A brainless government

In 1984, Anthony Albanese graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics. In an ironic juxtaposition, this is the same year that US President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech pithily observing that, ‘Government does not solve problems; it subsidises them.’ Ironic because government subsidies seem to be the default policy response to every economic and social challenge before the Albanese government.

Cost of living too high? Provide cost-of-living subsidies. Manufacturing declining? Provide production subsidies. Energy costs too high? Provide energy subsidies. Salaries too low? Provide wage subsidies. Childcare costs too high? Enhance middle-class-welfare subsidies. Housing unaffordable? Increase rental subsidies.

Within the Albanese government it seems that there is a belief that no problem can withstand an assault from buckets of other peoples’ money; debt and inflationary consequences be damned. Actual policy development, reform, and advocacy to promote productivity, prosperity and tranquility is apparently for others not distracted by the in-flight movies on Toto 1.

Prime Minister Albanese’s partner in profligacy is his esteemed Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers. David Pearl recently wrote, unfavourably comparing Chalmers to a Labor treasurer of an earlier time, that, ‘Chalmers is unmistakably a modern-day Jim Cairns, only without the PhD in economics. Both are dreamers, wishing the laws of economics and sound public finance were otherwise than what they are.’ Such comparisons are unfair. Unfair on Cairns.

Misguided as Cairns may have been, he at least had an economic vision for Australia. A vision shaped by his socialist beliefs of a fairer society delivered through government intervention and wealth redistribution. Chalmers’ vision, on the other hand, seems no more sophisticated than being there.

Unlike Cairns, Chalmers’ doctoral thesis was not on economics but on political science and specifically on the prime ministership of ‘Brawler Statesman’ Paul Keating. Perhaps portending his own treasurership, Chalmers’ thesis focused on the style rather than the substance of Keating’s leadership, ignoring Keating’s rich economic policy record, instead studying how Keating managed and exercised prime ministerial power.

In the first two years of his treasurership, Keating drove several important economic reforms including floating of the Australian dollar and financial deregulation. In Chalmers’ first two years, he championed two tax increases and a restructure of the RBA.

The first tax increase was a poorly considered and ill-designed tax on superannuation balances greater than $3 million. A particularly egregious reform which breaks an election commitment, introduces a tax on unrealised gains, and also privileges bureaucrats and politicians in legacy defined benefit pension schemes. Even Chalmer’s thesis subject Keating described key elements of this tax as ‘unconscionable’.

The second tax increase, and one Chalmers claims to be most proud of, was to increase taxes on middle and higher earners to finance a tax cut for low earners. And in doing so, he waged a direct assault on aspirational Australians. Financing tax cuts for all earners through cutting government spending would have been anathematic for Chalmers.

As Rome’s economy burns, Chalmers fiddles and diddles. Instead of investing his energies into reducing inflation and promoting economic growth, Chalmers pens indulgent essays on redesigning capitalism. Instead of championing economic reforms, Chalmers theatrically performs, criticising anyone who refuses to engage with the government’s right-speak.

All the while, Australia’s economy is facing significant challenges. Although not technically in recession, Australia is in a secular stagnation with the longest per-capita recession in over 50 years and sluggish aggregate economic growth. Inflation remains high and persistent, while productivity declines.

Chalmers would have Australians believe that the essence of Australia’s economic troubles is the nasty RBA and its interest rate policies. Oh, and overseas factors too. And the previous government. And climate change. And the dog eating his briefing book.

If Chalmers were to be believed, Australia’s economic malaise has nothing to do with record government spending and taxing, and certainly not with the multiple anti-prosperity and anti-productivity policies implemented by the government of which he is a senior member.

Commenting following the most recent disappointing economic growth data, Chalmers said, ‘Without government spending, there’d be no growth in the economy at all.’ The idea an ever-growing public sector was crowding out the private sector seems foreign to Chalmers. However, if all that is required to improve economic growth is increasing government spending, then why not just double or triple spending and make Australia the fastest-growing economy in the world?

Earlier this year, feigning reform zeal, Chalmers initiated discussions with the ACCC around launching an inquiry into alleged price-gouging by business. Perhaps more urgent inquiry is required into price-gouging by government.

The true measure of taxation is government spending because it is financed by taxes collected today or collected tomorrow. Under Chalmers’ stewardship, Commonwealth government spending has increased from 24.5 per cent of GDP to 26.4 per cent of GDP, an extra $100 billion per annum gouged from Australians. Where are the inquiries into this?

