Australian Politics
Monday, July 10, 2023
"No" leaders slam ABC Indigenous ‘genocide’ comment
The "No" campaign’s Indigenous leaders have criticised comments made on the ABC’s flagship weekend politics program, Insiders, about “ongoing genocide” of Indigenous Australians.
Dana Morse, a federal politics reporter for the national broadcaster, made the comments on Sunday’s program, while speaking about the Indigenous voice to parliament and its proposed powers.
“But to speak to the issue of January 26, what are people protesting about on January 26?” she said. “They are protesting about the invasion, they are protesting about the genocide of Aboriginal people that is ongoing today.”
Opposition Indigenous affairs spokeswoman Jacinta Price called on the national broadcaster to “rein in their activist employees”.
“There is no genocide being perpetrated today, and comments saying there is have no place on public airwaves,” Senator Price said.
“I’ve called on the ABC previously to control their staff and ensure balanced and impartial voice commentary, but once again an ABC so-called reporter has been allowed to spew divisive and false information without being pulled up by the host.
“The No campaign has tried to work with the ABC to ensure balance. I personally have done six ABC appearances on TV and radio in less than a week, but their bias in this referendum is still on full display and the ABC bosses must do more to rein in their activist employees.”
Fellow No campaign leader Warren Mundine called the comments “rubbish”.
“There’s no genocide happening. In fact, the last 56 years since the ’67 referendum, the improvement for Aboriginal people and the opportunities and equality … is just something my parents and grandparents dreamt of,” he said.
“There’s no genocide happening today. And if she’s got evidence of that, then let her … point it out … they should call her in, because it’s just a whole pack of lies and nonsense.”
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Plastic surgeons call for age limit as young teenagers line up for ‘top surgery’
Leading surgeons are calling for the national medical regulator to step in to set “clear and specific guidelines” on gender-affirming surgery, including consideration of whether the age at which transgender adolescents are legally allowed to go under the knife should be raised to 18.
Australia is one of the most liberal countries in the world in sanctioning children under 18 to get double mastectomies, a practice that is rare but appears to be increasing despite only a handful of surgeons around the country being willing to perform such procedures.
The case of a 15-year old child in Queensland having “top surgery” has prompted Mark Ashton, a plastic surgery specialty elected counsellor to the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and Melbourne University professor of surgery, to question the lack of regulations.
“There is no doubt gender affirming surgery is becoming significantly more mainstream surgery, with increasing demand, and the regulation hasn’t kept up,” said Professor Ashton, who serves on the Board of Training and the Council for the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons.
“I can’t think of any circumstances in which a 15-year-old person should be electively having a double mastectomy. This is irreversible and is major surgery.
“In my opinion, because of its permanency, the surgical procedure needs to be delayed, at least until the person is 18.”
The federal government’s national virtual public health information service Healthdirect says top surgery can be performed, with parental consent, on minors over the age of 16, but “some surgeons will provide surgery to younger people in very specific situations”.
The case of the 15-year-old, which The Australian has independently confirmed, is complex and unusual. The child, whose parents both supported the surgery despite the child identifying as transgender for only about a year, posted on social media describing how they had the surgery in a day hospital after one consultation with a psychiatrist who approved the procedure.
“Fifteen in my personal opinion is too young, unless you can clearly identify and clearly document a well-considered psychiatric and medical assessment and specific recommendation over a prolonged period of time,” Professor Ashton said
“As adults looking back on our youth, those ages of between 12 and 18 were accompanied by a whole series of emotional turmoil, self-reflection and-self doubt. This is permanent, irreversible surgery that cannot be undone.
“I don’t believe there is adequate and due consideration in some of these cases as to whether this is a transient, emotional, psychological feeling, or is this indeed a permanent feeling, that is, the person truly is transgender.
“Any decision to embark on gender affirming surgery must be established over time, by a multidisciplinary team comprising a diversity of medical experts.
“It is really incumbent upon the federal health minister, state ministers and the national regulatory body, AHPRA, to ensure that these patients, our children, are protected from less scrupulous unethical practitioners who see transgender surgery as yet another opportunity to make money.
“We need clear and specific guidelines as to how the decision to proceed to gender affirming surgery is made, and by whom.”
Medical Board of Australia chairwoman Anne Tonkin said issues around gender affirming surgery were “complex and polarising”, especially when they involved children. “We are closely monitoring ongoing community discussion of these sensitive and complex issues,” she said. “As always, we will take our lead from the voice of the people, through parliament and legislation.”
Dr Tonkin said all doctors were bound by a medical practice code of conduct that makes explicit the standards of ethical and professional conduct expected of them.
Professor Ashton is one of three breast reconstruction surgeons to whom The Australian has spoken to confirm that as the medical transition of young people has grown more common in recent years, surgeons are now being approached by people who want to reverse surgical procedures. This appears to be a manifestation of the concerns of cautious doctors such as those at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead’s gender clinic that a proportion of teenagers who present wanting to transition gender will later desist or detransition.
