ABC host Leigh Sales shares her astonishing virus theory as the virus tidal wave hits just before Christmas

Leigh Sales has shared her theory for why Covid case numbers may be rising ahead of Christmas. The ABC host questioned whether high testing numbers prompted by travel requirements are behind the recent spike in NSW.

'Queues for covid testing in Sydney are suddenly long, partly because of people needing a test to travel,' she wrote on Twitter. 'Is it possible that's why case numbers are up - catching more asymptomatic people who otherwise would be invisible?'

Testing numbers have been steadily climbing in NSW, reaching 104,501 on Wednesday, the highest figure since October 13.

South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania are requiring negative tests for inter-state entry.

It comes as the number of Covid-19 cases in NSW is expected to increase again after the highest count in more than three months, with predictions they could hit 25,000 infections a day in January.

The state reported 1,360 cases from 104,501 tests on Wednesday, prompting NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet to repeat his call for the focus to shift to people in hospitals and ICU, of which there were 166 and 24 respectively.

While hospitalisations generally lag infection spikes, Mr Perrottet has 'complete confidence' the hospital system will cope thanks to the state's 93.2 per cent full vaccination coverage.

The Omicron variant is believed to be behind an increasing number of cases, with Newcastle and Sydney seeing a surge.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10314501/Covid-Sydney-ABC-host-Leigh-Sales-says-travel-tests-pushing-cases.html

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Australian businesses are desperate for staff - but instead of going back to mass immigration, we should END the dole and get lazy Aussies off their backsides, writes MARK LATHAM

Sometimes in politics you can only shake your head in amazement as to how public policy is made.

For nearly 30 years our governments have been spending billions of dollars supposedly to make young Australians 'job ready' through vocational training.

Now, in the post-Covid economic recovery, we are being told there are 50,000 fruit picking jobs, 30,000 hospitality vacancies and 15,000 trades and construction jobs in NSW that can only be filled by foreign workers.

Pacific Islanders have been brought in for the farm harvest - while the other positions will be filled by going back to big immigration numbers of 200,000 per annum.

Meanwhile, some parts of western Sydney and country NSW have youth unemployment rates of 30 and 40 percent.

How hard is it to ensure Australians get first crack at the jobs?

The immigration program should be designed, first and foremost, for the benefit of people who live here now, not new arrivals.

Australia has a one-off opportunity to reduce unemployment to zero and slash the cost of the dole for taxpayers.

Yet the Federal and State Governments are blowing it through their obsession with 'Big Immigration' and going soft on welfare abuse.

There are so many job vacancies at the moment, anyone who says they can't find work is not really looking for it.

The only possible barrier for some is a vaccination requirement, but in many NSW workplaces this ended today (December 15) with the abolition of vaccine passports.

Bringing workers from overseas puts pressure on housing prices and adds to urban congestion. It floods the labour market and holds down wages.

The logical alternative is to end the dole.

We can't have permanent youth unemployment in Australia, a generation who think that work is optional and taxpayers will carry them forever.

Ending the dole would be a culture shock to these job snobs, a wake up call about the necessity of work.

It would end the labour shortages quick smart, save the government vast amounts of money and avoid an over-reliance on overseas workers.

If young people in particular got off their backsides they would find work tomorrow on farms and in cafes, restaurants and pubs.

What's wrong with these Liberals – Morrison, Treasurer Frydenberg and Premier Perrottet – that they only see the soft option as viable? Why have they lost the ability and backbone to make tough but effective decisions for Australia?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10310271/MARK-LATHAM-wants-cut-Centrelink-push-Aussies-work-amid-Covid-skills-shortages.html

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The miserable ghost is a dogmatic Warmist

It fits with his Leftist leanings

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has unleashed a vicious spray on Australia’s climate change deniers, labelling the conspiracy theorists as “crackers” and “mad”.

Speaking at the Australian National University on Wednesday, Mr Turnbull warned that controversial viewpoints were no longer a punchline, insisting those who denied the environmental impacts of fossil fuels now held real power over Australia’s future.

“There used to be a time where we would say 17 per cent of people believe the world is flat, Elvis is still alive, and martians are present and living among us,” he said.

“And you‘d sort of shrug that off as being mildly amusing.”

“But when you have people disbelieving facts … you have, not eccentric points of view, but positions that have real consequences.”

The former PM then turned his attention to his political rivals, taking a subtle dig at John Howard and Tony Abbott as he recounted “an example of craziness” about climate change.

Mr Turnbull said he had tried to convince prominent conspiracy theorist and Sydney businessman Maurice Newman that climate change was real, but Mr Newman was too insane to listen.

“I was spending some time with Maurice Newman – a good friend of John Howard‘s and Tony Abbott’s,” he said. “I said to Maurice: ‘what if I asked one of our top climate scientists to summarise in one page, what the key (climate) points are, basically an exposition of atmospheric physics’.”

But when Mr Turnbull presented the evidence of global warming to Mr Newman, he said the powerful businessman responded with a rant claiming Australia’s universities, media, and government organisations were all in on the same evil conspiracy about fake climate change.

“It sounds crackers, but we are dealing in an age where there is a lot of madness about,” Mr Turnbull said.

Mr Turnbull urged the Morrison government to rein in its own conspiracy theorist MPs, insisting Australia was now running out of time to avoid a climate catastrophe.

“We’ve been caught by this poisonous political Troika that has bedevilled climate policy in Australia for so long,” he said.

“We‘ve got a long term problem, but we don’t have a lot of time to address it. “We’ve got to get cracking between now and 2030

https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/malcolm-turnbull-lashes-climate-deniers-taking-a-dig-at-political-rivals-for-being-friends-with-conspiracy-theorists/news-story/06c9fa820a0427c1eb07f5d167f7f7a1

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Just two in 10 Australian motorists plan to buy electric vehicles

Australia’s efforts to reduce transport emissions are in jeopardy, as new data reveals just 16 per cent of motorists intend to make their next car purchase an electric vehicle.

Despite earlier research finding Australia must phase out petrol cars by 2035 to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, a new survey by Compare The Market finds more than half of motorists may buy another one.

The comparison firm asked 1000 Australians when they plan to replace their current vehicle and found 70 per cent will be in the market for a new car by 2025.

But fewer than two in 10 said they would buy an EV, and a further 49 per cent said they were still undecided.

Those findings are ominous because new cars last 14 years on average, meaning the vehicles motorists buy today will affect Australia’s carbon budget as the nation moves towards net-zero emissions by 2050.

That was a major conclusion from a Grattan Institute report earlier this year, which said Australia must make EVs cheaper to speed up the transition away from petrol and diesel cars.

“Electric vehicles will become more accessible to more people in the future, but with many Australians planning their next car purchase during the next few years, we might not see improved prices in time,” Compare The Market’s Stephen Zeller said of the new survey data on Wednesday.

“It would seem that for the majority of Australians, an electric vehicle might still be one more car purchase away, but their next petrol car might well be their last.”

Worryingly, more than a third of survey respondents in New South Wales and Victoria (Australia’s largest states) said their next purchase will not be an electric vehicle. That’s more than twice the number who said they would buy an EV.

Jake Whitehead, research fellow at the University of Queensland and an expert on EV policies, said he was unsurprised by the survey’s findings. Dr Whitehead said inadequate government policies mean EVs are still too expensive in Australia to entice more buyers to make the switch.

“We shouldn’t read too much into just one survey, but the undecided group is a big opportunity,” he told The New Daily.

Dr Whitehead said his research shows the majority of Australians are interested in buying an EV. But a lack of choice is discouraging many from making the leap.

“The policy settings aren’t in place to encourage that undecided group to definitively purchase an electric vehicle,” he said.

Though growing quickly, electric vehicle sales accounted for less than 2 per cent of total light vehicle sales in the first half of 2021, according to data from the Electric Vehicle Council.

The global average is 4.2 per cent, while other comparable economies like the UK have achieved rates above 10 per cent in the past year.

One reason for that is choice. Australians can choose between just over 30 EV models right now, but Britons can choose between more than 130.

