Australian Politics
Pre-school children in Sutherland Shire, Sydney forced to make 'sorry' cards about Australia's colonisation by Europeans
A class of four-year-old children were forced to make 'sorry' cards about the colonisation of Australia by Europeans in what their families have slammed as 'indoctrination'.
Kim, a grandmother, told 2GB's Chris O'Keefe her twin grandchildren brought home the 'sorry' cards on National Sorry Day, May 26, from their pre-school in the Sutherland Shire in the Sydney's south.
One card read: 'Sorry for hurting you. Sorry for hurting your land.' The other card read: 'Sorry for hurting the Dharawal people. We will be kind now.'
The cards were written by pre-school teachers and decorated by the kids.
However, the children weren't taught what the cards meant and were instead encouraged to discuss the history of Sorry Day with their parents.
Kim said both her grandchildren were 'very upset' and felt 'very guilty'. 'As a grandma, I said, "You've done nothing wrong, it's all in the past, you have nothing to worry about, you're kind little children",' she told O'Keefe on Tuesday.
She said her son and daughter-in-law were 'not impressed' by the lesson because it wasn't an age-appropriate topic for pre-schoolers.
'It's something for them [the parents] to talk about, they don't have to be indoctrinated at pre-school,' she said. 'If this is what's happening at pre-school, I'm worried what will happen next year at kindy.'
National Sorry Day is held every year on May 26 to remember the children who were forcibly taken from their parents under Australia's assimilation policy, now known as the Stolen Generations.
Kim said while it cannot be disputed that wrongs were committed, parents should have the chance to discuss historical injustice with their kids before it's taught in classrooms.
'I'm shocked, it's certainly not for them [the teachers] to talk about these things,' she said. 'I don't know why we have to make our little children feel guilty for the sins of our fathers. 'It's nothing they've done wrong.'
How Australia's colonial history is taught to young children has been hotly debated in recent weeks. Many parents say they don't believe young kids should be exposed to the complicated and violent topic until they can properly understand it.
Several worried mums and dads told O'Keefe how the current approach has failed.
'My children attended a beautiful little preschool, both came home at different times saying they'd learned that "white men came here and took away the Aboriginals' children",' one parent said. 'They chopped down all the trees and poisoned the waterways and then they asked me, "Are all white men bad?".'
One Indigenous family said their daughter learnt about the Stolen Generations in Year One, before they'd had the chance to talk with her about it.
'She had to learn it at a very young age because her great grandfather and grandmother were taken from their families which is a huge horrible concept to teach to her at any point,' they said.
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Eraring poised to remain open beyond 2025
The Hunter's peak business advocacy group has urged the state government to extend the operating life of Eraring power station beyond mid-2025 to shore up energy reliability during the energy transition.
It follows a recommendation from the government-commissioned O'Reilly Review that it strike a deal with Origin Energy to keep the 2880 megawatt plan running beyond the scheduled closure date.
The Minns government is expected to formally announce its intention regarding the future of Eraring in the coming days.
"There has been immense trepidation in the business community as traditional energy assets are turned off, with no renewables arriving to replace them," Business Hunter acting chief executive Sheena Martin said.
"Shortfall in the marketplace drives pricing increases. We know energy bills are an acute source of pain for business, with double digit cost increases directly quelling growth and expansion plans, or in more extreme instances, impacting their ability to maintain current operations
"We must also be live to our future energy demand curve, which is imminently expected to hike as we build new industries in wind, green hydrogen, battery manufacturing and more, all hungry for vast amounts of energy."
Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria said last week that, while Eraring remained on track to close in 2025, the company would continue to assess market conditions before making a final decision.
It is likely that government intervention to keep the plant open would cost between $200 million and $400 million a year. However, the government has little option given the slow pace of the clean energy roll-out
"If the Eraring power station closes as planned in 2025 it would be catastrophic for consumers and destabilise our entire electricity grid," Institute of Public Affairs executive director Scott Hargreaves said.
The Australian Energy Regulator found the closure of Liddell power station earlier this year eliminated surplus capacity from the grid. It also resulted in a spike in wholesale prices and reduced grid reliability.
"Liddell was the line in the sand moment for the nation's energy grid as any further closures of stations like Eraring or Bayswater would mean energy security would be terminally comprised, with households and businesses paying the cost in higher prices and reduced reliability," Mr Hargreaves said.
But NSW Nature Conservation Policy and Advocacy director Brad Smith warned the state would fail to meet already weak climate targets if the decision to subsidise Australia's biggest coal plant goes ahead.
