Milo Yiannopoulos promoters won’t pay $50,000 Victoria Police bill

I can hardly believe how far left Victoria is veering: State police charging a conservative to protect him from Leftists. Charging protection money is what criminals do. The next step is refusing protection and letting harm happen. 

The whole rationale for government is that there are some things that should not be user-pays, but which the State should pay, like roads and infrastructure, defence, police, search and rescue, and emergency services, certain amenities ... etc. If the police don't think it is part of their job to prevent criminal assault, what are they good for?

The only consolation is that this is probably a try-on


THE ORGANISER behind controversial Milo Yiannopoulos’ Melbourne event is refusing to cough up $50,000 to cover the cost of police after a violent protest broke out.

Penthouse publisher Damien Costas, the man who organised Milo Yiannopoulos’s tour, told 3AW he had no intention of paying the five-figure bill from Victoria Police, following the Kensington clash.

“I can’t imagine we would (pay the larger bill),” he said. “In Melbourne they were talking about a user pays model but a particular sergeant at our head of security we were dealing with said ‘We’d like you to pay for the barriers, bollards etc’.”

“I think the entire thing was about five or $6000.” “I paid what I was asked to pay. Anything over and above that we can determine.” “This is actually asking the victim to pay the bill.”

He said user-pay models were discussed in every state and he’d paid about $9000 for police in the Gold Coast and nothing in New South Wales.

Supporters of the far-Right figure were involved in violent clashes with left-wing protesters on Monday night in Kensington.
Hundreds of police were called in with some using capsicum spray to subdue rioters.

Mr Costas said the 3000 attendees didn’t do anything wrong rather those uninvited threw rocks.

Police Minister Lisa Neville told the radio station on Wednesday the event’s promoters would have to foot the bill, which would be at least $50,000. She said billing event organisers for police resources was commonplace.

“For these sort of rallies, but also for the AFL and those big events there is an agreement around the costs,” she said. Ms Neville said she was confident Mr Yiannopoulos would cough up.
“(It’s a) big call to say you’re going to ignore a bill from Victoria Police,” she said.

Mr Costas said the police presence was executed with “military precision” and there were also 70 security guards at the event.

SOURCE







Bill Shorten panicked by "no" vote in heavily Muslim electorates

Pandering to Muslim beliefs about homosexuality might give Christians protection as a side-effect

Bill Shorten has reached out to religious leaders and No voters to reassure them that Labor, in ­“opposition or government”, wants to ensure religious liberties remain protected.

The Opposition Leader made the move within hours of Malcolm Turnbull taking the same-sex marriage legislation to Government House to be written into law. While still celebrating the passage of the same-sex marriage laws, Mr Shorten immediately addressed concerns by Christian and Islamic leaders, specifically in nine Labor-held electorates in western Sydney that voted No, about “their freedom to practise their religion”.

On Thursday, Mr Shorten told parliament in his final speech on the same-sex marriage bill: “I say to those who voted No, I recognise that now is the time for healing, to put this debate behind us. And when this law is passed, we should declare that we are no longer a nation of people who voted No or people who voted Yes — we are simply Australians, one and all.”

In the wake of the 60 per cent Yes vote in the postal survey — now revealed to have cost $80 million, $42m less than expected — Mr Shorten has repeatedly expressed “respect” for No voters and declared that as someone who was “raised a person of faith”, he wants to ensure ­religious protections.

In a letter to 12 religious ­leaders including Christian archbishops and bishops as well as muftis and imams in southwest and western Sydney, Mr Shorten said Labor understood their concerns, believed the ­legislation protected religious freedoms but offered to make ­himself available “to work through any concerns you may have in relation to religious freedoms around Australia”.

“I can assure you that Labor understands your concerns, and takes them most seriously,” Mr Shorten said in a letter written yesterday and obtained by The Weekend Australian. “In the event that Labor forms the next government, I can guarantee that I will continue to be available to work through any concerns that you may have in relation to religious freedoms in Australia. In government and in opposition, I intend to continue to work collaboratively with religious leaders around Australia to ensure religious liberties remain protected.”

