Australian Politics
Suspended doctor says he told truth about COVID
A doctor suspended over allegations he wrote fake COVID-19 exemptions and shared misleading information about the virus insists he told the truth about vaccines and their risks.
Disciplinary proceedings have begun between the Medical Board of Australia and Mark Hobart, with the Melbourne doctor maintaining he did nothing wrong.
In a brief hearing at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Dr Hobart applied on Monday to have the matter dismissed or struck out on the grounds it was "frivolous, vexatious, misconceived".
He has filed a 27-page document setting out his submissions.
Despite this, his application to have the matter dismissed was denied.
A mention for those proceedings is expected to be held on August 16, with a three-day hearing expected to start early next year.
Dr Hobart has been suspended since November 2021 based on eight allegations of misconduct, including issuing almost 600 COVID-19 vaccination and mask exemptions.
Dr Hobart argues that the Board exceeded its jurisdictional powers in the matters, and says it cannot tell doctors what information they can or cannot provide to patients.
He also claims he told the "truth to patients about vaccines" and complied with his duty of care, including the obligation to do no harm.
Tribunal senior member Elisabeth Wentworth denied Dr Hobart's application to dismiss the matter, saying the allegations against him were serious.
"This is not a frivolous proceeding," Ms Wentworth said in her written findings.
She said the allegations raised important questions about a doctor's professional responsibility in relation to disease prevention and control.
Victorians were subject to strict vaccination mandates and mask rules throughout the pandemic.
Melbourne's metropolitan area was subject to six lockdowns of a cumulative 260-plus days in 2020 and 2021, giving the Victorian capital the dubious honour of being the most locked-down city in the world.
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Take heart! Australia is still better and fairer than most
Ross Gittins
Don’t be disheartened by recent events. Things in the Land of Oz are far from perfect, and we have our share of problems. But don’t be tempted by the thought that if America’s going to the dogs, we won’t be far behind. No, we’re holding things together much better than the Yanks are.
Of late, it’s been tempting to think that the goal of every generation being better off than their parents has been lost. It’s not true. Not yet, anyway. And there’s still time to ensure that Gen Z – youngsters in their teens and early 20s – get a fair shake.
It’s not easy to compare generations with statistical accuracy. But lately, statisticians have made progress in linking information from the census and official surveys with banks of data held by government departments. And last week, the Productivity Commission used this advance to publish a much more authoritative study on economic mobility.
It confirms that, on average, each generation earns more than its parents did at the same age. That’s because the economy has grown almost continuously over the decades, raising material standards of living. This would be true of all the developed economies.
Of course, it’s also true that it’s easier for children born into poorer families to do better than their parents than it is for children born into well-off families.
However, living standards haven’t grown much over the past decade or so. Were this to continue for a further decade or more, it could become true that Gen Z isn’t doing better than its parents.
A different question as to whether overall living standards are continuing to rise in real terms over the years is how easy it is for people to change where they stand in the distribution of incomes as their lives progress.
How easy is it for people starting out towards the bottom of the ladder to climb to a higher rung?
This is the meaning of income mobility. Can you better yourself if you try hard enough?
Now, this is where the Americans keep telling themselves they’re the land of opportunity. Log cabin to the White House and all that. Well, it may have been true in Abraham Lincoln’s day, but it hasn’t been true for decades. As a general rule, the more unequal incomes are, the harder it is for people’s positions on the ladder to change.
America’s incomes are highly unequal, and it’s one of the countries where changing your income status is hardest.
But this is where the Productivity Commission’s research brings good news. On income inequality, Australia is in the middle of the pack of rich countries. But when it comes to income mobility, we do what Australians love to think of themselves as doing: punching above our weight.
We pride ourselves on being the land of the fair go. Or, as dear departed Scott Morrison preferred to put it: if you have a go, you get a go. Well, guess what? We now have documentary evidence that it’s still true. According to the commission’s calculations, Australia is among the most income-mobile countries, scoring better than even the fabled Scandinavians.
Two qualifications. First, people in the middle 60 per cent of the distribution enjoy the most opportunity to move. If you start in the bottom 20 per cent of personal incomes, you have less ability to improve. And if you’re already in the top 20 per cent, it’s harder to go higher.
Second, although the commission doesn’t spell this out, mobility cuts both ways. Remember, we’re talking about relative incomes, not absolute incomes. So, if it’s easier for me to pass you on the ladder, it’s easier for you to fall below me.
