Australian Politics
Police failures, racial bias cited at inquest for Indigenous teenagers who died almost 37 years ago
Claims that Aborigines have been badly treatd are no doubt true in some cases but this case is a stretch. There is no doubt that what happened was a road accident but there is some possibility that the driver in some ways behaved badly. And in response to that accusation the police brought the driver to trial and he was found not guilty. So how is that a police failure? It looks to me that the police went out of their way to be fair in the matter. The girls died in a road crash. How did racial prejudice cause that?
And if the driver did behave badly after the crash what evidence do we have that he would not have behaved similarly if the girls had been white? If such behaviour matters
A state coroner has found that racial bias within the NSW police impacted on what was an “inexplicably deficient” investigation into two Indigenous girls found dead on a lonely stretch of highway in NSW’s outback more than 36 years ago.
State coroner Teresa O’Sullivan on Tuesday handed down her findings in the Bourke courthouse – the same court where the man accused of killing Jacinta Rose Smith, 15, and Mona-Lisa Smith, 16, in a devastating road crash, and of molesting Jacinta’s dead body, was acquitted in 1990.
He died in 2017 without ever having spent a day in jail over the girls’ deaths.
She said the concerns raised by the families “on a number of occasions over the last few decades” about the “inadequacy” of the police investigation, which were repeatedly dismissed, had been “entirely vindicated” by evidence received in this inquest.
Mona’s sister and mother, Fiona and June Smith, and Cindy’s sister and mother, Kerrie and Dawn Smith, were in attendance on Tuesday. The coroner acknowledged their “unrelenting advocacy” for their “inseparable” young girls, calling the inquest their “final hope” for answers about the circumstances of their deaths, “albeit decades too late”.
“The grief and anguish of their tragic passing remains raw for their families,” the coroner said.
On December 5, 1987, Jacinta, a Wangkumara girl known as Cindy, and her cousin, Mona-Lisa, a Murrawarri and Kunja girl, died hours after they accepted a lift from Alexander Ian Grant, a 40-year-old white excavator driver.
Mona and Cindy, described as “young, bright girls sparkling with life and excitement”, entered the vehicle sometime after 8pm hoping to get a lift a short distance to the levee, but were instead “plied” with alcohol by Mr Grant whose conduct was described as “predatory and disgraceful”.
Ms O’Sullivan found that both girls died in the early hours of December 6 after sustaining injuries caused when the ute, travelling north on the Mitchell Highway between Bourke and Enngonia, ran off the road, and rolled over. The girls weren’t wearing seatbelts and were ejected from the vehicle, which “rolled onto” them, causing critical injuries including severe internal bleeding.
She found that Mr Grant was driving the car despite his initial claims to officers, and by his lawyers at trial, that Mona had been driving the manual ute when it crashed. She said “contributing factors” of the single-vehicle crash included “intoxication, fatigue, road speed and lack of lighting”.
Ms O’Sullivan also found, “horrifyingly”, that there was “some form of sexual interference by Mr Grant” including touching Cindy’s breasts or genital area “after she had passed”.
In a 1990 trial, Grant was charged with indecently interfering with Cindy’s corpse and culpable driving causing the deaths of both girls but was acquitted by an all-white jury.
The coroner found that it was “clear beyond doubt” that the initial investigation “suffered very serious deficiencies” such that vital evidence, such as Mr Grant’s truck, was not secured at the scene.
She said these “failures” in the hours, days and weeks following the accident had an “irreparable impact” on the investigation and its use in any future criminal prosecution.
The coroner also found that there was racial bias within the NSW police force at the relevant time and that “impacted upon the investigation into the deaths”, saying she had “little hesitation” in making that finding.
She placed “great weight” on the evidence of June and Dawn Smith “of their treatment in the aftermath of the girls’ deaths, and the numerous distressing failings they endured, which started with the manner in which they became aware of the girls’ deaths from other family members, rather than being formally advised by police”.
An officer at the scene also blindly accepted Mr Grant’s account that Mona had been driving the vehicle, which she said “cannot be understood without imputing level of unconscious bias on his part”.
The charge of sexual interference with Cindy’s body had been withdrawn by prosecutors at the 1990 trial because of a technicality - that the precise time of a victim’s death cannot be ascertained - without the family’s knowledge.
Ms O’Sullivan said she would write to the Attorney-General to “draw this issue to his attention” as to whether legislative reform may be warranted.
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Unions’ vile anti-Israel diatribe
As Jewish families leave an empty place at their Passover tables in memory of the hostages still missing at the hands of Hamas, comments by ACTU president Michele O’Neil and secretary Sally McManus about Israel are ignorant. The pair have ignited a battle with Australia’s Jewish community, calling for the Albanese government to end military trade with Israel, enforce sanctions against Israeli government officials and inject a further $100m of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the West Bank. Bob Hawke, a former ACTU president who warned “If the bell tolls for Israel, it won’t just toll for Israel, it will toll for all mankind”, would be horrified.
