Australians greet their King



With her puffed sleeves, golden sandals and nervous grimace, Georgina Box launched their majesties’ first working day in Australia with a deep, perfectly executed curtsy.

The four-year-old ballerina had rehearsed in her room for days, and kept working on it until showtime on Sunday. “The kids’ church leaders said they’d been waiting for 20 minutes, and she was practising for that 20 minutes,” said her mother, Laura.

Neither King Charles III, Queen Camilla, nor Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel could hold back a smile as the perky preschooler bobbed to them in the vestibule of St Thomas’ Church.

The little girl set the tone for the royal couple’s reception in Sydney, which was just like the weather that greeted them as they woke at their harbourside residence on Sunday morning: sunny, with an occasional chill in the air.

Australians might be ambivalent about the monarchy and the role it should play in the country’s future but after a hard year, many enjoyed the distraction of royal pomp in their backyard.

There were a few hundred people hoping to catch a glimpse of the monarch outside St Thomas’ Church after the service, and another few hundred outside NSW Parliament House, which the King visited alone to mark the bicentenary of the Legislative Council.

Each venue could have accommodated many more, but those who came were enthusiastic. There was Melburnian Lynton Martin, who wore a jacket covered in Union Jacks and a brooch reading “Long Live the King”.

There was Elizabeth Kenny, who went royal spotting on her birthday and was rewarded by a brief meeting that left her shaking. There were Magali Latchoumanin and her daughter, Sunny, 11, who travelled 15 hours from a French-speaking island near South Africa to be part of history.

A small group of protesters also gathered outside the church, identifying themselves as First Nations Resistance. They held up a banner saying “DECOLONISE”, and exchanged barbs with royal supporters.

At the church, no one mentioned the elephant in the room, that the Sydney Anglican Archdiocese has all but split with the Church of England, of which the King is the supreme governor, over conservative Sydney’s view that the Britons are not orthodox enough.

Earlier this year, Raffel described the Church of England’s decision to allow blessings of same-sex couples as “a grievous abrogation of its responsibility to uphold the primacy of scripture in the life and ministry of the church”.

At Parliament House, MPs were star-struck, too, as King Charles popped into a lunch for the 200th birthday of the Legislative Council, staying only briefly to deliver a speech, gift them an hourglass, and make a joke about his age (he “first came to Australia nearly 60 years ago, which was slightly worrying”).

Many held up their phones to film the entrance of the monarch, who was announced to the sound of NSW Police trumpeters as the King of Australia (a lone voice responded with a shout of “hooray”; in response to the hooray, another lone voice laughed).

To the MPs for Vaucluse (Kellie Sloane) and Manly (James Griffin), he extolled the virtues of Bondi Beach. “He asked if Bondi was as amazing as it has always been,” Sloane said.

MPs from both sides of politics described it as a memorable event. Even some of the Greens were there, said one. “We may all be pro-republic, but acknowledge this is a very special occasion for the parliament, and we want to be a part of it,” said one Labor MP on the condition of anonymity, so they could speak freely.

A National Party MP, speaking on the same condition, said it was “a really special day … all MPs were saying this morning that it’s a rare occasion to have a reigning monarch address us, so everyone has been very excited”.

The King greeted well-wishers outside parliament, too. Sasha Barrass, 13, was among them. “He has a firm handshake,” she said. “I said hello to him, and he said hello back, and then my mum said, “Long live Your Majesty”, and my dad said he hopes the King is well, and he said how everyone is very kind.

“I’m really excited and will treasure this moment for the rest of my life.”

After an audience with Governor-General Sam Mostyn, the royal duties were complete. It was a short day by royal standards, but a longer than usual one for the King since his cancer diagnosis.

On Monday, the royal couple will visit federal parliament and the War Memorial in Canberra, before returning to Sydney on Tuesday and flying to Samoa for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on Wednesday.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-little-girl-who-spent-days-practising-for-the-king-and-the-elephant-in-the-church-20241017-p5kjb0.html

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Methodist Ladies College students forced to remove their 'cross' over fears they will offend

Girls at a prestigious church-founded private school claim they've been ordered to take off Christian crosses because they offend classmates.

Year 12 students at Melbourne's Methodist Ladies College (MLC) in the affluent eastern suburb of Kew claim that students are allowed to wear furry ears, tails and rainbow-themed pride items but not crosses signalling their Christian faith.

An unnamed student told the Herald Sun that the school was practising 'religious discrimination' because teachers were asking those who had them as jewellery to take them off when other students complain they are offensive to non-Christians'.

'My friend was wearing a cross and there was another girl in our class who said she found the cross really offensive and so the teacher told her to take it off,' she told the publication.

'My friend's parents, who are very religious, tried to get answers from the school and were told 'it's not a good look for the school'.

'This is supposed to be a religious school but they are listening to minority opinion rather than mainstream religious students.'

Students who wear Christian crosses have reportedly asked put them on longer chain so they are not visible, but students says they are being told to take them off.

Methodist Ladies College, which charges close to $39,000 in fees for a Year 12 student and an extra 36,000 to board, has strict uniform requirements and does not allow make-up, jewellery or untied long hair.

The school is also very strict on inappropriate dress lengths and non-approved clothing.

A school spokesperson told the Herald Sun they were 'deeply committed to fostering a culture of inclusion, respect, and diversity'.

'Our Christian heritage serves as a foundation for welcoming individuals of all faiths, cultures, and backgrounds, fostering an environment where every student is supported in expressing their identity and beliefs,' the spokesperson said.

'Regarding religious jewellery, such as cross necklaces, the College's uniform policy supports consistent presentation among students while respecting individual beliefs.

Parents pay thousands in school fees for their daughters to attend Methodist Ladies College

'We apply all policies with care and sensitivity, ensuring that individual beliefs are respected while supporting our shared identity through the MLC uniform.'

In August 2022, it was reported a year eight student attending a private girls' school in Melbourne was being allowed to 'identify as a cat'.

'No one seems to have a protocol for students identifying as animals, but the approach has been that if it doesn't disrupt the school, everyone is being supportive,' a source close to the family told the Herald Sun.

The school did not confirm this but said they were 'dealing with a range of psychological issues'.

In a statement, the school said students were presenting 'with a range of issues, from mental health, anxiety or identity issues'.

'As a non-denominational and multicultural college, we value diversity and broad expressions of achievement,' the school website states.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13979853/Methodist-Ladies-College-students-forced-remove-cross-fears-offend.html

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Big demand for State selective schools

More than 200 parents a year try to convince the Education Department their child deserves a place in a selective school despite failing to meet the increasingly high entry standard.

Analysts say the proliferation of tutoring and coaching colleges is giving parents false hope and misguided notions about how talented their child is.

The department does not accept appeals if they are based on grounds that should be made through the illness and misadventure process. They can, however, include “what happened to prevent your child from doing his or her best” in the test and supply evidence to support their bid. Parents can also pay $40 to have the writing section remarked, but appeals to remark multiple choice responses are not accepted by the department.

This year, 279 parents have so far requested a review of the outcome for the selective skills test, up from 246 results that were challenged by parents last year. Of those, only eight had their outcome changed.

Competition for selective schools has grown sharply, with more than 18,500 children applying for 4200 spots in fully or partially selective schools for entry next year.

Australian Tutoring Association chief executive Mohan Dhall said the promises made by coaching colleges were leaving parents with unrealistic expectations of gaining entry.

“You have parents who are vulnerable because there are a limited number of places in a highly competitive system and businesses who present themselves as authorities,” he said.

“They call themselves the selective school experts. They amplify it by saying things like: ‘90 per cent of our students got into these schools’. I can understand why vulnerable parents might think, ‘I trust these people more than the Department of Education’.

Coaching colleges target selective students and ‘undermine’ HSC
“With only 3 per cent of students successfully getting a variation in outcome – it says parents should accept the mark they’re given and not query the department. Instead, they should query the commercial coaching colleges.”

Unlike regular public high schools, selective high schools do not have catchments and some students travel two hours to get there. That includes students from Sydney catching the train to get to selective school Gosford High on the Central Coast.

Central Coast Council of P&Cs president Sharryn Brownlee said parents met earlier in the year to discuss the issue of local children being unable to go to Gosford High.

“The reason the meeting was held was because of the population growth on the Central Coast since the pandemic and that the local children are denied the opportunity to go there,” she said.

“We are calling for the Department of Education to have a realistic catchment so students do not spend their whole time commuting,” Brownlee said.

She also said travelling for hours on the train each day was not fair on students who were disconnected from the local school community.

University of NSW gifted education expert Professor Jae Jung said the department should consider adding more places in selective schools in some circumstances.

“If it is obvious that gifted students cannot access a selective school in some areas due to population growth, and this is reflected in a substantial increase to the number of applications to selective schools in these areas, the department should consider increasing the number of places at selective schools,” he said.

“I think that’s a responsible thing to do. There continues to be a huge demand for selective schools, and they play an important role in supporting many gifted students.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/hundreds-of-parents-appeal-their-child-s-rejection-from-selective-school-only-a-handful-will-win-20241017-p5kj7e.html

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Katter's Australian Party candidates campaign for corporal punishment

The Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is calling for a return to physical discipline such as the cane as the party seeks to increase its vote share in Queensland Parliament.