Dr Whitehead said Australia needs a national EV sales target to encourage manufacturers to sell more models Down Under.

He said the current patchwork of state government policies isn’t enough to bridge the gap and ensure Australia sells its last petrol car by 2035.

“It’s a major risk for all states as well as the country in achieving [emissions] reduction targets,” he said. “We need a major transition and the longer you delay, the more disruptive it becomes.”

https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2021/12/15/electric-vehicles-buying/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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Unemployment drops as COVID lockdowns end, employers snap up staff

This would be a good result for Australia even in normal times. Britain has had very good results too -- at 4.2%. The current US jobless rate was 4.2% in November.

Official ABS data shows the unemployment rate dived from 5.2 in October to 4.6 per cent in November, after lockdowns had ended in New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT.

The drop came despite a massive increase in the percentage of people in work or looking for it, with a whopping 366,100 extra people estimated to have been in work last month.

AMP Capital chief economist Shane Oliver said the participation rate of 66.1 per cent marked a big difference between the post-COVID recovery in Australia and the US.

"The near-record participation rate contrasts with that in the US where it is running well below pre-COVID levels," he noted.

"This suggests that the Great Resignation is less of an issue in Australia, although labour shortages are still an issue here."

Other labour market indicators were also positive, with underemployment dropping from 9.5 to 7.5 per cent and hours worked up 4.5 per cent.

Dr Oliver said all the indications were that the current jobs recovery would continue, with "businesses having to scramble for workers in some industries and not wanting to let them go".

"Strong levels for job postings and hiring intentions point to a continuing tightening in the labour market," he added.

The numbers were almost totally driven by the rapid rebound in employment in New South Wales and Victoria as key sectors such as hospitality, tourism, recreation and personal services were allowed to trade again with minimal restrictions.

"The easing of restrictions in both New South Wales and Victoria had a large influence on the national figures, with employment in the two states increasing by 180,000 people and 141,000 people between October and November," said the bureau's head of labour statistics, Bjorn Jarvis.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-16/unemployment-drops-as-covid-lockdowns-end/100705098

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Australian government ditches South African travel ban after Omicron fears

The Australian government has eased the ban on arrivals from eight Southern African nations, as restrictions in NSW and Queensland begin to ease going into the holiday period.

Today Australia also reopened to vaccinated travellers from Japan and Republic of Korea and opening to international skilled and student cohorts, humanitarian, working holiday makers and provisional family visa holders.

The government imposed restrictions on travel from hotspot nations upon detection of the Omicron variant in the region last month.

In a statement, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly today stated the existing border rules were no longer proportionate or effective due to the global spread of the new variant.

“At this stage there are no direct flights from Southern Africa to Australia and only Australian citizens, permanent residents, immediate family members, parents and eligible visa holders are able to enter Australia,” he said.

Countries where the travel ban has been ditched include South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Malawi and Eswatini.

“In line with other countries including the United Kingdom, the border measures under the Biosecurity Act 2015 restricting travellers who have been in the 8 Southern African countries from entering Australia has now ceased,” Prof Kelly confirmed.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/health-safety/australian-government-ditches-south-african-travel-ban-after-omicron-fears/news-story/01beb7d75bc522ca9b669eef8e66849f

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Bigoted alternative medicine group

Ubuntu is best known as a computer operating system so that is a weird name for an alternative medicine site. I guess ubuntu is an alternative to Windows. It's originally an African word meaning mercy

A Byron Bay woman is taking legal action after she was allegedly sacked for getting the COVID jab.

Lainie Chait was working as a client care consultant for the Newcastle-based Church of Ubuntu (COU).

The group promotes and sells alternative health remedies including hemp products.

Ms Chait said she lost her job in October, when it became known she was vaccinated.

"For the past 25 years I've been going 'I don't want, I don't need the Western approach', but in this particular scenario I did," she said.

Ms Chait said she supported freedom of choice in healthcare and was shocked to learn she was being dismissed for making a personal decision to be vaccinated.

"It seems extremely hypocritical and I think there are a lot of people in the wellness industry that are hypocrites," she said. "Because really, you're in the industry to help people, not judge them.

"A lot of the customers that come to them are vaccinated, so why are you still serving customers that are vaccinated and not employing people that are vaccinated? "That part I don't get, and that's the hypocrisy that pisses me off the most."

The ABC has seen a letter sent to Ms Chait when she was dismissed.

It laid out the reasons behind the decision, describing Ms Chait as a highly valued subcontractor with the Ubuntu Wellness Clinic Newcastle, who was also recognised as a full member of the Church of Ubuntu.

It cited frustration with the NSW Government's "enforced medical apartheid" and "a highly disproportionate response to the Sars Cov 2 virus".

"As a consequence of this ... the Church Of Ubuntu has taken a position that no committee members or full members can be accepted if they consciously chose to, and then complete injections, with any of the current or future planned injections purported to protect from the COVID-19/Sars Cov 2 virus.

"It is the position of the COU that to receive the COVID-19/Sars Cov 2 injection consciously and deliberately with intent is in contradiction with our Constitution and contrary to our position on what is required of us by our Lord God and Creator.

"As a consequence Lainie can no longer be a full member of the COU. She can however in keeping with the Ubuntu Philosophy still remain as an associate member if she chooses.

Mark Swivel, from Barefoot Law, said the decision went completely against the current trend of vaccine mandates. He said the case might hinge on whether his client was classified as an employee or a contractor.

"The upshot of it is that we're in the Fair Work Commission," Mr Swivel said. "The dispute about whether someone is an employee or a contractor is a really common one that the Fair Work Commission deals with, so that's a perfectly normal part of it.

"Then the question of whether the dismissal was fair, well I think it's a fairly open and shut case.

"We were supposed to have a conciliation recently but the organisation did not appear, so we're now looking for a new date.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-16/byron-bay-church-of-ubuntu-worker-covid-vaccination/100703588

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Westpac’s chairman says the bank won’t pull the plug on fossil fuel projects anytime soon

At the bank’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, Westpac chairman John McFarlane ruled out pulling the plug on fossil fuels projects, which he said will continue to be around for “some time”, despite saying it would become easier to cut them off.

“But given this is Australia, it’s not the right answer. This country does need us to finance various sectors, including electricity generation,” he said.

“We know gas will be with us for some time for base load [power]. We’re not going to be able to deal with renewables immediately.”

In a set of prepared remarks, McFarlane defended the bank’s performance on climate change, reminding shareholders that the bank has “the greatest exposure to greenfield renewables and the least to fossil fuel extraction” of the four major banks.

But that didn’t stop shareholders peppering the chairman with demands for a wind-down on fossil fuels lending, which they said flies in the face of the bank’s commitment to support net-zero emissions by 2050.

As it stands, Westpac has committed to winding down all fossil fuel financing by 2030, but has yet to outline a plan for getting there. Until then, McFarlane said, the bank is trying to straddle a “middle ground”.

“In all honesty, we are doing a reasonable job, and we are doing a better job than some of our competitors,” he said.

McFarlane said formal criteria for reducing fossil fuel funding, which could include a new set of targets, will not come until at least 2023.

“Further research is underway to develop Paris-aligned sector financing strategies and portfolio targets for six of our most climate-exposed sectors representing most of our emissions,” he said.

“Our analysis will consider the latest developments from the International Energy Agency and the IPCC.”

Analysts over at the environmental banking lobby group Market Forces, however, said the bank is having it both ways.

The group, which was responsible for one of two resolutions calling for better disclosure of fossil fuel lending, said Westpac has failed to square up its policies and practices, with its commitments to the Paris Agreement, and net-zero emissions by 2050.

Early last year, Westpac opened its chequebook to Whitehaven Coal, which secured $110 million from the bank. Come November, went back to the sector, this time to the major oil and gas company, Santos, which was able to secure $US25 million in funding.

Shareholders questioned McFarlane on the issue, which has been made worse by the fact that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and ANZ have each wound down funding for new coal and gas projects like Whitehaven.