"This recommendation is an absolute disaster for the climate, energy affordability and the credibility of the NSW government when it comes to emissions reductions," Dr Smith said.
"This is despite mounting evidence that such an extension is unnecessary, will cost consumers more, and make it impossible for us to meet our emissions targets."
Dr Smith said it appeared that the government was determined to "forge ahead with the absurd waste of taxpayer money", despite recent reports that demonstrated that the Eraring could be closed on schedule.
"NSW climate targets rely heavily on closing coal, and for good reason - it's the largest source of climate pollution, and the easiest to phase out.
"We cannot imagine a scenario where the NSW government reaches its own inadequate climate targets if they choose to extend the life of Eraring by even one or two years"
It was a sentiment shared by Tim Buckley, who is the director of the think tank Climate Energy Finance.
"Leaked reports today that the NSW Electricity Supply and Reliability Review will recommend taxpayer subsidies to extend the life of Eraring coal power station beyond its closure date phased over 2025 would be a massive retrograde step when the exact opposite is needed - implementation of an accelerated transition to firmed renewables, Dr Buckley, who wrote the The Lights will Stay On report, said.
"There is no case to delay the planned closure of Eraring and pay its operator the estimated $200-400m in public subsidies to do so. This money should be invested in NSW' energy transition.
"We call on Energy Minister Penny Sharpe to flood the market with distributed energy and infill utility scale renewables firmed by accelerated deployment of batteries, to drive more capacity. This will ensure supply and reduce wholesale electricity prices, putting permanent downward pressure on energy bills whilst also better aligning our decarbonisation pathway with the climate science.
https://www.newcastleherald.com.au/story/8318390/eraring-poised-to-remain-open-beyond-2025/
***********************************************Victoria to pay AGL to keep Loy Yang open
Victoria will pay AGL Energy to keep the state’s largest electricity generator open until 2035 if Australia has not yet developed enough renewables, but the power station is enduring financial losses.
Victoria has legislated Australia’s most aggressive energy transition policy that sees the state commit to cutting emissions by between 75 and 80 per cent by 2035, and bring forward its net-zero target by five years to 2045. To achieve this, Victoria will prohibit coal power generation in the state by 2035.
While Victoria has taken a hard line, there is widespread scepticism about the capacity of the state to deal with loss of coal generation, especially if one of the dominant electricity generators were to retire earlier than scheduled.
In a move that will temper market concern but evaluate the political discomfort for the state government that was one of the key opponents to coal being included in a so-called capacity mechanism, AGL said it has entered a deal that will manage the retirement of its Loy Yang A coal power station.
AGL chief operating officer Markus Brokhof and Climate Action, Energy and Resources Minister Lily D'Ambrosio refused to be drawn on the details of the risk sharing mechanism agreement the government has entered into with the company.
“This will ensure that Loy Yang will continue to provide power to Victoria until 2035, keeping the lights on while we build renewables and storage capacity to reach our government’s target of 95 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2035,” Ms D’Ambrosio said at a press conference at the power station in Gippsland, in Victoria’s east.
“The structured transition agreement does not provide payments to keep the power station open, nor does it provide payments to close it early. Rather, it provides a framework of certainty that is agreed between the Victorian government and AGL: certainty for workforce, certainty for community, certainty for the renewable energy investors, knowing that they can build with confidence.”
Sources familiar with the agreement said payments would not be paid directly to AGL Instead, Victoria has agreed to share the financial risk burden that should it eventuate would make Loy Yang uneconomic and would encourage AGL to shutter the plant early.
Victoria in 2022 opposed efforts by the former federal Coalition government to develop a capacity mechanism, which would have paid generators – irrespective of the energy source – to ensure sufficient capacity. Victoria and other opponents dubbed the policy coal-keeper.
AGL last year said it would shutter its Loy Yang coal power station in 2035, a decade earlier than previously planned, after sustained pressure from investors — including the company’s largest shareholder billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Australian energy market authorities believe Loy Yang is vital for Australia’s energy security until 2035, but coal power stations are under mounting economic pressure.
Typical coal power stations are inflexible and generate electricity throughout the day with little variance in output. But a rise of solar and wind generation has sent the wholesale price of electricity to zero or even in negative territory, meaning many coal generators are often making losses during daylight hours.
Losses are pared later in the day when the sun sets, but a rise of batteries threatens to exacerbate the financial losses of coal generators
AGL chief executive Damien Nicks earlier this month said the company had invested significant sums to ensure its coal fleet has flexibility and therefore less susceptible to the economic pressures,
Still, the rise of renewables threatens the economics of even the most flexible of fossil fuel generators.