In the 1979 film Being There, the main character, Chance the gardener, becomes Chauncey Gardiner, a potential candidate for US President. Due to a series of misunderstandings, Gardiner’s simple comments about gardening are misinterpreted as deep insights. No better example being his remark that, ‘There will be growth in the spring’ being seen as a metaphor for an imminent economic recovery.

In his recent John Curtin Oration, Chalmers referred to a ‘new generation of opportunity in a new fourth economy for Australia and its people’. Whatever may be a new fourth economy, this vacuous comment was perhaps meant to also be a metaphor for economic recovery.

Australia is in dire need of economic leadership. Without it, there won’t be economic growth in the spring. Or in the summer, autumn, or winter.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/09/being-chauncey-chalmers/

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Lies, damned lies – and a total lack of accountability

Gemma Tognini

What makes a person believe lies, in the face of truth? We’ve all done it at one point or another, haven’t we? The pain of facing unwelcome truths is a staple of the human condition, however one sign of a mature intellect is a willingness to be wrong for the right reasons.

Some, though – a concerning number of folk in fact – appear afflicted with a sickness of the mind. One that violently says black is white, up is down and night is day. They refuse to move, angry and belligerent in their defiance of fact.

Why, though? And how?

There are still people who think the earth is flat, for example. Who believe that chem trails are polluting the sky. There are people who firmly believe the government ­controls the clouds. That green smoothies and good vibes will cure a terminal disease.

There are people, I’ve learned sadly, who believe rape is resistance. Who believe the bullshit, fabricated narrative of a proscribed terror organisation over the documented fact of a functioning democracy. Who are so ill of intellect they believed something as questionable as the Hamas Health Ministry when it said Israel had bombed a hospital. Until, of course, it swiftly emerged that no such thing had happened.

There are those who believe Israel is a coloniser. I mean, in fairness they’d have to be the worst ­colonisers on earth given the population of Israel, just 7.2 million, is surrounded by 481 million people spread across the 22-member states of the Arab League. But sure, let’s play pretend. God knows, most of the Western media has been.

There are those who believe that Israel is an apartheid state. It’s a bit sad, isn’t it? Young people you can excuse to a degree, but adults using that word about the most ­liberal, pluralistic country in the region is an insult.

For those who’ve lost touch with South Africa’s attempt to sue Israel in the International Court of Justice for committing genocide, the South African government has just this week asked for more time to submit evidence to support the claim, which is due at the end of October.

The reason for this request? It can’t find any evidence. But still, the cretins among us parrot the lie in the face of truth. The Australian Greens, stablemates of Australian Labor, purveyors of violence, discord and havoc, perpetuate this lie more than any other.

So, what makes someone believe lies in the face of truth? Is it fear, or is it laziness? Does it happen swiftly, or over time? Is a person born that way, or formed? Nurture, or nature?

This awful war that Israel didn’t start, but has been left alone to fight and finish, has exposed the best and worst of us. The worst, though, is very bad indeed. Sobering, frightening and telling.

This past week, with the permission of their families, the Israel Defence Forces released footage of the fetid, dank tunnels in which six hostages were kept and, as freedom and rescue knocked, were summarily executed. It’s suffocating to watch it, if that’s even possible. For me it was the mundane and familiar among the blood and filth and bottles of what looked like urine. A hairbrush. Shopping bags. The execution of these hostages represents a war that presents the most significant, present threat to Western freedoms and values since 9/11 and, just a week later, it feels like people have already moved on. God, awful, yes, terrible okay, what’s for dinner?

Israel’s military has released footage of a grim tunnel in Gaza, where six hostages, held by Hamas for 330 days, were executed just hours before a rescue attempt. The victims—Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel…

Hamas doesn’t want a two-state solution. It wants what its masters in Tehran and Qatar want: the eradication of Israel. The establishment of a caliphate across the region and beyond. You want colonisation? Look no further. Yet in the face of documented fact, things like population data, things like the stated political aims of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood. In the face of these and many other things some still choose to believe the lies.

If someone could explain the how, I’d be grateful. Perhaps it’s like some kind of weird, psychosomatic exercise in self-soothing? There is no greater representation of what I’m talking about than Queers for Palestine. Nobody is gay in the Middle East and thinking, I know, sharia law will be a great umbrella under which to shelter. Might go live my life in peace in Ramallah and start touring my one-woman show on how I came out as a ­teenager.

