Brave man speaking out against laws ruining men's lives

An email from Bettina Arndt (bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au)

I want to introduce you all to a good friend, Augusto Zimmermann. Some of you may know him from his speech at the International Men’s Issues Conference last year (ICMI 2017

Augusto is a former Law Reform Commissioner for Western Australia. He’s a professor, an academic lawyer who has won many awards for his research and teaching. He spent ten years at Murdoch University, including a period as Associate Dean of the law school.

For the last few years this brave man has been speaking out against changes to the domestic violence laws in his state and also the role of AVO’s in family law battles.

Late last year he left Murdoch after finding himself increasingly uncomfortable about the feminist agenda being promoted in the law school. The new goal of the school is to promote social justice and particularly to support the role and legal standing of women. What a crazy way to train new lawyers.

My new video is a skyped chat with Augusto about all this. Here it is:



Please help me circulate this.

For those watching the video who want to learn more about the courageous stance he is taking on these issues, I will include a few links to articles he has written on domestic violence laws and family law:

Reform the Family Law Act to Protect the Innocent, Quadrant Magazine, Volume LXI, Number 11, No 541, October 2017.

The Menace of Family Violence Order, Quadrant Magazine, Volume LX, Number 10, November 2016,





Aged-care providers caught over ‘asset’ fee racket after court ruling

Tens of millions of dollars that large aged-care providers collected illegally from residents under the guise of an “asset refurbishment” fee will be repaid or forcibly refunded after a Federal Court decision barred the practice.

Two of the biggest listed providers — Regis Aged Care, which charged residents $15,000 each when they died or left care, and Japara — levied the charge even after the Department of Health warned in September 2016 that the practice was not supported by legislation.

The two listed companies have a combined market capitalisation of almost $2 billion.

Estia Health, which is also listed, stopped charging the fee after the Health Department intervention.

The full list of providers who built the fee into their contracts with residents may be much longer, because many did not disclose the charge on a federal government portal.

The Australian has confirmed that residents of family-owned McKenzie Aged Care were also hit with the charge for about two years. A spokeswoman for the organisation said the company would “abide by the court’s ruling” and money collected would be repaid. The chief executive had written to managers, but letters to families had yet to be sent out, the spokeswoman said.

The fee has been charged by large providers for capital investment or infrastructure “refurbishment” at a rate of about $16-$18 per resident, per day. Frequently, the money was for future projects that residents would never see completed.

Many large for-profit providers introduced the charge amid a budget squeeze on care funding, after $1.2bn was cut in the 2016 federal budget by tightening criteria for government subsidies. This cut was later remodelled as an indexation freeze, to save the same amount.

Regis sought an interpretation of the Aged Care Act from the Federal Court after the September 2016 bulletin from the Department of Health, hoping to clear the way for the fee and its revenue base. The company continued levying the charge in the meantime, but adjusted its profit forecast by the amount that would be collected in the event of an unfavourable finding.

On Friday, Federal Court judge Debra Mortimer found there was no legislative basis for any aged-care company to charge a fee for a service or infrastructure from which a resident would never benefit.

“There are no monetary limits on the level of such additional fees and charges, nor on how many of them a provider might impose,” Justice Mortimer said in her judgment.

“It is an additional price extracted by Regis from all who wish to enter one of its facilities.

“It is imposed as an integral part of any entry by a person to one of Regis’ facilities, on a take-it-or-leave-it basis,” the judge said. “It is not a fee from which the individual resident derives any benefit: it does not secure for the resident better living conditions, additional services or (for example) more one-on-one care.

“Regis’s senior counsel submitted that the market will regulate such matters, but as I have explained above, the way in which persons who need aged care are able to select which facility they enter is not necessarily ‘free’ in a market sense.

“Further, because on Regis’ contention these fees are simply a matter of private contract, there is no accountability or supervision to ensure that the moneys received under such fee arrangements are actually expended for the purposes for which they were levied. The secretary would have no power to inquire about this, as on Regis’ argument it is a matter outside the statutory scheme.”

