After Orlando, The Danger Of Pauline Hanson Becomes Apparent

So says  Max Chalmers, without offering any comment on the problems she is addressing.  His whole diatribe (large excerpt below) could be reduced to the old chestnut that most Muslims are not terrorists so we can do nothing about Muslim terror.  He certainly suggests nothing we could do.  Just let them go on murdering is his apparent preference. 

And what she says is of course "racist" according to young Max.  I will bypass the usual retort that Muslims are a religion not a race and point to the real issue that he ignores.  It is neither a religion nor a race that is being objected to but mass murder.  Not that mass murder has ever bothered Leftists, of course. Think Stalin, Mao, Castro etc.

Muslims never stop murderinjg.   Mostly, as in Syria, they murder one another but their murderous tendencies do sometimes come out in Western countries too.  Islam is clearly a religion that encourages murder and as long as we accomodate hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Australia, some Muslims will act out their murderous tendencies and attack us.

So it is the Muslim community that is the problem.  As long as we have that community in our countries we will be subjected to repeated acts of terrorism.  So, as Pauline rightly sees, the only way of protecting ourselves from the Muslim fanatics is to cease hosting that community.  The first step is obviously to block any further additions to that community and the time may also come when we ask the whole of that community to avail themselves of the Muslim obligation of hospitality in one of the 30 or so Muslim countries in the world.  There are a couple of large ones just to the North of us. 

It is NOT racist to object to terrorism and to look towards the source of it.


Late yesterday evening, the former MP released a video that serves as a warning for what is at stake should that campaign succeed. It’s hardly a revelation that Pauline Hanson is running as a racist, but the manner in which she is doing so is cause for alarm, both because of what it says about the levels of racism still acceptable in mainstream Australian politics, and the broad threat it poses to Australian Muslims, as well as democratic and liberal ideals.

It starts with Hanson standing in a driveway, a microphone pinned to her rose coloured blazer.

"Let’s have a serious chat about the latest terrorist attack that’s happened in America,” she says, looking directly down the barrel of the camera.

In the next two minutes, Hanson delivers a typically meandering dialogue which tries to reap political capital from the horrible massacre in Orlando, something other conservative candidates have also attempted to do. Insidiously, she refuses to acknowledge the fact the attack targeted LGBTI people, and offers not a single word of solidarity for a global community in mourning.

Bigotry and opportunism are no surprise coming from Hanson, the women whose anti-Asian migration stance has had its absurdity exposed the passage of time. But there is something particularly chilling about this video, an extremity of racism that goes beyond even the rhetoric of Reclaim Australia.

At one point she pauses dramatically, and then delivers the most important line of the video and, perhaps, of her campaign.

"We have to take a strong stance against Muslims,” she says.

Hanson mentions Islam next, but the reducing of ‘Muslims’ to a single cohesive entity – a group of 1.6 billion people who are Sunni and Shi’a, Pakistani and American, radical and moderate, men, women, white, black, brown, gay, straight, and otherwise – helps explain the more obviously shocking statements that follow.

All pretence of ideological criticism or religious critique have been dropped. Being Muslim is adjudicated as a crime in and of itself. Regardless of their actual views, convictions, or actions, Muslims are demonised as inherently bad people.

Except to Hanson, they’re actually less than that. Muslims are nothing more than dangerous animals.

On the tails of the ‘strong stance’ comment, Hanson goes on to compare these 1.6 billion people to dogs. We don’t let Pit Bull Terriers into the country, or certain dangerous toys, she says. The obvious, odious punchline follows: Muslims, like pit-bulls, are dangerous. They must not be allowed to exist here either.

Whether Hanson, Smith, and co end up involved in the Senate balance of power or not, a position in parliament will allow them to open new ground for major party players to tread. The radicalism of their racism will stretch political possibility, emboldening the likes of Bernardi and Abbott while making them appear more moderate in comparison.

These are the kind of shifts that don’t just nudge individual pieces of legislation over the line: they can fundamentally rebalance a nation.

Pauline Hanson has been radicalised. A seat in parliament would allow her to radicalise many more.

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As many as 30,000 boat people to be given visas by ALP: Election promise

As many as 30,000 asylum-seekers who arrived by boat under the Rudd-Gillard government may be offered permanent residency.

