Australian Politics
Same pay for same work to become law under Labor-crossbench industrial relations deal
This sounds fair but the catch is that casual and permanent jobs are often not comparable. Causual workers often put in more hours under worse conditions and thus get MORE pay than permanents. These laws are designed to PENALIZE casual work and make unionized workers feel better
First responders will have easier access to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compensation and contractors will receive the same pay as full-time employees in the same role within weeks, after the government agreed to crossbench demands to split its massive industrial relations bill.
The deal will see same pay for same work changes from next year
Crossbench senators David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie last month harpooned Labor's plans for workplace changes amid concerns the government was trying to rush the changes through the parliament.
At the time, the crossbenchers introduced their own bill that created a path for Labor to pass the non-controversial elements of its IR proposal, including the PTSD compensation.
The Senate passed the crossbench bill with the Coalition's support but the government has for weeks refused to pass that bill through the House of Representatives, insisting it wanted to proceed with its original plan.
In a deal struck ahead of the final sitting day, Labor agreed to split its plans in return for the crossbench supporting its same pay for same work provisions, which have been controversial among business groups.
Here is what is changing and what is not (for now).
Pay and condition changes
From next year, labour hire loopholes will be closed, in a move that will require contractors doing the same work as full-time employees of a company to be offered the same pay and conditions.
The new laws will also ensure employees will not miss out on their redundancy payments, regardless of the size of the business.
Under current laws, a small business is one that employs fewer than 15 people. Some small businesses do not have to offer a redundancy payment when making an employee redundant.
Supports for workers
The new laws will make it easier for first responders to gain workers compensation for PTSD from January 1.
Members of the Australian Border Force and the Australian Federal Police, ambulance officers, paramedics, emergency services communications operators and firefighters will be the beneficiaries.
The laws also seek to offer workplace protections for people experiencing family and domestic violence.
The Labor-crossbench agreement will also expand the remit of the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency to cover silica and silicosis, in an attempt to better protect workers who use the materials.
Making wage theft a crime
Employers caught deliberately underpaying workers could face jail time under new laws the federal government is proposing.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke has repeatedly said it was a criminal offence for an employee to steal money from the till, but not for an employer who withholds money from an employee's pay.
The proposed changes would see a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and fines up to $7.8 million — or three times the amount that was underpaid if that amount exceeds the maximum fine.
The government insists criminal penalties would not apply for "honest mistakes".
Industrial manslaughter will also become a criminal offence.
Three elements of Labor's original industrial relations changes remain in limbo — at least until the new year.
They include minimum standards for gig workers, minimum standards for truck drivers and changing the definition of casual employment to provide a path to permanency.
These provisions, which have the support of the union movement, have faced fierce backlash from business groups.
A Senate committee is investigating those changes and will report back next year.
The Greens and unions want to give employees greater rights to disconnect from work and hope that will be considered next year.
Senators Pocock and Lambie have offered their commitment to consider the remaining parts of the legislation "in good faith early in the new year".
"It's clear that things like minimum standards for gig workers are necessary but we need to ensure we get the details of these big changes right," Senator Pocock said.
“Bringing forward changes that will better support first responders with PTSD will be life-changing and I thank the government for working with the crossbench to split the bill to get this done this year.”
Mr Burke thanked the senators for the discussions they have had and insisted the compromise would deliver for workers.
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All set for the US to sell Australia three ‘apex predator’ submarines
Australia is set to acquire its first nuclear-powered submarine by 2032 after key members of the United States Congress agreed to fast-track legislation to advance the AUKUS pact.
Democratic congressman Joe Courtney, co-chair of the Congressional Friends of Australia Caucus, said the US was poised to “defy the odds” by transferring its top secret, nuclear-powered submarine technology to another nation for the first time in over 60 years.
“I’m very relieved,” said Courtney, who is regarded as one of US Congress’ top experts on shipbuilding and submarines. “This is a very significant accomplishment for all the parties involved. A lot of people have been holding their breath to see whether Congress takes this seriously.”
The AUKUS submarine plan hit trouble in July when 23 Republican senators, including Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell, wrote to US President Joe Biden saying they did not support the proposal to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia unless the US doubled its own domestic production capacity.
The Senate and House armed services committees on Friday unveiled the final version of the annual National Defence Authorisation Act, which includes a provision for Australia to acquire three nuclear-powered submarines from the United States.
