Australian Politics
Pauline Hanson slams Aboriginal 'Welcome to Country' ceremonies as 'left-wing virtue signalling'
I think they are a lot of rot too. Why should we repeatedly say that Aborigines once lived in a partiular place? They possibly did but how does that affect us?
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has described Welcome to Country ceremonies as 'left-wing virtue signalling' and declared she is 'tired' of them.
Senator Hanson made the controversial remarks after Anthony Albanese was booed while acknowledging traditional land owners on stage at Bluesfest in Byron Bay on Sunday night.
'It is common for politicians to be booed at events but some Australians were shocked that Anthony Albanese would get such a hostile reaction while trying to deliver a so-called ''welcome to country'', she wrote on her Facebook page.
'I don't know about you but I am very tired of being left out of the ''welcome'' to my own country.'
Welcomes to Country ceremonies between Indigenous Australian communities date back thousands of years.
TV presenter Ernie Dingo and musician Richard Walley performed the first for non-Indigenous Australians in 1976 at a festival in Perth.
Indigenous elders now regularly give a Welcome to Country at major events including sports games and concerts.
'Some of you might not realise but this "welcome to country" isn't some ancient tradition. It is a modern invention,' Senator Hanson wrote.
'Just one of the many overused methods of left-wing virtue signalling that shoehorns politics and pandering into everyday life.'
The One Nation leader said her party believes that 'everyone should be equal.' 'We shouldn't be elevating one group above others,' she wrote. 'We are all Australians equally sharing our country together.
'That's why you won't ever hear me welcoming people to their own country.'
Sparking discussion among her supporters, she added: 'I'm curious to know how others feel about it? Do people care or is this a classic case of the emperor having no clothes and everyone is going along with it but no one is ready to call it out?'
Many of her followers unsurprisingly agreed, saying the Welcome to Country was 'way overused'.
At Bluesfest on Sunday night Mr Albanese was brought on stage to introduce rock legend Jimmy Barnes.
He was initially met with deafening boos from revellers before receiving cheers as he promised a funding boost for the arts sector.
The announcer introduced Albanese as 'the man that represents the working class people' as he asked festival-goers to give the Labor leader a 'world-class welcome'.
Albanese approached the stage to boos, telling the crowd it was 'great to be at Bluesfest'. He then acknowledged the traditional owners of the land at Byron Bay.
'I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land in which we meet, pay my respect to elders past and present and what we want is to recognise First Nations people in our constitution.'
The outcry from revellers eventually quietened down before erupting into applause and cheers as Mr Albanese hinted at arts funding if his party was elected into government and he brought Barnes onto the stage.
'Australians have been magnificent over the last couple of years, and what we want is a government that backs the arts sector. So ladies and gentlemen, welcome Jimmy Barnes!'
One Nation is running candidates in all 151 lower house seats. Senator Hanson is battling to retain her Queensland senate spot.
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NT: How teachers could soon be forced to call students 'crew' instead of 'boys and girls' and encouraged to organise 'non-gendered' sports teams
Teachers calling students 'boys' and 'girls' may soon be a thing of the past under plans to create a more welcoming environment for gender diverse children.
In draft guidelines on gender identity from the Northern Territory's Education Department, a variety of steps would be taken to ensure those questioning their gender weren't being offended in the classroom.
School sport days would not be split between boys and girls while students on overnight excursions and school camps would be allowed to sleep in rooms and use bathrooms of their 'affirmed gender', Sky News reported.
'Using gendered language such as 'girls and boys' or 'ladies and gentlemen' confirms gender stereotyping and roles and can be alienating for gender questioning and gender diverse children,' the document says.
'Avoid this by using vocabulary such as 'students', 'class', 'crew', 'everyone', people' or 'year X' that are more inclusive.'
Schools have also been encouraged in the guidelines to organise 'non-gendered' sport days, teams and events.
Rules around tight-fitted clothing should also be changed to cater to gender diverse children such as during swimming events, the document says.
'Many transgender and gender diverse children often withdraw from taking part in sport and physical activities because they feel highly uncomfortable or are forced into teams that do not match with their gender identity,' the guidelines say.
LGBTIQ students on school camps who require 'increased privacy' may be allowed to be given private rooms.
The guidelines also include a warning that concerns from other kids may be seen as bullying.
