ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is not impressed by Sam Dastyari, Australia's own Iranian member of parliament

Dastyari is a former General Secretary of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Labor Party.  Stalin was a general secretary too -- of the CPSU.  Beware General Secretaries.





An amusing Press release from the South Australian government below

They really believe in doubling down on failure. Solar thermal is a great idea -- except everywhere that it has been tried.  Ivanpah in Califiornia sometimes uses more energy than it produces and it absolutely vacuums up money. And Spain's Abengoa project is effectively bankrupt.  How much more can the long-suffering taxpayers of South Australia stand?  They will eventually have to walk away from this white elephant


South Australia’s Weatherill Labor Government today awarded a contract for a new solar thermal power station in Port Augusta, where the state’s last coal-fired power station was shut last year.  The contract is the final piece of the puzzle needed to build a world-leading clean energy generator that will provide desperately needed jobs.

‘Jay Weatherill has today proven his Government to be the unequivocal international leader for clean energy generation and for a just transition for workers and communities affected by climate action,’ said Australian Services Union – SA + NT Branch (ASU) Secretary Joseph Scales.

The ASU has backed the long community campaign to build a solar thermal power station in Pt Augusta.

‘Workers at the coal-fired power station in Port Augusta paid the heaviest price for climate change.  Alinta Energy were corporate vandals, leaving Port Augusta when the markets said there was no more money to be made from coal.  Today’s announcement by the Labor Government makes Port Augusta a centre of clean energy generation in South Australia and a leader in renewable energy internationally,’ said Mr Scales.

The project will see around 700 jobs created during construction and 50 ongoing jobs at the power station.

‘This is a very proud day for the Port Augusta community.  It’s a magnificent victory for community action by locals, workers, their unions and the environmental sector,’ said Mr Scales.

The Australian Services Union was the largest Union at the Alinta operated Augusta Power Stations and has thousands of members in the energy sector around the country.

Via email




   

Council poised to drop Aust Day ceremonies

A Melbourne council is under pressure from the federal government to drop its bid to become the first in the country to stop holding citizenship ceremonies on January 26 as part of a push to find a new date for Australia Day.

Yarra City councillors are due to vote on Tuesday night on a series of measures that would see the council stop referring to January 26 as Australia Day from 2018 and end its tradition of holding citizenship ceremonies on that date.

Mayor Amanda Stone says if the councillors approve the plans, Yarra City would be the first council in Australia to abandon holding citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.

The move has outraged Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Alex Hawke, who has fired off a letter to councils across the country warning they could be banned from hosting any more citizenship ceremonies if they stop holding them on Australia Day.

"Local councils are now on notice that if they politicise Australian citizenship, the government will see it as a breach of the (Australian Citizenship Ceremonies) code and take the appropriate action," he said.

But Ms Stone said she can't find any requirement in the code for councils to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day.

"The code actually says you shouldn't use a ceremony to promote a political agenda or a religious agenda or commercial agenda," she told AAP.

"We wouldn't be intending to do that. We are simply considering changing when we hold our first citizenship ceremony of the year."

Yarra City usually holds citizenship ceremonies every two months.

Ms Stone said if the one on Australia Day was scratched, it could be moved to February or another date such as Australian Citizenship Day on September 17.

She said councillors would take into consideration the ministers' warning before tonight's vote.

"There are a number of options we need to consider and we need to balance the advice from the federal government and what we think is in the best interests of the community," Ms Stone said.

"We don't want to put any members of the community, particularly the Aboriginal community, in the firing line."

Huge protests by indigenous Australians and their supporters were held on Australia Day this year amid growing calls to find a new date for Australia Day.

However, the government does not support the push for change.

A report prepared for Yarra City councillors said consultations with its local Aboriginal community revealed most regard January 26 as a "painful and alienating day" because it marks the arrival of the First Fleet from England.

The report said locals supported the council, which takes in the suburbs of Richmond, Fitzroy and Collingwood, moving citizenship ceremonies from January 26 and holding an event acknowledging the culture and history of Aboriginal people instead.

The council meeting is due to take place from 6pm Tuesday.

SOURCE






Prepare for the hate if you vote to protect traditional marriage

BE warned. If you mention you are going to vote “No” in the homosexual marriage plebiscite you will most likely be branded a bigot.  “Society” will turn on you. You may even be ostracised in your workplace, nursing home or footy club.

So much for freedom of speech.

What same-sex marriage proponents like Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull neglect to tell you is this:

Redefining marriage is redefining parenthood. Homosexual marriage supporters wrongly say that traditional parenting doesn’t matter anymore and that it is OK to bring a child up without a father or without a mother. Same-sex marriage is a misguided concept. And it is not simply a symbolic gesture as the left-wing columnists rush to tell you. It will have far-reaching consequences for children. Here I stress that opponents of same-sex marriage shouldn’t become bigots either.