In demanding immediate recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, the union bosses do not appear to understand why a two-state solution is out of the question until Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation that controls Gaza, is defeated. Or does it not bother Ms O’Neil and Ms McManus that Iran is running a war to annihilate Israel through proxies, including Hamas, and is an implacable opponent of the US and its allies? The ACTU is living in “an alternative reality”, Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said.
The union bosses’ views are immoral in view of the brutality and values of Hamas, seen in the unprovoked attack that killed 1200 people in Israel on October 7 and in the terrorist group’s kidnappings of 250 Israelis. The comments are contrary to Australia’s strategic and economic interests, and could help fuel anti-Semitism that has reared its ugly head in the past six months.
Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy, has superior military technology and outstanding intelligence capabilities. It has been a staunch Australian ally for more than 75 years and has “shared intelligence with us and thwarted terrorist attacks against our own interests, including against members of the Australian Defence Force”, as Peter Dutton said in his Tom Hughes Oration in Sydney a fortnight ago. In July 2017, a tip from Israeli intelligence helped authorities stop a plot to blow up an Etihad Airways flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi with a bomb smuggled in a meat grinder. Two brothers behind the plot were sentenced to 40 and 36 years’ jail.
Nor is the ACTU’s opposition to Australian companies supplying parts used in supply chains for F-35 fighter jets legitimate. Doling out bad advice on foreign and strategic policy is not the ACTU’s role, which is promoting the pay and conditions of its members. Rank-and-file workers deserve better from highly paid leaders who are remote from the interests of the nation and its allies. The Albanese government should ignore these officials’ rantings.
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Peta Credlin slams Anthony Albanese over major problem with immigration after country reached worrying milestone
Sky News commentator Peta Credlin has taken aim at Anthony Albanese after a record number of immigrants were welcomed into Australia in just one month.
More than 100,000 immigrants came to Australia in February, after 765,900 arrived throughout last year, another all-time record.
The massive influx has raised fears it will strain the crippled housing and rental markets with new housing proposals being accepted at the lowest rate in 11 years.
This is despite the Albanese Government promising to bring immigration down to 300,000-per-year and build 250,000 homes.
Credlin said the inaction was also abetting social disharmony.
Ms Credlin, in her weekly column, said successive governments have 'increasingly sent signals to migrants that the culture of the country they’re coming to is built on a history of shame, illegitimacy, and racism'.
'Is it any wonder that some migrant communities become reluctant to integrate or insistent that Australia must change to accommodate their preferences, when weak officialdom will only fly our national flag apologetically, in company with two other flags representing people with a particular racial heritage?' she wrote.
'Or when our civic culture now seems to revolve around indigenous ancestor worship while denigrating the Judaeo-Christian basis of our fundamental institutions like the rule of law.'
She added that it is 'hardly the fault of immigrants' who chose to come to Australia, but that of governments who failed to 'insist on (them) joining Team Australia'.
'It’s way past time for governments at every level to start stressing unity over diversity, to rebuild a patriotic love of Australia, rather than to preside over the diminution of our national symbols, like Australia Day,' she wrote.
Credlin claimed the 100,000 migrants who came to Australia was 'significant'.
She compared the figure to the Howard government era where 110,000 migrants came on average every year during that period.
'It’s no secret then, why housing is unaffordable, wages are flat, and roads and public transport are clogged because that’s just what happens when you don’t have a population policy and instead, use migration as a way to make the budget bottom line look better than it really is,' she wrote.
Institute of Public Affairs deputy executive director Daniel Wild said high immigration rates with few properties being built is a recipe for a housing crisis.
'The data proves that the federal government’s unplanned mass migration program is unsustainable,' he said.
'It actively undermines Australians who are struggling to find a home as increasing demand and a lack of supply is pricing them out of the market.'
Australia's median capital city house price of $956,782, based on CoreLogic data, is well beyond the reach of an average, full-time worker on $98,218.
That's because banks are only able to lend 5.2 times their salary to someone with a steady job and a 20 per cent mortgage deposit.
The average wage would only be enough to buy a $639,000 home, which in greater Sydney would only buy a unit or a house 100km away from the city centre.
Renters are also suffering with 175,960 international student arriving in February, adding to competition for somewhere to live.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13332121/Anthony-Albanese-immigration-milestone.html
*************************************************Sims: don’t saddle nation with high cost solar panels, wind farms
Former competition tsar Rod Sims has warned that embracing an ad hoc “Made in Australia” approach to the net zero transition by 2050 could “destroy” the chances of Australia becoming a clean energy superpower.
