School's deputy principal is rushed to hospital after 'being attacked by a [?] student before other teachers dragged them away'

There is a word left out above and below: Aboriginal.  There have been a series of violent incidents at the school involving Aborigines.  Relations between West Australia's large Aboriginal population and the rest of the community are notoriously poor

The deputy principal of a Western Australian high school was taken to hospital after allegedly being attacked by a student on Wednesday.

Police say the student, 14, was told to leave Busselton High School grounds at about 1.40pm on Wednesday at which point he allegedly punched the 50-year-old deputy principal.

A second staff member was also allegedly targeted on the same day by another student however this attack was prevented from taking place.

A spokesman for the Education Department told The West Australian that staff stepped in to help the deputy principal, and moved the alleged attacker along with other students away while police were called at about 2pm.

'A short time later, there was a second incident involving a different student who tried to physically hurt another staff member,' she said.

'The staff member who was assaulted has had medical treatment ... and is being offered the school's full support.'

The deputy principal was later released from hospital and police have charged the 14-year-old boy from Geographe has been charged with Assualt Public Officer and Trespass.

He is due to appear in Bunbury Children's Court Thursday on Thursday.

The incidents occurred at Busselton High School, about an hour south of Bunbury, the same school where just over a month ago video was captured of a student punching another student before stomping on his head.

That incident was described as shocking by the Education Minister and police later charged that teenager with assault occasioning bodily harm.

The Minister Sue Ellery has now ordered an urgent review of school violence policies following the string of incidents.

SOURCE 






Labor announces it would phase out live sheep exports

Political correctness to destroy a thriving Australian business.  Australia is good at growing sheep but many countries want to slaughter their own  -- on both religious and health grounds

Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon says the party sees no future for the trade.

A Labor government would phase out the the live export of sheep, opposition agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon has announced.
Labor had previously called for a suspension of the trade but promised to wait for a government review into the trade before making a final decision.

"From day one in government, we will develop and implement a strategic red meat industry plan which will focus on more processing and more jobs in Australia and begin that transition away from live exports," Mr Fitzgibbon told Fairfax Media.

"I don't believe the live export of sheep has a future in Australia. By the industry's own admission this week, mortality rates can't be controlled."

The future of the live export industry has faced an increasingly uncertain future after the emergence of shocking footage showing the cruel and deadly conditions faced by sheep on voyages to the Middle East.

Liberal MPs Sussan Ley and Jason Wood have also pushed for the trade to be gradually abolished but the Turnbull government has resisted a "knee jerk" reaction.

Ms Ley, a former Turnbull government cabinet minister, has plans to introduce a private member's bill to phase out the exports.

The Greens have also proposed a five-point plan that, in shutting down the trade, would offer financial assistance to farmers and encourage the growth of boxed meats.

Agriculture Minister David Littleproud last month announced a snap review that will consider whether the trade should continue during the northern summer months when animals are put at risk by high temperatures.

In April, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Labor would "honour our commitment to await [the review's] findings" and called for the creation of an independent inspector general of animal welfare.

Mr Fitzgibbon said he had since become concerned about the pace of the reviews into the sector and was now "convinced the government is not serious about real and meaningful action".

He said the "final blow" was remarks this week from Emanuel Exports managing director Graham Daws about extreme weather being unpredictable. "The incidents in 2016 and 2017 we mitigated as much as we could, but unfortunately no one can predict that weather event," Mr Daws told the ABC.

Mr Fitzgibbon said, "What he is saying is, 'No matter what we do, we are always going to have events like those depicted on 60 Minutes.'"

Responding to Labor's announcement, Ms Ley urged the party to back her bill and said she would be discussing it with MPs from all parties when Parliament returns.

"Either you believe the trade needs to be phased out or you don't. If you do believe it, then you should support my private member's bill, which is all about a sensible transition to a future where we don't continue to export live sheep to the Middle East," she told Sky News.

Mr Fitzgibbon said he had not yet seen the bill and noted the government would have to allow it to be voted on. "I'm absolutely convinced that farmers can benefit from this transition," he said, outlining that Labor would push for growth in the export of chilled and boxed meats, especially to Asia.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Littleproud savaged Labor's announcement, dismissing it as a "political stunt" and a reckless position.