Japara Healthcare, with a market capitalisation of more than $500 million, has not updated the Australian Securities Exchange since the judgment was handed down but conceded its “capital refurbishment charges” levied on residents would be affected.

“The company has disclosed its position in relation to its (capital refurbishment deduction) in the contingencies note in its June annual financial statements and 31 December 2017 half-year financial statements,” a spokeswoman said. “It is reviewing the decisions of the Federal Court as to its applicability to the company.”

The company said it had taken almost $4.3m in those fees since it began charging them and in its contingency note admitted it might need to repay them. “This may include ceasing to deduct CRDs and refunding CRDs previously deducted,” it said.

Analysts from UBS cautioned Japara was “likely to take a hit”.

“JHC management had ­suggested this fee was being wound down regardless of the court’s decision but we note a ramping trajectory of (CRD) revenue,” they said. They estimated a 9 per cent hit to net profit after tax.

SOURCE







‘Kill Climate Deniers’ – Now Showing at a Sydney Theatre

Jennifer Marohasy

JUST two generations back, in the 1960s, mainstream Australian society shunned both unmarried pregnant women and also homosexuals. They were loathed, and it would have been considered reasonable for the local police to turn-a-blind eye should misfortune befall members of either group – should they be killed.

In my opinion, human-beings are not naturally hateful, though powerful institutions often look to squash dissent by turning the tribe against groups with certain characteristics – particularly those likely to possess special knowledge.

The loathing of unmarried pregnant women and homosexuals back in the 1960s was a consequence of preaching, particularly by the Catholic Church. During this period the church, while preaching abstinence, employed thousands of priests active in the community, many of whom were secretly molesting young boys and girls. No doubt getting some of them pregnant, and grooming others to be their homosexual lovers. Key findings from the recent child sexual abuse royal commission include: abuse mostly occurred in religious institutions (58%), most victims were male (64%), most of those perpetrating the abuse were male (94%), the average age of the victims is now 53 years.

After some decades, finally, Australian society has woken-up and owned-up to this scandal. Times have changed, and unmarried pregnant women and homosexuals are now embraced.

It is my observation that homosexuality is now almost revered; at least by those who consider themselves progressive, trend-setters, supporters of the arts – our most virtuous. So, what does it say about this same group, that they now actively support hatred of so-called climate change deniers?

The arts community successfully sought government funding for a play entitled ‘Kill Climate Deniers’ that has just now opened at the Griffin Theatre in Sydney.

What special knowledge could so-called ‘climate deniers’ possess that would turn the now most virtuous in our society so against us – against my group.

SOURCE





Even if it is rubbish, religion should still be as free as possible

Despite some attempts to the contrary, it would be a mistake to treat the “Expert Panel to examine whether Australian law adequately protects the human right to freedom of religion” as round two of the same-sex marriage debate. While the deep differences that lay behind it remain, everyone needs to realise that the legal discussion is well and truly over.

What is not over is the achievement of what chairman Philip Ruddock said was the purpose of the Expert Panel process: namely that freedom of religion must not only be enacted but “well understood and respected.“

Even those who might think religion is rubbish should still agree that it must be as free as possible. Of course, religious freedom cannot be absolute. It should be viewed in context with other competing rights and valid concerns over public health, safety, law and order, and issues of public morality.

But the issue of religious freedom — together with other freedoms of association, speech and the right to own property — is crucial to the health of our society and the flourishing of its people.

Not only does this give each individual freedom to hold and manifest their religion, but also such freedoms enable different and distinct voluntary societies and communities to maintain their identities — without which they could not exist. This in turn enriches civil society.

As things stand, there is considerable religious freedom in Australia. This is mostly due to Australia’s inheritance of the English tradition of unwritten rights and freedoms that are protected by custom and the common law.

