Australian scientist lets the drought cat out of the bag

A transcript from a talk he gave Wednesday 19 June, 2019, at he Sydney Environment Institute (SEI), University of Sydney.  He is Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes:

“…this may not be what you expect to hear. but as far as the climate scientists know there is no link between climate change and drought.

That may not be what you read in the newspapers and sometimes hear commented, but there is no reason a priori why climate change should made the landscape more arid.

If you look at the Bureau of Meteorology data over the whole of the last one hundred years there’s no trend in data. There is no drying trend.  There’s been a trend in the last twenty years, but there’s been no trend in the last hundred years, and that’s an expression on how variable Australian rainfall climate is.

There are in some regions but not in other regions.

So the fundamental problem we have is that we don’t understand what causes droughts.

Much more interesting, We don’t know what stops a drought. We know it’s rain, but we don’t know what lines up to create drought breaking rains.”

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Greta Thunberg is a hysterical child who should be ignored by sensible adults

Climate “saviour” Greta Thunberg speaking at the UN overnight made for some extremely painful watching.

It was painful not because of the apocalyptic message that she was trying to convey, but because of her childish, petulant and hysterical overreaction to the non-issue of modern-day climate change, something the planet has endured (and survived) for four and a half billion years.

It was painful because she is the product of a family, a society and a progressive media that is happy to elevate a kid with serious mental health issues to a level of exposure and publicity that will surely damage her even more.

I wonder how long it will take for any remaining sensible adults in the room to realise it is time to stop listening to a hysterical child when determining policies that will affect billions of people.

Most of the deluded kids on the climate “strikes” last week didn’t have a clue why they were there.

Enthusiastically cheered on by the mainstream media, it was a cheeky bludge off school and all they were doing was trying to “save the planet” right?

No of course not. These gullible kids are being exploited by all kinds of extreme-Left and anti-capitalist groups in order to bring about a wholesale societal change, using our children as their innocent pawns.

The website for the strikes refers to the need for “climate justice” which we all know is code for wealth redistribution from rich countries to poor, and an excuse for the usurping of normal democratic processes.

And as we no longer educate children to think for themselves, you can bet this brainwashing will last decades – possibly their entire lives.

Shameful.

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Multi-billion-dollar Indonesian trade deal at risk in crossbench revolt

Export orders worth billions of dollars could be torpedoed with key crossbenchers set to oppose the Indonesian free-trade deal and Anthony Albanese under pressure from union bosses to stop the entry of 5000 Indonesian temporary workers a year.

Pauline Hanson told The Australian on Tuesday the agreement was not in the national interest, while crossbench senator Rex Patrick said his Centre Alliance was likely to oppose it, as are the Greens. This means the government will need Labor support to get the agreement through the Senate.

Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said he would likely bundle into a single bill the Indonesian agreement with those for Peru and Hong Kong, and try to push it through parliament by the end of the year. But Labor has yet to deliver a clear position on whether it will support the enabling legislation required to help bring the Indonesian trade agreement into effect next year.

National Farmers Federation chief executive Tony Mahar warned against allowing farmers’ interests to be “compromised by short-term partisan politics”.

“That’s even more relevant as drought continues to devastate rural and regional Australia — the last thing we need is politicking over a trade agreement which gives farmers hope for big new markets and more export ­opportunities.”

The ACTU has resumed its ­attack on the deal, and is understood to be lobbying Labor to ­oppose part or all of the agreement, particularly arrangements that would open up the rural and regional labour market to temporary workers.

Under the proposed deal, the cap for reciprocal 12-month visas for travellers aged 18 to 30 would rise from the current 1000 per year to 4100 in the first year of the agreement, and then to 5000 a year by the sixth year.

ACTU president Michele O’Neil said: “We are deeply concerned that the Morrison government has done yet another dodgy deal that opens the door to an increased number of temporary workers being exploited when we should be prioritising hiring and training local workers.”

Senator Hanson, the One ­Nation leader who commands two Senate crossbench votes, said she did not trust the government to ratify a deal in the national interest. She was particularly concerned about more Indonesian workers coming to Australia under the FTA.

Senator Patrick, whose party also controls two Senate votes, said he had not examined the full detail of the Indonesian agreement but understood it had no ­“labour market testing”.

Senator Patrick and the ACTU also object to what are known as investor-state dispute settlement provisions. The ­arrangements allow foreign investors in some circumstances to sue the federal government in international tribunals if they consider new Australian laws harm their interests. “They’re things we would object to,” Senator Patrick said.

Greens trade spokesman Jordon Steele-John said the party would oppose the FTA “all the way”. Without the support of Labor or the Greens, the government must win over four out of six Senate crossbenchers to pass the ­enabling legislation.

If Senator Hanson, Senator Patrick and the Greens maintain their opposition, the government would need Labor’s support for the legislation to pass.

The proposed agreement grants vastly expanded access for Australian farmers, but also offers big opportunities for steelmakers, educators and the health sector.

A government source said the deal would not involve skilled workers, but only working holiday makers who would largely perform seasonal tasks such as fruit picking. In a sign the government may attempt to wedge Labor and the union movement, Senator Birmingham said: “I find it astonishing that the ACTU are criticising a deal that will actually create more jobs for Australians.

“This is misleading scaremongering from the ACTU who are betraying the interests of Australia by turning their back on a deal that will provide more opportunities for our farmers and businesses to export more, to do more business and create more jobs.”

A spokesman for Mr Albanese said “we won’t pre-empt the parliamentary process or the processes of the federal Labor caucus”.

Senator Birmingham said the lack of clarity in Labor’s position on the Indonesian trade deal meant “the only doubt that hangs over it from Australia’s perspective is whether or not legislation can cleanly pass the Senate”.

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Federal Government announces inquiry into family law and child support systems

The Federal Government will launch an inquiry into the family law system, after accusations the court system is failing vulnerable Australians. A report released earlier this year recommended sweeping changes to the system

Coalition backbenchers and the crossbench, including One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, have been calling for an inquiry for some time, arguing the system is too expensive and slow.

The inquiry will be run by former social services minister and long-serving Liberal MP Kevin Andrews.

A tearful Senator Hanson welcomed the announcement, saying it was something she had campaigned for since her first stint in Parliament in 1996. "It's not the Pauline Hanson inquiry, this is the Australian people's inquiry," she said.

"For those contemplating suicide and facing potential family violence, I'm asking you to stop and know you have finally been heard. "I beg you, please give me a chance to try and make change."

The crossbencher said she wanted to be an active member of the inquiry, which she argued was not a condition of her support for Coalition legislation.

"There was no bargaining chip, I actually put my case forward to the Prime Minister, and I put my case forward to the Parliament," she said.

Concerns review will cause further delays

In 2017, the Federal Government ordered the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) to conduct a wide-ranging review of the system.

That report was released earlier this year, and recommended sweeping changes including scrapping the current Family Court and giving the states the power to judge such cases.

While waiting for that review to be released, Attorney-General Christian Porter announced plans to merge the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court in a bid to ease crippling delays in the system.

That proposal was widely canned by lawyers, arguing it was a policy developed by spreadsheet rather than with the best interests of families at heart.

Responding to the announcement, Angela Lynch from the Women's Legal Service of Queensland said she held concerns the review would delay much-needed reform to the sector, noting the Government has not even responded to the ALRC report.

"How many more women and children have to die in this system, and we are now going to wait another 12 months?" she said. "We were told to wait 18 months when the previous ALRC report was established. "And now .… women and children are required to wait another 12 months before this inquiry and its recommendations."

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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