Australian Politics
Friday, May 06, 2022
The miserabe ghost backs fake conservatives
There is a crop of "teals" standing in the next Federal election. They are "independents" who claim to be conservatives while actually being rabid Greenies. Turnbull was himself a fake conservative during his time in office
Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has turned his back on the Liberal party, urging Aussies to use their vote in a different way.
Mr Turnbull is due to speak at the Washington Harvard Club this morning, with a copy of his speech showing the PM will encourage Aussies to “thwart” the reach of the Liberal Party – of which he was once the leader – by voting for independent candidates.
“In many respects this may be the most interesting part of the whole election, because if more of these ‘teal’ independents win, it will mean the capture of the Liberal Party will be thwarted by direct, democratic action from voters. People power, you might say,” reads a copy of the speech posted to Twitter by ABC’s Michael Rowland.
Mr Turnbull notes that the arguments from big parties against independents is that they will cause instability and chaos, a line Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been parroting almost daily throughout the election campaign.
“But in truth, many parliaments, including Australia, have operated with stability and good effect with major parties requiring the support of independents or minor parties to pass legislation and, in fact, in our Senate that has always been the case,” Mr Turnbull says.
“Formal coalitions are also very common, the Liberal Party has always been in a coalition with the (rurally based) National Party for example.
“Political instability invariably comes from internal ructions within the major, governing parties, not from independents on the cross benches.”
This speech comes just a few weeks after Mr Turnbull refused to say whether he would vote for Liberal MP Dave Sharma in his former seat of Wentworth.
When asked who he would vote for he said Mr Sharma and independent candidate Allegra Spender were both “very good” options.
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Struggling school students to be blocked from teaching degrees
As 15,000 angry NSW teachers marched in the streets demanding pay rises of up to 7.5 per cent on Wednesday, the federal government announced $40m in extra funding to recruit hundreds more engineers, lawyers, tech experts and tradies into classrooms.
Acting federal Education Minister Stuart Robert said 700 more mid-career professionals would be retrained through the Teach for Australia program, to enter classrooms next year and in 2024 if the Coalition were re-elected.
He said he was concerned that at least a quarter of maths teachers in Australia were not qualified to teach the subject, and that one in 10 university graduates in education courses were failing the literacy and numeracy test that was required to graduate.
Mr Robert said his 12-year-old son had been able to answer some of the maths questions that 10 per cent of university graduates got wrong. “I was reading out example questions to our sons at the weekend and my boys were answering them,’’ he said.
“The test is designed for the top 30 per cent of (school leavers) and we can’t have the people looking to teach our students failing it.’’
Sample questions include: “This year a teacher spent $383.30 on stationery. Last year the teacher spent $257.85 on stationery. How much more did the teacher spend this year than last year?’’
Many of the literacy questions are multiple choice, to check comprehension and identify spelling errors.
Mr Robert said a re-elected Morrison government would seek consensus from the states and territories to mandate that students pass the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (LANTITE) as a condition of starting their university degree.
Under existing arrangements, undergraduate teachers can sit the test at any time during their degree, but cannot graduate until they pass. But Mr Robert said university education faculties should only enrol students who had already passed the test.
“Ten per cent of our teaching graduates are failing on basic literacy and numeracy,’’ he said. “Ten per cent (of those) are failing it not once, not twice, but three times.’’
Mr Robert also announced $13.4m to change teacher accreditation standards, to halve the time it takes mid-career professionals with a university degree to retrain as school teachers.
The federal government would need state and territory approval to change the graduate diploma of education from two years to one.
Mr Robert said two years of retraining was a barrier for workers wanting to switch careers into teaching.
“One year to learn the pedagogy of teaching at university is enough,’’ he said. “You could get a whole bunch of older tradies who aren’t on the tools anymore to do a one-year graduate diploma and teach industrial art (in schools).’’
A re-elected Morrison government would also fund 60 workers to retrain as teachers through La Trobe University’s Nexus program, which combines a Master of Teaching with part-time work as “paraprofessional teachers’’ in hard-to-staff schools in Victoria.
And $10.8m would be spent to develop new micro-credentials to upskill existing teachers in teaching reading through phonics, explicit teaching methods, and managing disruptive students.
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Football cheer squad given list of BANNED words that are never to be chanted during games
Collingwood's cheer squad has been issued a list of banned words which are never to be uttered by supporters at AFL games featuring the Magpies.
The extraordinary step follows recent cultural awareness training for club members, where many terms deemed offensive and racist were clearly outlined.
The training was part of the club's Do Better report, as Collingwood look to promote the importance of cultural difference to their fans.
In the online Zoom presentation, run by Collingwood's Indigenous programs manager Deb Lovett, specific reference to terms which are offensive to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were explained.
An example was the term 'Aborigines', which is deemed derogatory by many Indigenous people.
'The purpose for cultural awareness training is to ensure all people of Collingwood uphold the club values to provide a welcome and inclusive environment for all,' the club said in a statement.
'Collingwood's cheer squad all agreed and were open to having a code of conduct and all members signed a 'Declaration of Commitment' which states their obligation to uphold club values, to provide a welcome and inclusive environment, and exhibit appropriate behaviour on game days.'
The Do Better report, released by the Magpies on February 1 last year, is an independent review that challenges Collingwood to take a leadership position in Australian sport by confronting racism.
It was released after a number of former players, notably Brazilian-born defender Heritier Lumumba, publicly accused the club of systemic racism stemming from his time with the team from 2005-2014.
His allegations were dismissed by influential club figures such as former coach Mick Malthouse and McGuire - but were confirmed by his ex-teammates such as Chris Dawes and Leon Davis.
On Tuesday, Lumumba bristled at talk of the cultural awareness training sessions, stating the club 'cannot be trusted to pursue genuine reconciliation with its past' before accusing the club of 'continued misconduct'.
Collingwood said the cultural awareness training had been part of a wider attitude to learning more about race.
'Feedback of cultural awareness training has been positive with members of the club enthusiastic to educate themselves further and be a part of the club's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community programs and initiatives.'
'Our people have been open to listening and learning about how we create a welcoming and safe club environment for all,' the Pies said in a statemen
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Fair Work adviser questions whether Labor can raise wages
An adviser to the workplace umpire over its annual wage increase has questioned the credibility of Labor’s promise to boost Australians’ pay, likening it to “political games” while underscoring the independence of his role.
Labour economist Mark Wooden, an expert panel member for the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review, said the last thing the body wanted was “governments telling us what to do” after Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to back an increase in the national minimum wage.
Anthony Albanese has been accused of playing “political games” by saying Labor can raise wages.
Anthony Albanese has been accused of playing “political games” by saying Labor can raise wages. CREDIT:ALEX ELLINGHAUSEN
“As a member of the independent umpire, I’m very comfortably relieved the governments of the day don’t pressure us to make a particular decision,” he said.
“Anthony Albanese is saying we will raise wages, which I think is very interesting since the only lever have to pull is wages of the public service ... when he says he’s raising wages, it’s just political games.”
The Coalition-appointed panel member did, however, clarify there were certain policies, such as Labor’s ‘same job same pay’ policy, that could influence wage growth.
Labor’s industrial relations spokesman Tony Burke hit back hard at Wooden, accusing him of intervening in an election campaign.
“I’m deeply concerned that this intervention by an individual involved in deliberating on the minimum wage jeopardises the integrity of the wage review process,” Burke said.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s looming interest rate decision has placed cost of living front and center of Morrison and Albanese’s campaign messaging.
“The Productivity Commission has made clear that the submissions that matter come from the government, unions and business. This government’s refusal to support wage rises for a decade means Australians are now finding it harder and harder to make ends meet.”
Industrial Relations Minister Michaelia Cash also challenged Labor on its commitment, saying the Morrison government had given a “comprehensive submission” to the annual wage review. “This is in contrast to Mr Albanese and Labor who, while falsely claiming to have a plan to lift wages, have failed to provide a submission to the Review when provided an opportunity to do so.”
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Scott Morrison refused to back an increase in the national minimum wage above the rate of inflation despite the household expenses of Australians ballooning and mortgages taking a hit.
In the thick of an election campaign focused on the cost of living, Morrison said it was the role of the workplace umpire to set the wage floor and he did not have “special magical powers” to give Australians a pay rise.
