Crippling drought ravaging Australia HAS been caused by climate change according to minister - after he stumbled when asked if he thought global warming was man-made

He's out of his depth.  There is no way that global warming could generate drought.  Global warming would cause the seas to evaporate off more which would come down as rain. Warming would cause MORE rain, not less

Drought Minister David Littleproud insists the federal government is acting on a major report into the prolonged dry spell in Australia which he accepts has been partly caused by man-made climate change.

The government has resisted calls to make Drought Coordinator Stephen Day's report public because it's headed to cabinet for consideration.

Senior ministers are yet to see it, with Mr Littleproud agreeing to wait until the National Farmers' Federation finalises its drought strategy before sending it to cabinet.

Mr Littleproud stumbled in September when asked if he thought climate change was man-made. 'I don't know if climate change is man-made,' he told the Guardian.

On Sunday, Mr Littleproud told the ABC's Insiders that 'there was nothing in Major-General Day's report that we are not already acting on'.

But Labor's agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon said that claim should be tested by making the document public. 'He should let farmers be the judge of that by releasing the taxpayer-funded drought coordinator's report,' he said.

Mr Littleproud said he '100 per cent' believed the science around human contribution to climate change, which is playing a role in the drought.

'I live it. This drought in my electorate alone has been going for eight years,' he said. 'We can't run away from that. We simply have to get on with it and equip our farmers and communities with the tools to be able to adapt as best they can.'

He said Australia had a responsibility to reduce emissions and would do so through meeting international commitments.

Additional support for farmers appears to be edging closer after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg spent three days with Mr Littleproud in some of the worst-affected areas of NSW and Queensland last week.

'We understand this is going to cost more and the treasurer has been quite clear he accepts that,' the drought minister said.

NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall launched an extraordinary attack on Mr Littleproud after he toured through drought-ravaged Inverell last week.

The federal government has been calling on the states to look at payroll tax and council rates in drought-hit communities, but praised NSW for planning to fund dam-building.

The savage criticism left Mr Littleproud miffed. 'I was surprised by that. In fact, most of my comments have been that New South Wales has done the heavy lifting,' he said.

'It's sadly been Victoria and Queensland that haven't lifted a finger.'

Mr Littleproud also rebuffed suggestions the government lacked a long-term drought strategy, pointing to a future fund which will dole out $100 million a year for resilience and other projects from 2020.

SOURCE  






Single-sex schools get top marks

Stephanie Bennett

GIRLS' schools could be the key to closing the gender pay gap, with a Queensland study finding female students graduated more confident and more likely to hold leadership roles if they attend single-sex schools.

University of Queensland Business School gender equality expert Terrance Fitzsimmons' research into how subtle differences in raising boys and girls could set up a lifetime of inequality at work included surveying more than 10,000 boys and girls at 13 single-sex schools across Queensland.

With the gender pay gap at 14 per cent and the number of female CEOs at the top of ASX-listed companies falling, Dr Fitzsimmons said ensuring girls graduate school with as much self-confidence as boys could be a key component to tackling inequality.

"Studies in this area always show that overall, men are more confident than women and that starts changing in late childhood —up until about the age of eight, it's the same," he said.

But the research found when attending single-sex schools, boys and girls had equal levels of self-esteem and self-efficacy in their senior years. Dr Fitzsimmons said this was a crucial finding, given the development of self-confidence and the non-selection of STEM subjects by female high school students had both been found to be major contributors to workplace gender inequality.

"In single-sex schools, girls are surrounded by female role models in leadership positions, such as principals. Any stereotypes that boys are better at maths or science—which often can't help but play on some teachers' minds and may lead girls to dropping subjects simply don't exist."

Girls were also more likely to continue to play team sports into their senior years at single-sex schools. "There's definitely something in this whether we go the whole way, there's no doubt there's an effect and we should be looking at these things strategically," he said, adding that even single-sex classrooms could potentially prove beneficial.

Brisbane Girls Grammar School principal Jacinda Euler said "confidence isn't, nor should it be, gendered". "However, as a school that educates girls, we focus specifically on nurturing girls' self-confidence and independence in a supportive environment," she said.

The above is an article from the Brisbane "Sunday Mail" of 6 Oct., 2019







Climate change protesters’ bid to bring chaos to Melbourne starts out small

Climate change activists preparing for a week of protests in Melbourne were few and far between as the crowd expected to flood the CBD this morning was nowhere to be seen.

Activists were set to cause major disruptions this week, mimicking the immense scale of the Global Strike 4 Climate protests that took place across the country late last month.

Today only a small group of activists sitting on the steps outside of Parliament House for an all-day sit-in were patrolled by police.

The Extinction Rebellion movement is planning a “spring rebellion” across Melbourne from Monday until Sunday.

Spokeswoman Jane Morton said the protests were the only way to urge governments to listen to experts and act on climate change.

“There’s no alternative and we do apologise for the disruption because we believe it’s the only way we can get our message out,” she told 3AW on Monday. “It’s pressure and it’s the only way we know to save my kids, your kids if you’ve got any.”