But that doesn’t mean they’re beyond reproach on the issue. Both ANZ and NAB are expected to face similar questions when their annual general meetings take place on Friday.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/westpac-s-chairman-says-the-bank-won-t-pull-the-plug-on-fossil-fuel-projects-anytime-soon-because-this-is-australia/ar-AARP8yI?ocid=BingHPC

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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What to do with our most successful vax researcher for decades? Sack him

The South Australian government has declared there will be no more “exemptions” from mandates for people who take part in clinical trials. So workers taking a locally made vaccine, called Covax-19, will have to take approved vaccines as well or get sacked. It doesn’t matter what their antibody count is, or whether it might even be risky to follow up Covax with a different vaccine. It’s not about their health, don’t you know?

Covax-19 is a traditional old fashioned protein vaccine. It’s still the old WuFlu spike, though without the furin cleavage sequence (which probably makes it safer). It’s been approved for use in Iran, and given to two million people there, remarkably with apparently no incidence of myocarditis or blood clots. Perhaps that’s the problem — it’s a threat to the current vaccines?

Since Prof Nikolai Petrovski tested Covax on himself before testing it on others, he may have to be sacked for not also getting vaccinated with an approved vaccine. He is no longer allowed to attend Flinders University or the Flinders Medical Centre, according to the ABC.

Great way to promote Australian science: Let bureaucrats decide which vaccine the Professors of vaccines should take. What could possibly go wrong?

ABC Radio: South Australians taking part in a COVID-19 vaccine trial will no longer be exempt from state government mandates affecting schools, aged care and health care centres.

The problem, it seems, was that Covax-19 was too popular.

A number of prominent local social media platforms have been advocating for people to avoid having vaccines approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) by signing up to planned COVAX-19 clinical trials.

And we wouldn’t want people to have a choice, would we?

It’s not that Petrovsky’s vax didn’t work or caused harm. It was because people might be signing up to avoid getting Pfizer, Moderna or Astrazenica. And if that were the case, surely the solution would be to rush supplies of Covax to Australia? It’s what the hesitant people want after all. But that’s not what the SA government suggested.

Like a Christmas present for Pfizer?

With these rules newcomer-vaccines will find it harder to get trial participants as people are forced out of the early trials with draconian threats.

I guess we wouldn’t want to accidentally discover a better vaccine when we’ve ordered 100 billion boosters already in secret contracts that may have given away the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Who needs Australian made vaccines, Australian expertise, and Australian profits? It’s so much better to have supply lines to Marburg and Massachusetts with vaccines approved through secret data by the FDA.

For what it’s worth, even with all the hurdles bureaucrats are putting in the way, the people are working to make this happen. So the GoFundMe campaign for this vaccine has raised $782,000 and thousands of people have signed up to participate.

Works in Iran:

By way of update, 2 million doses of our vaccine have now been safely distributed through immunization centres in Iran. There have been no reports of anaphylaxis, myocarditis or blood clotting, which given the extremely large number of doses administered is extremely reassuring.

Trial Ethics and TGA applications are both submitted and we will let you know when we hear anything further. We have added a link to a recent interview of Prof. Petrovsky for your interest. We are now 3/4 of the way to our target.

https://joannenova.com.au/2021/12/what-to-do-with-our-most-successful-vax-researcher-for-decades-sack-him

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NAPLAN: Principals and teachers say it is ineffective and outdated, in Australian Education Union survey

Parents and education experts have hit out at principals and teachers after a survey slammed the national NAPLAN tests as being “ineffective and outdated”.

Australian Parents Council President Jenni Rickard also rejected claims in the survey by the Australian Education Union that the tests increased teachers’ workload, saying NAPLAN was about recording a “point in time” and there should be no prepping.

Ms Rickard said NAPLAN was also valuable to parents as an independent assessment and “a mechanism to ensure government departments are accountable and transparent”.

“It works as a test of the whole system from the bottom to the top,” she said.

The Australian Education Union surveyed more than 260 public school principals and nearly 3000 teachers across the country,

It found 73 per cent of principals believe NAPLAN increases teacher workloads; 86 per cent said the tests contribute to students’ stress and anxiety and 59 per cent said they make no difference to student outcomes.

More than 60 per cent of teachers said NAPLAN – undertaken by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 – was an ineffective diagnostic tool.

Education author Dr Kevin Don­nelly criticised the AEU for its long history of opposing tests such as NAPLAN, saying it did not want schools to be held accountable for the billions invested and the fact students’ results in international tests were going backwards.

“We need NAPLAN to monitor and evaluate whether standards are improving or not,” Dr Donnelly said.

But AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said “NAPLAN is not fit for purpose in our schools” and should be scrapped and replaced with classroom-based and teacher-led assessments, along with sample-based testing.

Whites Hill State College Principal Andrew Beattie, based in Queensland, said NAPLAN caused “performance anxiety” among the children, especially in Year 5, as their results could determine which high school they went to.

He said many hours were wasted teaching children how to do the “unique” exam, instead of teaching them numeracy and literacy.

New analysis of this year’s NAPLAN results out on Wednesday shows students in Years 3 and 5 reading, Year 5 numeracy, and Years 3 and 5 spelling have significantly improved nationally since the tests began in 2008, but these improvements were not reflected in every demographic group, according to the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA).

“We can now also see that the main group of students who fell behind the national average in Years 7 and 9 reading and Years 3 and 7 numeracy, compared to the base year, were students whose parents did not complete Year 12,” ACARA CEO David de Carvalho said

He defended NAPLAN, saying it allowed parents, teachers, schools, education authorities, governments and the broader community to determine whether or not young Australians are developing the necessary literacy and numeracy skills.

Acting Federal Education Minister Stuart Robert added that NAPLAN has been critical to tracking student educational outcomes, especially during Covid.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/education-queensland/naplan-principals-and-teachers-say-it-is-ineffective-and-outdated-in-australian-education-union-survey/news-story/d5d9917a475ac0afdc9d65c545bca6e0

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Medical bureaucracy kills kid

A NSW Coroner has slammed a request by NSW Health to delay an inquest while it works to improve interstate patient transfers, four years after a teenager was left to die at Broken Hill Hospital without a single hospital in Adelaide willing to admit him.

Alex Braes is believed to have died from a type of flesh eating bacteria, known as necrotising fasciitis, after he was turned away three times from Broken Hill Hospital’s emergency department in 2017.

After he was finally admitted, Alex was stranded for hours awaiting medical evacuation to the city, with no hospitals in Adelaide willing to receive him and no pilot available to fly him to Sydney.

On Tuesday, an inquest heard Alex would have been more likely to have secured a bed in Adelaide if he was South Australian, and there had been an “extraordinary” bed shortage at the time due to the relocation of the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

The NSW Ministry of Health was due to have a senior bureaucrat appear at the inquest to be grilled about the retrieval issues on Thursday.

However, the department’s lawyer requested the appearance be postponed because a meeting has been scheduled for Friday where a memorandum of understanding will be finalised with South Australian health bureaucrats to improve the situation.

“I have to say that given the amount of time that’s elapsed since Alex died, we would have greatly hoped to have a memorandum of understanding in place well before now,” Deputy State Coroner Elizabeth Ryan responded.

“I’m sure that’s what Alex’s parents would feel,” she said, as they nodded in agreement. “That’s very disappointing in itself.”

Dr Roy Fischer, who arranges medical retrievals on behalf of the South Australian Ambulance Service, detailed his efforts to find an ICU bed for Alex in Adelaide.

Dr Fischer said doctors in Broken Hill told him they had a working diagnosis of pulmonary embolism, a type of blood clot.

Alex was actually in septic shock due to a bacterial infection.

While both scenarios required urgent evacuation to a metropolitan centre, a blood clot could first be treated with medication in Broken Hill, while the flesh-eating bacteria could not because it required major surgery.

Dr Fischer said with hindsight, the hospitals may have responded with more urgency if they’d realised Adam couldn’t be treated at all in Broken Hill.

“The possibility of an improvement may have muddied the water somewhat,” he said.

Dr Fischer said he could not access Alex’s medical records or see him via a telehealth hook-up because of his location interstate.