The conservative-leaning party holds four seats in the north of the state and is campaigning on a tough-on-crime policy ahead of the October 26 election.

In a video posted to Facebook, KAP candidate for Townsville Margie Ryder asked followers if they knew anyone whose parents had disciplined them with a jug cord.

"Well, I do, and he turned out wonderful. So good I married him," Ms Ryder said. "The fact of the matter is parents have lost their rights to discipline their children. "Some kids need a smack, a kick up the arse, a ruler or even a hug."

The former Townsville City councillor, who lost her seat at the March 26 local election, went on to say she had met a mother who had been reported to the Department of Child Safety for giving her 14-year-old daughter "a kick up the arse".

Reuben Richardson, the KAP candidate for the seat of Thuringowa based in Townsville's northern suburbs, posted a video with a similar message.

"When I was young there was a healthy fear of doing the wrong thing. You never wanted to go to the principal's office as the cane was always in the back of your mind," Mr Richardson said.

"Did student behaviour deteriorate when we got rid of the cane?"

The cane, wooden spoon, belts, and other threats such as the cord from the kitchen jug were used against children in homes and schools last century.

Corporal punishment was abolished in Queensland state schools in 1995.

It remains lawful under the Criminal Code for Queensland parents to use "reasonable" physical punishment to discipline their children.

When asked if he condoned the use of the jug cord or the cane on children, party leader and Member for Traeger Robbie Katter said: "I condone parents doing whatever they have to do to discipline their kids."

"That can come in any form, you can throw all sorts of examples, you can say a samurai sword, look I don't know.

"I'm not prepared to say what is good and what is bad."

Mr Katter said the corporal punishment policy was borne out of youth crime issues and feedback from First Nations communities.

"Most of the elders in the community will tell you: 'We lost control a long time ago when we lost the right to smack our kids'," he said.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders have rejected claims the policy is coming from the grassroots community.

Townsville youth intervention program manager and elder Aunty Irene Leard said she worked with five traditional owner groups and rejected suggestions Indigenous communities wanted a return to corporal punishment.

"The cane, the jug cord, the belt, that is going to cause more issues because you're introducing violence to these young people," Aunty Irene said.

"Back in the day I got the belt, but we're a different society now. It is not going to work.

"You're actually setting the scene, again, for generations to hit kids whenever they feel frustration."

'Irresponsible' policy

University of Queensland associate professor in social sciences Renee Zahnow said videos promoting corporal punishment were irresponsible and could encourage a "small minority" of parents who take punishment too far.

"We have a responsibility to young people and it is not to teach them through physical abuse," Dr Zahnow said.

She said hurting children teaches them that violence is acceptable and it can cause long-term mental health issues.

KAP member for Mirani Stephen Andrew said he wanted the government to consider returning corporal punishment to Queensland state schools.

Candidates for Cook and Mulgrave, police officer Duane Amos and high school teacher Steven Lesina, also pledged their support for physical discipline.

What is allowed in Queensland?

Most non-government schools across Australia banned corporal punishment more than two decades ago.

Independent Schools Queensland said corporal punishment was not used in the sector.

Mr Katter said the government should not have any say in domestic discipline.

"With words like 'reasonableness' there is an element of subjectivity," he said.

"It's not for the government to prescribe how [parents] should be disciplining their kids.

"They don't need to be double-thinking that they could be reported to child safety."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-20/qld-election-kap-candidates-campaigning-for-corporal-punishment/104488140

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http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)

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Jimbo’s circular economy

Judith Sloan

I was reading about the Productivity Commission’s most recently commissioned inquiry into the circular economy, ordered by Jimbo, our esteemed Treasurer. What the hell is the circular economy, I wondered?

Like all fine scholars, I went directly to Wikipedia and found this out. ‘Circular economy is an economic system that targets zero waste and pollution throughout materials lifecycles, from environment extraction to industrial transformation, and final consumers, applying to all involved ecosystems. Upon its lifetime end, materials return to either an industrial process or, in the case of a treated organic residual, safely back to the environment as in a natural regenerating cycle.’

It went on a bit longer, bringing in the terms: micro, meso, macro and something called a ‘sustainability nested concept’. I wasn’t really any the wiser apart from getting the drift that the circular economy is about being frugal and recycling stuff as much as possible.

My Nan and Pa knew a thing or two about the circular economy, although they wouldn’t have called it that. Having left school early and worked in a variety of jobs, they ended up as publicans on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria. Running a hotel was seen as a safe bet in life.

It was a demanding job, nonetheless. The six-o’clock swill meant that the front bar closed relatively early, but there was still the Ladies Lounge and the dining room to attend to. Providing accommodation was also part of the deal.

My grandparents eventually retired to a seaside town and went about their circular economy lifestyle. They had a big veggie patch, fruit trees and chooks. Nan collected buttons, wrapping and brown paper and string for reuse. She always had a collection of socks in the darning basket to be mended. Lights would be turned off on leaving a room.

They would collect wood from the adjoining fields, and during mushroom season, they would be out gathering as many fungi as they could find. Pa had a fishing net and would encourage locals and visitors to drag it out from the shore in a semi-circle, often capturing a weird assortment of seafood. Nan was a dab hand at scaling, gutting and filleting the fish.

They would do a big shop once a fortnight in Geelong. There were 44-gallon drums in the kitchen containing flour, sugar and rolled oats. Nan was a very economic cook; Pa was an expert at washing up – no dishwasher for them. They were really living the sustainability nested concept but didn’t realise it. In fact, they just thought they were saving money or not spending money unnecessarily.

Somehow, I don’t think that’s what Jimbo has in mind. For him, the circular economy is about more government regulation, bossing people around – telling them what they can and can’t do. Initiatives taken to promote the circular economy will inevitably impose more costs on producers who then pass them onto consumers. We will hear new terms such as ‘stewardship’ and building a ‘regenerative and restorative economy’. Above all, we will need to eliminate the current linear system because linear systems are bad.

I’m sorry to be the bearer of sad news here, but the business called Circonomy has been placed in liquidation, notwithstanding that Officeworks had been a foundation investor. This company emerged from an outfit called the World’s Biggest Garage Sale. It turns out you can’t really make money from other people’s trash notwithstanding the virtues of the circular economy.

Presumably, it was a mere drop in the (financial) ocean for Officeworks. And the spokesperson waxed lyrically when talking of the demise of Circonomy. Evidently, Officeworks remains ‘committed to continuing to play an important role in the circular economy, finding opportunities to transform what may be seen as waste into valuable resources.

One Queensland politician also chimed in, declaring the CEO of Circonomy has ‘shown us all how to be part of the circular economy where nothing is wasted and where we can all lead more sustainable lives. The impact she has made could not be measured’. Well, yes and no. The red ink in the financial statements rather measures the dollar impact.

I also recently enjoyed – OK, a strong word – a radio interview of some professor from RMIT in Melbourne, moaning on about the mountains of unusable and/or unwanted used clothing. According to this genius, we need a national solution to this problem, and we need to have national means of collecting this stuff and making further use of it. Of course, there would be a need for government funding and regulation – the typical solutions of the left’s compassionistas.

I am obviously missing something here: I thought that’s what decentralised opportunity shops do – receiving and reselling used clothing (and other goods) – and, in doing so, make money for the causes they represent. How would the good woman professor’s national scheme cut across what looks like a perfectly functional arrangement?

Of course, the rubbish recycling scam is a well-established part of the circular economy. We must all have a separate recycling bin; in some places in the country, residents are required to have more than one recycling bin. Most people dutifully sort their rubbish ignorant of the fact that, apart from aluminium cans, there is basically no market for recycled items.

It would make more sense to have one bin and for all the rubbish to be dumped in well-managed landfills. One thing we are not short of is available land. These days, these landfills with their membrane linings also generate electricity through the release of methane that can be fed back to the grid. That really does sound circular to me. Alternatively, we could burn the rubbish in giant incinerators like the Nordic countries do and generate electricity as well.

Don’t get me on to the ridiculous container deposit schemes. Consumers are hit with 10 cents per bottle/can, or whatever, on purchases but can drive the car with a collection of used bottles and cans in the boot to receive the cash back from government depots. The machinery does have an unfortunate habit of breaking down, but the lure of receiving that $2.20 is enough for some punters.

The Productivity Commission has evaluated these schemes and given them the firm thumbs down. They basically work to substitute recycling for receiving the deposit back. No net effect on littering or recycling is the impact, although the container deposit schemes are costly to run. Not that politically motivated state governments could care – it’s all about the political vibe and being seen to be doing something to promote the circular economy.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/10/jimbos-circular-economy/

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It will take more than hot air to fix Labor’s renewables woes

The wheels are falling off Mr Bowen’s energy policy as the Albanese government heads downhill like an out-of-control billy cart. Mr Bowen’s energy policy can be summed up as ‘not Mr Dutton’s policy’. That’s the extent of the substance to it, as each day brings more bad news for the 82 per cent renewables charade. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is turning to nuclear to meet future demand.

Rather than remove the prohibition on nuclear to enable market testing, the Albanese government will publicly fund a government-dominated inquiry to discredit the opposition’s nuclear energy plan. The aim is to ‘clear the decks’ for an election next year, rather than to deliver cheaper, cleaner energy for Australian households.

