A POLITICAL CORRECTNESS ROUNDUP

Five current articles from Australia below

Medivac laws: Asylum-seeker refusal of care shows system ‘being gamed’

Five people who refused to accept medical treatment after being transferred to Australia under contentious refugee medivac laws were diagnosed via teleconference with conditions including dermatitis, abdominal pain and dental pain.

In two cases, specialist care was recommended for men who claimed dental problems with one saying he had been prevented from eating solid foods although both individuals did not seek further assistance after their transfer.

While five transferees have refused any treatment, about 40 have turned down relevant pathology tests and X-rays, triggering new warnings from government MPs on Tuesday that the legislation was being “gamed”.

The number of asylum-­seekers and refugees seeking transfers under the medivac legislation has steadily increased and spiked in October, with 120 ­submitting applications that month. Two weeks ago, 562 ­remained in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Scott Morrison needs the support of Senate crossbencher Jacqui Lambie to repeal the medivac laws, which were passed prior to the May 18 election by Labor and independent MPs in defiance of his then minority government.

Since the legislation came into force in March, 136 people have been brought from PNG and Nauru to Australia to receive medical assistance.

Of these, about 45 have ­partially or completely refused to accept the medical treatment on offer.

The five individuals who have refused all treatment are men aged from 29-37 and were initially assessed by teleconference or video.

They included a man suffering from stomach inflammation and abdominal pain; another experiencing bowel inflammation and dermatitis as well as the man who claimed an ongoing dental con­dition had prevented him from ­eating.

The other two cases involved a man suffering from a urological condition who refused medical and diagnostic scans while the fifth man also claimed he had gum and dental infections that had negatively affected his appearance.

Former immigration minister Kevin Andrews told The Australian: “The level of rejection and partial rejection of treatments clearly indicates that the scheme is being gamed.”

The government needs four crossbench votes to pass its planned medivac repeal, but will not win over the Centre Alliance, which holds two upper house seats.

Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff told The Australian he was not convinced the numbers of transferees who were partially or completely rejecting medical treatment under the legislation was a compelling reason to repeal the new law.

“You can have the same situation in a suburb of Canberra,” he said. “They need treatment and they opt not to take it. It’s ­really no different.”

“If they came here in the first instance, they were assessed by doctors.”

Under the medivac legislation, an Independent Health Advice Panel has the final say on who can be transferred to Australia on medical grounds.

The panel is made up of representatives from the Australian Medical Association, the Royal Australian and New Zealand ­College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

A Senate estimates hearing was informed last month that fewer than one in 10 refugees and ­asylum-seekers transferred to Australia under the medivac laws had required hospital treatment.

The Australian understands the number of refugees and ­asylum-seekers in hospital — after being transferred — has fluctuated from zero to one a day.

SOURCE  






Australia Day celebrations could soon be SCRAPPED in parts of Sydney because mayor claims January 26 'marks the onset of colonisation and cultural destruction'

More tiresome virtue signalling

Australia Day celebrations in parts of Sydney could be scrapped in favour of an  Aboriginal festival.

Sydney's Inner West Council is expected to vote on a motion next week that would move Australia Day events from January 26.

The proposal comes after Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton ordered that any council that refuses to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day will not be allowed to hold them at all.

Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne told the Sydney Morning Herald the council plans to move its annual Enmore Park celebrations to a different date, but would continue to hold citizenship ceremonies.

'We're seeking to take a more respectful approach to January 26 and acknowledge that for Aboriginal people it marks the onset of colonisation, dispossession, the removal of children and the deliberate destruction of language and culture,' Mr Byrne said.

'There's a growing number of local communities and people across Australia that think the 26th of January should be a commemoration not a celebration and the ongoing hurt that Aboriginal people feel shouldn't be exacerbated through fireworks and festivals.'

This would also stop it from interfering with the Aboriginal festival Yabun, which celebrates Aboriginal and Torrest Strait Islander culture.

Yabun involves musical performances, stalls, community gatherings and is held in nearby Camperdown on the same day.

The proposal is set to go to a vote on Tuesday and is expected to pass with the support of Labor councillors and the Greens.

But independent Victor Macri claimed the community had not been properly consulted regarding the plan.