'If a child, or their peers, do not agree that they would feel safe and comfortable sharing, seek alternative solutions and acknowledge that this is an indication of possible exclusionary behaviour and potential bullying toward the LGBTQI child,' the guidelines say.
Labor NT Education Minister Lauren Moss stressed the document which has surfaced has not been finalised and said the terms 'boys' and 'girls' would not be banned in the classroom.
She did not comment on the specifics of the guidelines but said the department was looking at creating more inclusive environments for LGBTQI children.
'We know that often these students are young people and children who experience greater levels of harm or greater levels of isolation or greater levels of bullying and we need to make sure that we are working together as a school community to support all of our students and make sure that they all feel welcome,' she told the publication.
But the draft wasn't well received by everyone in the state with Country Liberal Party Senate candidate Jacinta Price labelling it 'utterly ridiculous'.
'I'm stunned the (Chief Minister Michael Gunner) Gunner government would even consider attempting to apply any Marxist ideology into our schooling system,' she said.
'It infuriates me. This government think that they can go ahead and make these decisions on behalf of teachers, on behalf of the Indigenous community. To suggest that terms like girl and boy are gender stereotypes and can be offensive is utterly ridiculous.'
She said the focus should instead be on lifting attendance rates in schools in remote communities.
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Another senior’s group has condemned Labor’s pension card lies, with the Prime Minister saying the Opposition is “peddling lies to scare pensioners”
Labor is refusing to pull its claims, despite them having been rejected by the government, the Council on the Ageing, National Seniors and resulted in a Labor MP apologising for misleading the Parliament when repeating them.
Labor has targeted social media and letterbox drops in marginal seats with claims pensioners would be put on the cashless debit card, which in some trial areas quarantines 80 per cent of JobSeeker payments for under 35s to prevent welfare being spent on alcohol, gambling and drugs.
It has expanded its attack, pointing to a Toowoomba North LNP branch motion taken to and supported at the party’s state conference calling for the cashless debit card to be expanded to more districts – though it does not mention pensioners.
Nationals Seniors Australia spokesman Ian Henschke criticised the tactic and said his organisation was receiving calls from pensioners scared they would end up on the card.
“Why don’t we just focus on the real policies instead of the ones that are not real? This is what we should be doing,” he told 3AW.
Mr Morrison said pamphlets claiming pensioners would be put on the welfare card was a “despicable lie” and accused Labor of “pedalling this lie seeking to scare pensioners”.
“Anthony Albanese needs to come clear on this, he needs to rule this out, because it is not true,” he said.
The Prime Minister also took aim at Mr Albanese’s treasury spokesperson Jim Chalmers, who he branded as ‘Sneaky Jim’ while responding to Labor’s claims pensioners would be forced on to cashless welfare cards. “It’s just simply not true,” Mr Morrison said.
“If he wants to talk about trust and integrity, he should show some today and the Labor Party should stop frightening pensioners.
“It is an out and out disgusting lie.”
Asked how this wasn’t a scare campaign, given Labor had been accused of “scaring old people” by the Council on the Ageing, Mr Albanese said it was based upon the government’s policy.
Department of Social Services deputy secretary Liz Herfren-Webb told a recent Senate estimates hearing that there was no current laws that would allow pensioners to be put on the cashless debit card, and the prospect had never been raised with her.
On February 24 this year Labor’s state Keppel MP Brittany Lauga was forced to apologise and withdraw comments she made misleading Parliament that “the current federal coalition government was planning to force every age pensioner in Australia onto the cashless debit card”.
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Climate cowards and apocalypse peddlers
Have you ever questioned the links between bushfires and atmospheric CO2?
Discussions about the changing climate and the level of human contribution are only allowed if the discussion follows the approved narrative. Heaven forbid somebody decides to do their own research into how global average temperatures are calculated, how many temperature stations were around in 1850, how climate models compare to observations, how CO2 functions as a greenhouse gas, and how past predictions have borne out.
For those who would label me a ‘denier’, I have a label for you – coward. Allow me to explain my contempt.
If green-left politics is your bag and you endorse the approved message, please explain your doomsday cultist narrative and how your objectives will send us backward to enjoy the living standards of a third-world country, with negative impacts on the environment.