The Albanese government has gone on a crusade against nuclear. How Mr Bowen will produce costings for Mr Dutton’s plan when he is yet to provide costings for his own plan is anybody’s guess. This government is clearly afraid of nuclear and will do anything to put it down rather than face facts.

Microsoft is on the way to securing the Three Mile Island reactor to power a data centre. The reactor was the scene of the worst commercial nuclear accident in US history in 1979. Midnight Oil sang about it with the scaremongering lines, ‘And when the stuff gets in, you cannot get it out.’ Microsoft plans to restart Three Mile Island’s Unit 1, not Unit 2 which suffered the meltdown.

Both Google and Amazon plan to use nuclear energy to power their data centres, too. Artificial intelligence and data centres are driving up energy use and the trend is only likely to continue. How wind, solar, and batteries will be enough for Australia’s future needs is not clear from Mr Bowen’s policy.

In Australia, two major green hydrogen plans have recently fallen through.

Further, two major investors in the unpopular Illawarra Wind Zone have pulled the pin on deploying offshore wind turbines. The move comes amid community concerns over the size of the zone and the proximity to the coast. The smaller zone was part of a political compromise that apparently didn’t sit well with investors.

In the US, the Department of Energy has announced US$900 million to support small nuclear reactors. President Biden’s administration:

‘…believes nuclear power is critical in the fight against climate change because it generates electricity virtually free from emissions, and that US nuclear power capacity must triple to meet emissions goals.’

This is a blow to Mr Bowen who has mocked nuclear energy on a daily basis for some time.

The biggest problem with Mr Bowen’s energy policy is that the evidence doesn’t support his assurances. For example, the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) stated last week that the:

‘…cost of wholesale electricity rose during winter as periods of depressed renewable energy generation coincided with soaring demand for power in bitterly cold weather, data.’

Further, and although wholesale electricity costs were less compared to the previous quarter, the year-on-year costs were much higher. According to the AER:

‘Year-on-year prices were significantly higher across all regions, with Tasmania up 290 per cent, Victoria up 114 per cent and South Australia up 76 per cent.’

The $275 saving is long down amid such lofty numbers.

Unsuitable weather conditions for renewables generation in July and early August coinciding with increased demand was at the heart of the problem. Talk of batteries and pumped hydro (Snowy 2.0 is way behind its timeline and several times over its budget) are fantasy at this stage, with the reliance being placed on extending coal-fired power stations and increasing the amount of electricity generated by gas-fired stations.

Gas, too, is expected to remain at elevated prices for several years.

Yet the problem was recently exacerbated by wind drought – what Germans refer to as ‘dunkelflaute’ – and also that wind and solar projects are taking too long. So, any criticism of nuclear denies the lessons from overseas while pretending the current renewables rollout is progressing well.

Can renewables meet current demand? And can renewables scale-up like nuclear can? (As Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are betting on.)

The short answer is no. The long answer is that Mr Bowen’s Plan A is failing rapidly, and, by his own admission, he has no Plan B.

It will take more than hot air to fix Australia’s energy woes. It would seem that only a change of government will solve the crisis Mr Bowen got us into.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/10/it-will-take-more-than-hot-air-to-fix-labors-renewables-woes/

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Lessons from the new American right

Australian centre-right politicians are very fond of quoting Winston Churchill. One of the last pieces of advice that great wartime leader gave before finally stepping down was that: ‘We must never get out of step with the Americans – never.’

Today, it is striking how much leaders in Australia have diverged from their US counterparts.

Take foreign policy. Tony Abbott, now on the international speakers’ circuit, likes to use very bellicose rhetoric when discussing Ukraine and indeed many other trouble spots. In recent weeks, our former Prime Minister has encouraged bombing Iran and wants to send Australian military ships and jets to that part of the world.

But JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, is much more circumspect. He has said bluntly, ‘I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.’ Though supportive of Israel, the Iraq veteran is more reluctant to get America involved in another war in the Middle East.

It is an attitude he shares with his running mate. John Howard may still say he ‘does not regret’ the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and that the Afghanistan debacle was ‘not entirely a failure’. But this is in stark contrast to the way Donald Trump talks about those terrible wars – ‘the single worst decision ever made’, ‘throwing a big fat brick into a hornet’s nest’ etc.

The new American right increasingly looks at the last 30+ years of failed interventions – from Somalia to Serbia to Iraq to Libya to Syria to Afghanistan to Ukraine – and believes they are the product of a fundamentally flawed ideology.

Their new stance is not ‘isolationism’, but one which stresses realism, rather than the utopian dreams of the George W Bush era and earlier. It is one which recognises that not every bad regime or godawful ethnic dispute on the planet is a re-run of the second world war or the Cold War and shouldn’t be treated as such.

JD Vance, as he often does, sums things up pithily: ‘There is nothing radical about having a strong national security so that when we go to war we punch, and we punch hard, but being cautious and not trying to get involved in any far-flung corner of the world. Sometimes, it is just none of our business, and we ought to stay out of it.’

Trade policy is another area where the Australian right is increasingly out of sync with the Americans.

‘Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,’ Trump recently told the crowd at a campaign stop in Michigan. ‘The most beautiful world in the English language is tariff…’ he told the Economic Club of Chicago a few days ago. One can well imagine Peter Costello’s head exploding when hearing stuff like that.

Yes, the Orange Man’s language is typically bombastic. But he is nevertheless right that a serious reappraisal of America’s trade agreements was long overdue. During his first time in the White House, Trump changed the bipartisan consensus on trade in Washington. If he gets a second term, his great big, beautiful tariff wall will only get higher.

In Canberra, no such reassessment has taken place. We remain ideologically stuck in the 80s and early 90s when questions about trade policy were supposedly solved for all time.

There is perhaps no better illustration of this out of date thinking than the agreement we signed with China on June 17, 2015 – the same day a flamboyant New York businessman came down the escalators in Manhattan promising to re-industrialise America.

Under that agreement we allow close to 100 per cent of Chinese manufactured goods to be imported duty free. So long as that continues, our country will never have a serious manufacturing industry.

Such a policy is neither economically sensible nor geopolitically wise as everyone from Alexander Hamilton to Abraham Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt to Robert Gordon Menzies could have told you. Yet we ignore this key issue and instead fret about whether Chinese leaders in Beijing will decide to have our lobster and wine for dinner.

On immigration, the US and Australian right are also dividing.

It is true we have been better in recent times at preventing unauthorised arrivals crossing the Timor Sea than Americans have been at the Rio Grande. Trump was elected for the first time to rectify this. However, our success at ‘stopping the boats’, has been used as an excuse to justify an excessively high legal immigration intake. As a result, in many ways, we are now in a worse position than the Americans. Our universities, cities, and real estate markets have been completely transformed.

While there have been some moves to reduce numbers, there has not been a recognition that the reliance on mass immigration in and of itself is a structural defect of our economy, not a benefit.

No amount of earnest talk about the need to inculcate ‘Australian values’ or minor adjustments will improve social cohesion if such high numbers continue. As Mark Krikorian, an influential advisor to the Trump-Vance ticket, has long stressed – the best immigration policy today is for it to be ‘low and slow’. This is the direction the Republican Party of the future is heading.

The above is not an argument that Australia must always adopt the same policies as America. But it is a plea, particularly to Liberal Party types, to take more seriously the ideas of the new American right. In many ways they reflect a wiser older conservativism. They have better solutions to today’s problems than the open borders liberalism that the centre-right in Australia has adopted since at least the end of the Cold War.

Left-wing Baby Boomers like to overly celebrate changes they made to social policy, overlook any downsides, and imagine they were the only ones who ever considered questions about family life, and how one should live a good life.

But the Australian right has a similar attitude when it comes to the Hawke-Keating-Howard era on questions of foreign policy, trade, and immigration. It is long past time that for that policy framework to be upended. The torch is being passed to a new generation. The times they are a-changin

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/10/lessons-from-the-new-american-right/

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Fudging on extremism has real consequences

Dallas McInerney, the chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, shone last week for saying nothing more than what most of us already thought.

He balanced the scales, if you like, by stating the obvious.

He called out the “utter failure” of universities nationwide to counter outbreaks of Pro-Palestine protests marked by their menace and marauding absolutism.

He also called out teachers who wore keffiyehs to class for seeking to “indoctrinate” rather than “enlighten”.

McInerney’s candour is likely shared by a silent majority who wonder at the barbarism of the protest clarion calls, and who need not engage in the quibbling over the legalities of waving terrorist flags to know that doing so is drastically wrong.

He invites us to wonder why the safety of a section of the Australian community could be so readily jeopardised, in large part because the leaders and institutions charged with protecting such interests have been cravenly reluctant to do so.

His point also reminds us of the lessons of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who figured that appeasing Hitler might temper the German’s obsession with conquest. Pandering to extremism, his country discovered, promotes more extremism.

The past 12 months has felt like a moral vacuum in Australia. Tolerance has failed to confront intolerance. Activists masquerading as politicians have parroted ugly and infantile demands which ignore the battlelines of this crisis, as well as the battlelines of many Middle East conflicts over the past 80 years.

New beach house owner and prime minister Anthony Albanese has demoted himself to spectator status throughout much of it. His only conviction has been his adherence to statements and speeches which lack conviction.

