Real Blackfellas Don’t Complain

Leftists seem to be dimly aware that the name "Aboriginal" is not actually an Aboriginal name (It's Latin) so put on a big turn about using old tribal names (Murri, Boori, Boong etc.).  There are hundrdds of such names so the practice does nothing for clarity or anything else.  And Aborigines don't in fact use such names very much anymore.  They ordinarily refer to one another in  English -- as "blackfellas".  So you can see that the writer below is unusual in being really in touch with Aborigines


On 26 January 1788 when the First Fleet ships unloaded their 1200 convicts, Royal Marine guards and officials, not a shot was fired.

As they looked around what’s now Circular Quay they saw nothing other than bush. Not a single building, planted field, domesticated plant or animal – nothing at all. It was the same across the continent. It was "terra nullius" – a vacant land.

There was no Aboriginal Army to defeat in battle. There was nothing to claim as the spoils of victory.

There was just wild bush. The few Aborigines who came out to have a look at these strange people were completely illiterate and innumerate and those on the south side of the harbour spoke a language completely unintelligible to those on the north side of the harbour and they’d been constantly at war with each other for as long as anyone can remember. There was no "invasion".

Captain Phillip was instructed by the government in London to treat the natives "with amity and kindness" and he did. No Aborigines were shot; no platoon of Marines fixed their bayonets or loaded their muskets or took a shot at anyone who emerged from the bush to see what was going on. Instead they offered them gifts and friendship.

Most people now "identified" as "indigenous" – like myself and my children and grandchildren have European – mostly British – ancestry to a greater or lesser extent.

I recently had a DNA test done that shows I’m 48% Irish, 20% English, 30% Scandinavian, 1% Spanish and 1% Aboriginal. The absurdity is that, in this time of identity politics, I am an "Aborigine" by virtue of the fact that one of my Irish ancestors married an Aboriginal woman 6 generation ago.

There is no reason to change Australia Day. It was the day "Australia" came into being and had it not been for those British coming ashore on 26 January 1788, I wouldn’t exist and neither would Mr Mundine. The name "Mundine" is as English as a cold pork pie or fish-n-chips wrapped in newspaper.

It’s time for all indigenous people take a spoonful of cement, harden up and to get over what happened 229 years ago and stop playing the victim.

If it were not for the Australian, American and New Zealand soldiers, sailors and airmen defending Australia from the swarming Japanese in 1942, there would be no Aborigines living in Australia today. The black power mob should be holding street rallies to thank ordinary Aussies for keeping them alive today in more ways than one. We owe them nothing!

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4000 public servant jobs to be axed in South Australian budget

Cost-cutting conservatives

The first Liberal budget in South Australia in 17 years will today ­include $170 million to help cut public sector numbers by more than 4000, along with a $515m ­injection for school student learning improvements.

Treasurer Rob Lucas, who ­delivered the Liberals’ last budget in 2001 before four consecutive Labor terms, will forecast a “modest” surplus for 2018-19, but well above the slim $12m surplus former Labor treasurer Tom Koutsantonis predicted in the mid-year budget review in December.

Mr Lucas yesterday said $715m in savings would have to be achieved over the forward estimates to “deliver on our promise to have balanced budgets”.

Despite being outspoken in ­opposition about the need to cut the public sector, Mr Lucas is not taking the extreme approach of former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, who cut 14,000 government workers six years ago.

Mr Lucas said job cuts would not hit “frontline services”, and the greatest burden would be on departments that did not have doctors, teachers, nurses, police and child protection workers.

Labor’s mid-year budget update estimated the number of full-time-equivalent public-sector workers would fall by 2047 through to 2021. Mr Lucas will ­announce an increased reduction target of 2286 by 2022.

The number of full-time-equivalent positions will be forecast to fall by 4013 over the same period once transfers to non-government organisations under an NDIS transition scheme is completed. “We will be providing $170m in the first year, centrally funded to agencies, to help pay for ­targeted separation packages in terms of actually achieving them,” Mr Lucas said.

The previous Labor government spent almost $449m on separation packages between 2010 and last year yet public servant numbers rose more than 3500.

The 2014-15 budget outlined public service job cuts in the order of 4000 full-time equivalents after a similar promise was made in 2010, which also failed to materialise. Public-sector full-time-equivalent positions increased from 79,505 at June 2010 to 85,461 this year.

Labour force figures from January showed South Australia had the nation’s largest public sector per capita at 15.9 per cent of the state’s full-time workforce against a national average of 12.6 per cent.

Mr Lucas vowed the new Liberal government would “actually deliver” reduced numbers of public servants. The $170m would be allocated for only 2018-19 and then departments would have to fund their own separation packages.

