Neo-Nazis performed Hitler salute in front of protestors

What a laugh! These were almost certainly Leftists pretending to be Nazis in order to discredit the genuine protesters. The Left have a history of faking hate crimes. If there is not enough hate around for them, they invent some

The shocking moment a gang of far-right thugs marched down a busy Melbourne street performing Hitler salutes has been caught on camera in an ugly weekend for the Victorian capital.

The ugly scenes happened on Saturday when rival protestors clashed in front of Victoria's State Parliament during a 'Let Women Speak' rally in the city.

The footage showed mounted police officers corralling the crowds as they hurled abuse at one another, while cops on the ground formed a human chain to prevent the opposing protestors clashing.

A group of around a dozen black-clad men wearing balaclavas stood in formation while ring-leader Thomas Sewell shouted: ‘Come here you communist f***ots!’

The group, who were flanked by two individuals carrying Australian flags, brandished a sign that said ‘destroy paedo freaks’.

The men stood is silence with their arms raised in a Heil Hitler salute while the far larger opposition crowd chanted over and over: ‘Unite, unite to fight the right!’

The thugs then walked towards the crowds of protestors who were being held back by police and taunted them while throwing Hitler salutes.

One man, who was wearing a black cap and had his balaclava down around his neck, could be seen smiling and laughing.

Victoria Police were slammed for failing to stop the neo-Nazis from brazenly performing their Heil Hitler salutes.

Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said officers prevented a fight between rival groups but were powerless to stop the actions of the neo-Nazis.

In response, Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes announced on Monday that the state would strengthen its anti-vilification laws to ban the Nazi salute.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11879737/Neo-Nazis-throw-Hitler-salutes-trans-protest-outside-Parliament-House-Melbourne-Victoria.html

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Rental crisis Qld: Premier ‘seriously considering’ introducing rental price cap

A price cap is another word for rent control and rent control always leads to a REDUCTION in housing availability. Is that what the government wants? Queensland had rent control decades back but had to abandon it to ease the shortages it created. That reducing the price reduces the supply is one of the iron laws of economics. No goverment can repeal it. It does however lead to abuses, such as large bonds, "key money" and shorter term rentals. And it is the poor who will suffer from such abuses

Annastacia Palaszczuk revealed the state government is “very seriously” considering introducing a price cap on private rentals after a new report laid bare the scale of Queensland’s housing crisis.

The Premier also confirmed the government is in discussions to buy thousands of homes that will lose funding from the winding back of a federal support scheme.

Ms Palaszczuk said she was “very concerned” about the crisis in Queensland after it was revealed 150,000 households were in critical housing stress and the rate of homelessness soared 22 per cent since 2017.

She said sharp increases in rents had squeezed Queensland families, leading to the government considering reforms to cap rental prices which she said will be discussed at the Housing Summit roundtable meeting next week.

“This is a big issue for families,” Ms Palaszczuk said. “They are constantly being faced with huge increases in rent and this is putting a lot of pressure on families.

“We’re looking very seriously at how a rental cap can be put in place.”

Before leaving office, the Morrison government began to wind back the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) but Ms Palaszczuk said she was in discussions with Treasurer Cameron Dick and Deputy Premier Steven Miles about acquiring those homes to continue support.

“There are over 5000 properties as part of that scheme – Queensland stands ready to purchase those houses,” Ms Palaszczuk said on Monday morning.

“What we do know is that we do need additional support from the federal government and where the federal government is stepping out, we are stepping up.”

Mr Miles said NRAS was a time-limited plan to subsidise rent for 5000 properties with the looming end of the support approaching in the next couple of years.

“So they will go into the general rental market – the only way to avoid that is by stepping in with support of social housing providers and purchasing them, ensuring that they remain within the social housing stock,” the Deputy Premier said.

“We are, as the premier said, discussing with those social housing providers exactly how we can do that.”

St Vincent de Paul Society Queensland chief executive Kevin Mercer said they had resorted to paying people’s car registrations.

“Sometimes the best response we can provide is to pay someone’s car registration so they can live and sleep in it ... to get them through as a temporary solution,” he said.

Mr Mercer said homeless services had been full for a long time.

“The designated specialist homeless services are designed to be short-term accommodation,” he said.

“We’ve got people that have been in our services for 18 months, almost two years, because there’s nowhere for them to go. And we’re not going to put them out on the street.”

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/qld-politics/rental-crisis-qld-premier-seriously-considering-introducing-rental-price-cap/news-story/da003b64b6ef1a92f2771e98963413e7

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Greenie's advice to tenants ahead of open homes

This is fine in principle. People should be told in advance of problems. But the response it produces might not be so favourable. The outgoing tenant may find himself/herself unacceptable as a future tenant elsewhere, for starters. Landlords normally require a reference from the previous landord

A Brisbane councillor has encouraged renters to post notes around a property ahead of open homes warning prospective tenants of its problems.