Bill Shorten is poised to soften Australia’s border protection policies by granting permanent residency to nearly 30,000 asylum-seekers eligible who arrived by boat under the former Labor government.

The move is the most significant departure made by the Opposition Leader from the tough border protection policies introduced by the Coalition under former Prime Minister Tony Abbott with Labor set to scrap Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs).

This would see Labor providing its own legacy caseload of asylum-seekers with a clear pathway to permanent residency with Mr Shorten also holding out the prospect of making changes to Operation Sovereign Borders.

However, Labor has hit back at claims that the move on TPVs represents a departure, pointing out that this position was adopted at its national conference in 2015.

Bill Shorten attacked the Liberal Party for starting a "fear campaign” on something which has been Labor policy since July last year.

"There is nothing new in this story and you all know this,” Mr Shorten told journalists on the campaign trail in Adelaide this morning.

"This is the same old Liberal Party trying to reheat their same old lies and fear campaign.

"Labor, on July 3, will have the same policy about stopping the boats. We will not put the people smugglers back into business. We will maintain offshore processing.”

Mr Shorten said there was nothing "temporary” about the situation of the 30,000 asylum seekers currently on Temporary Protection Visas in Australia, and taxpayers were already paying for their care. "They’ve been here under these Liberal arrangements for years and years,” Mr Shorten said.

"Labor’s got a clear policy to deal with this matter and we don’t want to see taxpayers carrying the burden of this situation on indefinitely.

"In terms of Manus and Nauru, I make the same points that I’ve made in the first couple of weeks of this campaign.

People smugglers should know that on July 3, whoever wins this election, you are not back in business full stop.”

The formal Labor party platform as determined last year says: "Labor will abolish TPVs which keep people in a permanent state of limbo. Labor will commit to processing people as quickly as possible and placing those found to be genuine refugees on permanent protection visas.”

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton told The Daily Telegraphthat TPVs were a key element of any strong border protection policy and their removal would provide an incentive to people-smugglers to revive their illegal trade.

"Shorten Labor is showing all the signs of recklessness that saw 50,000 illegal maritime arrivals breach our borders under Rudd and Gillard Labor,” Mr Dutton said.

"Abolition of TPVs reveals Bill Shorten’s weak border policies. It sends a dangerous signal to people smugglers that they’re back in business with a product to sell permanent settlement in Australia.”

The changes come as Mr Shorten is confronted with a bitter internal revolt against his plan to continue the practice of boat turnbacks with up to 50 candidates standing at the July 2 election having opposed stronger border protection measures.

In late 2014, when Scott Morrison was immigration minister, the government revived Howard era Temporary Protection Visas in a bid to clear the backlog of up to 30,000 asylum-seekers who arrived before the last election.

The Senate passed the measure with the support of the Palmer United Party as well as Family First’s Bob Day, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm and Ricky Muir from the Motoring Enthusiast Party.

In return, the government agreed to lift the refugee intake by 7500 places over four years, allow asylum-seekers on bridging visas the right to work and remove all children from detention on Christmas Island.

Treasurer Scott Morrison has warned the border protection "madness started” when Kevin Rudd scrapped temporary protection visas in 2008, as he lashed out at Labor for failing to "learn from that lesson”.

The Treasurer, who was immigration minister in Tony Abbott’s government, said Labor would send a message to people-smugglers to restart their trade if the opposition wins the federal election.

"It was August 2008 when Kevin Rudd abolished temporary protection visas. That’s when the madness started, that’s when the boats started to come. You change a policy like that, it was actually their change to temporary protection visas and abolishing them that started those boats,” he said.

"And the fact that the Labor Party are going to not learn from that lesson and they voted against the restoration of temporary protection visas in the parliament, in the House, in the Senate and remain doggedly to the position they will abolish them

if they come back into government, that tells the people smugglers every single thing they need to know about a Labor government on border protection.”

SOURCE






Victoria: Rogue Firefighter Union’s 50 powers of veto revealed, exposing complete takeover of their employer

THE militant United Firefighter Union’s 50 powers of veto over the Country Fire Authority have been revealed as enraged volunteers ­confronted Premier Daniel Andrews in Victoria’s west.