There was also a lengthy process in South Australia for retrieving interstate patients, involving sourcing a bed before arranging transport and then organising a quote to be accepted by the receiving hospital.

The process had since been fast-tracked, but at the time of Alex’s death a quote could take up to half an hour, Dr Fischer said.

The same protracted process did not apply for people from South Australia.

“Is that a satisfactory situation, that a patient is treated differently based on state borders rather than their clinical needs?” the counsel assisting the coroner, Kirsten Edwards, asked.

“No,” Dr Fischer replied.

Dr Fischer said the drawn-out interstate transfer process meant in some situations it was quicker to send Broken Hill patients to Sydney, despite it being twice as far as Adelaide.

“By the time you had things like the quote … it eats into the difference quite significantly,” Dr Fischer said.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/sa-wouldn-t-accept-dying-teenager-after-misdiagnosis-muddied-water-20211214-p59hjy.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

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Motorists could be hit with a CBD tax and inner-city parking become even more expensive as the cost of traffic jams in Brisbane streets climbs

Slapping motorists with increased parking fees and a tax to enter the CBD would do more to alleviate traffic congestion than cutting public transport fares, which would only discourage people from walking or cycling to work, according to a new report.

They are part of the findings from a Productivity Commission report to be released on Wednesday.

The arrival of electric vehicles and the Morrison Government’s own EV policy means it is “critical” road user charges are implemented, it warned.

An overhaul of public transport fare prices, road user charges for entering the CBD at peak times, as well as charges per kilometre for certain peak traffic corridors, were among the recommendations.

The “social cost” of avoidable road congestion in Brisbane has hit $1400 per person, the report estimated.

It found the public transport fare price increases were not keeping up with the cost of running public transport, which Productivity Commission chair Michael Brennan said would eventually hurt government and council budgets.

“That has put service quality and frequency at risk, and these are the things that matter most to the users of the system,” Mr Brennan said.

The commission was unapologetic in its calls for road user charges, noting it was “oft-repeated and largely ignored”.

“Well-designed road user pricing could better target congestion and act as a funding source,” it stated.

It also said increasing parking fees, particularly during peak times, would do more to reduce congestion than encouraging more people to use public transport with lower fares.

“A 10 per cent increase in parking charges reduces car use by between about two and 13 times more than the reduction achieved by a 10 per cent decrease in public transport prices,” it found.

“By reducing demand for parking, higher fees can also reduce ‘cruising’ to find spare spots, which can also be a major source of road congestion.”

It also argued that road user charges, instead of cheaper peak public transport fares, would push more people into walking or cycling. “Lowering peak fares has the perverse effect of discouraging walking and cycling,” it stated.

Lowering public transport fares to encourage people back on to public transport after Covid-19 should also not be considered, as it would “savage revenue” without increasing patronage, it found.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/congestion-tax-not-cheaper-public-transport-needed-report/news-story/bdca3856852e82737822d18922bfd63e

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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Fear not: a bit of inflation is no bad thing

Jessica Irvine

This is a sophisticated presentation. Basically, inflation destroys people's savings, which is a very bad thing, but the writer below points out that other things tend to counteract that. Wages rise and stockmarket values rise.

But she is too optimistic. The principal protection that savers have is rising interest rates on their savings. And if interest rates rose in such a way as to give both a return on capital and an inflation counterbalance, that would be fine.

But with recent negigible interest rates being offered on savings, it is clear that interest rates often do neither of those things. So in practice inflation is a serious robber, hitting mostly small savers, The big fish have their money in the stockmarket, either directly or via index funds

Superannuation offers an "out" for the small saver but many superannuation funds are very poor performers, sometimes even giving negative returns

Concerns about inflation look set to dominate the global economic outlook in 2022.

But despite pandemic related shortages pushing up prices for some things like furniture, cars and fuel, the global inflation bogey man is more imagined than real, at this stage.

Financial markets, of course, love nothing more than a general fret-fest about rising prices. What investors are really scared about, however, is not that prices will rise, per se, but that they’ll rise either faster or slower than they’ve factored into their models for valuing shares.

For example, Americans found out on Friday they are facing the highest rate of consumer price inflation since 1982. Prices rose 6.8 per cent over the year to November, driven by higher fuel, food and housing prices. But sharemarkets rallied on the news, as it was in line with their expectations.

Workers, too, commonly fear inflation. Frustration with the rising “cost of living” is a perennial election issue. But again, if they stopped to think about it, it’s not actually inflation that workers fear, but that their wages might not rise fast enough to keep them ahead of the rising cost of living.

Of course, if inflation was such a terrible thing in and of itself, you’d expect governments would try to eradicate it altogether – to keep prices absolutely stable. But they don’t.

In fact, making sure that economies generate a bit of inflation is the explicit goal of central banks around the world. Our Reserve Bank, for example, has an explicit target to keep consumer prices rising at between 2 and 3 per cent on average, over time.

If inflation runs too high, you can be sure they’ll jack up interest rates to cool activity and prices. But if inflation dips too low – as it has in recent times - they’ll also intervene to cut lending rates to ensure people borrow and spend more to push up prices again. Importantly, they’ll also look through any temporary swings in prices and be guided by underlying trends.

I remember once asking a central banker why they didn’t just aim to keep prices stable. Why is inflation necessary at all?

The answer was essentially that a little bit of inflation is better than the alternative: of deflation. Deflation – a phenomenon where prices fall over time - is unambiguously bad.

When people think prices will be cheaper tomorrow, they will delay making purchases, leading to a widespread “consumer strike” which is bad for the economy.

Far better, then, to err on the side of running things too hot, than too cold.

A little bit of inflation also helps to lubricate the wheels of capitalism in various ways.

Let me explain.

If prices are not rising, it can be very noticeable when a company decides to lift prices for the goods or services they provide. If they face supply disruptions which increase their costs, however, companies may need to lift prices to maintain profitability. The alternative, if they can’t increase prices, could be to lay off workers or otherwise cut their wages bill.

So, an environment OF rising prices can help to provide the cover needed for companies to pass on higher costs to survive.

A bit of inflation can also help companies straining to reduce their wages bill by simply lifting worker wages by less than rising prices – i.e. deliver a real pay cut. That’s not great for workers, but nor is losing their job instead.

For borrowers, inflation can also be beneficial.

As we’re about to find out on Thursday in the mid-year budget update, the Australian government has accumulated significant debts during COVID.

It’s ok. We’ve done it before. And we’ll no doubt do it again. The answer to high levels of debt, historically, has been to simply let an expanding economy and rising inflation “inflate” away the real value of the debt incurred. That is, we should pursue policy settings which help the economy and prices to grow so fast, that the debt is worth less, in relative terms, tomorrow than it is today.

Mortgage holders also benefit if rising inflation pushes wages higher, reducing the size of their debt relative to their income.

Before COVID, of course, it had become clear workers lacked the degree of bargaining power they once had to push for higher wages, whether due to declining rates of unionisation, the rise of labour-replacing technologies or more competition from cheaper offshore workers.

But during COVID, I have observed a noticeable shift in thinking from our central bank to be even more determined to ensure workers get the pay rises they are due before interest rates are returned to more normal levels.

‘Remarkable’ recovery not enough to bring budget back to health
As governor Phil Lowe said on Tuesday, future interest rate rises “will require the labour market to be tight enough to generate wages growth that is materially higher than it is currently”. Furthermore: “This is likely to take some time.” Get it?

Our Reserve Bank won’t be lifting official interest rates until it is confident workers are enjoying the sorts of pay rises that would also assist in meeting higher mortgage repayments.

And as we return to life pre-pandemic, that might still be some time away. You can relax about inflation for now.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/fear-not-a-bit-of-inflation-is-no-bad-thing-20211213-p59h59.html

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Macabre Qld crimes that show need for real life sentences

Retired judge Clive Wall is often asked why people don’t spend more time in jail. He was known as Judge Dread, because of his desire to put criminals in jail. Even in retirement, Clive Wall is vocal about the revolving door policy in Queensland courtrooms and prisons, saying victims are being forgotten, writes Peter Gleeson.