The bill will also loosen defence export controls on Australia and the United Kingdom while allowing Australia to be treated as a domestic supplier of key materials such as rare earths.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the federal government was “heartened and hopeful by the news coming out of the United States”.
“It’s obviously a matter for the US Congress, but we are hopeful of a good result,” he said, adding that the Royal Australian Navy was on the verge of a “once in a generation change”.
The first two Virginia-class submarines will be purchased from the US Navy’s existing fleet while the third submarine will be newly built. Courtney said he was hopeful the bill would pass both houses of Congress by the end of next week.
He said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s October visit had an “appreciable impact” in convincing members of Congress of the importance of AUKUS and that Australian ambassador Kevin Rudd had been a “relentless” advocate for the legislation.
The US has only provided one other nation with nuclear-powered submarine technology once before: the United Kingdom in 1958. Australia is scheduled to buy its first submarine in 2032, the second in 2035 and the third in 2038.
Australia will provide $3 billion to help expand the American industrial base to ensure its own submarine fleet is not depleted by the transfer.
Tom Corben, a research fellow in the foreign policy and defence program at the United States Studies Centre, said Australia was acquiring the “most advanced and deadly naval platform out there” in the form of the Virginia-class submarines – even if the first two boats are between five and 15 years old.
Unlike diesel-powered submarines, nuclear-powered submarines can travel vast distances without needing to rise to the surface.
The US has not revealed which submarines Australia will acquire, but USS North Carolina, which was launched in 2007, visited HMAS Stirling in Western Australia in August.
The legislation says that the US Secretary of State will be required to provide a regular and detailed assessment of “how Australia’s sovereign conventionally armed nuclear attack submarines contribute to United States defence and deterrence objectives in the Indo-Pacific region”.
Former White House advisor Michael Green said the progress in Congress showed that, despite widespread scepticism about the pact, AUKUS was “on track”.
He said he was confident the pact would survive a second Donald Trump administration despite the former president’s unpredictability because AUKUS was popular with the national security community in Washington, including leading Republicans.
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University of Queensland-Led Study Finds Overweight Status Impedes SARS-CoV-2 Immune Response
University of Queensland-led research shows being overweight can impair the body’s antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection but not to the protection offered by vaccination.
Marcus Tong, with the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences and a Ph.D. candidate led the research reporting that the study’s finding built on the team’s existing research on how COVID-19 affects people who are overweight.
The research team collected blood samples from people who had recovered from COVID-19 and not been reinfected during the study period, approximately 3 months and 13 months post-infection.
“We’ve previously shown that being overweight – not just being obese – increases the severity of SARS-CoV-2,” Mr. Tong said.
“But this work shows that being overweight creates an impaired antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 infection but not to vaccination.”
“At 3 months post-infection, an elevated BMI was associated with reduced antibody levels,” Mr. Tong said.
“And at 13 months post-infection, an elevated BMI was associated with both reduced antibody activity and a reduced percentage of the relevant B cells, a type of cell that helps build these COVID-fighting antibodies.”
No Impact on Vaccination
Interestingly, an elevated BMI had no effect on the antibody response to COVID-19 vaccination at approximately 6 months after the second vaccine was administered.
Associate Professor Kirsty Short said the results should help shape health policy moving forward.
“If infection is associated with an increased risk of severe disease and an impaired immune response for the overweight, this group has a potentially increased risk of reinfection,” Dr Short said.
“It makes it more important than ever for this group to ensure they’re vaccinated.”
Dr Short said from a public health perspective, this data draws into question policies around boosters and lockdowns.
“We’d suggest that more personalized recommendations are needed for overweight people, both for ongoing COVID-19 management and future pandemics,” she said.
“Finally, the data provides an added impetus to improve SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in low-income countries, where there’s a high percentage of people who are overweight and are dependent on infection-induced immunity.”
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Queer Theory in the public schools is anti-science mumbo-jumbo
John Gideon Hartnett
I have been reading through some training aid documents from ClickView titled Understanding Gender with various subtitles Talking about Gender and Identity and Gender and Stereotypes. These are teaching aids approved for Australian public schools. In my opinion, they could confuse the young with delusions. They create chaos in developing minds thus weakening society and priming it for Marxism.
What amazes me is how quickly a generation can be lost, in fact, destroyed with toxic propaganda which has no basis in science.