In an address to the Melbourne Economic Forum, the former chair of the ACCC warned against the nation embracing flawed approaches to achieving net zero and took aim at those who belonged to the “Made in Australia” camp as well as those whom he regarded as “market fundamentalists.”
Mr Sims, the chair of the Superpower Institute – a body dedicated to helping the nation capitalise on the opportunities of the green energy transition – used the address to warn against saddling the nation with high cost solar panels and wind farms.
But he also made clear there was a role for government in helping the nation make the most of the coming green revolution. However, he said any government support needed to be finely geared towards areas where Australia had a comparative advantage – such as in green iron.
He also listed a series of conditions that would be needed to govern any taxpayer support for industry.
First, he said assistance should be aimed at the so-called “superpower industries” where Australia “has or will have a comparative advantage due to the net zero transition.”
READ MORE: ‘Made in Australia’ sets new, dangerous course for Labor | What’s the point of PM’s flagship policy? | Future budget deficits to be Made in Australia | PM ‘betraying Hawke reforms’ |
Second, the purpose of any assistance needed to be clearly defined to address well-understood problems.
Third, there should be clear “qualification rules” for assistance and, fourth, support needed to be fully funded to ensure the nation maintained a strong budget position.
Mr Sims used the address to take aim at the proponents of the Made in Australia philosophy, arguing it was unclear – at this stage – what the policy was about or how it would work.
“We have the ‘Made in Australia’ group. The problem here is that it is unclear what this group seeks. Make everything we need, import nothing? What is the framework in this slogan for deciding what Australia does, and does not, make in Australia?”
He expressed grave concerns that simply throwing money at any green energy project would “destroy the Superpower opportunity.”
“Should government support be provided to ensure we make our own computers, cars, clothing?” he asked. “Without a clear framework Australia will take a series of ad hoc measures that invite rent seeking by businesses, raise Australia’s cost structure and lower our productivity.”
“The government’s current rhetoric around “Made in Australia” suggests there is a focus on projects relevant to the net zero transition. But again, what does this suggest we do? Is it ‘any green project deserves taxpayer support?’”
Mr Sims asked how the nation could achieve “low cost renewable energy if we are saddled with high cost solar panels, wind farms and electrolysers through a ‘buy local’ imperative?”
“Under this form of “Made in Australia” approach, Australia will not achieve the lowest cost inputs to the supply of such goods, so Australia will not be cost competitive in their supply, and the green traded products will not be as cost competitive with existing fossil fuel-made products.”
Mr Sims said such an approach would be damaging for three reasons – it would remove Australia’s ability to make the most of its comparative advantage in making green energy-intensive exports, it would displace budget dollars that could be better allocated and force labour into unproductive areas of the economy during a worker shortage.
His preferred approach to making the transition to net zero would only allow for goods to be made in Australia “where the economics have ‘flipped’.”
For example, Mr Sims said Australia was a leading exporter of iron ore, coal and gas.
“The “Made in Australia” camp, as some are expressing it, would have us use all these Australian ingredients and make iron metal in Australia now,” he said.
“There is no logic to government intervening in the choices the market has made; it seems best for Australia in the fossil carbon world to do as we are.
“We would undermine the advantages of other industries and see lower wages by having workers in always struggling industries who would be constantly lobbying government for help.”
But Mr Sims said it was sensible to make green iron in Australia, because this was an area where the nation had a comparative advantage.
“Green iron will very likely need green hydrogen as the reductant that gets the iron ore into iron metal,” he said. “Green iron should be made in Australia because the economics flip.”
“All overseas studies that I am aware of suggest that Australia is likely the cheapest place in the world to make green iron. And those seeking to make green iron by importing hydrogen, those studies say, will be uncompetitive.”
Mr Sims concluded that the world needed Australia to make many green products because the nation had more low cost renewable energy resources than its needed. By contrast, Japan, Korea, most of Europe and China did not have sufficient renewable energy resources to make all the electricity they needed.
“They will need to either import renewable energy, ammonia as a derivative of hydrogen and/or use nuclear energy – all at great cost – to meet their domestic electricity needs,” he said.
He concluded by arguing the government had not clarified what it meant by its “Made in Australia” agenda.
If it amounted simply to a suite of ad hoc measures that invited rent seeking by businesses and raised Australia’s cost structure while lowering productivity, the Made in Australia vision would only “kill the superpower ambition.”
“Australia cannot afford to follow this lead. Nor will it suit the world for this to happen,” he said.
“If the government is ... targeting producing goods in which Australia now has a comparative advantage in the net zero world, through clear qualification mechanisms that address well defined market externalities, the government must be applauded.”
“We will wait and see on May 14, budget night, which group they are in.”
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM -- daily)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
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