Trans advocates, who claim double mastectomies on minors almost never happen, say detransition rates are minuscule.
“If you’re banning Botox or fillers fundraisings but saying gender reassignment surgeries are OK, I think we’ve got a problem,” said one surgeon.
“I would certainly think this incredibly invasive and life-changing surgery needs to have decisions made by adults. This surgery is very disfiguring, it’s irreversible and it needs to be put into that context – it’s a major, major, major change, and it shouldn’t be being offered to children.”
There is no public data on how many people are getting gender reassignment surgery, with double mastectomies being performed under the same Medicare item number as cancer surgery.
Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons president Nicola Dean said doctors in the field were pushing for a separate Medicare item number for the procedure. Associate Professor Dean said the age issue for getting surgery was the subject of significant active debate around the world among plastic surgeons. “I think the real issue here is that there are many people in Australia with gender incongruence who are currently left outside of the healthcare system and who have difficulty accessing the care they need,” Professor Dean said.
“In medicine there are often complex factors to consider to decide when a patient has developed capacity to consent to procedures.
“I think it is wrong to use the very private matter of the medical treatment of a child as a vehicle for very public debate. In all areas of surgery, we come across cases where there are exceptional circumstances.”
Professor Dean said she agreed with Professor Ashton that evidence-based protocols of care were critically important.
“It is clear from clinical research, both in Australia and all around the world, that people with gender incongruence have a high risk of problems with mental health and gender dysphoria,” Professor Dean said.
“It is also clear from the literature that medical and surgical treatment can be very effective in improving the health of these individuals.
“Not everyone with gender incongruence needs medical treatment. But some do. Some countries have very developed protocols of care, whereas Australia’s are still developing.
“The WPATH guidelines are a good starting point, but more Australia-specific protocols on surgical treatment will evolve and be helpful for health professionals and patients. It is important that these are patient-centred and based on the medical evidence.
“I think what is important is that for people to gain a diagnosis of gender incongruence, it has to be marked and persistent. There are clear diagnostic criteria.”
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Recent housing investors face negative cash flow challenge
More than four in five investors in Sydney and Melbourne who bought property since the start of the pandemic are negatively geared as a result of soaring interest rates and rent rises being unable to cover repayment costs.
Data from PropTrack for The Australian reveals 66.4 per cent of recent investors nationally are operating with negative cashflows.
Senior economist at the data firm Paul Ryan said the ultra-low rates on offer through the pandemic created an unusual predicament, allowing some investors to be cashflow positive from day one of ownership.
PropTrack analysed homes that changed hands between February 2020 and June 2023 that were then listed on rental markets via Realestate.com.au and assumed they were purchased with a standard 20 per cent deposit.
The highest rates of negative gearing were in Sydney and Melbourne, where 87.5 per cent and 83.3 per cent of rental properties respectively required out-of-pocket spending to cover costs.
Instances were also high in Tasmania and Canberra, with negative cashflow affecting 73.7 per cent and 67.1 per cent of rentals
“We’re always likely to see more cases of negatively gearing at the moment (in Sydney and Melbourne) because prices are higher and rental yields are lower,” Mr Ryan said.
“The balance there has been more capital gains.”
Positive gearing was most prevalent in Darwin (34.1 per cent) and Perth (39.6 per cent), while some three in five properties were in negative positions in Brisbane (60.3 per cent) and in Adelaide (58.7 per cent).
The founder of investor buyers agency Propertyology, Simon Pressley, estimates the average investor with a property in one of Australia’s two largest cities will be out of pocket by $40,000 each year.
It’s not just rates that have gone up, he said, but other typical costs, such as property management fees, council rates, repairs, maintenance and insurance.
“All the commentary today has been around the tenant not being able to afford rising rent, and then the blame has been pointed at the people charging the rent,” Mr Pressley said
“The facts are the facts – for the people providing the accommodation, expenses have blown out by a heap more than for the person living in the accommodation.”
While repayments are rising on the back of a dozen rate rises, the number of investors selling their properties has begun to show signs of slowing from Covid-highs.
The value of investor lending rose through May but still sits well below 2022 peaks in activity.
Mr Pressley said he believed investors needed greater rate stability to re-enter the market in larger numbers.
“If we get a sustained period of time of interest rates being left on hold, over time you gain confidence,” he said.
“It says from a cash flow point of view, I can budget now with a greater degree of confidence.”
Mr Ryan also highlighted the political war of which investors had become the centre, with the looming threat of rental freezes and caps.
“I think that uncertainty will weigh on investor activity,” he said.
For the first time in a decade, renters are better off than homeowners, according to data from Investment Bank Jarden, with home loan repayments doubling from 24 per cent to 44 per cent as a portion of net income.
PropTrack expects the trajectory of rental growth to slow in the short to medium term.
