Australian Politics
New Leftist Premier guarantees future of Queensland coal mining, gas production
Steven Miles has guaranteed that new coalmines and natural gas wells will be allowed in Queensland, even though his recast Labor government aims to slash emissions by 75 per cent.
Mr Miles told The Australian new resource projects would continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis and could be approved under the tightened climate settings.
In one of his first acts as Premier, he announced the government would legislate a revised emissions target of 75 per cent below 2005 levels by 2035.
“It means it’s unlikely we would have new coal-fired generators,” he said of the state’s ageing, publicly owned power-producing sector.
“But it doesn’t have an impact on the approvals process for extraction projects … each project will be judged on the individual merits. There was no blanket ban … required as part of 75 per cent.”
Under predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk, hefty coal royalty hikes angered big miners and triggered an advertising campaign by the Queensland Resources Council against the Labor government.
But the controversial tax regime is forecast to pump $9.2bn into the state coffers, up $3.8bn in the 2023-24 budget update.
Mr Miles said fugitive emissions from coal and gas mining would be captured under the revised climate action target.
He said the scheme was an example of how he would bring together city and country in the nation’s most decentralised state.
“We will continue to export coal – particularly coking coal will have a longer future – and we will continue to use gas into the 2030s, and clearly we will continue to export gas as well,” he said. “This is based on modelling that says 75 per cent is achievable. This is really bringing what I’ve been doing in state development into the wider government.
“My focus has been the new industry development strategy, which is all about converting heavy industry to renewable energy … it’s a strong example of how I can bring together the regions and the city. People in the city are concerned about climate change, people in the regions are also concerned about climate change, but they want blue-collar jobs protected and new industries attracted.
“That’s what I want to do here, and legislating the 75 by 2035 target is an important signal.”
Mr Miles said the cabinet line-up he was finalising late on Sunday would demonstrate “renewal” of the government under his leadership, with five new ministers coming in. Controversy-plagued Transport Minister Mark Bailey and Sport and Tourism Minister Stirling Hinchliffe – blamed by some caucus colleagues for the recent RNA stadium debacle – are among those set to bow out.
Asked how the government would hit the formidable target of a 75 per cent emissions reduction over the coming decade, Mr Miles said state laws to limit land clearance outside the cities, and the federal government’s safeguard mechanism to reduce industrial emissions, would be important.
Anticipated technological advancements would also play a role, alongside the transition to renewable energy mandated at both federal and state levels. Queensland has committed to deliver 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030, 70 per cent by 2032 and 80 per cent by 2035, backed by a $500m Low Emissions Investment Partnerships Program and $200m investment in the state’s Regional Economic Futures Fund.
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Who’s teaching the teachers?
At the height of the student protests in Melbourne, sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Ivy Bertram appeared on The Project to discuss her decision to help organise the pro-Palestinian rally. As Miss Bertram, an expert on Gaza and geo-politics, delivered pearl after pearl of wisdom, Mr Ali and his fellow hosts nodded in deference at the insight being proffered by this modern-day oracle of Delphi. Unfortunately, this new breed of political commentator currently gracing our screens typifies everything that is wrong with the education system in this country.
There is no doubt that Miss Bertram is simply repeating what she has been told by her teachers at school. But who is teaching the teachers, and what are they being taught at university? The Institute of Public Affair’s latest report, Who Teaches the Teachers? An Audit of Teaching Degrees at Australian Universities, answers these questions and confirms what we have long suspected: our education faculties have been completely beguiled by the forces of wokery, woke activism is deeply and irrevocably embedded into teacher training and universities are churning out legions of woke activist teachers.
Instead of being taught how to master core academic curricula such as reading, writing, mathematics, history and science, the report reveals that teachers are being trained by their university lecturers to be experts in critical social justice, identity politics, critical race theory, radical gender theory, social and emotional learning, and sustainability. Of the 3,713 subjects taught across 37 universities that offer teaching degrees, 1,169 are classified as woke, or as critical social justice. In contrast, a meagre 371 are devoted to teaching phonics, mathematics and grammar. It’s a wonder that children are able to spell ‘Climate Justice’ on their protest banners.’
