ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG notes several current dramas




'Political correctness gone mad': Australian Army told not to recruit MEN as part of a gender war push to have more women soldiers

The army has definitely gone to the dogs since I was in it. Will they all get powder puff training soon? Will they still be able to fight a war?  What is good about female soldiers anyway? Do we want to kill the nation's future mothers?

The Australian Army is turning away male recruits in a 'politically correct' push to increase the number of female cadets.

Recruiters at the Australian Defence Force have been told they will be re-located if they ignore orders to target women for new jobs, The Daily Telegraph reported.

There are no jobs available for men in the in the infantry as a rifleman or as an artilleryman. But these positions are marked as 'recruit immediately' if a female applies.

'This is political correctness gone mad. I don't care if it is a man or a woman- I just want to get the best person for the job,' one army recruiter told the paper.

The female recruitment drive comes from top management.

Chief of Army Lieutenant General Angus Campbell earlier this year said: 'We aspire to have 25 per cent representation of women in Army by 2025.' Woman currently make up 12.7 per cent of the army.

A Defence spokesman said: 'While Defence maintains targets to encourage greater participation of women, every candidate must meet the required standards. 'Successful candidates are selected based on merit and their capacity to do the work, not on their gender.'

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That good ol' "sustainable" power in South Australia

Their Greenie strategy goes from disaster to farce.  They now  plan to burn RIVERS of diesel fuel, which -- dare I mention it? -- is a FOSSIL fuel.  Pity they blew up those coal-fired generators, isn't it?

Generators the Weatherill government is buying to prevent blackouts this summer ahead of the March state election will use 80,000 litres of diesel an hour.

The fleet of generators, currently being shipped from Europe to South Australia, have been used for temporary generation around the world. But those behind the South Australian energy security project, costing taxpayers more than $300 million, yesterday could not say if the generators had ever been used as part of a permanent solution.

In a major revision to his $550m go-it-alone energy plan, Premier Jay Weatherill last week announced nine “state-of-the-art” gen­erators providing up to 276 megawatts would be purchased to provide back-up power for the next two summers.

Rather than build a state-owned gas-fired power station, the generators would be moved to one permanent site in 2019 to become a power plant and be switched to gas.

Yesterday, executives from the Premier’s Department and privately owned electricity distribution company SA Power Networks appeared before parlia­ment’s public works committee. The committee was told the nine hybrid turbines, to be installed at the Adelaide desalination plant in Lonsdale and the Holden site in Elizabeth, would involve “fuel costs in the vicinity of about 80,000 litres an hour for all nine turbines”.

Energy Plan Implementation executive director Sam Crafter said the protocols of when and how to turn the generators on were still being discussed by the Australian Energy Market Operator and SA Power Networks.

Mr Crafter said the objective of the generators was to prevent load shedding, rather than reducing the cost of power, over the next two summers. “This was not part of the plan targeted at affordability; it was around security and reliability ­elements of the plan,” he said.

“However, having a more reliable back-up plan does help with the ability for people to have confidence and contracting, and minimising the risk elements that they put into their contracts.”

Mr Crafter said while a permanent site was yet to be chosen, it would require a gas connection. “We weren’t able to get to a site with a gas connection and also connect to the transmission network by December 1, so that’s why we have landed on the two sites here,” he said.

Project sponsor Nick Smith said the ambitious project was a on a “tight timeline”. “It is a tight schedule ... there are a lot of things that need to be pulled together to make it happen by December 1,” he said.

Technical support manager Paul Godden said the generators were “intended for both temporary and permanent solutions”.

Liberal MP David Pisoni said it was “extraordinary that you are not able to tell this committee where this is being used permanently”. Mr Crafter said while the generators operated in 2000 sites around the world, “I do not have the specifics of how they operate in each of those sites”.

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Qld: 'no body, no parole' law passed

"No body, no parole" laws have passed Queensland parliament with support from both the government and opposition.

The legislation is designed to ensure murderers who haven't identified the location of their victims' bodies won't be released without serving maximum time.

The opposition had been trying to pass its own amendments to the legislation, but some last minute discussions with the government on Wednesday night saw Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath change the amendments to ensure the legislation passed.

Members of two families affected by the laws, the Pullen family and the Split family, watched the passage of the legislation from the public gallery on Thursday, and applauded when it was passed.

Fiona Split from Cooktown in far north Queensland has been fighting for a version of the laws since her husband was murdered in 2012, with his remains never found.

Gary and Leanne Pullen's son Tim was also murdered in 2012, with one of the men responsible for his death spending only a little more than a year behind bars.

Their story moved opposition MP Tim Mander to tears in parliament on Tuesday as he spoke in favour of the legislation.

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Schoolchildren BANNED from inviting friends to church

Kids ordered to stop 'recruiting' classmates to religious events - but they can now send Christmas cards with Jesus on them

Schoolchildren in Queensland could be banned from inviting their classmates to religious events, but will be allowed to hand out Christmas cards in the playground.

The Queensland government had been moving to ban Christian references in the state's schools - including sharing Yuletide messages - as part of an unofficial policy taking aim at young evangelists, The Australian reported last month. 

The idea was widely criticised by religious groups and has now been scrapped, with the Department of Education turning its attention to religious 'recruitment' on school grounds.

A revised version of the Department's review of Religious Instruction Materials warns that students should not be encouraged by teachers to invite their peers to religious classes.

'Instructors should not direct students in their [Religious Instruction] class to try to recruit other students to RI,' the review, released on Thursday, states.

'This is not in accordance with a parents' right to choose whether their child experiences the messages delivered in RI.

'Children in our schools come from diverse backgrounds and it is important that RI instructors encourage respectful relationships.'

Examples had been found where religious students had been told to recruit others, the review said.

'RI instructors should be reminded in the notes that students should not be encouraged to recruit other students at the school,' it read.

The focus on 'recruiting' and apparent backdown on 'evangelising' - explained in the reviews as sharing Jesus-themed Christmas cards and making bracelets to share 'the good news about Jesus' - has caused confusion.

Education Minister Kate Jones and religious groups have asked for further clarity as to what constitutes 'recruitment' in the schoolyard.

'What conduct would it encompass? Is ''recruitment'' meant to cover such innocuous statements as ''my church youth group is fun, come along''?' Mark Fowler, who represents religious groups and charities, told The Australian.

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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