How do people seek to improve their earning potential? The obvious way is to get a better education. On average, people with a uni degree or higher earn 23 per cent more over their lifetime than those who only complete year 12. And those who complete high school earn significantly more than those who don’t.
Mobility is adversely affected by significant life events, such as unemployment, serious health problems and relationship breakdowns.
So far, we’ve been focusing just on income. But wealth – the assets you own – also affects your mobility. Unsurprisingly, the less wealth you have, the harder it is to move up, and the more wealth you have, the easier it is to stay up.
The rich have always been with us, but I think the inordinate rise in the cost – and value – of homes, which is already handicapping young people without access to parental help, will also make inheritance a bigger influence on people’s income mobility.
As Australians, we have a lot to be pleased about and proud of. But we have no cause for complacency.
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I witnessed the rot set in at the CFMEU. Here’s how it happened
The expression that evil flourishes when good people do nothing goes a fair bit of the way explaining the mess the CFMEU construction division is in today. Yet eventually people who turn a blind eye for long enough become as big a problem as their plainly corrupt colleagues.
Why do these people turn a blind eye? For some, it’s out of physical fear. For others, it’s just a question of keeping your head down and staying on the payroll.
Corruption and criminality in the CFMEU didn’t start during the time of John Setka’s reign. The 1986 deregistration of Norm Gallagher’s Builders Labourers Federation (BLF) is probably the starting point. They were deregistered by the Hawke government because of their industrial recklessness, thuggery and corruption.
Gallagher was jailed for taking kickbacks from developers to build his beach house. His union used extensive industrial action to get the big construction companies to influence the government to release him. Not exactly how our judicial system works.
When the BLF was deregistered, other building unions recruited tens of thousands of BLF members in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. In the early 1990s, the building unions formed the new super union, the CFMEU.
As part of that process, the federal industrial relations minister Peter Cook was keen for the non-deregistered BLF branches in Western Australia, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania to join the new union. A sticking point was what to do about some former BLF officials from Victoria. The BLF branches and Cook were keen for the CFMEU leaders to let them in. Protracted negotiations, which I participated in, saw former Victorian official John Cummins come onto the books of the CFMEU.
Agreement could not be reached about young John Setka because of his past behaviour. History shows that within 18 months, Cummins secured Setka a job in the Victorian CFMEU.
Between 1993 and 2000, the former BLF forces gradually strengthened their position in the Victorian branch and didn’t hide the fact they aimed to take over the federal office and grab control of the whole union. In 2000 they made their move, and a series of ugly events saw gangsters, corruption, bitter internal fighting and the Cole royal commission into the building industry.
Between 2000 and 2010, the Victorian branch didn’t have the numbers to take control. The NSW, Queensland, ACT and Tasmanian branches stood together and represented the biggest faction. A new Queensland CFMEU leader took office around 2008 and started voting with the Victorians. This represented a serious change in the direction and culture of the CFMEU construction division.
Warning on CFMEU intimidation sent to Allan, Albanese in 2022
Those who had been trying to remove me since 1994 now had the numbers, and I left the union at the end of 2010 after 31 years.
Shortly thereafter there were leadership changes in the NSW branch, which then became embroiled in ugly allegations of corruption. Gangsters started to circle. The Heydon royal commission into trade unions ventilated extensive evidence about nefarious activities by leading NSW officials. Remarkably, no criminal charges followed. The officials subject to examination by the royal commission were not deterred and strengthened their control of the branch. Father and son Darren Greenfield and Michael Greenfield have been the secretary and assistant secretary for the past seven years or so.
Meanwhile, Setka, who became the Victorian branch secretary in 2012, continued to strengthen his control of that branch. Many longstanding officials and site delegates were replaced by a new brigade, some with a history of bikie gang activity and criminal involvement.
Given the size of the Victorian branch and Setka’s powerful presence, he became the dominant force across the construction division nationally. For many years, the Victorian and NSW branches had been at loggerheads about the appropriate style of unionism, but under the Setka and Greenfield leaderships there was a new close affinity. Paralleling this was the rise in prominence of colourful identities Mick Gatto in Victoria and George Alex in NSW.
Is the Setka style of unionism all bad? No. In many ways, the crude use of power and muscle corresponds with the raw nature of the construction industry. Big developers and construction companies often crush small fry, whether subcontractors or workers. The use of union militancy to push for wage demands and safety has often been positive. But when Setka and his band took control, muscle became everything – no matter where the muscle came from.