The full impact of a UFU takeover — being pushed by the Premier — is exposed in a CFA analysis of the 405-page enterprise bargaining agreement, obtained by the Herald Sun.

Under the deal, the union must have final say over the choice of all equipment bought by the CFA, ­including clothes, torches and tyres for trucks, while all new CFA employees must undertake a UFU course.

In other ammendments under the deal, volunteers will be banned from riding on trucks with paid firefighters without union approval.

Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria board member Mick Nunweek yesterday said there was a "mood of disgust” about the looming deal. "The CFA is being dismantled now without consultation with the VFBV," he said.

"Enshrined in legislation — which the Premier and parliament has broken — is the Volunteer Respect Act and the Volunteer Charter, and it says that they must consult with volunteers ... that hasn’t been done. "We’ve got no argument with the paid firefighters, but we want no union interference in the CFA," Mr Nunweek added.

More than 200 volunteers on 40 fire trucks ambushed Mr Andrews as he held a press conference on renewable energy in Ararat on Wednesday.

Federal Labor MPs have voiced their alarm over Mr Andrews’s move to push the deal through during an election campaign.

Many early voters interviewed at booths in two Victorian marginal seats said their decision had been ­influenced by the issue.

A senior CFA source said its EBA analysis showed veto provisions would neuter the chief officer of the CFA.  "This document gives the UFU all power but no responsibility for the crucial operational decisions of the authority,” the source said.

The CFA declined to discuss the summary document of the proposed EBA.

Wally Spinks, an early voter in the marginal seat of McEwen, said: "The CFA has been working well for years. He’s (Daniel Andrews) becoming a bit of a dictator. People power will come into play very quickly."

The CFA board was told it would be sacked last week after refusing to accept the agreement.

The Governor of Victoria must approve the dismissal, but Linda Dessau, a patron of the CFA, does not return to Australia from an official trip to China until June 18

UFU boss Peter Marshall on Wednesday again refused to answer questions on the dispute.

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Federal election 2016: we’ll all win if Turnbull stands up to unions

"Is this a union thing?” asks a stunned George Clooney in his latest role as flashy TV show host Lee Gates in Money Monsters. Gates is taken hostage on air at gunpoint by a scruffy looking bloke but it’s not a union stunt. Unlike the very real union thing in Victoria. The United Firefighters Union is holding a political gun to the state’s head, aided and abetted by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

The union’s brute takeover of all firefighters across Victoria, both professional and volunteer, goes to the heart of the July 2 federal election. Pipped only by its own messy economic contradictions last week, the UFU scandal is Labor’s second worst nightmare. Hence Bill Shorten’s bogus call that Malcolm Turnbull should stop meddling in a state issue. Hence Labor’s industrial relations spokesman Brendan O’Connor asking whether the Prime Minister will next get involved in NSW council amalgamations? Actually Shorten did that the next day, ­offering $20 million to pork-barrel plebiscites about a state issue.

And then there was the smug assurance from Julia Gillard’s former speech writer Michael Cooney who told Chris Kenny 10 days ago that Turnbull’s "faux” populist "I’m on your side schtick” got him through the morning but "I’m not sure it got him through the afternoon”.

Cute, but not even close. Ten mornings and 10 afternoons later, the UFU’s grubby power grab continues. There’s nothing faux about opposing the UFU’s monster-­tactics and exposing the pusillanimous Victorian Premier who wears union love on his sleeve. There’s nothing populist about Employment Minister Michaelia Cash explaining how a Turnbull government will protect volunteer firefighters who put their lives on the line for others — for no pay — from "objectionable terms” inserted into enterprise agreements by power-hungry unions.

Labor and chaps like Cooney want the electorate to look away from the Victorian union contest. Just as they want us to pay no attention to union money that pulls ALP’s policy strings. The CFMEU, at the centre of so many repugnant royal commission findings, sent $139,350 to the Victorian Labor Party to fund the election of Andrews and a handy $195,000 to Labor’s federal war chest. In 2013-14, almost 70 per cent of Labor donations came from unions. Add in union affiliation fees and that’s why union representatives have secured 50 per cent of seats at ALP state conferences. It’s a nice deal. Just imagine if big business donated funds to the Liberal Party in return for half, or even any, seats at the Liberal Party’s policy table.