“We’ve always believed that the Fair Work Commission should make the decision independently of the government based on the evidence. That’s why they are appointed for that purpose,” Morrison said after promising the Coalition would create 400,000 more small businesses if re-elected.
“Now, we’ve always taken the same position when it comes to the decisions of the Fair Work Commission. They make their decisions based on the best information they have and we provide that information to them to assist them with their decision, and we always have and we intend to continue to follow that.”
The commission is in the midst of its annual minimum wage review, which will lock in a basic hourly rate for low-paid workers, currently sitting at $20.33, and affect the pay of other workers on higher industry awards.
The federal government has already made a submission to that process, saying the outcome of the review “should support the economy and labour market, balancing improving living standards for Australians with ensuring the viability of employing businesses”.
“The Australian economy is recovering strongly from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the recovery forecast to continue and drive further employment growth. However, the ongoing pandemic, Russian invasion of Ukraine, strained supply chains and rising inflationary pressures all present risks to the global and domestic outlooks,” the April submission says.
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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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Thursday, May 05, 2022
Youth crime out of control in the Northwest of Western Australia
I am old enough to know the background of this problem. The "youth" concerned are Aboriginal youths and they are a problem nationwide. Ever since the missionaries were eased out of running Aboriginal settlements, civility in those settlements has steadily declined.
I remember elderly Aborigines who grew up under missionary supervision. People who know only the present crop of young Aborigines would be amazed at how Westernized they were. They behaved in a way that was remarkably similar to white expectations. So Aborigines can be adaptively socialized, given good examples of how to behave.
And nobody has come up with a management strategy which is remotely as fruitful as what the missionaries offered. The strategy mentioned nowadays is basically a strategy of desperation. They hope to get aboriginal youth away from the cities and back into the countryside within existing Aboriginal communities. Getting the problem out of sight is the proposed solution.
Accommodation in Aboriginal communities is normally these days provided by some government body and providing more of that in the "bush" communities is proposed. How you are going to incentivize the youth to return to their communities is not explained. A lot more than housing is needed to socialize problem youth. A whole-of-life management programme is needed to civilize them.
But such treatment would be "paternalistic" so cannot now be contemplated. Dysfunction among Aboriginal youth will continue
The WA Government has announced a $40 million package to address youth crime. Community leaders are divided about whether it will deliver tangible change. There are calls for more than one on-country residential facility as an alternative to detention
"It was a beautiful town when I came here, everyone got on well with each other, but over the last two years, the crime rate has just grown and grown, it seems to be out of control," he said.
"The last one [break in] was pretty serious, they actually damaged a whole door…we had to close for a whole day so we lost a day's takings…the overall cost will be major."
He said there was an urgent need to find an answer. "It seems the youth are running the streets," he said. "Everyone in town is scared."
Mr Moore's business is one of a growing number of businesses in the Kimberley caught up in a spate of property damage and crime being blamed on young people.
The WA Government announced a $40 million package on Tuesday aimed at addressing escalating youth crime in the region.
The announcement included increased funds to expand the Target 120 program – which supports young people who are at risk of becoming lost to the criminal justice system – to nine more locations across the state.
The package also includes $15 million for a new dedicated residential facility to house at-risk youth on-country, a measure that community leaders have lobbied for over many years.
It's a move that's been welcomed by Social Reinvestment WA — an Aboriginal-led coalition of 25 not-for-profit organisations.
Coordinator Sophie Stewart said the package was a start in addressing underlying root causes of the offending and more effective interventions.
"We do need an alternative to incarceration for young people in the Kimberley and for that matter also in the Pilbara," she said.
"With the reports of the alarming conditions and human rights abuses at Banksia Hill, we're really glad to see the state government prioritising initiatives that will keep children out of prison."
Ms Stewart said keeping children close to country, community and culture would be a key part of the solution.
She said close consultation at the grassroots level would be key to the success of the new measures. "What we know is that whatever the facility ends up looking like it needs to be a therapeutic space that provides opportunities to build pathways for their future," she said.
She said there needed to be an opportunity for a job, further schooling and training as well as a therapeutic and rehabilitative space for young people living with trauma.
"For these initiatives to be successful the state government has to work in partnership with local communities and lived experience people in the design and the delivery," she said.
Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan has flagged Myroodah Station as a possible site for the new residential facility.
Pandanus Park resident Patricia Riley said basing the new facility in a remote area was "a great approach". Ms Riley said getting children out of major towns such as Broome and Kununurra would ease some of the challenges being faced on the ground.
"These parents go out into town and they end up staying there and then dragging their family into town, the kids get bored and get up to mischief…these poor kids they just want attention," she said. "They've got no choice but to be in town because of their parents, so it's a good idea to take these children out back onto country.
She said communities needed programs and employment delivered properly to address what people needed.
Wyndham-East Kimberley shire president David Menzel said the government should consider developing more than one on-country residential facility in the region.
"I'm not sure whether that's singular or plural at the moment but it needs to be plural," he said. "There needs to be several options to get people out of some of the chaos that is their normal life.
"Give them somewhere where there's a bit of a breather so they can get a bit of time out, have some support systems around them to work through some of the issues."
While the package has been welcomed by some in the community as a step in the right direction, others were concerned it wouldn't be enough to address the region's complex and deep-rooted juvenile crime problem.
Nirrumbook Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Joe Grande aid the government was 'following chicken feed' instead of working with the community to tackle core issues.
His Aboriginal-run capacity building organisation mainly derives its membership from the Dampier Peninsula region, north of Broome.
"What about the money they've already spent?" he said. "The reality is that until we all collaborate, real collaboration, true collaboration with government, then we're all going to be working in isolation from one another."
Broome Shire Deputy President Desiree Male said it remained to be seen if the programs would be enough. "Having this not work is not an option," she said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-04/mixed-community-response-to-kimberley-crime-funding/101037590
******************************************Rose de Freycinet stowed away on her husband's ship 200 years ago. Her remarkable journey still matters
More than 200 years ago, a 22-year-old French woman cut off her hair, disguised herself as a man, stowed away on a ship, and became the first woman to document a circumnavigation of the world. But her story was almost lost to the world, thanks to male editors and censorship.
And it might have stayed hidden forever, were it not for a modern push to bring women's perspectives to the fore.
It was 1817 when Rose de Freycinet, disguised as a man, boarded her French naval husband's ship, the Uranie, and hid in a special cabin he had prepared for her.
Her husband, Louis de Freycinet — the namesake of the picturesque Freycinet Peninsula on the east coast of Tasmania — had become the first person to map Australia's coastline as a sub-lieutenant of French naturalist Nicolas Baudin.
His was a small wooden ship with 120 men on board and having a woman embark was strictly illegal. So he pretended he needed an extra officer's cabin and made a few refurbishments.
"Rose had to stay hidden until they were out of territorial waters, and then there was some danger that when they landed in French territory, the officials there would arrest her," Ms Falkiner, the author of Rose: The extraordinary journey of Rose de Freycinet, says.
But rumours about her presence aboard the ship spread through France, and even reached the Royal Court. "The King said something like 'well, perhaps the less said, the better'", Ms Falkiner says.
Ms Falkiner says the officer's reactions were mixed but that some weren't happy. Women were thought to bring bad luck to ships, and the Uranie's navigator Gabriel Lafond, who wrote about the voyage more than two decades later, says she was an "apple of discord" among the crew and officers.
So, while she spent two and a half years onboard the Uranie, Rose rarely appeared on deck. Instead, she kept to her cabin, teaching herself to play guitar, learning English and doing needlework.
She was also an intellectual companion for Louis and supported him by researching the places they were destined to visit.
Rose's presence was largely unacknowledged by those onboard. "Everybody had to pretend that Rose wasn't there — because officially she wasn't there," Ms Falkiner says.
This included the ship's artists Jacques Arago and Alphonse Pellion, who were tasked with visually documenting the expedition.
"Quite often they did two versions of paintings, a private version where Rose was visible and then another one, which was censored.
"There are actual drafts where there's a line drawn through the figure of Rose, so the engraver could leave her out."
Although she was cut from the official records of the expedition, Rose kept a journal documenting the voyage.
