Australian Politics
Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory dumps ‘Bottle of Boobs’ product after claims of sexism
Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory has been selling containers of the chocolate – depicting disembodied women’s breasts – for about 14 years, but after Collective Shout began a social media campaign this week, the product was quickly removed.
Collective Shout spokeswoman Caitlin Roper told NCA NewsWire the chocolatier had reduced women to sexualised parts “for literal consumption”.
“This is an example of everyday sexism and the casual dehumanisation of women,” she said.
“It’s not about offence … it’s about the known, established harms of objectifying women.”
Junee managing director Neil Druce told NCA NewsWire the company donated a portion of the profits to breast cancer charities.
He said it first started when women raising money for breast cancer awareness approached the company about making the chocolates, which they were happy to do.
“Our staff followed it up and made it happen,” he said.
The chocolates were sold all-year round, with a small percentage of sales going to charity, he added.
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Zoe's Law bill introduced to NSW Parliament to punish crimes that cause loss of unborn child
A bill proposing harsher penalties for crimes that result in the loss of an unborn baby has been introduced to the NSW Parliament.
Zoe's law has been controversial among pro-choice groups, who have argued it could be used to weaken abortion rights
The legislation, known as Zoe's Law, has been 12 years in the making.
It was first proposed after a drunk driver hit Brodie Donegan, who was 32 weeks pregnant, and caused the loss of her foetus, Zoe, on Christmas Day in 2009.
"The police came and spoke to me about the charges that would be laid, and I just didn't understand how my daughter, who didn't survive, wasn't being accounted for in the charges, that she would just be listed in my injuries," she said.
"We wanted a separate bill to reflect and acknowledge the loss of the child rather than just be counted as an injury to the mother."
Under current laws, the loss of a foetus through a criminal act is considered grievous bodily harm to a pregnant woman. There is no separate offence for the unborn baby.
Since 2014, there have been multiple attempts to introduce Zoe's Law to parliament without success but today, during the second reading of the bill, NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman said he was confident the current iteration struck the right balance.
"Each amendment has been carefully developed to take into account the range of views held by stakeholders and the community," he said.
"They acknowledge the gravity of the loss of a foetus without abrogating ... the rights of the pregnant woman."
He apologised to Ms Donegan for the time it had taken for the law to be introduced.
"As a legislator, as a minister, I am part of the collective responsibility for the delay. I apologise," he said.
Zoe's Law has been controversial among pro-choice groups, who have argued it could be used to weaken abortion rights and affect access to late-term abortions.
Mr Speakman said that was not possible in the bill's current form.
"This bill does not in any way affect a woman's ability to obtain a lawful abortion under existing NSW legislation," he said.
The most significant parts of the bill propose adding two offences to the Crimes Act, which each add up to three years onto a sentence where a woman has been killed or inflicted with grievous bodily harm and loses her pregnancy.
In both cases, the foetus must have reached at least 20 weeks gestation or weigh 400 grams.
Other proposed amendments to the bill would allow the name of the unborn baby to be included on an indictment when charges are laid.
They would also allow families to claim funeral costs and include a provision for family members of a woman who has lost a foetus of any gestational age as a result of a criminal act to provide victim impact statements.
Ms Donegan said prior to the the driver being sentenced, she had been the only one allowed to provide a victim impact statement to the courts.
"It's a loss that affects everyone in the family," she said.
She said she hoped to finally get some closure on a difficult chapter in her life.
"I think I'll rest a bit easier just knowing there's something there to help anybody who might find themselves in the same situation."
Mr Speakman said the NSW government was also developing a scheme to provide bereavement payments to families who lose a foetus due to third party criminal acts.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-10/zoes-law-bill-introduced-to-nsw-parliament/100608538
************************************************Scott Morrison says ‘can-do capitalism’ will solve climate change
Scott Morrison says the Glasgow climate summit had marked a “passing of the baton” from government-imposed targets and timetables to private enterprise and consumer-led solutions as the world’s leading economies seek to become carbon neutral by mid-century.
Launching a new fund for fledging companies aiming to develop emerging low-emission technologies, Mr Morrison said the biggest change since the Paris agreement was struck in 2015 had been $100 trillion of private capital which was “pouring like a waterfall into climate technology solutions”.
He said he believed climate change would ultimately be solved by “can-do capitalism; not don’t-do governments” who were “seeking to control people’s lives and tell them what to do” with interventionist regulation and taxes that would force up the cost of living and force businesses to close.
“The world does not need to be punished for climate change, we just need to fix it. And it will be fixed painstakingly, step-by-step, by the entrepreneurs, by scientists, by technologists, by innovators, by industrialists, by financiers, by risk-takers,” he told the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry breakfast in Melbourne.
“That’s the Australian way. That’s the way I’ve been championing on the world stage. And, you know, like-minded capitalist market-based economics should be doing the same.”
Sharpening his attack lines on the opposition ahead of the election, Mr Morrison said after two years of the pandemic he believed Australians were now over governments telling them what to do.
He said he had imposed restrictions on Australians along with state governments was necessary at the time, but it was important to let those who drive the economy be able to do that again as soon as possible.
Mr Morrison told hundreds of people who gathered for the annual business breakfast that Australia was now entering a “new energy economy”, with countries with net zero commitments covering more than 80 per cent of world’s GDP.
“And 90 per cent of Australia’s exports are to countries with net zero commitments. That of course is going to have an impact here in Australia. These are decisions being taken in other countries,” he said.
“We can’t ignore the reality of this. We cannot just sort of wish it away.”
He defended criticism from other world leaders and his domestic opponents by refusing to sign up for hard deadlines to phase out coal-fired power, saying the summit reinforced his view that Australia must chart its own unique path for achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
Mr Morrison said Australia’s geography, demography, resources and export profile all meant the nation’s pathway would be quite different from relatively small, densely populated, services-based advanced economies in Europe.
“Just because it works in the North Atlantic doesn’t mean it’s going to work in the Indo-Pacific, in countries in the same way like Australia and certainly not in the developing countries of our region who we do business with every day,” he said.
“This is why we will continue to join others in opposing prescriptive deadlines for phasing out particular fuels or gutting our agricultural sector – demands that are disconnected from realities, our industries, and our people, particularly in rural and regional Australia.”
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Entrepreneur Dick Smith says year 12 marks do not determine success
He's right. There is very little connection between academic course content and skills needed in life and employment
Famous entrepreneur Dick Smith told 2GB that he received terrible grades at school but still managed to go on to become highly successful.
“I was absolutely hopeless. I came 45th out of 47th in the class. I always thought I was hopeless at school but I managed to do OK,” Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith told parents and grandparents not to worry about their children or grandchildren who did not perform well at school, insisting there are many opportunities for success outside of the traditional path of a university education.
“If they're no good at schoolwork don’t worry too much,” he said.
“I say to everyone, get as many qualification as you can – that's good – but there's still potential to open your own business. “This is a great country and you can still do well even if you can’t get those qualifications.”
Mr Smith became one of the richest men in Australia after he successfully grew his electronics business from $610 in 1968 to $1.4bn in 2014.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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