Ahmad Abu Marhia was a 25-year-old gay Palestinian. He had sought asylum in Israel after fleeing the West Bank. He was decapitated, his severed head and torso dumped near his family’s home. There are many stories like his. I found them, reading just one report of the European parliament that spoke of the murder of Palestinians for being gay, and how those who can, flee to Israel for asylum.

Staring facts in the face and blithely remaining cocooned in lies.

How many in our society have decided to go for the bad guys staggers me. Defeats me, in some ways. I received an email this week from a reader who made the following lament-filled observation: “Our politicians and university chancellors are appeasing people who place evil over good, wrong over right and it makes no sense.”

Is it because, for what seems like the longest while, there are no consequences to anything, ever?

University of Sydney professor Sujatha Fernandes told first-year students that Hamas’s mass rape and sexual violence on and after October 7 was “fake news” and a “hoax” concocted by Western media to shore up Israel’s position. What do you think happened to her? The university won’t say but she’s still employed, still teaching students, avoiding any serious ­punishment.

Even the UN, who any sober-minded person can see is mostly corrupt, complicit and captured, found thousands of pieces of evidence in relation to October 7.

Special envoy Palmilla Pratten documented the horrendous evidence, and it has been accepted by the UN unchallenged.

But Fernandes is allowed to keep her job and keep teaching students. Imagine if she had said to her students “the whole idea of being trans is a hoax? It’s just a thing to prop up the political left.” We all know how that would have been dealt with.

I’ve heard some people say, what does it matter? Who cares? Why should a conflict on the other side of the world affect us? Because it is already affecting us.

Just look at the violent chaos in Melbourne on Thursday and Friday, driven by the anti-Israel mob ably supported by the Greens. They are the River to the Sea collective. The “peaceful protesters” who ­assault horses and throw acid at police.

What emboldens people to act this way? A lack of consequences. A knowing that the worst that will come their way is a half-hearted scolding.

It didn’t start on the night of October 9, when that feral mob was allowed to roam unchecked on the steps of the Opera House behaving in a way no Australian wants to see. But that was definitely a catalyst for escalation to a frightening and unseen level of consistent lawlessness enacted by the pro-Palestinian camp. And why wouldn’t they? There were no consequences.

The obvious question is how to turn the tide. I mean, just imagine if the federal government was in a position to do something about this. Just imagine, for example, if they made our embarrassing tertiary education sector accountable for outcomes not just bums on seats. Imagine if back on October 9, 2023, that angry mob had been dealt with, first time. A message sent. Just imagine

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/lies-damned-lies-and-a-total-lack-of-accountability/news-story/32e26163b566fdf4e40e06be8e613966

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University to end in-person lectures for 'most' students

Should be OK if face-to-face tutorials continue

A decision by an Australian university to ditch face-to-face lectures with students will mark 'the death of campus life', furious staff members have said.

Adelaide University announced this week it will ditch in-person lectures for 'most students' when the campus launches in January 2026.

Traditional face-to-face lectures will be replaced 'by rich digital learning activities' which will be 'self-paced' and 'self-directed'.

Courses will have a 'common digital baseline' and digital learning is expected to make up a large portion of coursework by 2034.

'These activities will deliver an equivalent learning volume to traditional lectures and will form a common baseline for digital learning across courses, providing a consistent experience for students,' the University of Adelaide said in a statement.

'These asynchronous activities will be self-paced and self-directed, utilising high-quality digital resources that students can engage with anytime and anywhere.'

Activities such as tutorials and workshops however, 'may be delivered on-campus to create a rich cohort experience, or in instances where digital delivery provides the best outcomes for students, through the online learning space'.

Adelaide University is a merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia, combining the state's two largest universities.

Division secretary of the National Tertiary Education Union's (NTEU) South Australia branch, Dr Andrew Miller, said moving lectures online has made staff 'furious'.

'We were promised the new university would be co-created with staff, students and community stakeholders,' Dr Miller told The Guardian.

'This decision sidestepped that commitment. Co-creation means giving agency and empowerment to collectively build the university.'

Dr Miller claims staff were not properly consulted on the decision and that tutors should be allowed input on learning programs.

He said flexibility between online learning and face-to-face learning was better for students, some of whom benefit more from one or the other.

National president of the NTEU, Dr Alison Barnes, told the publication that the decision will mark the 'death of campus life'.

Dr Barnes said students could miss out on critical feedback that they could normally ask staff in person about after face-to-face lectures.

Online learning does not facilitate the same kind of easy access, she added.

Some students who are currently studying at the University of Adelaide said they felt uncomfortable with the change.