The journals were addressed to her friend Caroline de Nanteuil back in France. Ms Falkiner says there's a lightheartedness in many of Rose's observations. They included banter about foreign fashion, social norms and the various dignitaries she encountered along the way.
In early 1820, after rounding Cape Horn, the southernmost headland of Chile's Tierra del Fuego archipelago, the Uranie was damaged in a storm.
Louis decided to make for the Falkland Islands where the boat could be repaired, and their supplies restocked from the wild cattle and pigs on the island.
Though they reached the Falklands and navigated into French Bay as planned, the Uranie would never make it back to France.
"There was a subterranean rock that wasn't marked on their charts, and they ran straight into it," Ms Falkiner says.
Louis managed to run the ship aground on the beach. Rose's journal details how he instructed everyone to remain on board to save essential items, despite enormous waves lifting the vessel up and dropping it onto the sand.
He managed to salvage many of the scientific papers and natural history specimens onboard, as well as the guns and barrels of brandy.
He also ensured no lives were lost, though the struggle to survive on the island had only just begun. Everyone had to live in makeshift tents, made of old boat sails, and endure freezing temperatures, living off the land and rationing their dwindling supplies.
Fortunately Louis survived. And after two long months, the castaways were rescued by the crew of an American whaling boat.
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Seaweed farm proposal for Eden aims for Australian-first commercial kelp crop
Those behind a plan to build Australia's first commercial ocean seaweed farm off the NSW south coast say it would create a "brand new industry" and feed a growing appetite for the product.
Auskelp have submitted a proposal to build a 200-hectare lease at Disaster Bay, south of Eden, which would grow kelp for food, cattle feed, and the pharmaceutical industry.
Kelp are large brown algae seaweeds which grow naturally in the colder waters off the coastline.
High in protein, it can be cooked like other greens or used in supplements.
The leases will harvest two main species found in southern NSW, golden kelp (Ecklonia radiata) and Durvillaea, commonly known as southern bull kelp.
Auskelp CEO Christopher Ride said the development would tap into a massive market for both human consumption and agriculture.
"It's never been done in New South Wales waters before. In fact, has never been done in an ocean farming setting in Australia at all," Mr Ride said. "It's a brand new industry."
The company has received an aquaculture permit from the Department of Primary Industries for the ocean lease but the project is contingent on seeking approval from the Department of Planning and Environment as a State Significant Development.
"We've got at least 12 months to go before we can start to put test beds in Disaster Bay for production expected to be in the beginning of 2025," Mr Ride said.
Emerging industry with big plans
Agrifutures published an Australian Seaweed Industry Blueprint which estimated the industry could be worth $1.5 billion by 2040, employing 9,000 people.
But lead author Jo Kelly, from the Australian Seafood Institute, highlighted the industry was currently "small, fragmented, and disparate".
The report estimated in 2020 the gross value profit of the entire Australian industry was less than $3 million and the workforce less than 40 full-time equivalents.
AusKelp's Christopher Ride said the industry was held back by regulations and risks of investing in an emerging market.
"I think the reason it hasn't been done before is because we've got quite a lot of regulation to overcome, and rightly so to protect our ocean environments," Mr Ride said. "There's a high level of risk associated with going through the regulatory process, which takes many years to then really work out whether this is viable at scale."
It is estimated seaweed populations have reduced by 40 per cent across the world over more than two decades.
The company predicts a 200-hectare seaweed array could sequester 3,600 tonnes of carbon every year. "It has a whole lot of extraordinary benefits, and the beauty of kelp is that kelp is the most environmentally form of aquaculture and agriculture," Mr Ride said.
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Queensland authorities warn about 'life-threatening' risk of catching both COVID-19 and the flu
After getting her flu jab, Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said she was concerned about the "life-threatening" risk of Queenslanders being struck down with both viruses at once this winter. "We're expecting a big flu season this year," she said.
"We are already seeing more flu cases this year than we had for the whole of 2021. Some people will end up getting COVID and influenza and this is of great risk.
"I know a lot of people who went out last year and got the flu shot simply because they were concerned that they may get COVID and flu. That risk is even greater now."
Eight more people died in the state with COVID-19 in the latest reporting period and 7,668 new cases were recorded. There are 504 people being treated in hospital with the virus, including 21 in intensive care.
'COVID-19 and influenza seems to be particularly severe'
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said more than 800 flu cases had already been confirmed in Queensland this year – up from the 296 cases recorded for the entirety of 2021.
"As we had suspected, as our pandemic measures have relaxed, we are seeing increasing numbers of cases of influenza and we are likely to see a significant wave of influenza on top of COVID-19 this winter," Dr Gerrard said. "The combination of COVID-19 and influenza seems to be particularly severe."
Dr Gerrard urged Queenslanders to get a flu shot and to be up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines.
"Influenza … can be a severe disease," he said. "I'm particularly concerned because all of our immunity will have waned over the last two years. Our general immunity is low and the virus is here and it's beginning to spread. "If we get it, it's likely to be more severe."
Dr Gerrard said Queensland's hospitals were preparing for "a difficult winter". "We always knew this was going to happen," he said.
"Queensland had to open up at some point and when it opened up, new viruses will be introduced. "The last two years have been very aberrant. We've had very little influenza, a very low death rate over the winter … because we've been protected from the virus. "But that couldn't last forever."
Ms D'Ath said 120 new paramedics were due to start this month in Queensland to help the state deal "with the winter surge" of infections.
"We are embarking and working on a broader workforce strategy to attract and retain doctors and nurses and other health professionals across the state," she said.
"We are constantly recruiting. Every state is struggling with workforce shortages."
Flu shots are free for children aged from six months to less than five years and for people aged 65 and over.
They are also free for pregnant women, Indigenous Australians aged six months and older and people with chronic health conditions.
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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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Wednesday, May 04, 2022
NT Police in turmoil over suspended cop who criticised commissioners over Rolfe case
Politically correct police leadership hits back at criticisms of itself. They breached their own guidelines by hounding officer Rolfe. They were prepared to throw a good officer to the wolves in order to placate Aborigines. The officer would not even have been charged if the deceased had been white
The Northern Territory Police Force is in turmoil after a veteran officer was “brutally” suspended for publicly criticising how his commissioners had treated constable Zachary Rolfe over the fatal shooting of Kumanjayi Walker.
Sergeant Mark Casey, who has served in the NT Police for 25 years, said he was “devastated” and “terrified” after being suspended without pay on Saturday for alleged “serious breaches of discipline” related to his “personal behaviour and public views”.
The suspension notice, signed by Assistant Commissioner Michael White, asserts that Sergeant Casey committed three breaches: improper conduct, personal use of social media and breach of the force’s code of conduct.
The 45-year-old from the digital forensic unit was suspended just hours after an opinion piece he wrote was published by local online news outlet NT Independent.
The article detailed “concerns” he held about the actions and “integrity” of NT Police executive members including Commissioner Jamie Chalker.
“This concern relates to the authoritarian management as a whole and specifically in relation to the charging of Constable Zach Rolfe,” he wrote.
“It is time for someone to stand-up and allow the discourse to happen, rather than sitting in fear, waiting for someone else to take action.”
Sergeant Casey said he had initially written the article “purely as a vent”, to privately process his growing frustration about how the Rolfe matter was handled, before deciding to have it published.
Sky News Darwin Bureau Chief Matt Cunningham says the ICAC is considering an “independent inquiry” into the… arrest of Constable Zachary Rolfe, after he was found not guilty for the murder of Kumanjayi Walker in 2019. “I think Michael Richards, the new ICAC commissioner…he’s made it clear that More
“I’d been speaking to quite a lot of police and they were all saying that something needs to be done but they were all too scared and fearful of the repercussions,” he said.
Sergeant Casey said he had expected to face disciplinary action for publishing his opinion piece. “I expected the intimidation and the bullying in response, but I underestimated how brutal it was going to be,” he said.
“I did initially feel relief (after publication) but being suspended without pay has been devastating.”
Suspending him without pay has incensed colleagues, who say the NT Police disciplinary system is unfair because other members – including senior officers – have been suspended on full pay while being investigated over more serious matters including alleged murder, rape and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Sergeant Casey, who has spent most of his policing career investigating fatal crashes, has never worked with or met Constable Rolfe, who in March was acquitted of all charges related to Walker’s death.