Retired District Court judge Clive Wall spends a fair bit of time at his Southport bowls club, and there is one question he is constantly asked – why are people not spending time in jail anymore?

Judge Wall – also known as Judge Dread because of his strong desire to jail criminals – believes people are “sick and tired’’ of the constant revolving door policy being applied to sentencing in Queensland.

“I think from a sentencing perspective, far too much onus is placed on the accused, rather than the victim or victims,’’ he says. “The balance has been tipped in the favour of the accused.’’

But what of the worst of the worst?

There are some crimes that grip a state and because of the wide publicity, become part of the criminal folklore in Queensland.

They are macabre, brutal and it is clear that the individual responsible has a dark, sinister side that is chilling and frightening.

The memories and images of those incidents, replayed over and over, are disturbing and it poses the question about whether they are mad or bad, or both.

Against that backdrop, surely it’s time to have a conversation about what constitutes a proper life sentence in Queensland?

Recently, we saw an application for parole from Barry Watts knocked back, 33 years after he and Valmae Beck murdered Sian Kingi at Noosa. She was just 12 at the time.

The parole board rejected the application, a trend likely to continue. When sentenced, the judge recommended no parole.

Watts abducted Sian Kingi, before raping, torturing and murdering the young girl who had been riding home from school. Would you want Watts out in society right now? Near your school? There are other notorious killers who are seared into the conscience of most Queenslanders.

Gerard Baden-Clay displayed an arrogance and indifference to killing his wife Allison that shocked hardened detectives. Lead investigator Mark Ainsworth was staggered at Baden-Clay’s nonchalance, revealing much about his personality. He is said to have little remorse.

Brett Peter Cowan abducted Daniel Morcombe from a bus stop and killed him near the Glasshouse Mountains. Cowan was convicted of the murder of the teenager and was sentenced to life in prison.

Max Sica was convicted of the brutal murders of three young ­siblings. He can apply for parole in 2047. Surely in these cases, where families and friends of the loved ones genuinely fear a return to society by these killers, life should mean life.

When you look at the history of these cases, the brutality of the killings, and the denial still in place, it must disqualify them from ever leaving prison.

Under the current judicial system, a judge can recommend no parole, but doesn’t have the legal carriage to enforce a term where the person dies in jail.

Judge Wall believes a “throw the key away’ mentality to heinous crimes would have strong support in Queensland. “The community would support life being life in extreme circumstances but it’s up to the politicians and they are a different breed,’’ he says.

Maybe it’s time we started thinking more about the pain and suffering of the victims and their families, rather than pander so much to the accused.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/peter-gleeson/retired-judge-clive-wall-is-often-asked-why-people-dont-spend-more-time-in-jail/news-story/9ba26d66401895cf08a3fd549bec11ce

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A significant stoush has erupted over Australia’s migration plan, with a minister labelling Anthony Albanese as ‘weak’ for opposing it

Skilled migrants are a net benefit. But too many in the past -- particularly Muslims -- have been unskilled and welfare dependent

Australia will allow skilled migrants and students back into the country on December 15 after the emergence of the Omicron variant caused the government to put a two week pause on the reopening plan, which was due to come into effect on December 1.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg revealed on Saturday they expected an extra 120,000 migrants than initially forecast in May last year to enter the country.

Mr Albanese told Sky News he wanted to prioritise giving Australians the skills to fill jobs. “We’ve become too reliant upon temporary migration rather than training Australians up for the jobs that are available,” he said.

Mr Tehan slammed Mr Albanese as “weak” for not backing the migration policy. “All the experience shows that (migration) actually helps with Australian jobs, because the more skills you have got the more businesses can operate, the more that they can employ, and if they can’t get access to those specialist skills often it means they can’t put extra jobs on,” he said.

“So it’s a matter of getting the policies right.

“And Anthony Albanese, we don’t know what he actually stands for.

“He sort of, he says one thing one day, he says one thing another.

“What we do know is that he is pretty weak when it comes to these types of of decisions and what he says one day does not mean that that’s what he’ll do the next.”

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/greg-hunt-shoots-down-concerns-astrazeneca-does-not-protect-aussies-against-omicron/news-story/d407a3ee1532b212e976db8a7ddd9953

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Black sheep finally finds place in wool industry, thanks to consumer thirst for all-natural fibres

Most wool growers try very hard to keep black wool out of their flocks. But some farmers have been bucking that trend and are purposely breeding black merino sheep.

Black or coloured wool does not need to be dyed and with demand growing for all-natural products, the one-time outcasts of the flock have become hot property.

Sophie and Tom Holt run nearly 30,000 sheep at Coonong Station in the Riverina.

Ms Holt started a separate black merino flock and has been processing their wool in Australia, running a wool retail business with her two friends Maggie Lahore and Kimmy Falls.

Ms Lahore was a station hand at Coonong and now works remotely in the business from her home in Argentina, while Ms Falls runs a livestock transport company in the Riverina with her husband.

"We're three working mothers and three good friends, who had an idea to process coloured and white wool domestically," Ms Holt said.

Early on, they were told it could not be done with much of Australia's wool processed overseas.

But they have since found processors to work with, their black wool products are running out the door, with blankets selling for more than $500.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-12-09/black-sheep-find-their-place-in-the-wool-industry/100634494

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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Tucker Carlson Interviews Australian Senator Forced Into COVID Camp Despite Multiple Negative Tests

The tyrannical measures adopted by the Australian government to combat the coronavirus have turned the country into a police state at lightning speed.

On Thursday, South Australian Sen. Alex Antic joined Fox News’ Tucker Carlson to explain how, despite multiple negative COVID-19 test results, he was sent to a coronavirus quarantine detention camp.

According to ABC News, a new law went into effect in South Australia on Nov. 23. Unvaccinated travelers are only allowed back into the state with an “exemption” and they must quarantine for two weeks.

Since Antic refuses to divulge his vaccine status, it’s likely authorities believe he is unvaccinated.

Antic told Carlson, “I have been concerned about some of the powers that have been gifted to the unelected bureaucracy in this country for a long period of time. I’ve spoken about them quite forcefully.”

Antic was working in Canberra, New South Wales, when he was informed that upon his return to South Australia, he was to report to a “medi-hotel” — a hotel that has been converted into a detainment facility — in Adelaide.

“That was completely out-of-step with other people’s experiences, completely out-of-step with what had been done in my previous trips to Canberra and back,” Antic said.

“Here’s the kicker,” Antic said: Ten minutes after he was told he would be going to the quarantine facility, he received a call from a journalist who knew all of the details. Hmmm.

This symbiotic relationship between the government and the media is reminiscent of the U.S. government’s connection with the legacy media. Remember how a CNN camera crew happened to arrive at Roger Stone’s home just before the FBI raided it?

“When I arrived at the airport, there was a camera crew and a photographer and a journalist all there to capture it,” Antic told Carlson. “I’ve never been more concerned about the things going on in this country.”

Antic has also learned that he will be receiving a $4,000 bill from the Australian government to cover the costs associated with his stay at the “hotel.”

“This is the lesson for the United States. Parliaments all over the country in Australia have gifted unrivaled powers to their bureaucrats. And they did so on the basis that we were told it was two weeks to flatten the curve. They never did so on the basis that there were going to be two years to keep people locked down and mandate vaccinations,” he said.

“The bureaucrats everywhere across the world — but certainly in Australia it’s true — they never like to get out of the warm bed of power and coercive control.”

Antic is speaking the truth. The pandemic has brought out the worst instincts in public officials around the globe, elected and unelected alike.

https://flagandcross.com/tucker-carlson-interviews-australian-senator-forced-into-covid-camp-despite-multiple-negative-tests/

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Universities need to raise international student fees, says professor

Associate Professor Salvatore Babones, a higher education commentator and sociologist at the University of Sydney, compared per-student revenue for domestic and international students and found overseas students contributed just $500 more.