Mr Shorten offered to meet the religious leaders “as early as next week” to discuss their concerns. He also urged them to work with the Coalition’s religious freedoms inquiry headed by former federal attorney-general Philip Ruddock, which is due to report next year.

Mr Shorten offered to consider more protections for religious freedom. “Given the importance of the issue of religious freedom, and the need to give any changes proper consideration, we believe this is an appropriate mechanism for determining whether changes might be required to enhance protections for people of faith and religious institutions,” he wrote.

“Should the expert panel into religious freedoms find gaps in the legal framework for protecting ­religious freedoms more broadly, Labor will carefully consider those when they are delivered next year.”

Labor was attacked during the debate on religious freedom this week for not allowing a true free vote on amendments and denying its MPs the chance to support religious protections. Labor MPs have denied there was a direction denying them a chance to vote on amendments and said they wanted to use the ­religious freedom inquiry to ­rectify any shortcomings.

Mr Shorten has campaigned strongly for same-sex marriage and all Labor MPs voted for it but there was a political backlash when the postal vote showed that nine Labor-held electorates in Sydney with large migrant communities and committed religious groups voted No against same-sex marriage.

The Labor electorates of Barton, Blaxland, Chifley, Fowler, Greenway, McMahon, Parramatta, Watson and Werriwa in NSW as well as Calwell and Bruce in Victoria voted No.

Three Liberal Sydney seats — Bennelong, Mitchell and Banks — and three rural Queensland electorates — Groom and Maranoa held by the Nationals and independent Bob Katter’s Kennedy — also had a majority No vote.

NSW Liberals believe the No vote in the western Sydney electorates, some in areas once held by the Liberal Party under John Howard, gave the Coalition an opportunity to regain ground in western Sydney at the next election by campaigning as a defender of religious rights after Labor’s blanket refusal to vote for any amendments this week.

Mr Shorten’s letter seeks to reassure leaders including Bishop Antoine Taraby, the Maronite Bishop of Australia; Bishop Robert Rabbat, of the Melkite Catholic Church; Sheikh Yahya Safi, imam of the Lakemba mosque; and Sheikh Malek Zeidan, the Australian representative of the mufti of Lebanon.

SOURCE






Militant unions escalate picket at Webb Dock

MORE than 1000 fired-up union workers have walked off the job in an industrial dispute over a casual worker denied shifts at the Victorian International Container Terminal.

In an expletive-ridden speech, CFMEU boss John Setka declared the company was in “big trouble” as workers stood together to protest their rights. “I almost feel sorry for the VICT,” he said.

The stoush is over a Maritime Union of Australia member, missing out on casual shifts after being denied the security clearance required to work in a restricted area.

 MUA Deputy National Secretary Will Tracey claimed a security audit identified over 20 workers who did not have the correct clearances, but the worker in question was excluded because of his union membership. “His only crime was pushing the union membership inside the dock,” he told workers.

The dispute has been going for over a week, during which time more than 1000 containers have sat idle at the dock.

A VICT spokesman previously told the Herald Sun the picket was costing the company big money, and legal action would be pursued to reclaim $100 million in dam­ages for harm to its reputation and lost revenue.

VICT also plans to make a complaint to police about vile abuse and harassment that it alleges has been hurled at executives and their families.

Mr Setka said: “If the laws are s***, why play by them?” He said workers were “effectively slaves” to big companies which “criminalise unionism.”  “If we follow the laws, we will never win,” he said.

The Herald Sun can reveal the man who was not granted security clearance failed in two appeals to overturn the decision.

The man excluded from work has a criminal conviction. He has been denied a Maritime Security Identification Card, which is required for all people who work in secure areas on Australian docks under laws to protect against terrorism and other crimes.