“He was by all accounts a competent, enthusiastic police officer and a good person,” Sergeant Casey wrote. “He has risked his life to save not one but two strangers from raging flood waters and risked his life to apprehend a violent criminal. If a police officer does the wrong thing, typically their colleagues will not support them, but in this case, everyone is supporting Zach.”
An internal police broadcast, sent to police members on Saturday night stated that the alleged breaches related to Sergeant Casey’s “personal behaviour and public views that do not align with the oath taken” when he joined the force more than two decades ago.
Sergeant Casey has seven days to respond to the suspension notice and is “very worried” about losing his job. “It’s not something that I wanted to do but I felt it needed to be done,” he said.
“The culture is that everyone is too scared to speak up and do the right thing. I think that’s a culture that needs to change.”
The matter is now being investigated internally by the professional standards command and has been referred to the NT ICAC and NT Ombudsman.
The NT Police Association said it “will provide ongoing support”.
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Federal election 2022: Whipping up homeowner hysteria a risk for Labor
Aside from Anthony Albanese catching Covid, an interest rate rise was probably the next most predictable thing to have happened during the election campaign.
But Labor’s tactical decision to create hysteria around it and blame Scott Morrison for the central bank’s own failure to get ahead of the inflation curve early could just as easily backfire.
While the first rate rise in more than a decade – and the first in an election campaign since 2007 – may not appear to be good news for the Prime Minister or mortgagors, it’s not fantastic news for the Opposition Leader either.
And feverish predictions of doom around a return to a normalised rate settings could have the reverse effect of what Labor is seeking to achieve politically.
Labor Treasury spokesman Jim Chalmers discovered the potential for this type of self-harming overreach when he was forced to quickly retreat from his use of the “Morrison recession” in 2020 when describing the economic downturn during the pandemic.
This was laughed at in voter focus groups at the time.
The language Labor is now using in framing interest rates as the third pillar of a “triple whammy”, Morrison-inspired “crisis” has a similar potential to jar with people.
By elevating it as a key platform of attack, Albanese only draws attention to Labor’s own policy prescription. It invites a bigger question as to how Labor would do a better job.
The idea that somehow by electing a Labor government, interest rates would somehow stabilise is fanciful. And in the process of whipping up panic about it, the opposition may very well scare people away from Labor.
While some homeowners may well be anxious, with a cascade of further rate rises now on the horizon, most will be savvy enough to realise that an emergency cash rate of 0.1 per cent wasn’t going to last. The party had to end some time.
You’d have to have been living alone on a remote Pacific atoll to have been surprised by this.
The risk for Albanese is that fuelling anxieties will only add to an electoral fear of the unknown.
According to one Labor MP, it shouldn’t be forgotten that six of the seven most mortgage-heavy electorates are held by Labor.
If Morrison gets the language right, uncertainty over economic conditions could further expose Albanese’s small-target strategy which has left Labor without a comprehensive economic strategy of its own to deal with the problems on which it now seeks to capitalise.
But then again, this is all predicated on an assumption that the Coalition can carry the political argument.
Morrison is unlikely to try to steer away from this topic over the coming days in the belief that it is a good space for him to be in. The Prime Minister may not be popular, but Labor would wrongly assume that a lot of voters don’t give credit to the government for protecting their jobs and small businesses during the worst days of the pandemic. While Labor sees it as more grist for the mill in its attacks on Morrison personally, in doing so it draws attention to its own lack of remedial policy.
The Prime Minister on the other hand is trying to build a platform based on a sentiment that the government got Australians through the last crisis – so they will get them through the next.
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Hidden traps of Labor’s housing plan revealed
The pitfalls of Labor’s scheme to help low income earners into their own home have been uncovered amid warnings future interest rate hikes could leave some with ‘negative equity’.
Homebuyers who use Labor’s shared equity housing scheme will be slugged with extra repayments to buy the government out if their household starts earning more than $120,000 per year.
The policy would mean low and middle income earners face extra cost of living pressure to cover the cost of their house if their wages increase — or dis-incentivise them to strive for a better salary.
Labor was under pressure to detail the $329m scheme in a media conference where Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese used the word “plan” more than 30 times but was not able to answer how much more money voters would have in their hip pockets under his plans for government.
Defending his “Help to Buy” strategy in the face of attacks from the government, Mr Albanese said it had been backed by a number of industry bodies.
He labelled criticism from the Prime Minister “desperate” and “extreme,” referencing a 2008 interview where Scott Morrison – then a new backbencher – labelled shared equity schemes a “good opportunity”.
The Labor leader passed most specific questions on the policy to his housing spokesman at a Tuesday news conference, but said he had a “comprehensive plan to assist people to buy” and a “comprehensive plan to increase supply”.
Labor also has a $100 million policy to increase emergency housing for women and children escaping domestic violence.
“This is a suite of measures which, taken together, will take pressure off people who are struggling with housing,” Mr Albanese said.
Opposition housing spokesman Jason Clare said the policy would help families “pass on their wealth to their kids rather than passing on nothing because they’re renting for the rest of their life”.
Revealing more detail about the housing plan, Mr Clare said that anyone who got a pay rise taking them above the eligibility threshold would have a two-year grace period, then face extra payments to buy out the government’s stake.
He said that would also apply to kids who want to inherit their parents’ home when they pass away.
Mr Clare said one in six people who have signed up to a similar scheme in Victoria have already bought out the government’s stake.
Mr Albanese was in the seat of Robertson, on the NSW Central Coast, spruiking his policy with 21 year old Lydia Pulley, who wants to get into the market.
The dental receptionist and student earns a combined $92,000 per year with her partner.
She said there was “no other option” for her to get into the market than Labor’s plan, although she did say that she would have to “look into” the strict rules which would prevent her from handing down her home to her kids.
The three bedroom home she rents in East Gosford for $550 a week is valued at $1.07 million according to Core Logic data, putting it above the price cap for Labor’s “Help to Buy” plan. She said she would likely have to move further away from her job to buy a house cheap enough.
Meanwhile, first home buyers have been warned that applying for loans under government guarantee schemes could put them at risk of negative equity if multiple interest rate rises see house prices fall.
It comes amid warnings of a house price correction if the cash rate continues to climb.
SQM Head of research Louis Christopher expressed concern for those using the 5 per cent deposit required for the existing First Home Guarantee scheme.
“I can see a situation where the Sydney or Melbourne housing market is going to correct by more than 5 per cent in this cycle,” Mr Christopher said.
Buyers considering Labor’s “Help to Buy” policy were delivered a similar warning.
The low deposit would leave borrowers vulnerable, RateCity research director Sally Tindall said.
“Property prices are expected to drop, potentially by up to 15 per cent in some areas over the next couple of years. Anyone with a 2 per cent deposit could fall into negative equity in the blink of an eye,” Ms Tindall said.
Those in negative equity may be unable to repay the bank if forced to sell their property, an outcome that will become more likely as costs rise with inflation.
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Analysis: Rate rise was inevitable – but impact on the election is not
The Reserve Bank raising the cash rate will have some impact on the election, but not to the extent of 2007, writes Matthew Killoran.
Interest rates rising again were inevitable. They were at emergency levels for the pandemic and that emergency has passed.
But that doesn’t mean this was news Prime Minister Scott Morrison, or homeowners, wanted to hear less than three weeks before an election.
There are many people who will have purchased a home, at inflated prices, on earlier forecasts from the RBA that interest rates would not be raising until 2024.
But circumstances changed and interest rates went up and will again and again before the year is done, likely reaching 1.5 per cent.
With grocery prices on the rise, petrol prices edging back up despite the fuel excise cut, this is just one more pressure on the family budget.
The fact is, the are still at historically low rates and Dr Lowe said he had to move because the economy was doing well.
That will be cold comfort for many people. A generation of homeowners who have never experienced a rate rise are going to have to learn to tighten their belts in the coming months and years.
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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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Tuesday, May 03, 2022
Life will be cheaper under me: Albanese vow for better future
Where is he going to get the money to pay for all this?? We are not told. Empty promises
Anthony Albanese has promised to change Australia “for the better” and deliver reforms that play to traditional Labor strengths, providing cheaper childcare, power bills, electric vehicles, medicines and mortgages if he wins the May 21 election.