“If you actually achieve what you say you will then the payback is very quick,” he said.

Mr Lucas said today’s budget would cut waste along with some of the former Labor government’s priorities, projects and programs to fund Liberal initiatives.

But there will be an extra $551m for learning in schools by 2021-22, bringing total spending to $3.76bn.

“There is going to be a massive increase in spending in schools,” Mr Lucas said. “If we are going to be nationally and internationally competitive, we are going to have start turning around our ­NAPLAN ­results and boost programs within classrooms.”

Infrastructure spending will also be a key part of the budget and include commitments to a range of road, rail and public transport projects, boosted by ­almost $500m of federal government assistance.

Opposition Leader Peter Malinauskas said the government had “more money than ever ­before” thanks to an extra $270m in GST revenue. Mr Lucas said this would pay for election promises but not a $700m savings hole left by the previous government.

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Scott Morrison scraps Government plans to raise pension age to 70

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has dumped the plan to raise the pension age to 70, announcing the decision on breakfast television even before Cabinet has formally agreed to it.

It was one of the issues on which Labor had repeatedly attacked the Government, especially highlighting the impact for people with physically difficult jobs.

Former treasurer Joe Hockey announced the plan to lift the pension age from 67 to 70 in his controversial 2014 budget in a bid to help fund the cost of the ageing population.

The Senate has refused to ever agree to legislation to formalise the change, but until today the Government had stuck to the policy.

Mr Morrison told Channel Nine he did not think the measure was needed anymore. "It is one of the things I will be changing pretty quickly," Mr Morrison told Channel Nine this morning after facing a question on it from a viewer about why he thought it was a good idea to have everybody working until they are 70. He said he had been contemplating the change for some time.

But the Opposition has labelled it panic and a sign of desperation.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said overturning the previous policy it was a "pragmatic, sensible move".

"I think if you are a tradie, or a brickie or a shearer in rural and regional Australia you don't want some suit in Canberra telling you you are going to have to work until you're 70," Mr McCormack told Sky.

"It's hard, back-breaking work what a lot of our people do and I think being told that they are going to have to work until 70 I think was probably a step too far."

It is the first major policy backdown Mr Morrison has made since becoming PM.

"I was going to say this next week, but I may as well say it here, I have already consulted my colleagues on that and next week Cabinet will be ratifying a decision to reverse taking the retirement age to 70," he said.

It will remain at 67, which is what Labor increased it to. "The pension age going to 70, gone," Mr Morrison said.

Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm slammed the decision and argued the age pension age should be gradually lifted. He said "with increasing health and life expectancy, thousands of older Australians are set to spend many years on welfare despite still being able to work and pay their own way".

Senator Leyonhjelm said the move was a sign the Government does not take budget repair seriously. "This is not how the grandparents of Australia should be looking after their grandchildren," he said.

Deloitte Access Economics economist Chris Richardson called it a policy mistake to reverse the increase in the pension age. "I would put it down very much to politics," Mr Richardson said, noting that the new PM was trying to get rid of an unpopular policy in the face of bad opinion polls. "It is a mistake and it does overturn a courageous decision.

"With politics as populist as it is at the moment and with a government behind in the polls it is entirely understandable that the Government is going to dump things that are unpopular. "But just because something is unpopular doesn't mean it wasn't the right call in the first place."

Jobs not pensions says Council on the Ageing

The Council on the ageing welcomed the move, saying there is no point raising the pension age further because people who want to work longer are often locked out of even being considered for jobs because of age discrimination.

COTA Chief Executive Ian Yates said the Government should instead focus on lifting the workforce participation rate for people over 55 and supporting people who want to work into their 70s.

He said that would contribute more to the budget than raising the pension age further could ever save, "and it will result in better retirement incomes for many retirees, again saving the budget".

The pension age has already started going up from 65.

The plan to lift the pension age in the 2014 budget was based on a recommendation of the National Commission of Audit, which said it should be linked to rising life expectancy.

"Not only are people now experiencing longer retirements, but changes in the nature of work and improvements to medical technology have meant that many (though not necessarily all) people are also experiencing healthier and more active retirements," the report said.

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PRIME Minister Scott Morrison says there is no need for “gender whisperers” in schools as news emerges of teachers being taught to spot potential transgender students­

Experts claim the move has contributed to a 236 per cent surge in the number of kids wanting to change sex in the past three years.

The training has been conducted by gender identity experts in public and private primary and secondary schools under the guise of professional standards development.