But at many universities, including the universities of NSW, Wollongong and Melbourne, the domestic per-student revenue was higher than the average cost of an international degree. For UNSW, revenue from a domestic place is almost $5000 more.

However, Dr Babones included government research funding in his calculation of the revenue from domestic students, which others in the sector said should be considered separately and substantially inflated the domestic figure.

International students pay varying amounts for their degrees. For example, a double postgraduate degree in communications and project management at Bond University costs $82,710. A bachelor of economics at Sydney University costs $147,500, while a graduate diploma in management at UTS costs $45,000.

Dr Babones calculated the average 2019 revenue for each domestic student, using state and federal government contributions and fee revenue, at $28,984 and the average international student revenue at $29,529.

He argued research funding should be included because being taught by people who are also researchers is what makes a university different to a teaching institution.

Dr Babones said universities used domestic revenue to cover fixed and essential costs, while international revenue, which is less reliable, is used to cover variables. But he said international students should also be paying for fixed costs.

“I think at a minimum there should be a floor placed on international student fees, they should have a minimum tuition equal to the average amount paid on behalf of domestic students,” he said.

“They should be paying at least the same. They are at some universities. But at many universities they are paying much less. International students are not carrying the full cost of their education.”

However, Australian National University higher education analyst Andrew Norton questioned the inclusion of research funding in the domestic student revenue, saying most universities regarded that as an independent activity.

“There’s no relationship between research funding and domestic coursework numbers,” he said. “If you look at income derived from domestic course work students, it works out at just under $20,000 [per student].”

The chief executive of the International Education Association of Australia, Phil Honeywood, said international students’ tuition fees were an average of about three times those of a domestic student.

“We’ve got international students paying $100,000 a year for some degrees,” he said. “I know how carefully our vice-chancellors weigh the markets before changing the fees. We want to incentivise our students to come back here.

“[International fee revenue] cross-subsidises research and cross-subsidises capital works. A problem we’ve got, too, is without international student postgraduates, a lot of our research can’t be conducted.

“We just don’t have the STEM [science, technology, engineering, maths] because we just don’t have the STEM course graduates among our domestic cohorts. Many of our projects rely on a combination of overseas students.”

https://www.smh.com.au/education/universities-need-to-raise-international-student-fees-says-professor-20211210-p59gn1.html

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Is Albanese running a small-target strategy or simply all at sea?

So here is a simple question, the first of two: what is the backlog of policies that the Morrison government has failed to put in place? Most voters, I suspect, will not have a clear answer. That is because most voters – and especially swinging voters, the ones the parties desperately need – don’t go around obsessively cataloguing the failures of a government. They will be able to point to mistakes in the past – like vaccinations, like Hawaii – but this is not the same as something that needs to be done but hasn’t been done yet.

Here is the second question: if Labor is elected, what will the new Albanese government achieve in its first term?

The beauty of the two questions, of course, is that the answers to each should be the same. The way a smart opposition reminds voters of a government’s failures is to promise to address those failures itself. Six months (or fewer) out from an election, is there a single Labor policy you could state with any clarity? Perhaps you could say that Labor will do more on climate than the government. You might know it believes in an integrity commission and the Uluru Statement from the Heart. Something about childcare, maybe.

In recent weeks Anthony Albanese has begun saying the government, on climate, has “a vibe, but they don’t have a policy”. This is entirely fair; unfortunately, in most areas, it can be said of Labor too.

Hunting for comparisons with other elections is always fraught. The differences can easily trip you up. This may be even more true right now: we are living in extraordinary times.

Here is another area we have barely begun to grapple with. Last week, we got news that Australia’s fertility rate had fallen to its lowest on record – a result partly of COVID-19, but also, it seems, of economic insecurity and anxiety about climate change. And another: the see-sawing between low and high inflation, the sense that the economy no longer runs in ways we understand.

Mostly, though, it feels as if Labor simply hasn’t worked out what it wishes the Coalition government had spent the past eight years doing. And if it hasn’t figured that out, how will most voters?

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/is-albanese-running-a-small-target-strategy-or-simply-all-at-sea-20211211-p59grm.html

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ATAR score no longer relevant to rising number of students given early university entry

The anxious wait for the postman carrying a yellow envelope or suffering through the slow lag as a webpage loads final Year 12 marks was a rite of passage for generations.

Whether it was called the TER (Tertiary Entrance Rank), UAI (University Admissions Index) or ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank), university admission hung on that all-important number.

The days of waiting on these much-anticipated scores could well be on their way out with a massive rise in the number of early round offers being made to students nationally.

Figures compiled by the ABC show some universities have more than doubled their number of early offers, with many delivered before final exams have even begun.

While the institutions have long had early rounds of offers, the programs were given a kick along by COVID-19 as universities tried to adjust for the disadvantages of remote learning.

Now early offers look set to stay, with a growing number of universities finding that not only do they alleviate final exam stress, they also recruit better students.

At the Australian Catholic University, offers have nearly tripled, up from 3,000 last year to nearly 9,000 this year.

At the University of Canberra, they've doubled between 2019 and 2021, with up to 2,000 offers already made for study next year.

Charles Darwin University has had similar success, jumping from 548 to 963 offers between last year and this year,.

At Griffith University, offers are up more than 6 per cent this year.

South Australia's Flinders University has made 2,026 offers for next year, up from just 181 back in 2019.

In Victoria, La Trobe University has also had strong growth in offers, going from 2,287 pre-pandemic to 3,032.

But it's the Western Sydney University (WSU) that's been the stand-out performer, with early offers rising from 7,000 in 2019 to 15,000 in 2020.

It's made 9,000 offers so far for 2022, but expects numbers to rise as its program remains open until January.

Early offers have benefits for unis and students

The sharp increase in early offers is spread across the range of disciplines, including health sciences and education to law and criminology.

Largely attributed to the pandemic, the rise is, however, seen by others in the industry also as evidence of a sector competing for market share among school-leavers.

There are reports of universities encouraging their new recruits to officially enrol before main-round offers have been rolled out so they can lock in the best student talent.

Australian Catholic University Provost Belinda Tynan said it had moved into early offers in response to students' desires to organise family and work-life elements before the university year began. "Our early offer students can receive their study timetable as early as October the year before," she said.

University of Western Sydney's Angelo Kourtis oversees its early admissions program and said that, for WSU, it was an acknowledgement the ATAR could be a "blunt instrument" for measuring student ability. "We recognise that students are more than just the ATAR," he said.

"We think it actually disadvantages many students, especially students from regions."

Early admission selection criteria can include individual subject and exam marks, Year 11 results, or the portfolio work of creative arts students.

"If a student wants to do an arts degree, then we will look at their performance and things like history and English and languages and other related subjects," Mr Kourtis said.

The program at La Trobe University also recognises a student's contribution to their community.

Flinders University has also continued a practice it began in response to the pandemic in 2020, and makes early offers based on Year 11 results.

"Schools have told us that the early admission scheme allows students to focus on specific subjects for their particular university degree rather than simply achieving a high ATAR score — really helping to take the pressure off," said interim deputy vice-chancellor (students) Deborah West.

It's not just domestic school-leavers reaping the benefits, either.

Charles Darwin University made 1,254 offers to international students for next year, up from 750 pre-pandemic.

Early admission leads to better outcomes

Mr Kourtis said WSU's internal analysis showed early admission programs often recruited better students overall.

The university compared typical applicants with those admitted through early admission, and found early entrants went on to achieve a higher grade point average than their peers in more than 50 per cent of courses.

"We found their performance is as good, and in some instances better, than students who were admitted solely on the basis of the year 12 result," Mr Kourtis said. "What these programs do is actually challenge the primacy of the end-of-year-12 exams or the ATAR."

The University of Canberra has had a similar experience.

"With early offers, we are continuing to see very strong academic outcomes from students who have entered through this approach," its deputy vice-chancellor (academic) Geoff Crisp said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-13/covid-sparks-more-early-university-offers-pre-atar-year-12-exams/100683026

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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Pauline Hanson’s Covid vaccine spray

She should be free to decide what to put into her own body. J.S. Mill argued that ownership of one's own body is the most basic liberty

Federal One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has told a crowd of “pro-choice” business owners she has no intention of getting vaccinated against Covid-19, saying she is “not putting that s*** in my body”.