At the ALP campaign launch in Perth on Sunday, the Opposition Leader claimed Labor was the only party that could deliver significant reform and set up a three-week fight with Scott Morrison over cheaper housing, higher wages, cost-of-living pressures, integrity and health.
Mr Albanese, who was introduced by West Australian Premier Mark McGowan as the “next Prime Minister of Australia”, told 600 supporters including former prime ministers Paul Keating and Kevin Rudd that “only Labor has a plan for a better future”.
He used Labor’s new Help to Buy housing policy, in which the federal government provides up to 40 per cent of the purchase price of new homes for 10,000 low-and-middle income earners, to claim that an Albanese government would help renters “achieve the great Australian dream of home ownership”.
The housing policy, allowing low-income earners to buy a house with a 2 per cent deposit, was attacked by the Prime Minister for putting home ownership into the hands of the government and potentially ripping equity away from homeowners.
Speaking in the marginal Liberal-held seat of Swan, Mr Albanese rolled out a series of new policies focused on wooing swing voters ahead of the election, including plans to close the gender pay gap, build more electric vehicle charging stations, provide cheaper medicines and set up a $1bn fund for developing critical minerals into batteries. “Labor has real, lasting plans for cheaper ¬electricity, cheaper childcare, cheaper mortgages, cheaper medicines and Medicare (and) better pay,” Mr Albanese said.
The Labor leader’s cheaper electricity claim is based on ¬medium-to-long-term renewable energy projections in Labor’s Powering Australia plan, while costings for his $5.4bn plan to make childcare more affordable for 96 per cent of families has been questioned by the Coalition.
Labor’s cheaper medicines pledge came after Mr Albanese trumped Mr Morrison’s promise to slash the price of prescription drugs by $10. Labor says it will cut drug prices by $12.50.
With Labor maintaining its small-target strategy and election-winning lead over the Coalition in Newspoll, Mr Albanese recycled Labor’s personal attacks on the Prime Minister and urged Australians to “vote for hope and optimism over fear and division”.
“Are we going to stride forward – or instead are we going to slide back? Are we going to risk three more wasted years? Scott Morrison says you don’t have to like him, but it’s better the devil you know,” he said.
“Well here’s what Australians do know … they know he failed on bushfires and they know he then failed on floods. They know he didn’t order enough vaccines and then didn’t order enough rapid antigen tests.
“They know it’s harder to see a doctor. It’s harder to buy a home and the cost of everything is going up but their wages aren’t. They know aged care is in crisis … that’s the devil you know.”
Mr Morrison will take the cost-of-living fight to Labor on Monday and pledge to make 50,000 older Australians eligible for seniors’ health cards, giving them access to more affordable health care and medicines.
Under a $70m investment over four years, the Coalition will ¬increase the singles income test threshold from $57,761 to $90,000 from July 1. The couple’s threshold will rise from $92,416 to $144,000.
“This means more senior Australians could save hundreds of dollars, including up to $428 a year for access to a monthly script for vital medicines and a refund for medical costs if you reach the Medicare safety net,” Mr Morrison said.
“This is the first major change, outside of indexation, to the ¬income threshold of the commonwealth seniors’ health card in over 20 years. Every dollar counts, especially for older Australians who are no longer working.”
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Censored, but not forgotten
Late last week, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation dropped another election cartoon. The series has gained both notoriety and infamy for its cutting political commentary that (in a rarity for this hypersensitive world) is genuinely funny. Social media collapsed when the series first aired, as leftwing commentators were left horrified by their reaction – apologising profusely to their followers for the crime of laughing.
Yes. In the modern era you have to apologise for finding something funny.
Very few political figures have escaped the wrath of the cartoonist’s pen, with some of the best depictions being made at the expense of fellow ‘freedom friendly’ party candidates – whether it’s Bob Katter’s perfect cackle, the Clive Palmer Star Wars reference, or Barnaby Joyce looking as though he’s been pulled out of the nearest patch of dirt.
The series has gotten away with harsh truths – remarkable in a world where editors have to self-censor every breath in case they get dragged before a bureaucratic committee. The cartoons have also been educational, letting voters in on a few nasty tricks that politicians would rather be kept a secret.
Now, the cartoon has managed to offend the fragile feelings of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). They issued a complaint that saw the cartoon either removed or censored across various social media platforms.
Twitter originally left the video up, but wouldn’t allow anyone to like, comment, or retweet.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/05/censored-but-not-forgotten/
******************************************Jewish leaders condemn antisemitic Melbourne student union
A group of prominent Jewish leaders have condemned a motion passed by the University of Melbourne’s student union after it pledged support for the anti-Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, sparking fears it could have a flow-on effect across university campuses.
The student union passed a wide-ranging motion on Friday condemning Zionism as a “racist colonial ideology” and pledging its support for the BDS movement, urging the university leadership to endorse an academic boycott that would cut ties with Israeli institutions, researchers, and academics that support the “Israeli oppression of Palestinians”.
The Australian understands the union is the first student representative body to pass a motion formally supporting the BDS movement in the country.
The motion, which was passed 10-8 by the student council on Friday, stated the union’s endorsement of the BDS movement had been “long overdue” and would encourage other student bodies to adopt similar resolutions in solidarity with Palestinians.
“Students in Palestine and around the world have been key participants in the fight against the illegal occupation of Palestine, protesting, organising, and creating a discussion on respective campuses … it’s long overdue for a clear and firm stance by UMSU on these crimes,” the motion read.
Jewish leaders blasted the union for creating a “fictitious” and “one-sided narrative” of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, describing the resolution as “perverse” and “blatantly anti-Semitic”.
Jewish Affairs Council director Colin Rubinstein said on Sunday that the language of the motion was something that could have been expected from “Hamas or Hezbollah … not from the student union of an esteemed centre of learning here in Australia”.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry chief executive Peter Wertheim said it was possible other university student councils “would follow suit” and adopt a similar “anti-Semitic” motion, but added that it would be a mistake to conclude there was a “broad student consensus behind these views”.
Adelaide University’s student representative council is considering a similar motion to UMSU, while the University of Western Australia’s student guild last year altered its support of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, suspending its clause condemning calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.
In February, Sydney University’s student body passed a motion supporting the boycott of the Sydney Festival but has not passed a formal motion supporting the BDS movement.
Mr Wertheim said the ability of a handful of student activists to pass through “propagandistic and racist resolutions” highlighted the urgent need for universities to adopt and apply the remembrance alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism.
The Australian sought comment from the universities of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide student unions, who were unavailable to reply.
The Anti-Defamation Commission says acts of anti-Semitism in Australia have reached “pitch fever” following reports vandals had defaced the Lilydale Eagles Soccer Club in Melbourne, drawing Nazi swastikas on the club’s oval.
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Children told to stop eating HAM SANDWICHES in ridiculous 'warning' note sent home to parents in school newsletters
Primary school students have been urged to 'ditch the ham sandwich' in leaflets inserted in their newsletters and send home to parents.
Leaflets from the Cancer Council telling kids to stop eating ham sandwiches have been put into public school newsletters by teachers in NSW.
'Ditch the ham sandwich' is the Cancer Council's latest anti-meat edict and follows on from a previous leaflet telling children to have a 'meat-free Monday'.
But both parents and pork producers have defended the humble ham sandwich and railed against the 'politically correct message'.
However, Channel Nine's U.S. correspondent, Amelia Adams, admitted she 'wasn't surprised'. 'It's such a nanny state back there,' she told Karl Stefanovic during a Today show cross on Tuesday morning.
A pork company owner said the Cancer Council leaflets go 'too far'.
'Ham is actually a product which has been developed over the last 5,000 years and people have eaten it through the ages without any problems,' David Bligh of Bringelly Pork and Bacon told News Corp.
'I think sometimes these politically correct messages can go a little bit too far and not be as practical as they should be.'
A Cancer Council spokeswoman said the leaflets are part of a health campaign to get children eating better food.
'Because there is strong evidence that eating processed meats and too much red meat is associated with increased risk of bowel cancer, our cancer prevention messages advise everyone to limit their processed meat consumption and cut down on red meat,' she said.
She added that schools sent the messages to include with material sent home with pupils, were not under any obligation to do so.