To those who say that ‘Australia should be a climate leader’, I ask you to show evidence of a country both cutting emissions and improving its economy, living standards, and security, while pushing the renewables mantra. The world’s best examples of high renewables all have high electricity costs – Germany, United Kingdom, California, and Australia.
If you are not swayed by real-life examples of failure, then I urge you to ask yourself, why the ‘experts’ are pushing us into weather-dependent power sources, when the weather is supposed to become more unpredictable and extreme?
To the renewables lobby, including their sycophant ‘experts’, media, and political allies, I ask why, if your product is so good, do you continuously push for subsidies, targets, market intervention, cheap finance, and government spending, all while demonising the fossil fuel industry that has almost single-handedly created our current abundance of wealth and health.
To those who say ‘we need more climate action’, I ask you to quantify those actions and the effects of those actions on the climate. Please be specific. You and your ilk have a history of vagueness and being very, very wrong.
To those who rave about ‘the transition’, I ask you to define the end of the so-called transition – when will this magic outcome occur, and what does it look like? Because to me, this transition looks like a never-ending cycle of building wind/solar/batteries, with their short life-span requiring replacement every 10-20 years.
To anybody who believes emissions reduction is important, I ask if you support nuclear power.
If you think the federal government has any role in the management of bushfires, I ask you to look at the responsibilities and performance of the state environmental and emergency service bureaucracies.
If you think the world is going to end because of sea-level rise, I ask you to put ice cubes in a glass, fill it with water, then wait for the ice to melt and observe the glass not overflowing.
If you think ‘the science’ is infallible, I ask you to read what Alan Finkel, Peter Ridd and Richard Horton have to say about the credibility crisis in scientific published research. Then give the ClimateGate emails a once-over. Then ask why the world’s primary atmospheric carbon dioxide measurement laboratory is located beside an active volcano.
If you are swayed by ‘the consensus’, I ask you to read Happer, Lomborg, Plimer, Schellenberger, Epstein, Spencer, Curry, Peiser, and Ridley. Then compare those with the writings of Gore, Thunberg, and Obama.
If you find yourself convinced by the weighty opining of ‘experts’ that all CO2 increase is caused by human activities, I recommend the mission pages of NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory and the finding that in one year, the combined emissions from three rainforests increased by five-times Australia’s annual emissions.
If CO2 emissions are the first thing you think about when you wake in the morning, consider that global emissions reduction reduced by almost 10 per cent in 2020 because of Covid lockdowns, and that it cannot be differentiated from natural variation (according to NOAA).
If the fact that burning coal has led to prosperity and improved health for billions of people hurts your brain, try this:
Burning wood releases the carbon isotopes C12, C13 and C14
Burning coal and gas releases only C12 and C13
Measuring the dilution of C14 in the atmosphere proves the increase of C12 and C13
You can’t apportion how much CO2 is entering the atmosphere from burning coal, without knowing how much CO2 of all types is also entering and disappearing from the atmosphere separately
If you think the UN has Australia’s best interests in mind, I ask you to name another large, unelected bureaucracy that you trust to decide your best interests. Then ask what the UN has done for you lately.
If you think CO2 emissions are the harbinger of doom, then I ask you to lead by example and commit to a single vehicle, composting, no air conditioners or plane travel, using only local seasonal produce, no batteries, no computers, no electricity, no running water, no textiles, nothing made in a factory or transported or harvested by machine, or grown using fertiliser and herbicides.
If you find yourself nodding along with phrases like ‘green hydrogen superpower’, I suggest you look up how much energy is consumed in producing green hydrogen, how the energy for green hydrogen is generated, and what that looks like on the environment.
If you quite like your first-world lifestyle, spare a thought for the third-world where people are being offered the joys of solar panels, which doesn’t remove them from poverty.
If you are tempted to label me a right-wing nutjob, climate-change denier, racist, a symptom of the colonial white privileged patriarchy, go for it. But please allow me to respond…
If you are part of the media, political, or scientific elite and you disagree with anything I’ve said, but you cannot be bothered to look it up yourself, if you’ve never bothered to look into the so-called ‘other side’, if you have no interest in the truth of things, if you cannot bring yourself to challenge your pre-conceived ideas, then you are a climate coward.
https://spectator.com.au/2022/04/climate-cowards-and-apocalypse-peddlers/
***************************************************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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