VICT said it was not about to break the law and allow the man on site to keep the union happy.

Australian Logistics Council Managing Director Michael Kilgariff said the illegal blockade at Webb Dock is a taste of the “industrial mayhem” that would be unleashed if the CFMEU and MUA merge.

“These events are reminiscent of the bad old days on the Australian waterfront, with the MUA and the CFMEU undertaking pickets based on spurious grounds, and operating in the misguided belief that they are above the law,” he said.

“ALC is deeply concerned that if the MUA and CFMEU are allowed to merge into a militant mega-union, the sort of wilful illegality we are now witnessing at Webb Dock will spread throughout the nation, and across our supply chains

“The actions of the MUA and the CFMEU at Webb Dock are not only an attack on businesses, but on the entire community. Fresh produce is rotting on the wharf, and merchandise that includes Christmas gifts for children is unable to move.”

Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Robert Clark said: “This picket is hurting farmers and businesses across Victoria and is doing huge damage to Victoria’s international reputation, and to confidence, investment and jobs,” he said.

Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Sally McManus said workers need “stronger, better rights” to protect their “vulnerable workforce”.

The Supreme Court has ordered the Maritime Union of Australia to stop the picket, but other unions have taken up the fight.

Terminal officials say the action is being captured on CCTV to monitor who attends the protests and in case the court order is breached. It is also considering further legal action.

The union earlier this week resorted to using the troublesome oBikes in the illegal blockade leaving thousands of goods, including Christmas presents, seafood and lifesaving EpiPens, stranded in containers.

The imports affected include pharmaceutical goods, including EpiPens, prawns and other seafood, toys, Christmas decorations, including artificial trees, and machinery parts, including conveyor belt parts.

But exports have also been sidelined during the dispute, with the list including wine, cheese, frozen meat, oranges, stone fruit, pears, cotton, clay, and large amounts of milk destined for China.

Victoria Police said it was aware of the ongoing protest and would monitor it. “Victoria Police respects people’s right to protest peacefully, but will not tolerate those who break the law,” a spokeswoman said.

SOURCE





The root of the left’s anger lies in our universities

As excited crowds of people lined up around the block to attend Milo Yiannoplous’ first Sydney talk last Tuesday, dozens of riot police corralled into a local park the large crowd of furious left-wing activists who were doing their best to stop the event happening.

Stirring them on were young women, mainly students from Sydney University, screeching into their megaphones while their frustrated audience entertained themselves taking selfies, brandishing crude signs and doing their best to provoke police.

It can’t have helped when they heard the 2000-plus crowd roar their approval as Milo attacked feminists and gender studies courses, debunked myths about wage gaps and campus rape crises, and challenged his audience to stand up to bullying leftists.

Milo has spent the past week giving interviews about his recent activities, including his tours of American universities which are successfully forcing administrations into allowing more free speech on campuses.

Key groups are now planning similar activities for Australian universities.

Milo announced this week in our YouTube interview that he was keen to return and take part. He’s just one of many social media heroes soon to be invited to these shores as part of a concerted effort to wrestle back higher education from what Milo describes as a “stiflingly homogenous leftist grip which is undermining the foundations of free society.”

While our Coalition politicians spent their time plotting changing captains on a sinking ship, they’d be well advised to take note of this proposed counter-revolution. Therein lies the only hope of rescuing their political parties from a very real threat to the future of conservative parties both here and abroad — the sharp turn left in women’s voting preferences.

Startling new data from the Australian National University, to be revealed in Inquirer in tomorrow’s The Weekend Australian, shows it is young women who are driving a major shift towards left-wing parties. Midst the complex reasons for this shift, left-leaning university education is at the heart of this trend — with women most likely to take the humanities subjects now stepped in Neo-Marxist and postmodernist ideology.

Those ferociously leftist young women trying to shut down Milo’s talks are set to join successive generations of women already voting conservative parties out of office — unless efforts to reclaim the universities prove successful.

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