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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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Monday, May 02, 2022
Green hydrogen is coming of age
It's the only reasonably feasible method of large-scale energy storage
Green hydrogen is expected to be a massive industry of its own in the next decade, used to generate electricity, fuel vehicles, and produce chemicals and heat, but how far do we have to go before we see this coming into play?
A convergence of political, technological, economic and climate factors have propelled the clean fuel to the forefront of net-zero solutions around the globe, including in Australia, where interest has been growing since the release of the National Hydrogen Strategy in 2019.
In countries such as Germany, the UK, China, and America, tens of billions of dollars have been invested by their governments to accelerate the production of green hydrogen, which is created from electrolysis powered by renewable electricity, such as wind and solar.
The electrolyser is the capital kit or equipment which converts green electricity and water into hydrogen, with industry experts flagging the sequential doubling in installed electrolyser capacity as proof its adoption is accelerating faster than even most bulls would have expected.
For example, the largest electrolyser in the world by install capacity doubled to 10MW in Japan back in 2020, before doubling again in 2021 to 20MW at the Bécancour project in Quebec, Canada.
As green hydrogen continues its trajectory from cottage industry to mainstream manufacturing, we will likely see a ramping-up in electrolyser capacity installed – with more GW capacity coming online.
In hard-to-abate sectors like long distance transport, chemical manufacturing, and iron and steel production, green hydrogen’s deployment is recognised as a key transition pillar to reach net zero emissions.
Australia has made much about its green hydrogen ambitions but has committed little actual funding.
Instead, the Morrison Government has shown its support by investing in various things such as a network of hydrogen technology clusters in major cities and regional towns across Australia.
With funding awarded by National Energy Resources Australia (NERA), the idea is each cluster will establish a thriving green hydrogen industry and identify supply chain investments.
The Government has also entered into a series of partnerships with Germany, South Korea, and Japan to explore the possibility of future hydrogen exports.
There has also been an abundance of non-binding announcements coming in thick and fast by companies looking to play a part.
One such company is Fortescue Future Industries, whose latest agreement with European utility business E-ON has been described by experts as representing a ‘seismic shift’ in the commercial scaling up of green hydrogen.
The two companies plan to work together to replace one-third of Germany’s Russian gas imports with 5 million tonnes per annum of renewable green hydrogen.
However, the market is still quite nascent with the majority of the current 90 or so projects currently in the feasibility and demonstration stages though the industry has not only scaled up in terms of the number of projects in the pipeline but also in terms of the average size.
Several ‘gigawatt’ scale projects have been announced in Australia, though they are still subject to final investment decisions and would come into operation from 2025 onwards.
Only a handful of projects have moved beyond the trial phase – such as with AGIG’s Hydrogen Park in South Australia, which has been operational since mid 2021.
Experts in the field say there is broad recognition across the Australian market that to capitalise on the hydrogen opportunity, partnerships/JVs need to be established across the hydrogen value chain.
And ultimately, to accelerate investment, a ‘renewable gas/hydrogen’ target would need to be established in Australia.
With supply chain and energy security being more important than ever, thanks to rampant fossil fuel inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there is no doubt momentum for decarbonisation will continue.
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'Husband' and 'wife' are now on the offensive words list
An Australian university has apologised after a transgender student objected to an online list of terms deemed offensive to minorities, which includes various gay slurs as well as the words 'husband' and 'wife'.
Flinders University in South Australia removed their harassment and discrimination guidelines after the complaint, agreeing the list was 'no longer suitable'.
The main gripe from the transgender community was that the list considered the term transsexual 'appropriate' when it is now regarded as an 'outdated and offensive'.
Another sticking point was the reference to the 'condition of trans-sexualism'.
The World Health Organisation stopped considering being transgender as a 'mental health condition' in 2019.
It remains unclear why 'husband' and 'wife' were ever included on the list and how the university came to conclusion the words could cause offense or be deemed discriminatory.
A staff member who saw the Facebook post the next morning reviewed the contentious guidelines and offered an apology saying the list would immediately be updated.
'We agree that the content on the website is inappropriate,' a statement by Finders University said.
'We are taking immediate action to remove it and will engage with students and the wider diversity community on our campuses to review the content.'
'Equality, diversity and inclusion are fundamental values that we are committed to upholding in words and in practice – it is clear that improvement is needed and we still have work to do. 'We commit to doing this work.'
Jane Russo of Transcend, a national support group for transgender people, said the terms used by Flinders University were very dated. 'We've gone beyond this kind of language,' she told the Advertiser. 'When it comes to husband and wife it really comes down to a matter of personal choice.
'As for transsexual – it is a mix of language which misconstrues sexuality and gender.'
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Welcome to Net Zero: Australian Households are warned to brace for rising power bills as wholesale electricity prices more than double
Wholesale electricity prices are more expensive this year compared to 2021 with the price hike expected to be passed onto families already struggling with cost of living pressures.
Households are being warned of higher power bills in 2022 and 2023. Official figures reveal electricity prices have doubled in the past year – setting up another cost of living fight between the Prime Minister and Anthony Albanese – who have both pledged to keep costs down.
Households battling the rising cost of living are being warned to brace for skyrocketing power bills as electricity prices more than doubled over the past year.
The report from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) shows wholesale electricity jumped 141 per cent to $87 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $36 MWh at the same time last year.
In Queensland alone record demand saw wholesale prices surge to $150 MWh for the quarter – the second highest rate the state has seen for any quarter in over 20 years.
The prices are expected to flow onto consumers with the wholesale price of energy accounting for 30 to 40 per cent of a household’s power bill.
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The AEMO said the combination of coal generator outages, an increase in demand due to heatwaves and costly fossil fuel production were behind the latest price hikes.
Violette Mouchaileh, AEMO’s Executive General Manager Reform Delivery, said northern-states were hardest hit because of coal-fire outages putting pressure on supply.
“Wholesale prices in Queensland and NSW were again significantly higher than in southern states,” Ms Mouchaileh said.
“This was due to the larger price-setting role of black coal generation and system security constraints limiting daytime electricity transfers from Victoria into NSW, despite an average energy price difference of $48/MWh.”
The latest figures come as an election debate ramps up over the pressure of the rising cost of living.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has claimed his government has delivered “affordable, reliable energy” and warned power bills would be driven up under Labor’s energy policy.
“That’s why over the last two years we’ve been able to cut the cost of electricity by 8 per cent, and since I became prime minister it’s fallen by over 9 per cent,” he said on Thursday.
“When Labor were in power, electricity prices doubled. They increased by over 100 per cent, an average annual increase of over 12 per cent.”
Meanwhile, Labor's Jim Chalmers said the energy spike is a "cost of living crisis" which happened under the Morrison Government.
“Power prices are going up, healthcare’s becoming harder to access and harder to afford, groceries are going through the roof, petrol is unaffordable for a lot families right across the board, there are cost of living pressures and this is a cost of living crisis on Scott Morrison’s watch," he said in a Friday press conference.
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Election 2022: Don’t mention the climate wars
Anthony Albanese has had his “never, ever” moment of this year’s federal election campaign: “There will be no carbon tax, ever,” he vowed on Wednesday under pressure during a radio interview.
Julia Gillard, as Labor prime minister in 2010, was there before him: “There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.” And in 1995 John Howard, then opposition leader, responded to an aggressive journalist asking if there would “never, ever” be a GST: “Never ever. It’s dead.”
Albanese’s pledge was driven by a recognition that the impact of a carbon price in whatever form was no longer theoretical but a political reality. As well, it is a sign that subcontracting out the climate change attack on Liberal MPs in affluent inner-city electorates to Greens warriors and Climate 200 “teal” activists is not a complete answer for Labor. There is still the same challenge of being able to promote climate action in the city while protecting jobs outside the city.
It also was a tacit admission that Labor is failing on explaining its policies and how they would work – not just to the general voting population but to specific areas of pivotal political importance.
At the halfway mark of the campaign and on the eve of Albanese’s campaign launch, which will contain the detail of policies three years in the making and likely involve US Democrat-style infrastructure spending as well as social support in housing and childcare, there is a need for more rigour from Labor.
Apart from the small-target strategy leading to a paucity of major detailed policy, there has been an inability to explain how the policies would work and what they would cost. Since the budget, central promises and policies from Labor such as the guarantee of 24-hour nurses in aged care, border protection, carbon pricing, China’s aggression in the Pacific, new agricultural visa limits and a wage rise for health workers have been paused, reworked, confused and poorly explained.