Critical social justice and the accompanying theories now entrenched in Australian universities were pioneered by Brazilian Marxist educator Paulo Freire (1921-1977) as a theory of teaching known as ‘critical pedagogy’. Built on Marxist foundations, this sought to turn children into politically conscious participants in a perpetual revolution. Tellingly, Freire’s other heroes were Friedrich Hegel, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
By the early 1990s, Freire’s ideas were added to by the social theorists in North American universities who introduced critical race theory and post-colonial theory into the mix. The influence of Freire and his disciples on the teaching landscape in Australia has been far-reaching and profound. He even came to this country in 1974, giving lectures on ‘authority and authoritarianism, conscientisation (critical awareness), violence, class struggle and illusions of neutrality’. Freire’s audience clearly tuned out while he was talking about illusions of neutrality.
As recently as 2021, the Brazilian Marxist was being lauded as ‘one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century’ by Australian academics at a conference held at the University of South Australia.
Critical social justice requires teachers to be agents of change, a message which is drummed into them throughout their four-year degrees. At Monash University, a student taking ‘Theorising Social Justice’ is told that the unit ‘aims to develop in you a strong grasp of the concept of “cognitive justice”, and the associated notions of “epistemic” and “epistemological” justice which will support you to engage with and give value to, the diversity of thought and different “ways of knowing” that can be applied to the pursuit of social justice in local, national, and international contexts, in educational settings and beyond’.
It also teaches them to approach Aboriginal education through the lens of critical race theory and post-colonial theory. At the University of Melbourne, Masters students ‘will engage in critical discussions and activities that enable them to reflect on the impacts of settler colonialism, racism and unexamined bias on First Nations educational sovereignties as well as build their understanding and awareness of Indigenous knowledges and strategies for working towards decolonisation’.
In extreme cases, such as ‘Rethinking Indigenous Education’ offered by Macquarie University, students are not only taught that all Western knowledge must be decolonised, but that they must also be proficient in ‘abolitionist, futurist and Indigenist thinking’. Those taking ‘Leadership in Indigenous Education’ at the University of Canberra are being taught to monitor the ‘attitudes, beliefs and behaviours of other educators around them’. There must be no wrong think in the classroom!
Sustainability is of course, inextricably linked to critical social justice, and maintains that a sustainable world cannot be achieved without a socially just world. Sustainability education is not confined to secondary education but commences at an early age. For example, students studying a Bachelor of Education Early Childhood and Primary at the University of New England are taught how to introduce children aged between two and five to sustainability in the sciences. At the University of Notre Dame, lecturers ensure that ‘a key aim is to empower pre-service teachers to integrate effective advocacy for sustainability in their professional teaching role’ while ‘strategies will be explored to enable young children to participate as active citizens and agentic leaders in protecting the environment for a sustainable future’. Meanwhile, Federation University is concerned with equipping students with ‘tools to embed environment and sustainability practices into primary and/or junior secondary education using interdisciplinary teaching and learning strategies’.
With teaching like this, it is no wonder that anxious young Australians are out in the streets protesting about the government’s supposed inaction on climate change. Almost since birth, they have been indoctrinated by their woke teachers with the narrative that the world is on the verge of a climate apocalypse. And it is of course hardly a coincidence that one in three Australian students can barely read or write, with an average of 33 per cent performing below expectations, while almost one in ten students is not achieving the expected learning outcomes for literacy and numeracy at their year level.
Under the federal government’s ‘back to basics’ plan, there will be a new accreditation regime for teaching degrees, and it will be mandatory for universities to instruct trainee teachers in evidence-based reading, writing, arithmetic, and classroom management practices. While this might be a step in the right direction, it will not address the fact that teachers are being schooled in ideologies which are not only incompatible with the notion of traditional education but also seek to tear it down. As long as woke courses dominate teaching degrees, I fear we will have to endure being lectured to by activist schoolchildren.
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/12/whos-teaching-the-teachers/
************************************************Appointment of far Leftist as Queensland’s top public servant has been labelled a “sick joke” by the LNP, which argues his appointment will hurt democracy
Premier Steven Miles will appoint Mr Kaiser Director-General of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, replacing Annastacia Palaszczuk’s appointment, Rachel Hunter.