Senator Hanson was a guest speaker at a “businesses for choice” event in Ipswich on Thursday night. The group behind the forum describes itself as wanting to “support like-minded patriotic and conservative representatives, irrespective of party affiliation”.

In her remarks, Ms Hanson said she would not listen to bureaucrats, the United Nations or the World Health Organisation “pushing their own agenda” to “take away my freedom”.

However she insisted she was “not an anti-vaxxer”.

The vast majority of Australians have chosen to get vaccinated against Covid, with Ms Hanson’s own state Queensland passing its 80 per cent double-vaxxed threshold this week. At the national level, 93 per cent of Australians over the age of 16 have received at least one dose and 89 per cent are fully vaccinated.

“I’ll tell you honestly: I haven’t had the jab, I don’t intend to have the jab, I’m not putting that s*** in my body,” Ms Hanson said in footage obtained by Channel 9.

The crowd responded with applause.

“I’ve taken that stance and that is my choice,” she continued. “I’m not an anti-vaxxer, but I am very careful what I put into my body. I felt that I’ve kept pretty good health all my life, and I intend to keep it that way.

“I don’t intend to listen to bureaucrats or politicians, or UN or WHO pushing their own agenda and take away my freedoms, my rights, my choices when that’s why I’m fighting this issue and so should you.”

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/not-putting-that-in-my-body-pauline-hansons-covid-vaccine-spray/news-story/ce533b8be928e0cfb3e2a62f67929cad

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The Greens have dehumanised women to align with their political agenda, writes Vikki Campion

In the final sitting week of the year, the Greens sought to cancel the word “woman” from new laws, to appease 0.06 per cent of the birthing population who identify as men.

Seeking to “omit the word woman” and insert “pregnant person” 23 times, Greens MP Abigail Boyd also sought to “resist the creep towards foetal personhood”.

Revealing their legislative skillset ends at the copy-paste shortcut on a keyboard, the Greens even sought to cancel women from a bill that by its very nature requires the XX chromosome to be relevant - Zoe’s law - which means offenders whose criminal acts cause the loss of an unborn child face longer sentences.

After at least four attempts at similar reforms in the past, the law creates two offences, each adding up to three years to sentences for crimes that result in the loss of a foetus, recognising the loss of an unborn child as a unique injury to a pregnant woman.

So how do the Greens pretend to care about women when they want to wipe womanhood from legislation?

There are plenty of other issues where Ms Boyd recognises the reality of chromosomes, anatomy and assigned sex, including on the number of incarcerated Indigenous women, underreported sexual assaults on women and the pay inequality between women’s and men’s professional sports.

It’s just pregnancy where women must be omitted.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/the-greens-have-dehumanised-women-to-align-with-their-political-agenda-writes-vikki-campion/news-story/0f3153a6a38bcd53150c843616d68de0

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The reef as a political football

A leaked email obtained by The Courier-Mail has revealed that on July 23 this year, principal adviser in the Premier’s office Ross MacLeod sent an email reading; “Hello FYI, WH committee has deferred decision on listing the reef as “in danger”. Will consider again early next based on updates provided by Australia. Good result and vindicates Queensland position as per below.”

It’s not known what Mr MacLeod was referring to when he said “Queensland position as per below”.

Denise Spinks, who was Ms Palaszczuk’s deputy COS, responded about an hour later saying, “Good! Brings it before fed election … perfect time to fleece them!”

Ms Spinks CC’d in a raft of people including the address for the Premier’s policy team and Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlon’s COS Nick Heath.

It followed a decision that day by the World Heritage Committee to not list the reef as “in danger”, with the decision instead deferred until 2023.

The federal government now has to prove its actions are helping improve the reef’s health and demonstrate why it shouldn’t be listed in danger.

Opposition environment and Great Barrier Reef spokesman Sam O’Connor said the Premier had been “caught red handed trying to politicise” the reef.

“The Great Barrier Reef is Queensland’s most precious natural asset but the Premier cares more about the political angle,” he said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/state-government-staffers-email-slammed-as-politicising-great-barrier-reef/news-story/ba028c78f15deb599643f82ad7b0c868

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Warmists versus conservationists in North Queensland

Wind farms wrecking the natural environment





While environmental campaigners like Steve Nowakowski remain committed to renewable energy, a Background Briefing investigation has found growing community backlash over the locations chosen for projects in North Queensland.

Local conservation groups and peak climate bodies are sounding the alarm over plans to build green energy projects in forests that predate white settlement, along corridors bordering World Heritage Areas, and on properties previously targeted for conservation protection, rather than on cleared and degraded land.

If all current proposals were to be approved, an estimated 13,332 hectares of remnant vegetation would be cleared statewide. Around 90 per cent of the land clearing will be in North Queensland.

There are currently 48, large-scale renewable energy projects that have been completed, commenced or slated for Queensland, with some of the largest facilities to be built along the electricity transmission networks that traverse the Coral Sea coast.

These transmission lines provide convenient access to the national energy grid but sometimes cut through ecologically valuable land.

“We’ve got this big wall of steel coming through along the transmission line along the western side of the Great Dividing Range, hugging the western side of the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area,” Steve says.

According to James Cook University adjunct professor and evolutionary biologist, Dr Tim Nevard, Far North Queensland is one of Australia’s most biodiverse regions and many of the sites chosen for wind farms are “wholly inappropriate”.

“Biodiversity is the buffer at the end of the tracks that stops the runaway train of climate change from bursting through,” Dr Nevard says.

“Destroying biodiversity in order to have greater amounts of wind energy is a complete oxymoron. It’s ridiculous. So we shouldn’t be doing it.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-12/queensland-wind-farms-clearing-bushland/100683198

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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Soaring numbers of university students, unregistered teachers fronting classrooms to plug shortages

This reminds me of the Whitlam era in the 60s and 70s when there was another big teacher shortage. At that time I got a job teaching in a NSW High School despite having no teacher qualifications at all. But I had a degree

In 2021, 320 teachers were granted Permission To Teach (PTT) approvals by the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) — an increase from 211 in 2020 and 178 in 2019.

Of the 320 approvals this year, 272 were for pre-service teachers in Queensland, with 222 working in state schools and 98 in non-state schools.

A PTT application can be considered when a school is unable to find an appropriate registered teacher for a specific teaching position and can be granted for up to two years.

QCT director Deanne Fishburn said the majority of PTTs were granted for one year or less.

"Teachers approved under PTT are restricted to teaching specific subjects and year levels in the nominated school only," she said.

"Importantly, applicants must also be suitable to teach and have the knowledge, qualifications, skills or training reasonably considered by the QCT to be relevant to the position."

Ms Fishburn said pre-service teachers who were granted PTT were generally in the final stages of their teacher education program and were continuing their studies while teaching.

A Department of Education spokesperson said the number of PTT applications represented a small fraction of the broader teaching workforce.

"The majority of approved PTTs engaged by the department are in the final stages of their Initial Teacher Education programs, and about to graduate as a qualified teacher," they said. "This is a normal occurrence each year."

Queensland Teachers' Union president Cresta Richardson said using PTT to fill shortages should be a last resort. "We really should be producing enough quality candidates — and I'm not saying they're not quality people — but we really should be attracting enough people to universities, getting them through and supporting them as teachers," she said.

It comes amid concerns of further workforce shortages due to the Queensland government's vaccine mandate for any staff entering an educational setting, including schools.

Independent Education Union QLD/NT branch secretary Terry Burke said both schools and employees were waiting on clarity regarding the health direction arrangements and advocated for consultation.

Ms Richardson said the union was working with the department on understanding how the directive would be implemented.

"If we apply what's happened in Victoria and New South Wales, we would assume that there will be a very small proportion of people who may choose to remain unvaccinated," she said.

"Where there are numbers or support required, we'll be working with the department on how best to support those school communities to ensure teaching and learning can continue for students in those schools."