While Albanese spent seven days in Covid isolation at home his B team, particularly would-be deputy prime minister and defence minister Richard Marles, badly handled the potential impact of the price for carbon offsets for 215 industries – including 15 coalminers in the crucial Hunter Valley of NSW.
For a week before Albanese acted, the issue of job losses for mining communities in the Hunter had festered as former resources minister Matt Canavan campaigned for the Nationals in the seat of Hunter, where long-term traditional Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon is retiring. Local Labor MP for Shortland Pat Conroy, the party’s assistant climate change spokesman, and MP for Paterson Meryl Swanson both played down the threat of Labor’s policy of using the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to hasten the pace of emissions reduction and force companies to buy carbon credits to offset carbon emissions.
Anthony Albanese will rejoin the labor campaign trail today – when the Opposition takes it pitch to lower the cost of…
Conroy said the coalminers were exempt and Swanson said they would “work out” a convenient arrangement. Both were wrong and both were contradicted by Chris Bowen, the climate change spokesman. Marles, who is also employment spokesman, couldn’t explain the policy when it was announced and criticised six months ago for the potential to close businesses and oust 100,000 workers, and this week he simply couldn’t answer the questions.
As the Coalition moved into a strong regional phase of the campaign with Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce out in the bush and out of the headlines and Scott Morrison announcing the creation of 450,000 regional jobs over five years, in Queensland the coalminers’ fears were growing and spreading.
In response to Labor claims it was the same scheme introduced by Tony Abbott to get the removal of the carbon tax through the Senate, Morrison said: “What Labor is doing is binding them on this and issuing penalties on those companies so they couldn’t be more different. What Labor has is a tax, a sneaky carbon tax on traditional industries in this country, and that’s not good for regional Australia. It is not good at all.” Whitehaven Coal chief executive Paul Flynn said he feared Labor’s strengthened safeguards mechanism would be a “carbon levy by stealth” and it was not true it was the same as the Coalition’s safeguard mechanism.
“The fact the ALP sees such an enlarged role for the Clean Energy Regulator in negotiating with impacted facilities suggests some in Labor are only just beginning to turn their minds to what this policy might look like in practice and what the impacts could be across the economy,” Flynn told The Australian.
Sky News reporter Julia Bradley says Labor is keeping an “incredibly tight lid” on the movements of Opposition…
By not being on top of detail, not being able to carry an argument and, most crucially, not being able to say what the policy would mean until after the election, the Labor team was not just endangering the seat of Hunter – which was saved for Labor by One Nation preferences in 2019 – but also other seats in NSW and more broadly in Queensland and resource-rich Western Australia.
Labor needs to win seats in Queensland and to hold seats such as the Hunter if it is to have any chance of realising Albanese’s aspiration of a majority Labor government. That’s why Albanese had to cut the Gordian knot of a carbon tax from his home in inner-Sydney’s Marrickville.
When political leaders make firm declarations during election campaigns, the matter of most immediate importance is not whether they will be believed or whether they will breach the pledge – what is most important is why they said it. After years of avoiding absolute declarations, dodging tricky questions or batting away aggression why does a leader feel compelled to break all the election campaign rules and make an absolute promise that may have to be broken in some form in the future?
It’s because they believe they have no choice, that the issue is absolutely important in the electorate, is crucial to ensuring victory, and there needs to be an irrevocable denial to kill the debate.
Albanese and Morrison are revisiting the climate wars between the major parties when a bipartisan policy of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 would have seemed to be grounds for a neutralisation of the debate after decades of political infighting.
When Albanese released the ALP policy six months ago he said it was time to “put the climate wars behind us (and) unite around a common vision”. “We can become a renewable energy superpower,” he said. “Over the last decade the Coalition has announced over 20 energy policies and not landed a single one. Business has missed out on certainty, and Australians have missed out on jobs.”
The reason for the revisitation is because the common 2050 target means the implementation of the policy, the pace of change, the incentives or punishments used to achieve targets and the balance between jobs created and lost is now a real argument with real impacts on industry and workers.
It is not just a two-way fight between the ALP and the Coalition but also has the Greens and Climate 200 teal independents cannibalising each other and Labor as they try to oust inner-city Liberals such as Josh Frydenberg and Tim Wilson in Melbourne and Trent Zimmerman and Dave Sharma in Sydney. At appearances in his own electorate of Kooyong and neighbouring Liberal-held seats, the Treasurer was not asked about regional jobs threatened by carbon pricing but whether net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 was still Coalition policy and would transgender women be allowed to use new sports facilities.
At the other end of the fight Coalition and Labor MPs face challenges from One Nation and United Australia Party, which campaign on both the major parties selling out regional workers. Morrison’s continued commitment this week to his policy of net-zero by 2050, agreed at the Glasgow climate change conference last year, has cost the Coalition a lot of support among conservative voters.
So, Albanese and Morrison are still in the climate wars, it’s just that the dichotomies between city and regional areas are greater, there are more players and a carbon price – which Gillard had the foolhardy bravery to call a carbon tax – is much, much closer.
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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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Sunday, May 01, 2022
Elite Greenies are out of touch
It’s easy to bang on about vehicle emissions when everything you need is on your doorstep. What about people whose school or doctor is hours from home, asks Vikki Campion.
If a nanny cares for your children, a maid cleans your clothes, a chauffeur drives your car, or a cleaner fixes the house, you are better off than most. Tick all, and congratulations, you have a brilliant resume representing Climate 200.
Harbourside heirs and heiresses will never know what it is to choose between the $8/500g mince and a $1.75 can of lentils because of budget instead of any moral ideal.
The dilemma is not what restaurant to go to, but which bill to pay.
Wealthy circles become smaller, as more of those around them become staff. Time for coffee to talk politics is easier to find when others are doing the housework.
With skyrocketing power prices from the closure of coal-fired power stations, people who could not change a tyre are apparently changing the climate.
I would never expect Wentworth’s so-called independent teal candidate Allegra Spender, who went to the $34,000-a-year private girls school Ascham and then Cambridge, to understand. Nor would I expect Warringah’s Olympic skier Zali Steggall, who grew up in the French Alps.
The galling thing is that apart from the beautiful luck of the life that fell in their lap, they believe they have the right to purchase politics as well.
Put it on the shelf between the macadamias and the Veuve.
But from North Sydney’s independent Kylea Tink, originally from Coonabarabran, I expect more.
Ms Tink backed a road user tax “charging on the odometer” in a Sky candidates forum on Thursday, claiming the biggest death rate is due to vehicle emissions, compared to “only 1200 of road accidents”.
Please, Kylea, go home to Parkes, to your old neighbouring town of Baradine where the “daycare” is a neighbour’s place and the people with the oldest, most fuel-inefficient cars, most likely to break down, live the furthest from town in the cheapest houses.
Tell Baradine, with a median household income of $771 a week, who get one X-ray day per week — otherwise, they have a four-hour return trip to Dubbo — that they need to buy an electric car, and that they will have to pay a road user tax “on the odometer”.
You patronise them by saying rural and regional communities “are incredibly resilient”, like a person thrown out of a boat by necessity is a good swimmer or drowns.
At the Baradine shop yesterday, the shearer paid $3.95 for two litres of milk and $3.95 for a no-name basic loaf of white bread. In North Sydney, the bread equivalent was $1.70 at Woolworths, while the same 2L milk was $2.60.
People in Baradine are paying Harris Farm prices for home brand.
Surely Ms Tink, a publicly-educated rural high school student, knows deep down how a policy like that would be taken at home.
A policy that works for the inner-city rich with light rail on their doorstep leaves us in the dust.
Regionalisation Minister Bridget McKenzie tried explaining this at the national Press Club this week and, perhaps proving her point, all questions from the media focused on climate change in Canberra instead of the bush.
Charging by the odometer, kids won’t go to school, doctors’ appointments will be put off, conditions allowed to worsen, and the poor become impoverished.
We can see the 100 per cent increase in wholesale power prices now, directly attributable to the closure of coal-fired power stations and the jagged road to renewables. Wasn’t all power going to become cheaper?