Union leaders are shrewd. In 2007, UFU boss Peter Marshall broke ranks with Labor to direct UFU money to Adam Bandt in his first tilt at the seat of Melbourne, held by Labor’s Lindsay Tanner. For being one of Labor’s more sensible heads, the UFU put a target on Tanner’s back. Lately the unions have redoubled efforts at this double game: in 2013-14 union donations to the Greens totalled $600,000, with $125,000 from the CFMEU and $360,000 from the Victorian branch of the Electrical Trades Union.

This is how the unions instruct Labor to deliver up. It’s why the Victorian Premier knelt before the UFU before the 2014 state election, promising to recruit 450 extra firefighters, 350 to the CFA. Labor’s policy was a sugar-coated union takeover of the CFA. In return, suited-up union firefighters doorknocked for Labor, handed out Vote Labor pamphlets and stood outside polling booths telling voters to put Liberals last. In an email to Labor MPs, UFU boss Marshall said: "Internal polling conservatively estimated a 4.5 per cent swing in seats where there was a firefighter presence — and up to 7 per cent in some marginal seats.” In other words, we get you elected so look after us.

Alas, the UFU underestimated the CFA resolve to protect its 60,000 volunteers who work at 34 integrated fire stations in Melbourne and outer Melbourne, and at the hundreds of CFA-run fire stations across Victoria. The UFU’s preferred enterprise bargaining agreement is an Andrews approved stitch-up to control the CFA. A "consultative committee” comprised of four UFU members and four CFA members gives the UFU effective veto over any changes to internal business rules, directions, standing orders, standard operating procedures, operational instructions and "any like document”.

Willing to do whatever it takes to pay back the UFU, the Andrews government sacked the CFA board last Friday for opposing the EBA. Yet just after 2pm that same day, the Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria secured a court injunction preventing the new CFA board appointed by Andrews from voting on the EBA until June 22. By insisting the CFA board signs the EBA, in the face of this injunction, the Andrews government is in potential contempt of court.

Witness too the interference by Victoria’s Industrial Relations Minister, Natalie Hutchins, who misled parliament by claiming she had assurances from Fair Work Australia president Iain Ross about the EBA. Ross gave no such assurances and Hutchins had to apologise to parliament.

In 2012, as workplace relations minister, Shorten cooked up a conciliation, again involving Ross, when the CFMEU refused to comply with court orders to end illegal pickets on Grocon’s Melbourne building sites. Ross’s involvement was curious given a court had already fined the CFMEU and directed it to return to work. And notice how the federal workplace relations minister wasn’t concerned about interfering in a "state” issue back then.

The Australian American Association dinner in Sydney last week honoured two men: former PM John Howard and Boral managing director Mike Kane. Howard said this of Kane: only two people in business have manned the barricades, planted the flag to defend the rule of law, to fight union abuse of the law and union intimidation: Chris Corrigan and Mike Kane.

Kane, who grew up in the Bronx, learned early about the sinister and self-serving power of the teamsters. At Boral years later, he refused to be bullied by the law-breaking CFMEU which demanded Boral stop supplying construction materials to Grocon. A gutsy call to uphold the rule of law in the face of brute union intimidation.

"Mike has earned a place in the pantheon of industrial relations warriors,” Howard said.

There are too few business leaders like Kane. There are also two few political leaders like Howard who, along with Peter Reith, stared down union violence. It’s time for Turnbull to step up, remain focused on exposing toxic union power, and drive home why we are voting at the double dissolution election. If he does, it will be win, win, win. A win for civic-minded volunteers intent on manning what Edmund Burke called those little platoons of civil society that bind us together. A win for Turnbull by proving his leadership mettle. And a win for the country, if union power is prevented from taking further hold.

SOURCE






Labor's assault on TAFE students

On National TAFE Day 2016, the Turnbull Coalition Government is standing with thousands of TAFE students against Bill Shorten’s knee-jerk plan to charge students thousands of dollars in upfront course fees.