One day, Albanese might get around to delivering the speech that had to be delivered, the one which explains who we are and what we believe in – and who we are not and what we do not believe in.

Six former prime ministers have condemned hate speech against Australians by Australians. But this prime minister has fudged on the big questions which, until he stumbled over them, had never seemed that hard to answer.

You may not always like what the likes of NSW’s Chris Minns and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have to say. But you like that they are unafraid to say it.

Albanese’s reticence also goes to a deeper misunderstanding. Call it a refusal to acknowledge the blindingly obvious.

There are no compromises in existential war.

There will be no Israel in the harder visions of Palestine statehood. Calling for ceasefires, and possible breaches of international law, misses the point. Laying down rules, from the cheap seats on the other side of the world, does not address the dire issue of one people’s determination to obliterate another people.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong has played at Pollyanna behind a lectern this year. She has tut-tutted at Israel, like a schoolteacher who sees a playground brawl as an opportunity for innovative safety strategies, such as forbidding children from punching another.

She demanded the imposition of a two-state solution last month, and never mind the six or seven compelling reasons why it will not happen, not least the Palestinian intolerance for any version of Israel. Her words sounded like the geopolitical equivalent of inviting two grand final teams to accept a draw.

Wong heads our national interests overseas, but she has also seemed mindful of electoral interests at home. The Greens and Muslim votes may swing results in marginal ALP seats.

Wong has lamented the loss of civilians and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Both, of course, seem like reasonable positions, except that they have been offered without context for the blindingly obvious: that this war was triggered by a Hamas massacre; that if Israel did not fight back, Israel and its people would cease to be.

She was heckled last week, by Pro-Palestine protesters who had decided that she had “blood on her hands” because Australia had failed to act against Israel.

There will be no satisfying the more extreme elements, not unless those extreme elements succeed in destroying Australia’s friend and ally.

What remains obvious? That there will be more shows of anti-Semitism, and more efforts of appeasement in response, in loops which will have no impact on events in the Middle East, but could have real consequences here in Australia.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/news/opinion/fudging-on-extremism-has-real-consequences/news-story/d09a96c8ff30c9d3dc20f1100d96ef07

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All my main blogs below:

http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

https://westpsychol.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH -- new site)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://john-ray.blogspot.com/ (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC -- revived)

http://jonjayray.com/select.html (SELECT POSTS)

http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)

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Angus Taylor lays foundation for Coalition’s economic overhaul

The Coalition has issued a pre-election warning about the growth of the care economy as it vows to drive productivity by ­returning to the economic model championed in the 1980s through lower taxes, spending and regulation.

Opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor has used a major speech to declare the ­nation is at a similar crossroads to the one faced 40 years ago when the Hawke government began ­deregulating the economy, declaring the “consequences of getting it wrong will burden our future generations as much as the current one”.

While not being specific about the Coalition’s economic policies, despite pressure to do so from Labor, Mr Taylor said a Dutton government would reintroduce a tax-to-GDP cap, slow the yearly increase in spending to below economic growth and target a structural budget balance in the “medium term”.

He also flagged a slashing of business regulations, easing rules on the financial services sector, unwinding some of Labor’s workplace reforms while declaring the Coalition would lower taxes with the first priority being on wage earners and small businesses.

Declaring the nation needed a more “realistic economic framework” to deal with the challenges of the 2020s, Mr Taylor warned that the embracement of ­Keynesian-inspired spending to stimulate growth was contributing to inflation and doing nothing to enhance productivity.

Jim Chalmers has credited Labor’s spending with saving the nation from a recession, but Mr Taylor said government stimulus was the wrong approach to deal with the looming economic slowdown because “today’s challenges” were driven by structural and not cyclical problems.

“The traditional government response to an economic malaise is to stimulate demand,” Mr Taylor said, delivering the Warren Hogan memorial lecture at the University of Sydney.

“Slowdowns are typically assumed to be cyclical, not structural. But that is the wrong answer for today’s challenges. Structural challenges on the supply side are now hurting us badly.

“Restoring our living standards can only come from an ­expansion of the productivity ­capacity of the economy.”

Mr Taylor’s speech came after UBS Asset Management bond veteran Tim Van Klaveren warned that interest rate cuts had been delayed due to the cost-of-living support delivered by state and federal governments.

“We have both state and federal governments, particularly Queensland and Victoria, who are spending more than the RBA would like, which is creating ­demand in the economy and has kept inflation firmer than it ­otherwise would be,” Mr Van Klaveren said.

With Queensland voters heading to the polls in nine days, and elections in Western Australia and at a federal level scheduled for the first half of 2025, Mr Van Klaveren added that any additional pre-election spending threatened to further undermine the RBA’s inflation fight.

“The reality is that any new government that does come in will have to act a lot tougher on fiscal policy and spend accordingly,” he said.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn said Australia was facing a “higher for longer” inflationary environment, as he revealed the bank had ­handed out 132,000 tailored hardship packages in the past year. He said the economy was “still absorbing the shocks of the past few years”. While inflation was falling, it remained persistent.

In his speech, Mr Taylor said central banks and treasuries across the western world were blindsided by inflation spikes after Covid because they were reliant on “new Keynesian models” that were not adequate at “predicting inflation or delivering structural growth in prosperity”.

Mr Taylor took a shot at the inflation forecasts delivered by former Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and Treasury secretary Steven Kennedy, who he lumped among the “economics profession and policy advisers (that) have got it so wrong”.

“The idea that inflation was largely immune to surging ­demand had become a feature of most economic models, including at central banks,” Mr Taylor said. “But our old enemy from the 70s and 80s had not gone away. Inflation had just been in hiding, only to come back with a vengeance.”

With nearly two-thirds of jobs created under the Albanese ­government coming in taxpayer-supported “care economy” ­sectors including health, disability and aged care, Mr Taylor said this was adding to productivity problems. He said there had been “no labour productivity growth in the care economy for 20 years”, with productivity growth in the market sector outstripping it by 17.5 per cent since 2000.

“Rapid growth in public spending is crowding out private sector activity and investment at a time when the supply side of our economy is constrained,” Mr Taylor said. “The majority of ­employment growth is coming from the non-market sector, where there is direct public ­employment or jobs indirectly funded by governments, while market sectors are experiencing skills shortages.”

The RBA has attributed a surge in government spending – expected to hit a record 28 per cent of GDP by the end of 2025, according to Westpac – as one of the reasons why it does not expect underlying inflation to return to its 2 to 3 per cent target band until mid-2025. Mr Taylor committed to a different approach should the Coalition form government, focusing on “getting the basics right” across five key areas of reform: fiscal management, regulatory reform, and housing, energy and tax policies.

On regulatory changes, Mr Taylor vowed that the Coalition would advance plans to wind back “productivity-draining” requirements across environmental approvals, climate reporting, workplace relations, and the corporations act. “These initiatives risk reallocating resources from generating economic activity to responding to government ­departments and creating unnecessary conflict,” he said.

Businesses were spending more time on compliance than strategy and investment, he said.

He also flagged easing financial services sector rules.

“We run the risk of becoming under-banked, under-insured, and under-advised at a time our ageing population will demand more financial services, not less,” he said.

Flagging changes to tax ­settings, Mr Taylor said the ­Coalition would strive to reduce the income tax burden on families and young Australians but was scant on specifics. Backbench Liberals and Nationals have pressed the shadow cabinet to promise generous income tax cuts at the next election, as the benefits of the stage three tax cuts are unwound due to bracket creep.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/angus-taylor-lays-foundation-for-coalitions-economic-overhaul/news-story/1bd4b69f6228e14ee7a23f062a6624c8

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Australian diary

By Liz Truss (former British PM

It is great to return Down Under after first coming here in 2019 to start trade talks. We closed the deal in 2021 and Australia is now teeming with young Brits on new working holiday visas – no longer having to toil at farms in the Outback as part of the conditions. Tariffs have been removed, righting the wrong of Britain leaving Australia in the lurch to join the European Economic Community in 1973. It wasn’t easy getting the deal past Whitehall bureaucrats who were fanatical about net zero. There were also attempts at sabotage by Conservative cabinet ministers. Graphic pictures of sheep mulesing were circulated to try to denigrate Australian animal welfare standards. But ultimately our unique historical connection clinched it. When it was pointed out that what had by then evolved into the European Union already had the access that Australia was poised to get, Boris Johnson said, ‘Who was on our side at Gallipoli?’ The deal was done.

The deal put the UK on the path to joining CPTPP – the Trans Pacific Partnership. As well as taking on China through defence agreements like Aukus, we also need to challenge its economic power. China has been getting away with intellectual property theft and gargantuan state subsidies that undermine industry in the free democratic world. CPTPP is a bulwark against these practices. Australia, the UK and allies like Japan are showing the way. The EU and US should follow.

I’m here for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Brisbane, masterminded by Andrew Cooper. It’s a pleasant 30-degree respite from rainy Britain. Leading No campaigner from the Voice referendum and CPAC board chairman Warren Mundine is also speaking. He says that 60 per cent of Australians are natural conservatives, as they voted No in the referendum. I quip that the situation is more parlous in the UK where only 52 per cent voted to leave the EU in our Brexit referendum. Nevertheless, both of our countries have a majority that, when given the opportunity, vote against identity politics and unaccountable elites telling them what to do. These voters are ready to vote for the conservative cause – less immigration, less wokery and lower costs. The problem is that too many politicians on the conservative side are chasing after the voters who have left us. We are no longer the establishment. The establishment are left-wing and those voters are not coming back – at least not in the numbers they did before. Conservatives need to turn our attention from the so-called ‘teals’ and liberal democrats towards patriotic working-class voters in industrial towns and rural areas.