What is the future of the CFMEU construction division? Nothing short of a clean-out of corrupt officials in the Victorian and NSW branches will suffice. It’s highly unlikely the union can clean itself up.
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Controversial British author Toby Young unloads at 'woke' Australia: 'Crocodile Dundee would be in jail'
A right-wing British author has claimed Australia is surrendering its larrikinism to the 'woke mind virus' and argued free speech is under threat in the country.
Toby Young, 60, made the comments after wrapping up a nationwide speaking tour of Australia last week.
Young authored 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People' - which was turned into a 2008 Hollywood movie starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst and Megan Fox.
Young, the founder of the Daily Sceptic which runs pieces challenging government positions on climate change and Covid, also founded the Free Speech Union.
He says the union, which has chapters in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, protects the right to express opinions - across the political spectrum - from attempted restrictions by the 'radical progressive left'.
Young told Daily Mail Australia the country was losing its famed free-spirit and anti-authority bravado - and had become more closed-minded than it was decades ago.
'These days it is as if Crocodile Dundee is languishing in a prison cell waiting for trial,' he said. 'He’s awaiting trial for hate speech somewhere in Victoria.
'The emergence of wokeism has introduced a puritanical intolerance into the left which has meant a downgrading of how much they value free speech.'
Young argued free speech was in 'dire straits across the western world' because America had 'exported the woke mind virus'.
'We’re seeing the gradual spread of the woke religion, the great awokening, across the media, universities, governments, officials, the museums and heritage sector, the arts and that’s all been deeply depressing,' he said.
'And here you don’t seem to have much at all to protect you.'
Young said Australia's Online Safety Act 'has empowered your eSafety Commissioner to effectively run amok'.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant recently made an unsuccessful bid to force X to take down images of the Wakeley Church stabbing from its platform worldwide.
'That was an extraordinary over-reach on the part of the eSafety Commissioner to demand not just a video be removed from X in Australia but globally,' Young said.
'That is indicative of just how unlimited the censorious ambitions of people like Julie Inman Grant are.
'They want to cleanse social media of any dissenting or heretical content that challenges their radical progressive views, under the guise of protecting people.'
'What does she think gives her jurisdiction, the authority to make a demand like that?'
Young also took aim at the Albanese government's proposed laws to curb misinformation and disinformation online.
He argued 'we all know' what misinformation and disinformation 'really means'.
'It is any opinion that members of the radical progressive left disagree with,' he said.
'The fact that the losing side in the Voice referendum blamed misinformation and disinformation gives you a clue as to what a chilling effect the anti-misinformation Bill would have on free speech in Australia.'
Young said he was a victim of cancel culture in 2018 when then-British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him as a non-executive director of the Office for Students regulator.
Young's education credentials were established when he set up the West London Free School, a first-of-its-kind school independent of the educational authority but which received government funding.
Young said the board position was a 'nothing burger of a job' which was not paid and only required he meet with other directors four times a year.
'That was the invitation to offence-archeologists to go back through everything I had ever said or written from 1987,' Young said.
'Because I have been a professional journalist all my life, it didn’t take long to find a Tutankhamun tomb’s worth of offensive content.
'After eight days of leading the news on 'resignation watch' I stood down and apologised for some of the more sophomoric things I had said on X late at night.
'I thought that would draw a line under it but it was just the opposite effect. It was like throwing raw beef to a shoal of piranha fish, there was blood in the water.
'They came for me in four other jobs so I ended up having to stand down from five other positions. So, I was well and truly cancelled.'
It was that sequence of events that inspired to launch his Free Speech Union, which takes up the cause of other people who have been cancelled, fired or banned for expressing an opinion.
'When I recovered I thought what I really needed when that was happening to me to was a professional organisation who could provide me with really good advice, should I apologise or will that make things worse?' Young said.
'Should I get out and defend myself or will that just prolong the story?
'Is there anyone else this has happened to and you can put me touch with and give me a few pointers for support?
'But there was no organisation like that so that’s why I decided to start the Free Speech Union.'
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13637635/Toby-Young-Australia-Crocodile-Dundee.html
****************************************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)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE-TIED)
https://immigwatch.blogspot.com (IMMIGRATION WATCH)
http://jonjayray.com/short/short.html (Subject index to my blog posts)
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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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