We all know the intolerances and the gay bashing culture that was commonplace in Australia right up until the 70s. Now homosexual couples are accepted and have full legal rights.  They already have equality and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Former PMs Tony Abbott and John Howard have urged Australians to vote “No”. Abbott was plain-speaking:

“I say to you, if you don’t like same-sex marriage, vote no. If you’re worried about religious freedom and freedom of speech, vote no, and if you don’t like political correctness, vote no because voting no will help to stop political correctness in its tracks,” he said.

I loved this letter in the paper from Stephen J. Fyson from Belmont in NSW: “The same-sex marriage debate is not about equality, it is about redefinition. It is like a triangle saying it has the right to be called a square because they are both geometrical shapes. But that does not make sense, because certain basic properties are different.

“The same applies for the use of the word marriage. Same-sex couples already have equality under the law, but equality does not mean sameness.

“The solution would be for this type of committed relationship to have a different word that gives equivalency, but not sameness. That would protect traditional marriage while giving same-sex couples a word they could use with clarity, and not with the pretence of being the same as something that is different in its basic property.

“To pretend a thing is the same as another thing with different properties is the basis of political correctness. Political correctness takes away freedom from one group while changing the clear meaning of something.”

If you buy have not made up your mind, I suggest you do so quickly.

The postal ballot is due to begin within weeks with the Australian Bureau of Statistics hoping to mail ballot papers to voters in September.

The votes are due back in early November, before a result is declared a few weeks later.

The postal ballot is a fallback option for the Coalition, after its compulsory plebiscite was again blocked in the Senate by Labor, the Greens and members of the crossbench.

SOURCE





Turnbull bid to block super union

The Turnbull government will move next week to block the creation of a CFMEU-MUA “super union” through legislation to be introduced to parliament that would force the Fair Work Commission to apply a public-interest test for any mergers.

A delegation of 30 mining, oil and gas chief executives met senior cabinet ministers in Canberra on Wednesday night and urged ­action from the government to block what they described as a Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union “takeover” that would cause industrial chaos across the supply chain and drive investors away at “the speed of light”.

The Australian understands that a bill to amend the Fair Work (Registered Organisations Act) and apply a public-interest test for union mergers will be introduced next Wednesday.

The government is seeking to impose a new test for amalga­mations of unions that requires the Fair Work Commission to consider the unions’ record of lawlessness and whether the merger served the public interest. It would also seek to make it easier to deregister unions that continually breached workplace rules.

The CFMEU has described the public-interest test as “ridiculous”.

The Turnbull government, however, believes that the laws, if passed by the Senate, would have the effect of blocking the CFMEU-MUA amalgamation that, it claims, would create a super union of 120,000 members in workforces across the construction and mining sectors, as well as on the waterfront.

As the government sharpened its assault on union thuggery, ­the Coalition unleashed an extra­ordinary attack against Bill Shorten in parliament yesterday. Malcolm Turnbull said the Opposition Leader could have been jailed if proposed laws allowing courts to ban union officials for multiple breaches of civil law had operated when Mr Shorten was at the Australian Workers Union.

The Fair Work Commission is still considering the “super union” merger, which would include the smaller Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia. A decision is likely this year.

The Turnbull government will need to win the support of Senate crossbenchers, including Nick Xenophon. The South Australian senator has been the subject of sustained attacks from the CFMEU, which has pledged to target his NXT party before the next election.

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the union merger posed a “major threat to Australia’s productivity and economic prosperity”. Last week, Senator Cash said the CFMEU had ­already been hit with $10 million in fines from prosecutions brought against it. “The fact that two of the most militant unions in Australia are proposing to merge is extremely concerning,” she told The Aus­tralian. “The entrenched culture of bullying and intimidation tactics of the CFMEU and MUA have no place in Australian workplaces. At present, there are 93 CFMEU officials before the courts on ­charges of breaching workplace laws. The union recently surpassed a dubious milestone of having ­accumulated $10m in fines.

“At present, there is no requirement for union mergers to be in members’ interests, the interests of the affected industries, or the ­nation’s overall economic interest.

“The government is committed to putting workers and the Australian economy first.”

Australian Mines and Metals Association chief executive Steve Knott said the proposed merger was “alarming”, considering the influence the unions already held over the Labor Party.

“This will drive investors away from this country faster than the speed of light and dry up any pipeline of future investment,” he said.

“The track record of the CFMEU is a national disgrace and that won’t be missed in boardrooms around the globe. If the merger described by the sector as a takeover was to go ahead, investors could put their money somewhere else other than Australia.”

The two unions have argued that the union movement was under threat and the merger would help bolster their financial and legal resources. An official application for the merger was lodged in June following a memorandum of understanding between the unions signed late last year.

MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin has previously described the merger as a need to build a new union to counter “a lot of adversarial stuff out there, a lot of anti-unionism, there is a political ideology in this country that’s pervasive and ­actively offensive against trade union rights”.

Yesterday, Mr Crumlin told The Australian: “If Michaelia Cash wants to talk about a public-­interest test, it is very much in the public interest to have strong, ­independent trade unions to stand up to egregious ­examples of wage slavery, corporate greed and tax evasion by multinational corporations.”

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