"What the Labor Party has done today has just shown how reckless they are in protecting the jobs of Australians ," Mr Turnbull said. "What you're seeing from Labor is a repeat of that emotional decision made when Julia GIllard was prime minister to ban live cattle exports."

Mr Littleproud said, “The McCarthy review into the Middle Eastern summer sheep trade is due in two weeks. With the science just two weeks away, Labor has rushed to a knee-jerk ban, punishing farmers who have done no wrong."

SOURCE 





Mark Latham: Trump started it, now it’s time to drain the Australian political swamp

Former Labor leader Mark Latham is calling for Australia to take a leaf out of US President Donald Trump’s book and drain the political swamp.

He’s hated by the mainstream media and the left-wing, but continues to resonate with the common masses in America and around the world.

Latham says he’s thrown all the political rules out the window and believes it’s time to do the same in Australia.

“Everyone knows the system is failing, we see that in Australia.

“The two major parties are limping along with record levels of public distrust and disenchantment with politics.

“Trump calls it draining the swamp and it should be drained.

“That’s such a refreshing break with the political orthodoxy. Around the world, he’s become quite a hero to people.

“You wouldn’t agree with 100% of what he says and sometimes you think ‘oh that’s a bit jarring’ and ‘where did that come from’, but the fact that he’s brave enough to say it.

“He’s totally fearless of the modern media.”

SOURCE 






Warmists joining Liberal Party branches in an attempt to unseat climate realist Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott’s political future could be under threat from a group of activists who have been organising environmentally conscious voters to join Liberal party branches on Sydney’s north shore – a move that could unseat the former prime minister.

Billing themselves as “the counterweight” to the pro-coal power Monash Forum, the North Shore Environmental Stewards have held at least two recruitment functions at which attendees were urged to tap into their networks of environmentally conscious people to join the Liberal party branches in Abbott’s seat of Warringah and on the lower north shore.

The NSES has a Facebook page that says the group “supports clean energy and a healthy environment, and believes in traditional Liberal party values of environmental stewardship”.

But some participants believe its objectives appeared to be aimed at candidate change.

“I was asked to participate in an initiative to have a representative in Canberra who acknowledges climate change,” said one person who attended the meeting in Seaforth on 25 March.

Exactly who is involved in the group remains a matter of conjecture.

Certainly, Liberals have attended. Several high-profile figures in the moderate faction of the Liberal party, including the powerbroker Michael Photios and his wife, Kristina, attended the lunchtime gathering of the NSES at Seaforth in March.

Also attending were the New South Wales MP for North Shore, Felicity Wilson, and David Begg, a longtime Liberal party member who ran against Abbott for preselection in the 1990s.

Photios addressed the meeting and, according to one attendee, put the case that the Liberals were the party that would tackle climate change – and that they should join. He highlighted his own record of defending the environment when in state parliament. .

“At the meeting I soon realised that the NSES was ... seeking to recruit people concerned about the lack of action on climate change to join the Liberal party in order to block the preselection of Tony Abbott to stand in Warringah at the next federal election,” the attendee claimed.

One invitation for the Mosman meeting said: “We have a real opportunity be a force for good in the party, a voice for the environment right here in the electorate of the Monash Forum’s figurehead – Tony Abbott. Come and learn about how we can shift the politics here in Warringah at our info session this Sunday!”

Photios told Guardian Australia he had attended the Seaforth meeting because his wife, a passionate environmentalist, had been asked to speak. She ultimately didn’t speak but Photios did and was the main speaker at the event. He said there was “zero involvement” of the Liberal party or the moderate faction in the formation of the NSES.

A year ago, the Photios couple formed a spinoff from Photios’s lobbying firm, Premier State, to represent clean energy companies. The firm, Clean Energy Strategies, describes itself as “a boutique corporate advisory firm specialising in energy”.

Until a few years ago Photios held several senior positions in the state executive of the NSW Liberal party and was head of the moderate faction, known as the Group, which has been locked in a long-running power struggle with the right. Abbott is one of the leading members of the right faction.