'We're the party capital of Sydney and now we want to scrap Australia Day?' Mr Macri said.

Mr Macri claims the community will be disappointed if the Australia Day celebration is moved, as it is always a big day for families.

The Inner West Council first debated scrapping the celebrations last year following a Greens-led campaign to change the date.

The debate over changing the date has raged for years, with the phrase 'Happy Australia Day' coming under fire earlier this year.

Kado Muir, an Aboriginal culture, heritage and awareness advocate, said the phrase 'Happy Australia Day' was an 'ignorant gesture'.

He called on Australians to rise above the 'base destructive emotions' in the debate and instead shift focus onto the aspects that unite the country.

Critics have argued that this day marked the beginning of great suffering and torment for indigenous people and should not be celebrated.

Other indigenous Australians, who trace their lineage on the continent back 50,000 years, refer to January 26 as 'Invasion Day', the start of Britain's colonisation of Aboriginal lands.

In April, journalist Stan Grant said that moving Australia Day would be pointless because some of his fellow indigenous people are 'wedded to grievance'.

Grant, an award-winning journalist of Aboriginal heritage, addressed the issue in a piece published in an edition of The Weekend Australian magazine.

He argued that changing the date of Australia Day might leave January 26 as a day honoured by white chauvinists and risked making the national day more divisive.

Grant added that some Aboriginal people would not be satisfied with the date change either because resentment was part of their 'identities'.

In November last year, Mr Dutton threatened that any council that refused to hold citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day would not be allowed to hold them at all.

'I don't care whether people are seeking to move it in an obvious way or playing games - the intent is very clear,' he told 2GB Radio at the time.

'The rules are pretty clear. If they're not going to abide by it, then they'll find themselves without the ability to conduct the ceremony.' 

An overwhelming majority of Australians reject calls for the country's national day to be moved from January 26, according to poll findings earlier this year.

Polling commissioned by the Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative think-tank, showed just 10 per cent of 1,000 people surveyed want to change the date of Australia Day.

Young Australians were even less welcoming to the idea of moving the date from January 26, which many indigenous Australians view as Invasion Day.   

'Only eight per cent of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 say Australia Day should not be celebrated on 26 January,' the IPA's Dr Bella d'Abrera said.

'[It] proves that despite the media and political left narrative, young people are not drawn to the divisive argument of opposing our national day.'

A separate poll of 1,659 people, conducted by conservative lobby group Advance Australia, found 78 per cent of those surveyed were proud to celebrate Australia Day on January 26.

'The results are in - January 26 is not a day for division and protest, but rather a day for all Australians to celebrate,' the group's National Director, Gerard Benedet, said.

Many indigenous people find it offensive the date their ancestors lost their sovereignty to British colonialists is celebrated with a public holiday.

SOURCE  






Militant vegans launch protest against a defiant butcher who called demonstrators 'maggots' while refusing to stop selling horse meat

A butcher is set to be hit with a wave of protests from vegans because he refuses to stop selling horse meat.  

Members of animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere will demonstrate outside Mr Garreffa's Mondo Butchers in Inglewood in Perth this Saturday.

'Mondo Butchers sells the bodies of murdered victims, yet the owner Vince preaches respect and courtesy toward other beings,' the group posted on Facebook.

'In his hypocrisy his actions toward the innocent are vile.'

They said that despite the ABC's report on racehorses being slaughtered on an 'industrial scale', Mr Mondo 'still decides to promote the demand for the slaughter of innocent horses and other animals'. 

'It's about time normalised violence, especially of this nature is acknowledged and contested. 'Come join us in pressuring society out of the dark ages and eradicating the businesses that uphold pre-evolved this mentality.'

But the butcher said that police and his lawyer will be notified before the militant vegans' planned rallies at his store this weekend.

'Through them doing this... it lifts the support of the community to us. They are just maggots. We'll see what eventuates,' he told the West Australian.

Direct Action Everywhere group leader James Warden and Mr Garreffa already came to blows in October on current affairs program Flashpoint.

During the debate, Mr Garreffa blasted Mr Warden and other vegan militants as 'malicious' for trespassing on farmers' properties.

'Those poor families that you've singled out, they're hurting more than ever when you've had a little win,' he said on the Channel 7 program.