A big champion of rural Australia is Nationals party Senator Bridget Mackenzie who gives a firecracking speech about Waltzing Matilda. I learn what a billabong is. Bridget is a top shot. We vow to go shooting in England – before Keir Starmer tries to ban it!

In Canberra, I attend Question Time, which for the Prime Minister is more frequent and less raucous than the UK version. I sympathise with Anthony Albanese about having to appear daily. I think even once a week takes too much time out of the prime ministerial diary! It was good to see leader of the opposition Peter Dutton, who is demonstrating strong leadership on nuclear power and taking on wokery. He must prevail in 2025.

The West is run by the left and it is weakening us. We need to start turning the tide. Keir Starmer is running Britain into the ground. In only 100 days he has given away the Chagos Islands – a vital strategic British interest, let criminals out of jail early and taken away heating allowances from the elderly. Debt is over 100 per cent of GDP for the first time since the 1960s, we have the world’s highest rate of millionaires leaving the country and the highest energy bills in the developed world. We’re not talking about the last one to leave Britain turning off the lights as there won’t be any lights to turn off.

Although Tony Abbott can’t compete with me for shortness of time as prime minister, he too wasn’t in office nearly long enough. He is a true conservative and prepared to do the tough stuff. At the Australian launch of my book Ten Years to Save the West in Sydney we talked about the challenge posed by conservatives in name only in our own parties and leftist institutions. I saw this in ten years as a government minister and as prime minister. After fourteen years of Conservative rule, taxes were at a 70-year high, immigration was at record levels and the state was spending 45 per cent of GDP. When I tried to change things in 2022 in the Mini-Budget by allowing fracking, keeping taxes low and restricting increases in welfare, I faced a huge backlash from the leftist economic establishment.

The day before the Mini-Budget, the Bank of England announced the sale of £40 billion of gilts and did not inform us about pension funds’ exposure to LDIs, derivatives that depended on interest rates staying low. There was then a spike in the gilt market which required intervention. The Bank of England subsequently admitted that two-thirds of the spike in gilts was down to trading in LDIs, for which they had oversight responsibility. By then it was too late. My government had been forced from office.

Having gone through this, I am now convinced that in order to get conservative change we are going to have to change the system. We have to drain the billabong.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/10/australian-diary-74/

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‘Reconciliation’ agenda might make us feel good. But it does nothing to close the black/white gap

Janet Albrechtsen

The demand for “reconciliation” from Indigenous elites a year after the voice referendum reminds me of a famous courtroom exchange involving esteemed orator and English criminal barrister Sir Edward Marshall Hall KC.

Judge: “Mr Marshall Hall, is your client familiar with the doctrine res ipsa loquitur?

Marshall: “My Lord, in the remote hills of County Donegal from where my client hails they speak of little else.”

How many Indigenous people living in squalor and disadvantage speak of reconciliation?

The man from County Donegal could at least learn that res ipsa loquitur is Latin for something that speaks for itself.

Reconciliation doesn’t have a settled meaning. It’s a slogan, a deliberately vague catch-all phrase often used by Indigenous elites to harvest white guilt for a broad “rights” agenda that included the now failed voice proposal.

There are two Indigenous projects on foot in Australia. One is called “reconciliation”. The other is called “closing the gap”. The former demands special rights for Indigenous people in the name of reconciliation. The second demands equal opportunities for every Australian.

Reconciliation secures nice job titles, influence, headlines and newspaper inches to a small group of educated and well-positioned Indigenous people. Closing the gap is dedicated to getting disadvantaged Indigenous people into jobs, making sure they live in safe homes, go to school, finish school, have access to health services, train or study for a job that will enable them to live as other Australians do, so they are equipped to take responsibility for their lives, and the families they will have.

Reconciliation premises “self-determination” on special rights, that, by their nature, divide the nation in two. Closing the gap is the richest and most empowering form of self-determination; it aims to equip Indigenous Australians with opportunities so they can determine their own life – just as other Australians can do.

To the extent that it means anything, reconciliation conjures up images of two warring parties in need of a settlement. But that is not Australia. A small fringe of activists – Indigenous and non-Indigenous, people such as Lidia Thorpe and a host of academics – may choose to think they are at war with what the High Court has said about Australia as one sovereign nation, when they demand co-sovereignty. But that’s a fringe dispute; it gets the juices flowing at UN gabfests or inside Australia’s law schools where law has been trumped by politics.

None of this helps disadvantaged Indigenous people. We know that because official Closing the Gap numbers are still bleak. It’s much easier for big Australian companies and government departments to fall for the reconciliation racket and trot out “reconciliation” slogans than it is to show genuine interest in finding solutions to Indigenous people who die younger, leave school earlier, end up in prison and live in unsafe homes at higher rates than non-Indigenous people.

How anyone can push a special rights agenda camouflaged as “reconciliation” when Indigenous kids continue to commit suicide at higher rates should be a cause for shame. This national shame is compounded by the fact that failed policies continue to dominate the Indigenous policy area. This shame will only end when every program, activity or other measure or current action is rigorously tested for success with a simple question: Does it close the gap for those in need in any meaningful way?

The Albanese government is in hiding. It talks about reconciliation and closing the gap, and is doing neither. It tried the voice and failed. It refuses to take the advice of Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and conduct a thorough and brave audit of all Indigenous programs and policies. That nationwide audit should include Reconciliation Australia and its monopoly over these things called “Reconciliation Action Plans” that 2700 companies and other groups have embedded in their workplaces.

After writing about this organisation on the weekend, I have learned even more about the separatist sentiment at the heart of the “reconciliation” industry. I heard from many, many readers who work in companies that have a RAP.

One described it this way: “It’s the … equivalent of the Monty Python sketch of monks hitting themselves in the head with a block of wood in time with their Gregorian chants.” Another asked how disadvantaged Indigenous people can “gain self-determination and a bright prosperous future when everything is controlled and won by land councils and other organisations”. Another said that “reconciliation is something you want when you’ve been to uni”. It’s not front and centre for people who don’t even have personal safety.

I learned too that Gary Johns, a former Labor minister in the Keating government, has been trying to advise companies that many RAPs sanctioned by the reconciliation police at Reconciliation Australia are worse than worthless; they divide the country with a separatist agenda and do nothing to improve the lives of Indigenous people who genuinely need help.

Johns, chairman of Close the Gap Research, surveyed 62 RAPs and recorded the results earlier this year. He found a “significant” failure among many RAPS to mention closing the gap, while many focus on RA’s separatist agenda. Johns said they “favour identity over solutions”.

Johns found that the Civil Aviation Authority’s RAP introduced Indigenous language lessons and distributed Acknowledgement of Country cards to more than 800 of its staff members, while property group Stockland includes an annual “Cultural immersion” experience for staff in its RAP.

Johns wants companies and other groups to answer a simple question: Does your RAP close the gap? He found that the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, the department responsible for drafting laws, says it has adopted a RAP because “the majority of Australians are the direct beneficiaries of the removal of land and power from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”. Johns says that “despite (this department) being on their reconciliation journey since 2007, not one of their 100 staff identified as Aboriginal”.

Johns found the reconciliation journey of Victorian law firm Hives Legal includes making radical statements that sovereignty has never been ceded, “but employed no Aboriginal person on their professional staff”. “Instead, it purchased artwork for the office and children’s books for its staff.”

Johns found that some companies are doing terrific work. The Education Department in South Australia is running intensive family services programs to re-engage kids with school. But why is a RAP necessary for such work, asks Johns. “And why is this a reconciliation activity?”

Other RAPs, says Johns, are “painful to read”. They are full of sweeping assertions and radical statements that bear no relationship to their workplaces. Johns says Lend Lease’s RAP states that “data” continues to show the most successful programs to generate ‘closing the gap’ outcomes are created and delivered by First Nations community-controlled organisations”. That sounds terrific. Except, Johns notes, that “there is no evidence that this is true”.

Johns’s conclusion is that welcomes to country, acknowledgements of country, snippets of language, radical statements endorsing separatism, and Disney-like cultural training “are not likely to close the gap or reconcile anyone to anything”.

He told me this week that he has spoken with around 20 organisations that are thinking of doing a Reconciliation Action Plan. He suggested they “stop and ask: Does it close the gap?”.

Ultimately, he was met with silence. They would rather tick a box with a RAP.

Noel Pearson once addressed the need to expose the “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. It’s high time we exposed the same bigotry of low expectations pursued by groups that span big and small Australian companies, aviation authorities, government departments, local councils and even the parliamentary drafting office in Canberra.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/reconciliation-agenda-might-make-us-feel-good-but-it-does-nothing-to-close-the-gap/news-story/6aad6c196120edbe2a1b6048664c6483

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All my main blogs below:

http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

https://westpsychol.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH -- new site)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://john-ray.blogspot.com/ (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC -- revived)

http://jonjayray.com/select.html (SELECT POSTS)

http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)

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Seven Aboriginal women killed by partners in NT

Yet the Left ignore the fact that DV in Australia is mainly an Aboriginal problem. Does the suffering of black women not matter? It seems very racist to treat it that way

Northern Territory police are pleading with the community to "wake up" to an unfolding epidemic of domestic violence as investigations continue into seven deaths in less than five months.

