury, driving himself around Canberra and living independently. "It's just incredibly frustrating because I see my Dad deteriorating rapidly and becoming quite frail when there's no need for that to be happening," Ruth said.
"The aim of aged care these days is to keep people in their own homes as long as they can. "If you can't keep them independent and you can't provide wrap-around services, then they need to move into supported accommodation, and that's catastrophic."
Ms Stephen-Smith insisted the system was powering through elective surgeries, pointing to data showing the ACT had removed more people from the elective surgery waitlist than had been added in the year to June 30, 2020.
She also reiterated a target of completing 16,000 elective surgeries this financial year. "Am I pleased that there are 1,000 people overdue waiting for elective surgery? Absolutely not," she said. "I would like to see that number be zero."
Victorian Government bans high-risk cladding for new multi-storey buildings in 'world first'
A ban on cladding deemed by the Victorian Government to be high risk comes into force today in a bid to reduce fire hazards.
Victoria's Minister for Planning, Richard Wynne, announced that flammable aluminium composite panels and rendered expanded polystyrene would be banned for use as external wall cladding for all multi-storey developments into the future.
"These products are a high risk when used inappropriately or installed incorrectly. That's why we've acted to ban them for new multi-storey buildings," he said in a statement.
"This ban will ensure new developments are built to the highest standard to keep Victorians safe."
The prohibited materials will not be allowed for use on apartment buildings, hotels, aged care facilities and other residential buildings with two or more storeys.
The ban also applies to office buildings, retail premises such as shopping centres, warehouses, factories and car parks with three or more storeys.
"We're continuing to act on the most up-to-date expert advice on cladding products, and anyone caught flouting this ban will face significant penalties," Mr Wynne said.
Building companies that breach the ban will be fined up to $400,000, to be enforced by the Victorian Building Authority. Individuals can be fined up to $80,000.
Mr Wynne called on other states and territories to take a co-ordinated, national response to the issue. "We would've hoped of course that other states, particularly up the eastern seaboard, would've followed us and I've tried to persuade my colleagues in other states who've also got this problem of combustible cladding to join us but unfortunately they've been unwilling to do so," he said.
Mr Wynne said he expects the building industry to fully embrace the changes. "We don't expect any backlash at all from the building industry more generally because we have consulted very widely and industry absolutely understands the critical importance of ensuring that we put up buildings that are clearly safe."
The Victorian Government said a cost-benefit analysis found the ban would result in a net economic benefit of around $1 million per year in reduced insurance costs.
The flammable properties of aluminium composite cladding was blamed for the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London that killed 72 people.
Cladding has been a major headache for Victoria as well as other jurisdictions across Australia. Insurance companies have stopped giving surveyors personal indemnity coverage for properties with cladding.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has previously declared it a "national problem".
The Andrews Government announced a $600 million Cladding Rectification Program in July 2019 to reduce hazardous cladding on existing buildings, which Mr Wynne said was a "world first".
Cladding Safety Victoria was established to oversee the process.
An audit of more than 2,200 buildings in Victoria found cladding on hundreds of buildings posed a safety risk, including an "extreme risk" in 72 cases.
Consumer Advocacy organisation, The Victorian Building Action Group, has said that $600 million is not enough to fix the problem of cladding in the state.
The Opposition's planning spokesman, Tim Smith, estimates the real cost of removing cladding on buildings in Victoria is upwards of $2 billion.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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