Contingency plan

An Education Department spokesperson said all Queensland state schools had contingency plans in place and were well prepared for any disruptions that might occur.

"Principals and their school teams have been planning for these scenarios for almost two years, and are ready to deliver programs that best meet the needs of their school communities," the spokesperson said.

"The department will continue to follow advice from Queensland's Chief Health Officer and Queensland Health to help manage the impacts of COVID-19 on students, staff, and their families."

Soaring demand for relief teachers

This year, the department increased the number of casual relief teachers available to schools to meet rising demand.

"The department continues to track the number of offers made to relief teachers to fill short-term demand within schools to cover the impacts from seasonal cold and flu, as well as managing public health advice, such as 'Feel Sick, Stay Home, Get Tested', which is now a standard practice in the workplace," the spokesperson said.

"The department continues to work towards offering more full-time and permanent employment to teachers within a school, or cluster of schools. and remains consistent with the government's commitment to employment security for public servants."

The spokesperson said the department had managed more than 200,000 relief teacher requests, filling 95 per cent.

"The requests that were not filled can be attributed to late notice of the request by school, geographical location and availability of the relief teacher for that day," the spokesperson said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-09/preservice-teachers-rushed-through-registration-to-meet-demand/100683334

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Fish can help ward off starfish outbreaks

Starfish are the real danger to the reef, not global warming

Some of the tastiest reef fish might be in shorter supply in the future after scientists found they help protect coral by eating crown-of-thorns starfish.

Researchers have looked at decades of data on fish takes and the prevalence of the coral-eating starfish on the Great Barrier Reef.

It turns out there's a striking relationship between starfish numbers and the biomass of some fish commonly harvested for seafood.

"We found very strong relationships between the two, where the more fish you harvest, the higher crown-of-thorns starfish numbers were," says Frederieke Kroon, an ecologist with the Australian Institute of Marine Science.

"We found that for emperors, for tropical snappers, and for rockcods."

It's long been known that some fish like to eat crown-of-thorns starfish but the study led by Dr Kroon is the first to explore how fisheries harvests may affect starfish numbers.

Part of the study looked at how fish and starfish abundance differed between green-zone reefs, where fishing is banned, and blue-zone reefs where commercial and recreational fishing is allowed.

On closed reefs, the biomass of emperors, snappers and rock cods was 1.4 to 2.1 times higher and starfish densities were nearly three times lower.

"It's well known that no-take marine reserves increase fish biomass and diversity of large fishes and previous studies have suggested marine reserves could also influence starfish numbers," Dr Kroon says.

"But our study provides strong evidence there are fewer crown-of-thorns starfish on reefs with more predatory fish."

Dr Kroon says many factors are believed to contribute to outbreak proportions of crown-of-thorns starfish.

Understanding that the removal of predatory fish is one of them should help reef managers refine what they do to suppress starfish numbers. That might include altering the way fishing activities are managed.

"The next step could be to look at which reefs are particularly important in crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks by being highly connected, spreader reefs," Dr Kroon says.

"There's already quite good information about which reefs they are.

"Then we can look at how they are managed for fisheries, and make that more targeted ... so we can basically use the fish to help us keep starfish numbers down."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/fish-can-help-ward-off-starfish-outbreaks/ar-AARB6vq?ocid=winp1taskbar

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No evidence in support of the great PFAS panic

Erin Brokovich made good coin out of this scare

A major study on the effects of toxic chemicals that leaked into the groundwater of regional towns near Australian air force bases has found there is no conclusive evidence of increased risk of cancer or disease.

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) were asked to conduct a three-year study into the health risks of living with the chemicals in Katherine in the Northern Territory, Oakey in Queensland and Williamtown in New South Wales.

The chemicals, known as per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), were widely used in firefighting foams on defence force bases until the early 2000s.

All three communities were exposed to contaminated groundwater and were told to limit their consumption of local fish and fruit, following historic use of PFAS at nearby Defence Force bases.

Teams analysed 2,587 blood samples, including more than 600 from residents living in Katherine, and found there was clear evidence of elevated levels of PFAS and increased psychological distress.

Researchers also found there was an association between higher levels of PFAS and high levels of cholesterol in residents living in Williamtown, compared to people living in three comparison communities without toxic contamination.

People living in Katherine and Williamtown included in the study were found to have a higher prevalence of elevated uric acid, which is a marker of poor kidney function.

ANU lead researcher Martyn Kirk said one-third of residents described being "very" or "extremely'"concerned about their health, while one in five people had serious concerns about their mental health.

But he said the study's findings were consistent with previous research that could not conclusively identify causative links between PFAS and adverse health outcomes.

"The main factors associated with people having higher levels of PFAS in their blood were the length of time they had lived in the town, whether they regularly drank bore water or ate locally grown foods, and if they had worked with firefighting foams in the past," Professor Kirk said.

Early last year, the largest environmental class action Australia had ever seen was won by residents in Katherine, Oakey and Williamtown. They sued the Australian government, arguing their property values plummeted because of the contamination.

The class action was filed by Shine Lawyers, which enlisted the support of American activist Erin Brockovich, who has previously told the ABC that PFAS "should be concerning for all of us". Ms Brockovich has highlighted studies in Europe and the US linking PFAS with some cancers and thyroid disease.

The ANU study looked at years of health records, and included the findings from a series of focus groups involving a small sample size of 180 people, including 69 participants from Aboriginal communities in Katherine.

ANU associate professor Rosemary Korda said researchers noted higher rates of some health conditions in PFAS-affected communities, but said it could not be ruled out "that these findings were due to chance or important factors that we couldn't measure".

The report said residents described feeling "trapped" or "stuck" in their homes and discussed the psychological stress and anxiety they experienced living in an area with PFAS contamination.

Many of the study's participants said they were worried about cancers and aggravation of existing health conditions.

The research was commissioned by the Australian government's Department of Health, and included international experts on epidemiology, environmental chemistry, cancer and statistics.

The report's findings have not reassured some residents in the community of Katherine, about 300 kilometres from Darwin.

Peter John Spafford, who worked as the only GP in Katherine for a decade, said PFAS had impacted the health of his patients.

He said the study's sample size was small, and he hoped further research would be carried out.

"I think there is a serious conflict of interest between the funding [by the federal government] of this and the outcomes," Dr Spafford said.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-10/pfas-study-katherine-williamtown-oakey-finds-no-cancer-link/100690484

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Arrogant black Muslim in a heap of trouble

The court was told the incident started when Mr Mahmoud and a friend were ejected by a security guard for riding their bikes inside the shopping centre.

After seeing what happened, Reah told the teenagers that he was watching them, waved a stick at them, and then, as they were cycling off, yelled racist abuse.

Bottles were then thrown at his vehicle, prompting Reah to get in the car and chase Mr Mahmoud through the dimly-lit car park, at speeds of up to 60 kilometres an hour.

The teenager was knocked down, thrown under the vehicle and run over, suffering extensive injuries including fractures to his thigh, pelvis, shoulder blade and ribs and a punctured lung.

Reah stopped his car but left it to bystanders to help Mr Mahmoud while he went looking for his dog.

He later lied to police and told them his brakes had failed.

Justice Bruno Fiannaca said Reah had been "fuelled by anger" when he drove at Mr Mahmoud after "unnecessarily" becoming involved in the original incident, which had escalated the situation.

"I am satisfied your intervention was motivated, at least in part, by a racist attitude which contributed to your offending," he told the 51-year-old.

"I am satisfied you were (then) angry and wanted to exact revenge for the fact they had thrown bottles at your car. "You deliberately drove at Mr Mahmoud and hit him."

He also noted that Reah had failed to take responsibility for his actions and continued to do so.

The court heard Mr Mahmoud's injuries had affected his ability to walk and run, and it was likely he would suffer long-term consequences such as arthritis.

Mr Mahmoud, who is now 20, was not in court for the sentencing, but members of his family and the Eritrean community were, including his uncle Gamal Ahmedin.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-09/jason-reah-jailed-for-six-years-after-running-over-teen/100615542

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

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