ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG commemorates recently deceased cartoonist Bill Leak and his many battles with political correctness





The Justice Project to uncover systemic flaws in legal redress   
         
Hah! Equal access to law is a chimera.  The middle classes will always be unable to afford it.  If you tried to set up a Legibank as well as a Medibank, the costs would make Medibank look cheap

The Law Council has announced that it is conducting a comprehensive national review into the impediments to justice in Australia, focusing on those facing significant social and economic disadvantage in our community.

The Justice Project will uncover systemic flaws and ensure the path towards equal access to justice is clearly mapped-out. It will report its findings by the end of November this year.

A Steering Committee of eminent Australians, chaired by The Hon Robert French AC, former Chief Justice of the High Court, will oversee the Project.

The President of the Law Council of Australia, Fiona McLeod SC, said that “access to justice is a bedrock principle for our society and a means of protecting, promoting and defending the rule of law and human rights of all people. It is a core tenet of our modern democracy, yet unfortunately there are many who are missing out.

“A person’s formal right to justice and equal treatment before the law is of no value if he or she cannot effectively access the legal system or secure protection of basic rights,” Ms McLeod said.

“Whether it is the pressures upon court resourcing and long backlogs, lack of access to legal advice or representation, or laws and practices that compound unfairness, the inequity experienced by many can have a devastating impact upon their lives.”

The Justice Project will inform its work with a review of the existing research on access to justice issues and explore what is working and why, with constructive, informed recommendations for future action. The Project will seek submissions and involve consultation with individuals and organisations with on the ground experience and focus on case studies that illuminate the key impediments and solutions.

“I am delighted that former High Court Chief Justice Robert French AC, has agreed to chair the Steering Committee, and very grateful for the contribution of our expert Committee members,” Ms McLeod said.

“The review will investigate how these issues affect key groups such as: the elderly, young people, those living in remote areas, the homeless and marginalised and the many in our community who have experienced crisis in their lives, are exploited or face significant discrimination.

“This is a significant undertaking to examine critical issues that need to be urgently addressed.

“We need to ask ourselves whether our idea of Australia as a free and open society, committed to the fair-go, stands up to scrutiny when it comes to access to justice. At the moment this is a very difficult question to answer,” Ms McLeod said.

Media release




Fake News: Whipping up a media frenzy over bizarre “records” before they occur

Australia’s “leading climate scientists” can’t predict the climate but they are very good PR operatives. Here in Perth we’ve had a cool year — for the last twelve months it’s been nearly a whole degree cooler than the average for the last 20 years.

But last weekend in Perth, news stories told us we’d had an “autumn stinker” and wait for it, we might get Perth’s second hottest first eight days of March. Call that a HFEDOM record and write in the Guinness Book of records. It’s a permutation “record” almost as important as the longest distance run by a man holding a table in his teeth. Except it’s not even a record, it’s a news story about a record that “might happen”, but didn’t.

Let’s name Neil Bennett (BOM) and Will Steffen (ANU) as the Propaganda-in-Chiefs dumping meaningless climate-trivia on the people in order to generate FEAR and screw more money from the public.

Straight from the New Climate PRAVDA Manual:

Invent contrived trivial permutations in order to use the word “record”

Don’t bother waiting for real data, use forecasts

If record includes the word “cool”, “cooler”, or “cold”, send to trash.

When wrong, crickets.

So science serves its purpose as a tax revenue generator and source of support for parasitic industries that need government money and government propaganda to keep them alive. (Yes, I’m talking about renewable energy).

The public is hammered with record hot stories, even before they’ve happened in this case, yet there are no BoM announcements or media stories detailing WA’s remarkable run of well below average temps since about April last year.

Last week the Climate Council report on summer mentioned Perth had record rainfall and the second hottest December day on record at 42.4C on 21 December, but they didn’t mention 9 February when Perth had by far its coldest February maximum daily temp since records began in 1897, smashing the previous record by a whopping 1.6C.     