It involves teachers learning to identify key phrases such as “I feel different”, “I’m androgynous” and “I’m born with two spirits”, indicating transgender leanings in students­ as young as five.

Mr Morrison tweeted this morning that we do not need ‘gender whisperers’ in our schools. Let kids be kids.

A 236 per cent surge in the number of kids wanting to change their gender has partly been attributed to new teacher training.

Exclusive figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph show already this year hospitals have referred 74 kids aged 6-16 to gender dysphoria clinics geared to help children and adolescents transition.

In 2015, the number was 22 and in 2013 there were just two.

The figures have sparked a heated debate among health experts, with the huge increase denounced as a “tragic” and “dangerous” fad” fuelled by gender support experts in schools and celebrity trans cases. Gender counsellor ­Dr Elizabeth Riley, who has advised 40 private, public and Catholic schools in the past three years, said it was important to educate teachers given 1 per cent of students were transgender.

“I only go into schools I’m invited into. I teach the school how to deal with these children with special needs and to treat them like any other child,” she said.

“Trans children are in every school, they’ve been around since the 1800s … If a school has 1000 students, 10 of them will be trans, whether they go on to transition or not. It’s important we support them so they get the right advice­ early so they are not bullied or go into hiding.”

Western Sydney University Professor of Paediatrics John Whitehall said gender identity support experts in schools were creating more problems and more confused children. “They’re part of the problem as they mess with the kids by giving them a platform to believe they have a genuine problem,” Prof Whitehall said.

“It’s a sad, tragic and very dangerous fad, especially when medical treatment can involve hormones that interfere with the brain as well as the body, and progress to irreversible­ surgery and loss of fertility.”

He said mental illness such as ADHD and depression were often associated with gender dysphoria and should be treated first while the child was allowed to mature.

Sydney-based Gender Centre says it has provided transgender training to schools including Hamilton Public, Winmalee High, Menai High, Stanhope Gardens­ ­Catholic School and Toronto High. It attributes the rise in younger children transitioning to better educated parents­ spotting the signs early. “It’s not necessarily an explosion, it’s that people now identify earlier and parents­ are more open to what for years was a taboo subject,” spokeswoman Eloise Brook said.

Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, The Children’s Hospital Westmead and John Hunter Children’s Hospital­ report increases in children believing they are the wrong sex or diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Children are assessed­ and, as early as six, can undergo stage one gender affirmation sessions including swapping names and clothes. Stage two of treatment, from age 11, can involve the use of puberty blocking drugs. Stage three is irreversible cross-sex hormone treatment and surgery — of which the youngest patients­ have been 15.

Professor Whitehall said children should not even be allowed to undergo stage one treatment before age 18.

Under Education Department guidelines, schools operate their own professional development budgets. A spokesman said Dr Riley was not an employee of the department.

“Students who need support for whatever reason will receive it in NSW public schools,” he said.

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Labor’s energy bill shock

Electricity bills will soar and gas and coal-fired power stations will close if the share of wind and solar generation increases dramat­ically, engineers have warned after analysing the nation’s ­energy supply.

The analysis casts doubt on Labor’s claim that a 50 per cent renewable energy target — the centrepiece of the opposition’s climate change policy — would reduce electricity prices.

It found bills were likely to soar 84 per cent, or about $1400 a year, for the typical household, if wind and solar power supplied 55 per cent of the national electricity market.

The analysis by a group of veteran engineers — written and funded by five mechanical, chemical, electrical and nuclear engineers, with decades of experience in the power industry — was sent to premiers, federal cabinet ministers and shadow cabinet late last month.

It contrasted the costs of supplying electricity in the national electricity market under different mixes of generation. This included the Australian Energy Market Operator forecast for the year 2040 of 65 per cent renewable energy including hydro, as well as five other scenarios, including replacing coal-fired or gas generation with nuclear power.

The AEMO scenario, the closest to Labor’s policy, would lead to retail electricity prices rising by 84 per cent to 39c per kilowatt-hour — adding $1374 to the average household’s 2017 electricity bill based on the competition regulator’s June report into the electricity market.

Robert Barr, an electrical engineer and academic at University of Wollongong, said “in practical terms what would happen is the coal and open-cycle gas stations would go broke long before we reached this situation”.

Co-author Barry Murphy, former managing director and chairman of Caltex Australia, said the scenarios with high levels of renewable energy could force coal-fired power stations to be turned on and off at irregular intervals, or spin their turbines uselessly, “which isn’t economic so they would shut down”.

Labor in government would ensure at least 50 per cent of the nation’s electricity was sourced from renewable energy by 2030.