Will this be sufficient to maintain such important freedoms in the future? Many, including the CIS, have submitted to the expert panel that the time may well be coming when we need to go a step further — to protect freedom of religion by the legal codifying and consolidating traditional freedoms and protections while at the same time not creating new rights or limiting existing protections.

Even if you aren’t a believer, everyone has a stake in a society that preserves the freedom of those who are. Liberty for those we don’t agree with is the true mark of genuine liberalism after all.

SOURCE





From the more obscure corners of Australia's Leftist media

A report on some recent emissions of Helen Razer, a mad Marxist with plaits and a figure



For much of the last decade, Helen Razer has been the staple diet of Crikey readers, a prolific author, and an occasional contributor to New Matilda.

But Australia’s most loved Marxist, and easily one of its best writers, is turning her attention back to the spoken word, with a new ‘occasional podcast’ that makes for highly entertaining listening on topics that generally make the average Australian’s eyes glaze over.

It also, as you might expect, features quite a few swear words.

Razer’s podcast opens thusly: “Welcome, this is an attempt to bring you a critique of the status quo in the FM breakfast radio style, hence the title Knackers and The Vadge.”

With the title – the most difficult bit – out of the way – Razer gets down to the hilariously serious business of skewering the things that bug her the most, in particular the evils of capitalism, and anyone who doesn’t agree with her about the evils of capitalism.

“My name is Helen Razer, it’s profoundly irrelevant, particularly in the present. I used to be a woman of modest prominence but am no longer, and I am tempted to do one or two of these new fangled podcast things, and surprisingly I find when I get onto a topic like the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, or the stupidity of Russiagate, or the false distinction between the so-called left and so-called right without anybody bothering to define those terms, that I go on and on and on.


Renowned Australian writer, Marxist and author, Helen Razer.
“What I lack is an authoritative male co-host to say ‘shut up Helen’. So what I’ve actually got here is a small bear called Knackers. I am The Vadge – refer to me as The Vadge from now on.”

In case you missed that, Razer is running a podcast with a ‘male host’ to keep her under control, who happens to be a stuffed animal. Only the Kyle and Jackie O show is remotely similar.

Razer then introduces her inaugural Knackers and The Vadge guest.

“Happily, after an afternoon of light to moderate drinking, I happen to be joined by my former flat-mate and a gentleman known to many Australians as Francis Leach, for his excellence in sports broadcasting, his musical snobbery, and his ongoing soft leftism that has been pleasuring the nation for many decades.”

Mr Leach obviously knows he’s in for a ride… and that’s precisely what he gets. The first episode of Knackers and The Vadge gives you the general flavor of where the podcast will head over time.

RAZER: Let’s talk about some personal shit shall we? Look, we’ve had a chandy or two. Okay. We’re talking largely out of our fundaments with little bits of ill-remembered history about the end of the Keynsian economic prescipriotns…

LEACH: John Maynard Keynes was a great man.

RAZER: Oh fuck off Francis.

LEACH: He was a great man.

RAZER: No! He was just somebody who wanted to save capitalism. And you and your soft leftie mates…

LEACH: Here we go. Let’s get down to it…

RAZER: You don’t believe that capitalism has internal contradictions which means that it’s a period of time that will inevitably end? I mean how many fucking lives does capitalism need to take? You look at conservative estimates like the world poverty foundation of annual deaths due to poverty (from capitalism)… the conservative estimate is 18 million a year. Any dictator, any economic regime that is not named capitalism that you can think of in the history of meaning, has not claimed as many lives as capitalism. We think about this time of over-abundance, where you get fucking molecular chefs talking about how they might be able to 3-D print an appetizer for our delectation and you’re telling me that we can’t get clean water?”

It gets even better from there… indeed Leach fights back quite admirably. All up, the best Australian political podcast going around.

So over to Razer and Leach… and Knackers and The Vadge, and we’ll keep you updated on episode two, when Razer next hits the piss.

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