More HERE 





Refugees told they will have to learn English if they want to keep their welfare payments

Refugees may be forced to learn English if they want to keep their welfare payments in a drastic move suggested by a migrant support group.

The Southern Migrant and Refugee Centre (SMRC) has proposed removing 'futile activity testing' and instead linking welfare payments to refugee's presence at English classes, The Daily Telegraph reported.

After arriving in Australia, refugees receive welfare for 13 weeks before they must find work or study - SMRC claims this means refugees often gave up English lessons in case they lose their payments.

Poor English skills can often prevent new arrivals, especially young people, from settling into the Australian community Liberal MP Jason Wood said. 'It is very apparent that the lack of English on arrivals for new migrants makes it extremely difficult,' Mr Wood said. 'Even though 510 hours of English is provided by government, evidence suggests most new arrivals only access about 340 hours.'

Mr Wood is currently a month into a joint parliamentary committee hearing looking in to services for refugees arriving on Australian shores.

For acting chief executive of SMRC Despina Haralambopoulos removing the activity test was an important step. 'The activity test takes away from their capacity to attend English language classes,' Ms Haralambopoulos told the Daily Telegraph.

SOURCE





   
PM pushes for childcare ban for unvaccinated children

Vital to protect newborns

Unvaccinated children will not be allowed into childcare centres or preschool under a tough new proposal put forward by the federal government.

Malcolm Turnbull has written to state and territory leaders demanding they introduce nationally consistent laws to protect children and has vowed to take the policy to the next Council of Australian Governments (COAG), according to The Sunday Telegraph.

The Prime Minister said all parents deserved to know their children were safe when they dropped them off at daycare or preschool.

“All of us desperately want to protect our children and our grandchildren and other people’s children too,” Mr Turnbull told The Telegraph. “If you are don’t vaccinate your child you are not just putting their own life at risk, but you are putting everyone else’s children at risk.”

Children don’t need to be immunised to enrol at daycare in the ACT, SA, WA, Tasmania or the Northern Territory although in NSW, Victoria and Queensland children must be fully immunised or on an approved catch-up program unless an official objection has been lodged.

In his letter to state and territory leaders, Mr Turnbull writes: “At our next COAG meeting I propose we agree that all jurisdictions implement legislation that excludes children who are not vaccinated from attending childcare or preschool, unless they have a medical exemption.

“Vaccination objection is not a valid exemption. We must give parents the confidence that their children will be safe when they attend childcare or preschool. “Parents must understand that if their child is not vaccinated they will be refused attendance or enrolment.”

Last week, Pauline Hanson triggered a furious backlash when she advised parents to “investigate” where to vaccinate their children. The One Nation leader was later forced to retract her remarks after she told ABC’s Insiders program that the government’s no jab, no pay policy was a “dictatorship” and parents should do their own research into vaccinating their child.

Mr Turnbull said leaders must present a united front against the anti-vaccination movement. “It’s not one of those things where you say ‘I am making my own decision, it’s got nothing to do with anybody else,” he said. “It impacts on everybody.”

Bill Shorten back the plan but urged the prime minister to undertake a national educational campaign on the issue.

Mr Shorten applauded Mr Turnbull for standing up to the anti-vaccination brigade, saying he had already written to the prime minister calling for a national campaign. “I think we need to start educating parents ... as opposed to some of the crazier views they can read on the internet,” Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government’s tough “no jab, no pay” policy of withholding family payments to parents of unvaccinated children is being supplemented by an “equally tough” policy of “no jab, no play”.

“We want to work with all of the states and I’m very confident that they’ll come on board,” he told the Seven Network.  “Ultimately it’s about protecting kids against horrendous illnesses that are agonising and potentially in some cases tragic.”

Senior Labor MP Mark Butler said there had been some very damaging public commentary led by One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and now the major parties had a responsibility to get the issue back on track. “The AMA says that next to clean water, this is probably the most important public health measure that a country can have,” Mr Butler told ABC TV.

SOURCE

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