The new figures emerged as Scott Morrison moved to shift the emphasis of Coalition energy policy away from reducing emissions to cutting prices and shoring up reliability. In Cairns yesterday, the Prime Minister criticised NSW and Victorian governments for restricting gas exploration.

“We have to be prepared to use all the resources we have available to get electricity prices down,” he said. “They’re achieving that in Texas while at the same time reducing their dependency, because of the abundance of gas reserves there, on other ­fossil fuels.”

Mr Morrison noted that electricity prices were a third lower in the US state than in Queensland.

The analysis takes aim at “technology agnosticism” that ­ignores the “complexities of power system engineering”.

“Looking at the total cost of particular forms of energy in isolation is sensible only if you’re going to rely on that form of energy alone, but for the electricity market, it’s the total system costs that matters,” Mr Murphy said.

The study recommends ceasing subsidies for renewable energy and ending the national ban on nuclear energy. “The fact is technology matters, and poor and poorly informed choices on the NEM can lead to expensive mistakes that could bedevil our prosperity,” it found.

The AEMO scenario of 65 per cent renewable energy by 2040 would reduce emissions at a cost of $365 a tonne of carbon dioxide, the study estimated. Replacing coal-fired power generation with nuclear power would reduce emissions by a far greater amount at an abatement cost of $27.50 a tonne. The Gillard government’s ill-fated carbon tax envisaged a tax of $29 a tonne.

“Even if you allow for the reductions in the cost of batteries, etc, it doesn’t make much difference to the total cost because of the extra transmission costs,” Dr Barr said. “If we put a whole lot of wind farms into the system, we need to spend a lot of money on the transmission network for power that is intermittent.”

The AEMO forecast would require more than a 40-fold increase in the solar capacity and around a tripling of the number of wind turbines. “That’s a total of 62,000MW of unreliable, intermittent, weather-dependent generating capacity, with a lot situated a long way from points of high consumption,” Mr Murphy said.

In his first speech as Energy Minister last week, Angus Taylor all but dropped the national energy guarantee, the Turnbull government’s proposal that included promises to meet emissions reductions agreed to in the Paris agreement.

The new analysis calls for a bipartisan agreement to end the ban on nuclear energy — despite ongoing uranium exports — that has prevailed since 1998.

“Countries like Germany can experiment with high levels of renewables because they can always import nuclear power from France or Czech Republic when there isn’t enough wind or solar energy, but we’re on our own,” Mr Murphy said.

The authors said much of the existing analysis rested on arbitrary assumptions that the cost of renewable energy would fall in the future rather than “actual costs and actual use”.

“Speculating about future costs 22 years hence is futile: where will gas prices go, or recent developments might reduce nuclear costs, who knows for sure,” Mr Murphy said.

“The South Koreans would jump at the opportunity to help us with building nuclear power stations.”

Dr Barr said: “I don’t think politicians realise how much damage is being done to industry.”

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Sydney University ‘puts price on free speech’

The Sydney University Liberal Club says vice-chancellor ­Michael Spence has “put a price block” on free speech after he refused to foot the bill for security at an event featuring controversial conservative Bettina Arndt.


Tina

As universities face dealing with protesters intent on shutting down speaking events, the club faces a bill of almost $500 to cover security for the event next week.

Ms Arndt, a prominent sex therapist and author, is on a ­national tour. Her talk, “Is there a rape crisis on campus?”, seeks to debunk claims universities are a hotbed of sexual assault.

Club president Jack O’Brien wrote to Dr Spence on August 24, asking for the university to waive security costs for the public event as a sign of support for controversial discussions on campus. He cited La Trobe University’s decision to cover security costs for Ms Arndt to address its Liberal Club in support of free speech.

Dr Spence declined, saying the Liberal Club would be treated the same as every other club that had to pay for security.

Yesterday, Mr O’Brien ­accused Dr Spence of hypocrisy for outwardly welcoming free speech but lumping students stoking debate with the costs of security to deal with protesters.

“It’s just hypocritical for Dr Spence to talk about the importance of free speech yet be so willing to put a price block on conservative students having events,” he said. “He’s being held hostage by the politically correct, and it’s as if he’s happy to financially shut us down.”

The club also faces a $150 room booking charge, and will charge $5 entrance. Mr O’Brien said the event would go ahead.

A spokeswoman for Dr Spence said the club’s treatment was consistent with all other clubs and societies on campus when there was a protest threat.

“We recognise that one of the fundamental roles of the university is to be a place where ideas can be freely discussed, including those that some may view as controversial,” she said.

“As such, the Sydney University Liberal Club has been approved to host a talk by Bettina Arndt next week ­addressing campus culture.”

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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