Opposition Integrity spokeswoman Fiona Simpson raised concerns with Mr Kaiser – a former Labor MP, Labor state secretary and “self-confessed vote rorter” – now in charge of the apolitical public service.
“To put someone with these blatant ties to Labor and a history of vote rorting is a sick joke and is a terrible tone to set for Public Servants,” she said.
“This appointment, in the shadows of an election year, will have a chilling effect on our democracy.”
Mr Kaiser resigned from the Queensland parliament in 2001 after admitting to electoral fraud in the 1980s.
He rejoined the Queensland government in 2007, serving as Premier Anna Bligh’s chief of staff before quitting for the private sector.
He again returned in 2020 to lead the Department of Natural Resources and Mines before joining Mr Miles’ department in April 2022.
Ms Simpson said Peter Coaldrake’s 2022 integrity review spoke about the “importance of an independent Public Service” and said his appointment could hinder the Opposition’s efforts in holding the government to account.
“A former Labor MP, Labor State Secretary and Labor campaign director will be in charge of the resourcing of the Office of the Leader of the Opposition and maintain final approval over much of the messaging of the Opposition,” she said.
“Steven Miles is the unelected Premier because of a secret backroom deal with union bosses and now is attempting to politicise the public service.”
Mr Miles on Sunday denied Mr Kaiser’s appointment would politicise the public service.
“I think if you survey opinion, public service and the Queensland business sector, they will say that Mike Kaiser will be an excellent director-general in DPC,” he said.
“Others might want to disparage him but I think if you talk to engaged observers they will tell you that he’s doing a good job and that he’ll do a great job.
“He has proven himself in his role, both as director-general of resources and then as my director general in state development.”
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Queensland budget rescued by coal levies
Treasurer Cameron Dick in a press release said the government was extending its $8.2bn suite of sweeteners from the most recent coal-showered budget to freezing public transport fees (did anyone tell the mayors?), ratifying the $30,000 home grant (which will not increase house prices, apparently) and putting the brakes on car registrations.
While not included on the press release, voters can still get the $6000 electric car rebate and be comforted by the fact those heathens who drive petrol and diesel vehicles are picking up the tab for their road usage.
Thank you again mining industry, who on some estimates are paying a million dollars per hour for the privilege of risking shareholder capital for multi-decade projects now being bequeathed on the union fiefdoms in George St and South Brisbane.
The latest financial update included no mention of freezing or at least trying to stem the flow of wages expenses that have in the past five years included $600m of discretionary bonuses for the state’s impoverished public sector workers (average earnings $100,000 according to Glassdoor.com.au).
After nine years, the government seems incapable of managing its expense line and relying heavily on a revenue one that has been gifted by way of an elevated metallurgical coal price.
Nick Jorss, the chairman of Bowen Coking Coal, said after the introduction of the royalty regimen last year that he felt like he had woken up in Argentina.
“Maybe I should have used another example, like Venezuela, or another dictatorship” was the follow-up quote.
Such quotes along with any mention of the Queensland Resources Council and its CEO, Ian Macfarlane, have hurt Labor’s mining credentials which, like the private sector experience of its MPs, now approaches net zero.
Coal royalties exceeded Queensland Treasury’s forecasts despite every credible trading house having a coal price at $US275 per metric ton in their reporting, meaning an upside surprise in the latest update (wow, never saw that coming!).
However, when royalties are stripped out, the cost blowouts given to the state by former transport minister Mark Bailey and the government’s unwavering commitment to spending suggest the state would struggle if the coal price went south, and quickly.
For the extreme example, former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez authored a set of populist policies that would end bankrupting the country due to his belief the country’s only export in oil would sell for a fixed price of $US150 per barrel. When the price of the black stuff hit $US30 per barrel, guess what happened?
Defending the mining industry may be unpopular, but it basically pays for everything. The broader point, and there is no getting away with it, Australia doesn’t have industries of the size and scale capable of making a material difference to the federal or state budget bottom line.
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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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