In a deal that ensures AGL does not close Loy Yang prematurely when the broader National Electricity Market requires the generation capacity, Victoria has agreed to share any future financial pain with the retailer until 2035 – effectively safeguarding the future of a generator that produces about 30 per cent of the state’s electricity.
Mr Brokhof refused to detail the financial terms of the arrangement.
“The risk sharing mechanism is of a commercial nature, and we are not disclosing any details of the risk sharing mechanism,” he said.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Gordon Ramsay said the guaranteed revenues would aid the retailer’s capacity to invest in renewables.
“We view this agreement positively as we believe it provides additional certainty for future cash flows for the Loy Yang A power station,” said Mr Ramsay.
AGL said last year it will spend $20bn to develop a pipeline of renewables to replace coal, which it will exit with the mothballing of Loy Yang.
While some investors will cheer the earnings insurance of the deal with the Victorian government, it remains to be seen the reaction of Mr Cannon-Brookes who has vowed to continue pressuring the retailer that he dubbed earlier this month “one of the most toxic companies on the planet”
If Australia has developed enough renewable energy generation capacity before 2035 and Loy Yang is enduring financial losses, AGL and Victoria could jointly agree for the early exit of the generator, but it will require endorsement from Australia’s energy market operator that there is sufficient capacity to compensate, The Australian understands.
However, Australia is struggling to build enough renewable energy generation sources to replace the fossil fuel capacity leaving the system already, so an early exit on the current trajectory remains unlikely.
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Teacher made to apologise for giving child ‘improvement strategies’ (!!)
A teacher who had recently started at a new school was asked to give one student some improvement strategies. The child went home and complained. The principal asked that teacher to apologise to the parents for making that student feel “stressed”.
Australia’s classrooms are ranked among the worst in the world when it comes to discipline and the responsibility for that should not fall solely on teachers, education experts have told a federal senate inquiry into disruptive classrooms.
The story of the teacher asked to apologise was recounted to the inquiry by Dr Paul Kidson, senior lecturer in educational leadership at the Australian Catholic University, who said parents and students had too often been given a free pass in the schooling system.
“There is no likelihood that there is going to be significant improvement in the achievement of a community where that behaviour is characterised as normal,” he said
Kidson said a combination of poorer mental health of students, a nationwide teacher shortage and schools’ inability to give high-need students adequate support meant behaviour had become a “wicked problem”.
However, he said there had also been an increase in the “overmedicalising of the normal human condition”. Last year there was a 30 per cent jump in prescriptions for drugs used to treat anxiety in children, the biggest annual increase seen in a decade.
‘[Young people] will expect things just to go their way. And if it doesn’t go their way, somebody else is to blame.’
“Facing academic challenges, an increasing number of students are claiming anxiety disorders or trauma in ways that minimise the seriousness of clinical, medical or psychological conditions experienced, sadly, by too many,” he said.
“That suggests to me that we are not building the resilience for a number of young people and, when they move into more independence, they will expect things just to go their way. And if it doesn’t go their way, somebody else is to blame.”
An OECD report earlier this year said the disciplinary climate in Australia was among the least favourable compared to other member nations while Australian teachers felt less capable when it came to dealing with disruptive students.
Literacy instruction provider Multilit chief executive Robyn Wheldall said simply creating engaging lessons would not resolve behaviour problems. The physical environment of the classroom had an effect on behaviour: she said arranging desks so students faced one another in small groups in primary school might seem to create a “nice” collaborative environment but was not always conducive to learning.
“If you wanted someone to do something social, like have a dinner party, you would sit around a table and chat. But if you’re in a classroom and you want kids to pay attention to you, the teacher, first of all, you don’t want half of them with their backs to you,” she said.
Her research had shown that teachers gave positive feedback when it came to a student’s academic progress – they are three times more approving rather than disapproving of students’ progress with schoolwork– but that ratio was reversed when it came to behaviour.
“They are more than three times disapproving of social behaviour than of approving. That means the teacher is talking a lot about, ‘Don’t do that, sit down, concentrate, don’t disturb’. All of these things are not going to change the world in terms of disruption or violence, but they create interruptions to what the teacher is trying to do and disturb other kids,” she said.
Ensuring teachers provide specific praise for behaviour like they did academic work coupled with the creation of consistent disciplinary environments within schools and educating teaching graduates at university about behaviour management could counter disruption in classrooms.
“There is a wealth of evidence from research and practice that we can draw on to bring about positive changes in classrooms, with relatively simple but effective methods,” she said.
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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)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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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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