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Employers fight ‘new wave’ of industrial relations war
New laws enshrining rights for union delegates and enhancing the ability of unions to conduct snap inspections of pay records are being proposed by the Albanese government, sparking employer claims that companies will be forced to fund a “new wave of industrial activism”.
The Australian can reveal the two proposals, which employers argue exceed Labor’s electoral mandate, were disclosed during confidential briefings given to employers and unions by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations about the government’s proposed second wave of workplace changes.
While attendees signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from commenting on the proposals, The Australian has confirmed the government wants to legislate to advance the rights of union delegates and clarify the ability of unionists to conduct payroll inspections without notice where they suspect workers have been underpaid.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said employers would be “outraged” if the government proposal resulted in companies having to provide additional paid leave or other entitlements to union delegates, given that just 8 per cent of private sector workers were now union members.
Australian Resources and Energy Employer Association chief executive Steve Knott accused the government of seeking to turn union delegates into union officials, and engaging in a “ruse to have employers saddle the cost for a new wave of industrial activism”.
In a previously unreported address last week to the Health Services Union, Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said the government was looking at “how we can make sure that we advance the rights of delegates at the workplace”.
“We don’t put laws through the parliament for the thrill of seeing words on a page,” Mr Burke, a one-time delegate with the shop assistants union, said.
“We put them through because we want to have an impact on people’s lives, and we know, I know from my days as an organiser as well, and my days as a union delegate … I know how many issues just go through to the keeper.
“You can’t expect somebody who’s flat out with their personal life and keeping their head above water with their job to also be an expert on all their workplace rights.
“It’s never going to happen.
“But to have people at a workplace who are trained, who have the rights to be able to look at, to be able to talk to you and let you know what your rights are, those concepts aren’t some, you know, radical agenda or anything like that, it’s about making sure that the laws we pass reach every workplace in Australia. So you’ll hear more, you will hear me saying more about that.”
“Because they believe the only good job is a job More
Workers who are union members will usually be represented at the workplace by a colleague who is a union delegate.
The delegate is an employee of the company and not a full-time paid official of the union.
Mr Knott said employers “should not have to fund and facilitate de facto union officials among their workforces”.
Under the changes, the government is proposing to amend the Fair Work Act to provide delegates with a general protection from employers who refuse to deal with them, mislead them or hinder or obstruct the exercise of their rights as a delegate.
A mandatory term would be included in awards or enterprise agreements giving effect to primary and ancillary delegates’ rights, and the Fair Work Commission would make the model term for enterprise agreements.
The proposed primary rights include representing the industrial interests of members, and potential members, to the employer, and representing one or more union members, and potential members, in disputes with their employer.
The proposed ancillary rights include reasonable access to communicate with members and potential members about matters of industrial concern, workplace facilities, paid time and training as well as delegates having paid time to undertake these functions.
The government also wants to amend the Fair Work Act to clarify the ability for a right of entry permit holder to enter a workplace to investigate suspected wage underpayments without the required 24-hour notice.
If satisfied a contravention involves wage under-payments, the Fair Work Commission will be required to issue an exemption certificate to a permit holder that allows them to enter premises without 24 hours’ notice, and conducting the discussions in a room or area that a permit holder considers appropriate.
Workplace lawyers questioned the need for the amendment, saying existing provisions allowed for entry without notice when certain conditions were met.
In its briefing to employers and unions, the department said the change to enable permit holders to exercise entry rights without providing 24 hours’ notice would reduce the capacity for the “concealment of underpayments”.
Under the amendment, the commission must be satisfied there was a reasonable prospect of wage underpayments before grating the application.
Mr Burke declined to comment on the proposals when approached by The Australian. They will be subject to further consultation ahead of the government introducing the second wave legislation in September.
In a statement on Sunday, the ACTU said the “government was elected with a mandate to improve and update the work laws in light of a decade of wage suppression”.
“It is great that we have a government that cares about supporting working people in the face of a cost-of-living crisis,” an ACTU spokesman said
“We have advocated to modernise our work laws to stop wage theft, to improve protections for casual and insecure workers and to close loopholes that allow big companies to drive down wages using outsourcing.”
Mr Willox said “any changes to require employers to provide additional pay for the performance of union training or activities would be viewed as a shameless and shockingly inappropriate gift to the unions”.
“The government never foreshadowed this as part of their pre-election commitments and shouldn’t seek to now slip it through among a wave of other radical changes to workplace laws,” he said.
Mr Willox said many enterprise agreements already provided union delegates with various rights at workplace levels.
Mr Knott said workplaces in the resources sector were not in a position to respond to unnotified union right of entry requests.
“These are major industrial sites,” he said. “Visitors can’t just roam around the site; 24 hours’ notice works well and helps with right of entry being facilitated in an orderly fashion.
“Records will still be there when union officials arrive after appropriate notification.”
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http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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