Victoria Police Commander Tim Hansen says police will step in if there’s significant disorder, violence or if people’s safety is being put at risk.

“We’ve been taking considered legal advice and human rights advice over the last fortnight, and we have a fairly clear tactical plan (of) how we’re going to respond this week,” he told 3AW on Monday.

He said the group had a right to peaceful protest, but members of the public have a right to freedom of movement. “Not only do you have human rights, you also have human rights responsibilities here,” Commander Hansen warned protesters.

Based out of Carlton Gardens, the Extinction Rebellion plans to occupy the CBD on Tuesday and are prepared for peaceful arrests.

A “swarm for survival” is planned for Wednesday, an “extinction rave” for Friday night and a “nudie parade” for Saturday.

Environment Victoria has extended its support to the group, saying their actions are understandable in such “desperate times” in which political leaders appear unwilling to act on climate change.

“These are ordinary people pushed to do extraordinary things in a moment of crisis,” chief executive Jono La Nauze said in a statement. “People from all walks of life are involved — builders, doctors, students, public servants and even former police officers.”

SOURCE  






Bring back knights and dames, says Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott has stood by his decision to appoint knights and dames into the Australian honours system and suggests they be reintroduced.

In his first long post-election interview to mark the Liberal Party’s 75th anniversary, Mr ­Abbott recognised there were things that caused him “a lot of grief” when he was PM between 2013-15, including his captain’s pick of appointing Prince Philip a Knight.

But Mr Abbott stood by his decision for knights and dames in the Australian honours system, and suggested they be back on the agenda and reinstated.

“If we are going to have an honours system (then) I think that at the apex of the system we should have knights and dames,” Mr Abbott said.

“If you are a tradition-minded leader of a centre-right party, that’s exactly the kind of thing that you should do. At the heart of our centre-right tradition, it is not so much reform but restoration.

“I should have found a way of doing in this country what they did in New Zealand when John Key brought it back (by) up­grading the ACs to AKs. And I shouldn’t have made it the prime minister’s personal pick, it should have been the Council of the Order of Australia which did it.”

In 2014, Mr Abbott announced that up to four knights or dames would be appointed in any year, saying the honour would be extended to Australians of “extraordinary and pre-eminent achievement and merit”. Mr Abbott then appointed Prince Philip a Knight on Australia Day, recognising him for his “contribution to Australia throughout the Queen’s reign.”

However, in 2015 Malcolm Turnbull dumped his predecessor’s system saying his “Cabinet recently considered the Order of Australia, in this its 40th anniversary year, and agreed that Knights and Dames are not appropriate in our modern honours system”.

Mr Turnbull said while knights and dames was “a long way from being the most important issue in Australia”, the decision reflected a modern Australia. “Knights and Dames are titles that are really anachronistic, out of date, [and] not appropriate in 2015 in Australia,” Mr Turnbull said.

In his exclusive interview, Mr Abbott conceded he made mistakes as prime minister but overwhelmingly blamed Mr Turnbull’s overweening ambition for his government’s demise four years ago.

Mr ­Abbott said he wished he had longer than two years as prime minister and did not rule out a ­return to parliament.

“It wasn’t that we had a divided government, it was more that there was one person who was ­determined to get to the top by hook or by crook,” Mr Abbott said. “Malcolm always thought it was his destiny to be prime minister and I happened to be the ­obstacle to that and so he dealt with me as best he could.”

While Mr Abbott said he had “mostly” forgiven those who had turned against him and had no “lasting enmities”, he would consider returning to parliament. “If the Liberal Party ever wanted me to do that, I would be more than happy to consider it, but I find it difficult to imagine the circumstances that they would want me,” he said. “I’m not ruling it out but I’m not expecting it to happen.”

With the Liberal Party having governed nationally for 48 of its 75 years, Mr Abbott said it could reasonably claim to be Australia’s natural party of government.

“No party can represent the country as wholeheartedly as we can,” he said. “First, because no particular section owns us the way the unions own the Labor Party. And, second, because we have not succumbed to the siren song of globalism to anything like the ­extent that the political left has.”

Mr Abbott said the Liberal Party was the custodian of three principal political traditions — liberalism, conservatism and patriotism — but the key to Scott Morrison’s election victory was being more pragmatic than ­ideological.

“There’s the liberal strand, there’s the conservative strand and, above all else, there’s the patriotic strand,” he said about the Liberal Party’s philosophy. “Yes, we are the freedom party, yes we are the tradition party but above all else we are the patriotic party.

“What we always need to do is to ask ourselves what are the ­issues that are troubling people at this time and come up with ­feasible, understandable ways ­forward. We certainly looked the more practical and the less ideological of the two parties at the last election, and that’s why we won.”

The former prime minister, who was a guest at the British Conservative Party conference in Manchester last week, praised US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for putting their nations first.

“There has been a much greater sense of the nation state and of good old-fashioned patriotism in the approach of Trump and Trump’s Republicans and in the approach of Johnson and Johnson’s Conservatives,” Mr Abbott said. “I also think that one of the reasons why we succeeded in 2013 was because we had a no-­nonsense approach to border protection which put Australia first.”

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