Minister for Vocational Education and Skills Senator the Hon Scott Ryan said choice and opportunity in Australia’s vocational education and training (VET) system were under attack from Bill Shorten and Labor, whose promises to cap fees will result in upfront fees for some TAFE courses.

"Labor frontbenchers[1] have admitted their plan will leave TAFE students paying thousands of dollars in upfront fees if their course costs more than $8000 per year,” Minister Ryan said. "Under Labor, students will have to choose between the course that best leads them to a job and the course they can afford.

Currently, eligible Australian students studying diploma-level courses or above can access a VET FEE-HELP student loan from approved institutions. If elected, Labor has promised to cap these loans at $8000 per student per year. Many TAFEs currently offer courses across a range of disciplines with fees well above the $8000 limit.

Under Labor’s proposal, students studying a Diploma of Maritime Operations at Hunter Institute, NSW, who are not currently required to pay upfront fees, will pay up to $13,025 upfront. Students studying a Diploma of Website Development at TAFE Queensland – Brisbane will pay up to $6,900 upfront and students studying a Diploma of Building and

Construction at Victoria’s Chisholm Institute will be forced to pay up to $8453 under a Shorten government. There are hundreds more examples across Australia, affecting thousands of future students.

Labor’s plan has been announced with no industry consultation and no modelling to gauge the effects of this policy on students. It has drawn criticism from both TAFE directors and representatives of private training providers.

"TAFE students have every right to fear Bill Shorten and Labor. Their plan to charge massive upfront fees has been introduced with no industry consultation and without regard for the impact on students,” Minister Ryan said.

Minister Ryan said Labor’s record in vocational education and training is disastrous. In 2012 Labor opened up VET FEE-HELP scheme to shonky providers and predatory brokers with no thought for the implications this would have on students and taxpayers.

"Labor is repeating the same mistakes it made in 2012, which led to the current VET FEE-HELP disaster, and this time they are asking  TAFE students to pay for Labor’s election promises” Minister Ryan said.

Labor’s ill-thought-through plan for massive upfront fees stands in stark contrast to the deliberative and consultative approach of the Turnbull Coalition Government, which has introduced more than a dozen measures to crack down on dodgy providers, and put students’ and taxpayers' interests at the heart of VET FEE-HELP reform.

Press release




This golden mole is an exceptionally rare sight in Australia's outback



While it might just look like an adorable ball of fur, a sighting of this animal only occurs a few times in a decade.

It is a marsupial mole, a.k.a. a karrkaratul, a rarely-seen burrowing mammal found lurking in the central deserts of Australia. This one was spotted by rangers in the Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in Western Australia, while they were documenting stories about bush foods in the area.

"We were driving along a bush track on our way home when this little golden creature ran across the road in front of us," Kate Crossing, a coordinator at Kiwirrkurra IPA, wrote in a post on the Tjamu Tjamu Aboriginal Corporation - Kiwirrkurra Facebook page on Saturday.

One of the passengers in the car yelled out "karrkaratul" when it was spotted, before the driver stopped the vehicle to take a peek at the rare creature. Some of the rangers said they had never seen one, while one person said they had witnessed one years ago.

"We all crowded round as Yalti held this beautiful creature carefully in her hands, its powerful front feet trying to dig to safety," Crossing wrote.

Mark Eldridge, Principal Research Scientist in the mammalogy section at the Australian Museum, told Mashable Australia that such a sight is so uncommon that very little is actually known about the marsupial mole.

"They're just so rarely encountered that we don't know how rare or common they are. They live most of their lives underground, and rarely come to the surface," he said.

Marsupial moles are spotted on the surface usually after rain, Eldridge said, running along the surface before burrowing back down into the desert. So blink, and you'll likely miss it. "There are so few people in the areas where it occurs ... Certainly sightings of them only occur a couple of times a decade," he said.

They also have no eyes and no external ears; but still has functional hearing from inside its body, with presumably a good sense of smell. It also has no known relatives, despite resembling other animals.

"The remarkable thing is it looks like some of the completely unrelated moles from places like South Africa, but ended up looking similar because of their lifestyles," Eldridge said.

As for Crossing and the Kiwirrkurra rangers, they let the creature go — where it dug its way back underground shortly after and disappeared. See you in a few years, little guy.

SOURCE

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