The well-known butcher has been selling horse meat for human consumption for nearly a decade.

'It [horse meat] is available all over the world, in 20 different countries. We are butchers, we have what ever is legally available to the public. 'People take great pride in my shop.'

Saturday's proposed protest won't be the first time vegan militants will storm a butcher in Perth.

Last month protesters lined up outside Tenderwest Meats in Perth's Belmont Forum and shouted at passing customers with a megaphone.

'They never wanted to die for you,' the group's leader yelled while his followers held up signs showing animals in slaughterhouses.

Last month, the explosive two-year investigation by the ABC's 7.30 revealed that an alarming number of retired thoroughbreds are being killed for meat for human consumption.

Racing Australia's official data claims about 34 racehorses every year end up at slaughterhouses, a figure amounting to less than one per cent of retiring horses.

But Elio Celotto from the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses told the ABC that about 4,000 racehorses had been killed in one abattoir alone.

That abattoir - located in Queensland's south-east - has been the focus of the broadcaster's investigation and was infiltrated with hidden cameras. The cameras showed that in just 22 days, more than 300 racehorses, who won $5million in prize money combined, were killed.

SOURCE  






Wrong to go fishing?

Where will it end?

A furious woman has gone on an extraordinary rant and unleashed on a pair of fisherman while she was feeding ducks popcorn.

The fishermen had just dropped a line into Ascot Waters, a marina in Perth, on Saturday when the woman turned on the men.

She was seen on video lecturing the pair and telling them that fishing in the marina was 'stupid'.

Yahoo News reported that the woman had claimed the men were potentially killing the local bird life and dumping fish hooks in the water.

'This is stupid, what you're doing is stupid because it's a bird sanctuary,' the unidentified woman said.

The woman sat next to one of the fishermen who continued to stay quiet and stare ahead, visibly uncomfortable by her actions.

The fisherman argued that he cleaned up after himself, which caused the women to become even more frustrated.

'You lie. About looking after the environment and [yet] you're standing there with a fishing rod in your hand,' she said.

One of the men questioned whether the woman had any experience in marine biology, which infuriated her further.

'I've got three degrees which is something you haven't got and been teaching for 45 years. Shut up,' she said in the man's face.

When he continued to question why she believed he didn't have the same experience, the woman said he was too young 'and too stupid'.

The woman continued to complain and said she works tirelessly to clean up the area, before she stormed off.

SOURCE  





Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi ‘embarrassing’ on horses, trainer says

Choosing a Pakistani to comment on a great Australian tradition begets the ignorance you would expect

The trainer of Prince of Arran has lashed out a Greens senator who said she was “horrified” at the treatment of thoroughbred who placed second at the Melbourne Cup.

British trainer Charlie Fellowes told Senator Mehreen Faruqi on Twitter she was “embarrassing” and invited her to visit the thoroughbred in the western Melbourne suburb of Werribee.

“(Your) lack of knowledge on horse racing is embarrassing,” he said on Twitter. “Come to Werribee tomorrow and I will personally introduce you to Prince of Arran. “You will quickly realise that he is not abused, in pain, or suffering. “Like every horse in my stable he is loved more than any household pet.”

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi, who is the party’s spokeswoman for animal welfare, is calling for a royal commission into animal cruelty in the horse racing industry.

“When animals and gambling mix, animals always suffer,” she declared in a statement released on Tuesday night after jockey Michael Walker was fined $10,000 and received a seven-meeting ban for excessively whipping Prince Arran and Rostropovich suffered a fractured pelvis.

Racing Victoria said Rostropovich is expected to recover from the stress fracture and the gelding is receiving care at the Werribee Equine Clinic.

“The David and Ben Hayes and Tom Dabernig-trained gelding is in a stable condition, comfortable and receiving the best veterinary care,” Racing Victoria said in a statement.

Dozens of anti-racing activists protested outside the Melbourne Cup outside Flemington Racecourse on Tuesday.

The protesters held pictures of dead horses emblazoned with “Is the party worth it?” and yelled “Nup to the Cup” at punters as they entered.

The Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses organised a ‘human horse race’ that ran at the same time as official Melbourne Cup day races, including the main event at 3pm, at the nearby Kensington Reserve.

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