I recently attended a talk about the lunatics running this country’s power grid into oblivion because of ideological climate cultism. At that meeting it occurred to me how the younger generation are no longer taught any real science, especially physics. But now I would include biology as well.
Those running this country’s education system seem to be saying that they can determine truth, and it’s flexible. To them, there are no are absolutes!
The training aids gas-light the students with phrases such as:
‘People often use the words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ as if they’re the same thing. While they’re related, there are some important differences.’
Tell an electrician or a farmer that sex and gender are different. If they believe you they may be soon dead, out of business, or both.
Biological sex and biological gender are exactly the same thing. Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes containing at least 28,000 genes.
Sex or gender is well known to be determined by the X or Y chromosomes in the sex cells called gametes. In sexual reproduction, one X or Y chromosome of the 23 inherited from each parent is combined in the resulting zygote cell formed from the union of egg (X) and sperm (X or Y). That means the zygote cell ends up with either XY for a male or XX for a female. I could say there are no other combinations but that is not true.
Nevertheless, that is only one tiny component in the difference between males and females. About 8,000 of those 28,000 genes determine the different physiological characteristics of males and females. Surgically altering genitals changes nothing internally except in males when castrated.
In the training documents, the material acknowledges that sex is biological but it adds that gender is more than that. It is argued that there are biological human males and females, but there are also intersex humans who do not conform to the biology of male or female. Is that true?
It is true that when DNA replication occurs in the sex cells, particularly in the male sperm cells, a copying error may occur and on very rare occasions someone may get an extra X or Y chromosome in the gamete cells. Let’s look at two of the most common of those.
There is 47,XYY sex chromosomal abnormality where a male has an additional copy of the Y chromosome, with a prevalence of 1 in 1,000 live male births. This is extremely rare. The 47 means the person gets an extra chromosome over the normal 46 we otherwise all have as humans. They usually have few symptoms. But those they do have may include being taller than average and an increased risk of learning disabilities. The person is generally otherwise normal, including typical rates of fertility. Yet sex chromosome anomalies are more frequently associated with male infertility.
Then there is 47,XXY, a sex chromosomal abnormality where a male has an additional copy of the X chromosome. Although this is one of the most common chromosomal disorders, it occurs in about 1 or 2 in 1,000 live male births. The primary features are infertility and small, poorly functioning testicles. But often the symptoms are noticed only at puberty. They do not produce as much testosterone as other boys, and as a result develop a less muscular body, with less facial and body hair, but broader hips. They may even develop breast tissue in their teen years.
So look at this! The XYY males are still males and occur at a rate of 1 in 1,000. Most would never even know they are. The XXY males are still males and occur at a rate of 1 or 2 in 1,000. So that is the higher rate of occurrence. But most do not know they have the condition. For argument sake, since this is one of the most common chromosomal disorders, let’s assume this is the level they occur in the classrooms.
Schools may have as many as 2,000 students. Therefore in such a school we would expect about 2 to 4 such 47,XXY males. They are going to tell the students because there may be a few males in the school who are less vigorous producing less testosterone than the other males who are past puberty that we can assume there maybe several intersex persons in the classroom? And what about the prepubescent boys? It is gas-lighting on steroids; no pun intended.
So what has this to do with gender? Well, a lot.
‘Gender is a social construct that refers to ideas of how people should look, dress, and behave in a given society.’
The materials explains that this means a person learns from external stimuli what gender they are. It is completely malleable and never fixed. It ignores known history where billions of humans were born male or female and naturally lived according to traditional roles. Females get pregnant, males cannot. That is basic biology! Again!
These roles to some extent may be fashioned by cultural norms, but they are the fruit of the biochemistry inside the male and female bodies. Their hormone systems shape those bodies especially after puberty. Now we have a situation where children are being put on hormone blockers as young as they can get away with it. That is a tacit admission that gender is biological. It is a fact, it is not something you imagine in your head and the hormones shut off or change you to the opposite sex.
Behaviour is largely biological. Having a baby is biological. Normally a pregnant woman should not be on a battlefield fighting a war. Males are fuelled by testosterone and have body strength way greater than females. Gender does matter when it comes down to real life.
Let’s stop the anti-science indoctrination. The next thing they’ll be teaching the students is that the Earth is flat!
https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/12/queer-theory-in-the-public-schools-is-anti-science-mumbo-jumbo
************************************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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