As prime minister, Abbott pushed through rule changes in the Liberal party to ban registered lobbyists from holding party positions.

Several members of NSES are also members of the activist group GetUp. A GetUp spokeswoman said the NSES “was definitely not a GetUp project but the environmental justice team knows of it ... and think they’re great”.

The official organiser of NSES, Rob Grant, told Guardian Australia the group was no more than “a group of like-minded people on the north shore who want to see action on climate change, and who believe in driving change from inside the tent”.

Senior figures in the moderates scoffed at the idea that Abbott was in any danger of losing his northern beaches seat in a preselection. They said he had a firm grip on the numbers and that to take part in a preselection members must have joined at least six months earlier.

There is no firm date for federal preselections but they are likely to take place by the end of the year or earlier, if an early election is called.

But figures closer to the machinations in Warringah warned the seat could be vulnerable to an attack by Young Liberals, whom they described as marauding across NSW.

This is because the geographic rules that require members to join their local federal branch do not apply for members under the age of 30. Young Liberals can therefore vote in preselections outside where they live.

SOURCE 






Bill Shorten’s ‘$26m BCA war chest’ claim fails to add up

Bill Shorten has peddled an unverified estimate to attack the Business Council of Australia, claiming it is using a corporate war chest of $26 million to “buy” the next federal election for the Liberal Party.

Turnbull government ministers yesterday attacked the Opposition Leader over the claim, accusing Labor of free-riding on the political campaigning efforts of unions and left-wing activist group GetUp! while condemning business for attempting to engage with the community.

The $26m figure cited by Mr Shorten is inaccurate. The BCA funding drive, aimed at promoting two television advertisements for its Australia at Work campaign that are yet to air, is expected to fall short of the total.

Each of the BCA’s 130 members has been asked to contribute to the campaign, which is not related to the government’s proposed corporate tax cuts. The Australian can reveal that — contrary to an ABC report this week that each member had been asked to contribute $200,000, making a total of $26m — there are different amounts for different companies based on their capacity to pay.

It is understood that some companies, including ANZ, are not making a contribution to the Australia at Work campaign, which is aimed at trying to counter anti-business sentiment in the community.

Mr Shorten yesterday escalated his assault on the fundraising efforts of the BCA, saying it was using its “big scary warchest” of $26m to secure a reduction in the corporate tax rate. His office declined to respond to questions about how he arrived at the $26m figure.

Mr Shorten used the same number GetUp! had earlier referenced to try to raise revenue from supporters to “help take on the business lobby” as it warned against the BCA’s “destructive neoliberal agenda”. “If we can raise just a portion of the BCA’s $26m, we can turbocharge our people-powered ­organising efforts for the next election … and start winning the fight against destructive corporate power,” GetUp! said in a statement.

Mr Shorten’s depiction of the BCA funding drive as an attempt to “influence” democracy and “buy the Australian election” was savaged by Workplace Minister Craig Laundy, who provided government figures showing that Labor received more than $6m from unions in 2016-17 and $21m since 2014. Mr Shorten’s ­office did not dispute the figures last night.

The Australian can also reveal the annual reports of left-wing ­activist group GetUp! showed it spent more than $25m on political campaigns over the past three years, including on its targeted campaigns against conservative MPs at the last federal election.

The union push to overhaul workplace laws through its Change the Rules push, spearheaded by ACTU secretary Sally McManus, has also been touted as the labour movement’s most expensive advertising campaign since the Your Rights at Work campaign, which helped to unseat John Howard in 2007.

An ACTU spokesman refused to reveal the cost of the campaign. “The union movement will ­devote whatever resources are necessary to deliver more secure jobs and fair pay rises for working people,” the spokesman said.

Mr Laundy argued that the amount of funds that the BCA proposed to raise was small compared with the levels of funding coming to Labor from the trifecta of “big business, unions and GetUp!”.

“Bill Shorten claims to stand up for workers, but the record shows during his time as a union leader he was only too happy to do deals with big business and sign away workers’ rights to weekend penalty rates,” Mr Laundy said.

Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar told The Australian that Mr Shorten’s comments exposed him as “nothing more than old-­fashioned union bully”.

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