Shortly after a joint press conference with two Climate 200 candidates, Ms Tink denied being supported by Simon Holmes a Court, even though his website discloses he does.
The price of her support in a hung parliament, she said, would be vehicle emissions standards.
Go home to Baradine and tell that to the people whose median weekly household income is one-third of North Sydney’s. Who, between tyres, rego and third party insurance, can barely afford the car they have now, let alone buy an EV. Who put off car services in the same way they stretch out haircuts. The Climate 200 Cafe has hairdressers all the way to
the ferry.
If you are a dad who goes to work every day and has three kids at home, do you think Ms Spender or Mr Holmes a Court understands your stress? Who can take a couple of years off? Others can’t take a gap year followed by a sabbatical on paying power bills because someone else will cover for them.
If you fight with your partner about using the dryer because of the electricity bill, then welcome to the world of the rest of us.
What power you should use, what car you drive, what views you should hold and, oh, which school your child is booked into.
Welcome to Climate 200.
What separates the major parties from the independents is their life experience.
The LNP have Phil Thompson and Jim Molan, wounded veterans; Llew O’Brien, Peter Dutton, Jason Wood, Pat Conaghan, all former cops, and doctors, teachers, graziers, farmers, small-business owners — people whose life has not been cushioned by generational wealth.
Most importantly, they have people out of sight of the Harbour Bridge.
Why does no one think we are getting a carbon tax with a new focus-grouped name? The independent issues will become policies for people who hear little about the broader circumstances of life.
Labor is not getting 76 seats on its own — a vote for them is for putting the elites into power. And the elites don’t think about household problems.
Climate is only a big issue when money isn’t.
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NSW government ministers have slammed 'woke' inclusion training seminars. Colleagues were told to not use word 'mate'
NSW government ministers have slammed a 'woke' inclusion training seminar after they were told they should not refer to each other as 'mate'.
The NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet conducted a series of 'diversity and inclusion' consultations this week.
The program listed a number of workplace changes including bans on drinking alcohol in the office, yelling at colleagues and gossiping about staff.
The seminars are estimated to have cost taxpayers $202,000.
Some ministers have criticised the 'Respect at Work' consultations and labelled them as 'PC insanity', 'straight out of 1984' and 'mumbo jumbo'.
'I use 'mate' all the time – it's as Australian as you can get. How can it be offensive?' one told The Daily Telegraph.
Another added: 'We're not allowed to have individual opinions. We have to engage in group thought … This is straight out of 1984.'
All staff must be invited out to after-work drinks to ensure 'inclusivity' while work tasks must be fairly divided between senior and junior colleagues.
The seminars lasted three-and-a-half hours and were run by an external 'diversity and inclusion' consultant.
The sessions were aimed at fostering 'inclusive leadership', 'unconscious bias and mindful inclusion', 'gender equity' and 'cultural inclusion'.
Ministers were also taught how to properly report allegations of sexual abuse to the department.
A Department of Premier and Cabinet spokesman said the consultations were held in response to a report into bullying and harassment.
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Another statue under attack
Proud premier or unprincipled pariah? That is the verdict about to be delivered on William Lodewyk Crowther, 137 years after this death.
The 15th Tasmanian premier was a lauded naturalist and valued surgeon, praised for his free treatment of the poor.
However, the man enthusiastically cheered after his death in 1885 as “a grand old doctor and premier” had an indelible stain on his reputation.
In 1869, embroiled in an unseemly competition to secure the remains of William Lanne, seen then as the “last full-blood” Tasmanian Aboriginal man, Crowther was accused of severing and stealing Lanne’s skull.
Even at the time, such acts were beyond the pale, resulting in an inquiry and subsequent loss of Crowther’s hospital position.
Now the Hobart City Council must decide whether his actions of 1869 warrant the removal of his statue in 2022.
The large, elevated sculpture that dominates a corner of Hobart’s busy Franklin Square was erected in 1889 by “a grateful public and sincere personal friends … to perpetuate the memory of long and zealous political professional services rendered to this colony”.
“Perpetuate no longer” is the cry from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, which is demanding the monument to a “grave robbing … racist” be “removed and destroyed”, an option on the table as the council deliberates its future.
“Crowther’s statue symbolises the atrocities committed against Aboriginal people of the time because of their race,” said the centre’s campaign manager, Nala Mansell.
“Anyone who supports the glorification of such racist and barbaric actions by demanding the statue remains can only be seen as supporting such actions.
“Anyone with any sort of conscience would understand why the statue of Crowther needs to be removed and destroyed. His actions were solely based on his racist idea that Aborigines were somehow inferior.”
The council funded a series of “truth telling” art installations at the statue last year, with some alleged historical inaccuracies. Acting lord mayor Helen Burnet said the council must now decide the statue’s permanent fate.
“The project has revealed a strong desire from the community for further information in Franklin Square about William Crowther, William Lanne and the interaction between them,” she said. “The future of the monument will be determined by the council following extensive consultation with relevant individuals and organisations.”
Ms Mansell and others would like to see Crowther’s statue replaced with a memorial to Lanne, a popular figure and pioneering whaler also known as “King Billy”. This would belatedly afford Lanne the respect he was so heinously denied by Hobart’s “gentlemen” bone hunters after his death on March 3, 1869.
Crowther wanted Lanne’s remains for the Royal College of Surgeons, London, while colleague George Stokell wanted them for the Royal Society of Tasmania.
According to accounts, Crowther invited Stokell to his house at 8pm the day after Lanne’s death. While Crowther’s wife kept Stokell talking, Crowther and his son Bingham were in the “dead house” removing Lanne’s skull. Stokell and Royal Society allies responded by severing Lanne’s hands and feet and later exhuming and stealing what was left of his body, de-boning it and drying the bones on the hospital roof.
Despite the grisly saga, some historians are fiercely opposed to the removal and destruction of Crowther’s statue.
“It’s an outrageous suggestion,” said local historian Reg Watson. “History is a science and should remain free from political influence. There are aspects of Crowther’s career that were shady but he’s part of Tasmanian history.”
A compromise could be the creation next to the statue of a monument or plaque that memorialises Lanne and explains Crowther’s ill deeds. “But it has to be historically correct, and free of political input,” Mr Watson said.
Fellow historian Scott Seymour agreed. “We can’t remove these people from history, regardless of how much we’d like to,” Mr Seymour said.
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Election 2022: $50bn hit if Labor axes construction watchdog
Anthony Albanese’s plans to abolish the construction watchdog could deliver a $50bn hit to the economy, add to inflation and cut up to 4000 jobs a year, according to an independent report detailing the costs of removing the industrial relations safeguards for the critical sector.
The damning findings into Labor’s pledge to dismantle the Australian Building and Construction Commission found that the policy would have significant impacts for rebuilding the post-Covid economy but also damage key sectors including housing, defence and health while undermining plans for a sovereign manufacturing revival.
It would also add to inflationary pressures and lead to an estimated $10bn blowout in the cost of state infrastructure pipelines, which would be borne by the taxpayer.
The report by Ernst & Young and commissioned by Master Builders Australia warned that abolishing the ABCC would severely impact housing costs and have an inflationary impact from rising industrial action across critical sectors that rely on construction.
Its findings will further fuel the Coalition’s election attacks over Anthony Albanese’s pro-union industrial relations policy and raise doubts about Labor’s claims to address inflationary pressures.
The report modelled three potential impacts ranging from a low to high range. The high range suggests economic losses of up to $75bn by 2030.
The mid-range scenario would result in a fall in the output of the construction sector of about $16.3bn by 2025 and a decline in overall economic activity of $18.4bn by 2025.
It predicts a fall in manufacturing output of $4.8bn by 2025 and $13.1bn by 2030, and a decline in services output of $5.9bn by 2025 and $19.5bn by 2030. The flow-on effects to the broader economy would be significant, it warned, considering the key role the sector plays in the productive capacity of the economy.
“To the end of the next decade, and based on the potential industry impacts, abolishing the ABCC could lead to significant economic losses,” the report said. “Output in the construction sector could fall by around $35.4bn by 2030 as higher cost inflation makes fewer projects possible, and capital is reallocated to other economic activities. Overall economic activity could decline by $47.6bn by 2030 as higher costs and lower productivity act as a handbrake to other sectors.”
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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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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