The latest death of a woman allegedly killed by her partner prompted an appeal on Tuesday by the Territory's police Assistant Commissioner Travis Wurst: "this has to stop".

"The tragedy is mounting, and that tragedy is one that the Northern Territory cannot ignore - seven matters are being investigated by the Northern Territory police as domestic homicides since 1 June of this year," he said.

"The Northern Territory cannot accept one death, let alone seven.

"It is something that the community needs to wake up to, deal with, and not accept - violence is not the answer."

Police said they had not seen this many people die "at the hands of another in a domestic situation" since the early 2000s in the Northern Territory and the vicarious trauma experienced by frontline workers, community and the public was hard to explain.

All women killed were Aboriginal and a further two women are fighting for life in Royal Darwin Hospital's intensive care unit, after assaults related to domestic violence, Mr Wurst said.

On Monday night at Lajamanu, a remote community 870km south of Darwin, a 42-year-old woman was killed in an allegedly stabbing by her domestic partner.

Mr Wurst said the man is in police custody and had been on parole at the time of the alleged stabbing, after being released from prison in April.

The woman is the third person allegedly killed in the Territory as a result of domestic violence in the past fortnight after a sistergirl was stabbed at Malak last Tuesday and another woman at Katherine the week before.

Services are calling on the Northern Territory government to urgently implement the $180 million in funding for domestic, family and sexual violence services it promised ahead of the August election.

Newly elected Greens parliamentarian and domestic violence survivor Kat McNamara said consecutive governments have failed when it comes to the provision of frontline services.

"I have said this many times before, and I'll say it again, domestic family and sexual violence is the largest social issue we face," the member for Nightcliff said in their maiden speech to parliament on Tuesday.

"Women and children are being turned away from shelters every single day.

"Those frontline services have been crying out for adequate funding for decades from both sides of politics. This is not good enough."

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School did not discriminate against student by forcing her to wear a skirt, Queensland tribunal finds

A Queensland school did not discriminate against a female student by forcing her to wear a skirt on formal occasions, a tribunal has found.

The student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, made the complaint to the state’s Human Rights Commissioner, arguing she suffered discrimination by the new uniform policy which requires female students between years 7 and 12 to wear a skirt on formal occasions including outings, ceremonies, events and photographs.

Females are allowed to wear shorts and pants on other days, while male students wear them every day.

The father of the student argued in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal that his daughter suffered a greater financial burden because she had to buy two school uniforms and that greater care was needed to maintain her modesty in a skirt compared with male students.

The initial complaint also said she had suffered negative psychological effects from “negative gender stereotypes and gendered power relations” but this was not raised at the hearing.

“If the complainant failed to comply with the formal occasion skirt requirement she could face negative consequences of exclusion or suspension or other lesser consequences not faced by a male student,” the decision read.

In a statement the student said when wearing a skirt, “there is an extra level of thinking required about the way I move and sit, as to not expose myself”.

Her father said she had experienced “stress and anxiety” about having to wear a skirt with a large number of people around.

After the complaint was first raised with the school, the student was told she could apply for a formal exemption, but the student argued this was also discriminatory because male students did not need to.

Lawyers for the school argued that there had been no concerns expressed by other parents about any extra expense and they had skirts available on loan. They said the skirts are long enough to touch the ground when kneeling, so there is a low risk of exposure and female students were allowed to wear bike shorts, which would remove the modesty issue.

QCAT member Jeremy Gordon said the school had shown that other schoolgirls were happy to wear skirts.

“If, for one reason or another, the complainant did not want to wear a skirt on formal occasions, this view was not shared by other female students,” he wrote.

He found that the policy did not discriminate against the student.

“The evidence is insufficient to show that the formal occasion uniform policy resulted in, or would have resulted in, less favourable treatment of the complainant as a female student over male students,” he wrote.

“To put this another way, there was different treatment between the sexes, but the evidence does not show that the different treatment was unfavourable to the complainant.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/education/school-did-not-discriminate-against-student-for-making-her-wear-a-dress/news-story/8a8a7081861615108b4aa2aa4504603d

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Two approaches to energy — which will the nation choose?

The doyen of ALP energy policy, Martin Ferguson, has called for a gas-driven power station in the Latrobe Valley in a direct policy confrontation with current Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Ferguson, a former President of the ACTU, was Federal Minister for Energy and Minerals from December 2007 until May 2013.

The Ferguson declaration was actually made three weeks ago in a Latrobe Valley local newspaper, but the power of the declaration will reverberate around the nation given the respect Ferguson has among ALP stalwarts, many of whom realise Sydney needs gas power as much as Melbourne.

When Ferguson made the declaration, he would not have known three weeks later shadow Minister for Energy Ted O’Brien would announce a Coalition policy which would aim to change the economics of erecting gas-fired power stations in Australia.

And, following my commentary revealing there is a gas crisis looming for Victoria (and a danger for Sydney), greater clarity is emerging on where the gas will come from to relieve a looming crisis.

And if these gas production developments do not work out as planned, Ferguson has a back-up plan.

O’Brien has announced if the Coalition wins government, gas power plants will be included in the Capacity Investment Scheme. To understand how this simple announcement changes the economics of gas-driven power stations, I need to explain how the scheme works and how it would apply to gas power.

Around Australia, a large number of heavy power users, led by aluminium producers, contract with the regulators to substantially cut their power usage in times of crisis. They are paid large sums to undertake what otherwise would be an uneconomic action. It becomes an important source of revenue for many larger power users.

In a power generating community where wind and solar play a large part, gas power is a vital back-up for the times when these sources of power do not generate. But, it is uneconomic to build a power station simply to be switched on at night and when there is no wind.

Once gas power is included in the Capacity Investment Scheme, the economies of constructing a gas power station are transformed because there is a contracted regular income.

In addressing the Australian Pipelines & Gas Association Convention, O’Brien explained how his strategy differs from Bowen’s, which “puts all eggs in one basket for our energy future … one which is simply defined as a renewables-only approach”.

“No other nation on the planet has embarked on a path to decarbonise which is as radically ideological as that which this Labor Government is pursuing,” O’Brien added.

When it comes to sourcing gas, the most obvious is the vast deep underground gas deposits in Gippsland measured by Exxon and assessed by top US gas evaluators. But, further drilling is required and this cannot take place until Lily D’Ambrosio is removed as Victorian Energy Minister by the ALP government or if the state Coalition wins the next Victorian election in 2026.

It’s unlikely the present Victorian Premier would remove her friend Lily D’Ambrosio from the post. So, the nation must now go full steam ahead on the vast Beetaloo deposits in the Northern Territory.

Research by the Frontier group shows, compared to gas importing facilities operated year around, Beetaloo gas for industrial use would be substantially less expensive in both NSW and Victoria compared to using importing facilities in Port Kembla and Geelong.

While a 900km pipeline to join Beetaloo gas to the national grid is expensive, the costs can be amortised over 50 years or more. Meanwhile, extra drilling in Queensland and South Australia can fill some of the timing gap.

There is also drilling required in Gippsland outside the major project reservoir.

The Beetaloo reserves are immense and cannot only meet the demands of NSW and Victoria but can also export via Darwin.

Ferguson says if there is a problem sourcing gas for a Latrobe Valley power station, it would be possible to efficiently use brown coal to produce the gas.

Victoria’s oil and gas caverns in the Bass Strait can store carbon, and Ferguson says considerable work has already been done on the feasibility of this process.

Accordingly, the Ferguson declaration on a power station in the Latrobe Valley is backed by the opportunity to have a very low-emissions operation.

O’Brien believes gas power is an important step in making the nation’s renewables investment economic and providing security to the market.

In the O’Brien plan, the next step is nuclear power as a base load to replace coal, including a station in the Latrobe Valley which would then be restored as a major Australian industrial complex.

Most estimates show nuclear power is substantially cheaper than the offshore wind schemes being proposed for Bass Strait and the Hunter Region of NSW after the initial construction investment.

Investment in offshore wind has a limited life whereas nuclear power stations last for 60 years and beyond, so the wind power costs are amortised over a much shorter period — hence the cost disadvantage.

The next election campaign is arguably the most important in the nation’s recent history because the two parties have totally different views on our energy feature. Bowen and O’Brien will be the leaders of their party’s energy policies, and the nation will need to choose which way to go.

The ALP is under threat from the Greens and will have limited room to move in the debate.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/two-approaches-to-energy-which-will-the-nation-choose/news-story/0338c7b00e9289769b8bee43e0ea4183

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Private schools ‘targets of Labor hostility’, says Coalition

The Coalition has accused Labor of demonstrating “hostility towards non-government schools” alongside the Greens’ “vilification” of the sector that has sparked concerns from peak bodies.

Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson on Tuesday called on the government to offer the same scholarships and grants to private schools as were available to public institutions.

As the Greens face a concerted campaign from Independent Schools Australia in key seats such as Brisbane and Ryan following the minor party’s “attacks” on the value of private schools, the opposition lashed Labor for discriminating against non-government schools.