Greens councillor for the Woolloongabba ward Jonathan Sriranganathan shared one Brisbane tenant’s example originally posted in the Brisbane Renters Alliance Facebook group started by Mr Sriranganathan.

“If you‘re moving out of a rental and your landlord/agent is showing the property to new prospective tenants, consider leaving some notes or posters like this in a few prominent locations around the home,” he wrote.

Attached was a photo of notes detailing the tenant’s issues during their lease such as mould, rats and excessive dust posted as ­soaring rental prices leave at least 150,000 households in critical housing stress.

“Re-occurring (sic) MOULD in Air-con main room & Lounge room,” said one. “CONSTRUCTION SITE Excessive noise from 6am daily (and) RATS,” and “House has excessive DUST from construction site/Train,” said others.

It was intended to alert potential tenants of issues relevant to deciding fair rent for the property that may not be clear during a short inspection.

Mr Sriranganathan argued it was illegal for an agent or landlord to interfere with the signs as they were considered tenant property.

“A landlord‘s right to enter a property to show it to prospective tenants does not give them any rights to interfere with the tenants’ property.”

“It‘s a pretty straightforward legal position and widely accepted that when you rent a property from someone, your landlord doesn’t have the right to come into your house and move stuff around,” he said.

The post had close to 900 comments on Monday morning with some applauding the move as renter solidarity in a housing crisis that favours landlords.

“For far too long Landlords have had free rein to abuse their power with no sort of recording or accountability of their behaviour. I’ve had some wonderful ones and some horrendous ones,” commented Kate Coxall.

“Gotta (sic) love all the cranky landlords in the thread, some quality comments here from the terrible ones just being leeches of society,” said Shannon Felini.

The landlords Ms Felini referred to said Mr Sriranganathan promoted sabotage and warned that this kind of action could face repercussions. “Stop trashing our investment property and moving on to the next house to trash,” said Julie Hands.

“As a Woolloongabba voter, I think it is disgraceful for an elected member to promote sabotage,” commented another.

“If you poke the bear you’re not going to get a new place,” said Glenn Maymann.

Mr Sriranganathan replied to Mr Maymann’s comment to clarify if he was implying he would take revenge on tenants.

“Sounds like you‘re admitting that you would take revenge on tenants by giving them a bad reference simply because they drew attention to legitimate maintenance issues?” queried Mr Sriranganathan.

“What crap Jonno,” responded Mr Maymann. “I’m saying that encouraging your readers to do this will give them little chance of getting another place.”

One landlord threw her support behind the tenant’s notes saying she was “horrified” at what she had seen other landlords doing. “I don‘t blame these tenants at all if this is what they have been putting up with. That said, agents could easily remove and replace these signs,” said Delma Clifton

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/jonathan-sriranganathans-advice-to-tenants-ahead-of-open-homes/news-story/93bd269bf066f881d9fd338d23c8adcf

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Arms race: UQ vax version 2.0 ‘puts Brisbane tech up against one of the best’

One of the lead scientists behind the University of Queensland’s molecular clamp vaccine technology says it could be as good or better than mRNA vaccines, as it heads into phase I clinical trials.

The vaccine platform uses a small molecule to “clamp” a protein into the same shape as the protein on the surface of a virus, triggering the same immune response from the body.

The first version of the clamp was considered a frontrunner to produce a viable vaccine for COVID-19, but had to be halted when it was found it gave off positive HIV markers in blood tests.

There was no risk of HIV infection to people who had the vaccine, but the potential impact on national screening programs was too great.

Now, after rejigging the clamp, version 2.0 is ready to be put through its paces after doing well in pre-clinical testing.

Project leader, Associate Professor Keith Chappell, said the early results suggested their clamp 2.0 vaccine was just as good as version 1.0 and had advantages over mRNA vaccines.

“Firstly, safety – in our first clinical trial [for version 1.0] we didn’t see any incidences of headaches or fevers or those sorts of responses associated with mRNA vaccines.

“Also transport – it requires simple refrigeration rather than the minus 80 degrees required for some mRNA vaccines.”

Clamp 2.0 will be put through its paces against the TGA-approved Novovax vaccine, which is not an mRNA vaccine, but which Chappell said would provide a good comparison.

“We are recruiting 70 individuals for the trial – half will receive our vaccine and the other half will get the Novovax,” he said.

UQ’s clamp technology has been supported from an early stage by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI), which provided $8.5 million for the current round of development. The Queensland and federal governments also contributed funding.

The clinical trial will be run by Nucleus Network, with the company’s chief medical officer Jason Lickliter saying they were also excited by the vaccine’s potential. “It is a great opportunity for Queenslanders to participate in a study of a vaccine that was developed in Queensland,” he said.

“Should there be a future global disease outbreak, this will potentially allow us to respond faster.”

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/arms-race-uq-vax-version-2-0-puts-brisbane-tech-up-against-one-of-the-best-20230317-p5ct0b.html

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