“Labor’s discriminatory policies include limiting the $160m commonwealth teaching scholarships program to only those who work in public schools. Non-government schools are also excluded from the $25m Workload Reduction Fund under the government’s Teacher Workforce Action Plan,” Senator Henderson said.

“As a result of a government-commissioned report, there is also a black cloud over the future of tax-deductible library and scholarship funds, as well as tax incentives to support religious education in public schools.”

Senator Henderson called on Education Minister Jason Clare to extend the next round of teaching scholarships to all student-teachers and begin treating “all schools fairly and equitably”.

“In this cost-of-living crisis, how can the government turn its back on low-fee-paying private schools, particularly in rural and remote areas where workforce shortages are so acute?” she said.

The Australian understands if the teaching scholarships are undersubscribed, they are opened to teachers who want to go to non-government schools.

ISA on Tuesday revealed it would pursue a nationwide campaign against the Greens, highlighting the minor party’s “relentless and baseless vilification” of the sector.

The Australian understands independent schools will be provided with a toolkit from ISA containing campaign materials they can use if they choose to.

The Greens rubbished the campaign, declaring they simply had concerns over wealthy institutes overcharging parents.

In response to the criticism from Senator Henderson of the government’s own treatment of private schools, Mr Clare said his focus was on the public sector.

“All non-government schools are either fully funded or on a trajectory to be, and we aren’t changing that,” he said.

“However, no public school, outside the ACT, is fully funded. That’s where our focus is, working with states and territories to properly fund our public schools.”

On the Coalition’s concerns over the Workload Reduction Fund, The Australian understands non-government schools are not excluded.

Mr Clare said his government had put $16bn on the table to convince the states to sign up to the new schools agreement, and had already struck deals with Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

“We want to do similar deals with other states,” he said. “We also recognise that parents should have choice when it comes to schooling.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/private-schools-targets-of-labor-hostility-says-coalition/news-story/7b5dfe140c2abe8a57040d2ca6d737ef

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All my main blogs below:

http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

https://westpsychol.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH -- new site)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://john-ray.blogspot.com/ (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC -- revived)

http://jonjayray.com/select.html (SELECT POSTS)

http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)

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Youth crime down, 2000-plus busted as cops blitz entire state

There must be an election coming up

Police have nabbed 2093 youth crims and charged them with 6167 offences since widespread deployments across Queensland targeting youth crime.

Commissioner Steve Gollschewski announced the milestone after Taskforce Guardian reached 102 deployments including more than 20 to crime-plagued Townsville.

He said 252 adults had also been charged during the operations and 980 people had been diverted from the youth justice system since Taskforce Guardian began in May 2023.

Acting Assistant Commissioner Andrew Massingham, who heads the youth crime taskforce for the service, said there had been a 22 per cent decrease in youth offending in Townsville from January to September, compared to last year.

He said overall there had been a 6.3 per cent decrease in youth offending in Queensland.

Assistant Commissioner Massingham said there had been decreases in nine of the 15 police districts.

“A very important indicator to me is those numbers won’t mean anything to people continue to feel unsafe in their home environments or where they walk along in the streets in their local communities,” he said on Tuesday.

“It’s not so much the numbers for me, it’s about our high visibility presence with Guardian.

Assistant Commissioner Massingham. said police had a solid understanding of the worst offenders after the deployments.

He said serious repeat offender numbers had decreased almost 18 per cent since November last year to 388, which was about 100 less than this time last year.

Police have been tracking social media accounts of some of the youths who post their exploits online, bragging about cars they’ve stolen or crimes they have committed.

“Our digital intelligence team, which is the first in this nation, we are intercepting livestream images invariably on social media of children in stolen vehicles (and it is) is a very very key aspect to the way we deploy Guardian,” he said.

https://www.couriermail.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-qld/youth-crime-down-2000plus-busted-as-cops-blitz-entire-state/news-story/d82af27d92a758a8c4fd4b05e73fa4ec

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Albo’s Orwellian Bill: Censoring free speech is dangerous, not to mention downright un-Australian

A friend of Socrates once visited the Delphic oracle to ask who is the wisest man in the world. The oracle told him that Socrates was. Socrates could not believe this, as he believed he knew men who were wiser than him, such as a politician friend of his. But when Socrates spoke to his friend he realised that the politician ‘thinks that he knows but he really knows nothing’. Socrates then went to speak to the poets and artisans but came away with similar conclusions. He then realised that, ‘The men most in repute were all but the most foolish; and that some inferior men were really wiser and better.’

Things have not changed much from Ancient Greek times. We still have politicians that think they know more. Our government wants to make sure it silences the ‘inferior men’ with its new misinformation laws.

No healthy society would empower a bunch of politicians to define what is true or false. Imagine living in a country where the politicians have the gall to tell the rest of us not to lie.

The Albanese government’s misinformation laws are fundamentally un-Australian. The Australian way is to thumb our nose at authority. The Australian way is not to suffer tall poppies telling us what to do.

But the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill would see a two-tier society established when it comes to free speech. The Bill, astonishingly, exempts the media from being accused of spreading misinformation or disinformation. Just last month, the ABC was caught airing doctored footage from Afghanistan in an attempt to tar Australian soldiers as war criminals. This clear form of misinformation would be exempt from Albanese’s censorship regime.

The protection of the Australian military does not even rate a mention in the Bill. If you were going to protect a class of Australians from the spreading of lies, there is probably no more deserving group than those of us who put their life on the line to protect us.

Instead, the Bill defines ‘serious harm’ to be that which could damage electoral authorities, various identity groups, public health bureaucrats and, perhaps most amazing of all, the banks.

What marks this eclectic group out is that almost all of them have been guilty of propagating misinformation in recent years. Our banks have been found to have regularly defrauded their customers, public health authorities have admitted they lied to the public for the ‘greater good’ and even our otherwise decent electoral authorities lost 1,375 ballots during the 2013 Western Australia Senate election, causing a strange recount at the cost of $20 million.

All authorities, especially those that benefit from public funds, should be subject to free and unfettered criticism from the Australian public.

There is another more explicit way that this Bill is un-Australian. The new misinformation regime does not directly establish a government Ministry of Truth, but rather it requires social media companies to establish their own internal Ministries of Truth to police the speech of Australians.

Almost all of these social media companies are foreign-owned. I do not think we need our fellow Australians policing each other’s speech, but I definitely do not want tech billionaires in San Francisco deciding what is said in Sydney.

Of course, there is another social media company called TikTok. This Bill would deputise TikTok to apply a censorship to the Australian people. The provisions of the Bill are so broad that TikTok would have no problem in applying the Chinese Communist party censorship regime to Australians, astoundingly with the backing of the Australian government.

Authorising foreigners to control what is discussed is the opposite of what should happen. In the last parliament, I co-authored a Bill with George Christensen that would outlaw the censoring of political discussion among Australians by foreign social media companies. Not only will I do everything to try to stop Labor’s Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill from becoming law, I will re-introduce a Bill to protect Australians’ right to speak freely online.

The prospects of stopping the new misinformation regime in the Senate are not great but I would hope that my friends on the left think deeply about this intrusion into people’s rights. The current Bill is clearly designed to combat anti-Voice and anti-vaccine views. The Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill defines misleading information to include attacks on ‘referendum proposals’, and vaccines are mentioned eighteen times.

In the future this Bill could easily be weaponised to silence anti-war or anti-big business views. A few months ago, the Australian Conservation Foundation was briefly cancelled on X after it made some claims about nuclear energy. I thought its statements were wrong but I do not want an American social media company to have the power to silence an Australian organisation from speaking about an important public policy issue.

One of the most important reasons to allow free speech is so that we can listen and not just speak. When someone is silenced it is not just the rights of the person to speak that have been breached, it is also the rights of everyone else to listen to that person. I, as an Australian, have the right to listen to my fellow Australians, even the ones I disagree with.

A healthy society encourages the airing of different opinions. That is how we test and strengthen our own ideas. That is how we correct our mistakes. The duration of a lie depends on how quickly someone is allowed to point it out.

The government will probably ram its misinformation laws through the parliament. Ironically, laws designed to silence the Australian people will likely be passed by silencing the parliament and limiting debate.

But, even if we end up with a misinformation tsar, we should not be downcast. This desperate move is a sign that the left are losing. Every cancellation will be a vindication that we are right.

There is always a silver lining. If established, the misinformation tsar will become the best barometer of truth since the Delphic oracle. Except this time it will work in reverse.

Whatever the misinformation tsar says is false will actually turn out to be true.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/10/albos-orwellian-bill/

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Class war: ‘We’ll teach the Greens’, vow private schools

Fat chance that they will be able to budge the views of hard-Left Bandt, the Greens leader. He is an old-time Trotskyite, committed to maximum destrucion of socity as we know it

Independent schools are preparing to launch a nationwide campaign in Greens and marginal electorates calling out the “relentless and baseless vilification” of private schools and urging constituents not to support parties that would abolish their funding and limit educational choices.

Independent Schools Australia revealed it would begin targeting seats held by the left-wing minor party, as well as other hotly contested electorates, following increasing criticism over the allocation of government funding to private schools.

School funding is a crucible issue for Labor and its biggest source of division with its state ALP counterparts. The Greens are expected to push for ­reforms that would slash some independent schools’ funding in any power-sharing agreement with a minority Labor government.

ISA chief executive Graham Catt said his organisation was gearing up to take the fight to the Greens, with school leaders, teachers and parents making clear “they’ve had enough of the relentless and baseless vilification of families who simply want the best for their children”.

“Parents are making significant sacrifices in a cost-of-living crisis, and we know from our ­research that families – especially in key marginal seats – feel ­betrayed by policies that threaten their educational choices,” Mr Catt said.

“With an election approaching we will be working to ensure ­families’ voices are heard loud and clear in key electorates, including those held by the Greens.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt ­declared earlier this year that his party would be fighting for more public school funding and arguing against “the continued over­funding of those very wealthy private schools that clearly don’t need even more public funds”.

The row with the ISA could be one of the Greens’ first major tests in holding the formerly Liberal Queensland seats of Ryan and Brisbane, with the potential to complicate the party’s plan to win more wealthy marginal seats off Labor, the Coalition and teal independents at the next election.

As part of research by the ISA conducted late last year, more than 80 per cent of the 2000 ­parents surveyed agreed it was important that families had the right to choose which school was best for their child.

More than 70 per cent agreed every child had a right to “some level of government funding” for their education, while 66 per cent agreed that if independent school funding was cut, the public system could not cope with the increased enrolments.

The Albanese government sought to quell concerns over a lack of funding for public schools this month, with Education ­Minister Jason Clare introducing legislation to lift the commonwealth share of state school funding by $16bn over the next decade after intense negotiations with states and territories.

Mr Catt said all students in all school sectors should be supported to “access a great education”, but that this should not result in attacks against private schools and campaigns to have their funding slashed.

“The relentless attacks against independent schools, particularly by the Greens, only hurt the families and teachers who deserve better,” he said.

“With over 700,000 students and growing, many of whom ­attend independent schools in what will be hotly contested ­marginal seats, we will be advocating strongly for these families during the election.”

The amount of government funding a school needs is based on the Schooling Resourcing Standard. The commonwealth provides 20 per cent of a public school’s funding needs, while states and territories are required to provide the other 80 per cent.

For private schools, the funding arrangement is flipped so the federal government provides 80 per cent and states and territories deliver 20 per cent.

The Greens and the Australian Education Union have ­steadily ramped up criticism against private schools in recent years, with the AEU conducting several rounds of analysis that showed disparities between private and public schools.

As part of this, the AEU ­released a report showing five elite private schools splurged more money on new facilities than governments spent on half of Australia’s public schools collectively in 2021.

Mr Catt said the majority of students in independent schools – which included specialist schools such as Muslim and Jewish institutions – came from middle to low-income families, with ­median annual school fees sitting at just over $5500.

“(These families) should be supported, not penalised, for making educational choices that align with their values and aspirations for their children,” he said.

“Over 85 per cent of capital funding comes from these families, who are taxpayers too.”

Greens primary and secondary education spokeswoman Penny Allman-Payne said private schools received $51m from the federal government every day, and yet some of the richest schools were “still gouging parents and carers”.

“It’s great to see the private school lobby highlighting the stark inequity of Australia’s two-tiered school system,” Senator Allman-Payne said “But I think many private school parents would be surprised that they want to campaign against the Greens, when we’re the only party calling out the outrageous fees that parents are being charged by wealthy private schools. Meanwhile, public school teachers are spending their own money to provide stationery for their kids – I think every parent and carer in the country knows that’s not right.”

As part of the calculation for the level of federal funding a private school will receive, parents’ “capacity to contribute” is looked at alongside other considerations, with commonwealth funding tapering off the higher the ­median income of the families whose child attends the school.

“Independent school parents are taxpayers, and yet they face criticism for choosing the best education for their children and subsidising the cost by paying fees,” Mr Catt said. “Meanwhile, families across Australia face a postcode lottery, where the quality of education depends on their location. All families should have the right to make the best educational choice for their kids, and politicians need to support – not punish – those decisions.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/class-war-well-teach-the-greens-vow-private-schools/news-story/2e469a960cde0cb0cf152e80c8ea22e9

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Dreaming or dreamt up? Mystery of the blue-banded bee deepens



The artist behind the “blue-banded bee” mural cited by federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to justify her veto of the Blayney goldmine was a member of the main resistance group against the $1bn project, and the local government had never heard of the Dreaming story before the artwork was painted.

The Australian can reveal Brisbane artist Birrunga Wiradyuri, a Wiradyuri man whose mural was used as evidence in Ms Plibersek’s official reasons against the mine, was a regular contributor with the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation and a member up until at least this August.

The WTOCWAC’s highly disputed claims that the Blayney mine site is a place of historical and spiritual significance to local Aboriginal people are the centre of Ms Plibersek’s moves to kybosh the mine.

Amid deepening questions about the validity of the anti-mine group’s claims, it also can be revealed that the blue-banded bee Dreaming story has not appeared in any of the six ethnographic studies seen by mine owner Regis Resources and there is no public evidence of the story before 2022.

Wiradyuri declared in February 2022 that the mural on the wall of the Bathurst post office was tied to a songline east of the Belubula River. But the Bathurst Regional Council said on Monday it was not aware of the Dreaming story before commissioning the artwork.

“The subject of the art (the blue-banded bee) was developed in partnership with elders during the commission,” a spokesperson said. “Council was not aware of the story prior to this.”

Wiradyuri previously has consulted with WTOCWAC on artworks significant to the Bathurst area, with a February 2022 post on the mural tagging the group, while a June 2022 post gave its “love, esteem respect (sic) and gratitude to the Traditional Owners and Elders of the Bathurst area, the Wiradyuri Traditional Owners Central West Aboriginal Corporation for their counsel and sharing of Cultural Knowledge”.

The WTOCWAC later would cite his artwork in its submissions detailing the blue-banded bee’s longstanding significance to the Blayney site on which the McPhillamys mine was to be established.

In an interview with local newspaper Western Advocate at the time of the artwork’s display, Mr Wiradyuri said he consulted with members of the WTOCWAC in its creation regarding its cultural ­significance.

“In close consultation with Aunt Wirribee, Uncle Mallyan, Uncle Yanha and Uncle Dinawan (WTOCWAC member and historian Uncle Bill Allen), the story of the bee became an artwork that evolved as we delved deeper into the storytelling process,” he said in an interview.

Documents from the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations also indicate that Wiradyuri was a member of the WTOCWAC from November 2021 to August this year, a period beginning after the artwork was commissioned until two years past its completion.

As revelations came out about his mural’s role in the decision to veto the mine and his membership of the most prominent local anti-mine group, Mr Wiradyuri was contacted for comment but had not responded by deadline.

Roy Ah-See – one of the most senior Wiradjuri leaders on the national stage and former chairman of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council – has told The Australian elders from the Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council believed the songlines of the blue-banded bee Dreaming “had never previously existed”.

Significant surveys in 2021, including the Philip Clarke Aboriginal Cultural Values Mapping Report, the Lance and Kamminga report and the Sneddon cultural surveys, did not mention the Dreaming.

In her detailed reasons, Ms Plibersek said six members of the OLALC, including five Wiradyuri elders, had disputed the veracity of the blue-banded bee Dreaming in a February submission.

“Information about a public artwork by Wiradjuri artist Baranga Wiradjuri (Birrunga Wiradyuri), named the Blue Banded Bee Creation Story, was also submitted to support the validity of the Dreaming as an Aboriginal tradition,” she said in her report. “Whilst not identical, the description of the artist’s interpretation of the Dreaming is largely consistent with WTOCWAC’s explanation.”

Additional details on the Dreaming story were provided to Ms Plibersek by an unnamed Wiradyuri elder whose submission was delayed due to medical issues.

Mr Wiradyuri began painting in the 2010s, later opening his own gallery in Spring Hill, Brisbane.

He was born Robert Henderson and presented his art under that name until at least August 2018, before going by Birrunga Wiradyuri.

Originally from rural NSW, he has lived in Queensland since primary school, primarily around the Sunshine Coast.

Created in collaboration with Indigenous artists Kane Brunjes and Stevie O’Chin, the artwork’s portrayal and placement on a songline is detailed on Mr Wiradyuri’s gallery website.

“Our sacred mountain is Wahluu (Mount Panorama). There is a sacred songline that runs from Wahluu to Bubay Wahluu (Mount Stewart) and it is this songline that is portrayed in the work,” the caption reads.

“We Wiradyuri, with the counsel and guidance of our Elders, performed a healing ceremony that healed this Songline in 2018. In 2022 the production of the work was housed in Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre which is on that Songline.”

In an interview with Bathurst radio station 2BS from February 2022, Wiradyuri said the work “very much sticks to that story (of the blue-banded bee); it’s very close to us Wiradyuri”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/mural-cited-in-blayney-mine-rejection-made-in-consultation-with-dissident-indigenous-group/news-story/24dce73a3a5cd153cb915e7497197936

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All my main blogs below:

http://jonjayray.com/covidwatch.html (COVID WATCH)

http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

https://westpsychol.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH -- new site)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://john-ray.blogspot.com/ (FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC -- revived)

http://jonjayray.com/select.html (SELECT POSTS)

http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)

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