'Face-to-face lectures are a really good motivation to get people out and at uni [and to] have that separation of home and school,' one first-year student told The Advertiser.

'It's good to be there, you can ask questions to the lecturers, you can go up to the lectures. You don’t have to email and wait six days for an email back.'

An Adelaide University spokesperson said modern students required flexibility and that online learning is the best provider of that.

'Universities have been increasingly responding to student needs for flexible delivery over the years,' the spokesperson told Honi Soit, the University of Sydney's student newspaper.

'Lectures are passive learning activities that can be delivered online to maximise flexibility for students without impacting learning quality.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13849245/Adelaide-university-ditches-campus-lectures.html

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"Dying” Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are some of creation’s most strikingly beautiful places. Clean and clear blue water, graceful whales and sea turtles, swarms of dazzling fishes, and amazing coral. We can’t get enough of coral reefs, so we adorn our walls with paintings and photos. Saltwater aquariums abound in households, restaurants and businesses around the world.

Naturally, we want to protect all this goodness and beauty. Stewardship is in our DNA. Our emotions can kick in when a threat is perceived. Unfortunately, nefarious people know this about us. People whose agenda has more to do with global power and control than with protecting coral reefs. They tap into our emotions by manufacturing threats, mixing nuggets of truth with futuristic doomsday scenarios designed to keep us in constant fear that we may lose what we love unless things change according to their plan.

Take for example the PBS News feature titled “Conservationists take drastic measures to save coral reefs from climate change.” Published earlier this year, the video begins by falsely claiming that coral reefs around the world are “slowly dying.” The video then shows members of the Coral Restoration Foundation in Florida scrambling to save a manmade coral nursery they had just planted. Members reportedly gave each other “space to grieve” the corals that died.

The truth nugget was that, indeed, the corals were dying and the water was hot. Optimum temperatures for coral are in the 73-84 °F range. At this point in July 2023, water temperatures in the coral nursery were in the low 90s.

But this truth nugget is embedded in a swarm of lies. Like the story’s title, for one. Or the narrator’s claims that in nearby Manatee Bay, waters reached 101 °F, stating this might be the “hottest ocean temperature ever recorded on Earth.” First of all, Manatee Bay is not an “ocean,” it’s a shallow, semi-enclosed body of water. Most likely, this temperature reading was measured one afternoon in a very shallow (like 6 inches deep) and stagnant part of the bay, nowhere near coral reef habitat.

Later in the story, the narrator quietly mentions that in October, the corals were returned to the nursery area. No mention is made of the “climate change” event that caused the waters to cool. Why was the natural summertime warming correlated with “climate change,” while the Fall cooling was not? To media outlets like PBS, cooling is not “climate change.” Only above average summer temperatures and fake 101 °F “ocean” temperature measurements fit the narrative.

With the “climate change” threat averted by Fall and Winter, the PBS story switches to an even more ferocious, and fake, threat: the total collapse of all coral reefs everywhere. IF something this cataclysmic actually happened, we would all be dead, too, but nevermind that minor detail.

Enter the Smithosonian’s Mary Hagedorn, who spearheads a coral cryopreservation project. Hagedorn works for the largely taxpayer funded Smithsonian on Coconut Island in Hawaii. She says she wants to preserve coral for future generations, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Throughout the world we have “seed banks” to preserve plant species. In a similar manner, Hagedorn hopes to develop a cheap and replicable system to create “coral banks” around the world.

While the reasons for storing coral fragments in liquid nitrogen may be the thing of science fantasy, the actual knowledge gleaned from projects like this could have benefits in other fields like medicine, or in real conservation work to help a reef recover more quickly after damage from a hurricane.

Oddly, the PBS video ends with a headline that there is a coral reef in 600-3,000 ft of water in the Atlantic that is 3 times the size of Yellowstone National Park! Wait, you just told us coral reefs are slowly dying, and now you are saying there is a massive, very alive coral reef in the deep and cold ocean?!

Normally, corals need sunlight to fuel the symbiotic zooxanthellae algae that live amongst them. These algae give corals their color, and will leave when stressed, turning the corals bright pink to white, hence the phrase “coral bleaching.” Apparently these deepwater corals survive just fine without the zooxanthellae.

Did you catch that about coral bleaching? It can be a stress indicator with shallow water corals, but it doesn’t mean they are dead. The PBS story quickly mentions this, and just as quickly moves on, because “coral bleaching” is a scary phrase that needs to stay tied to their false narrative of “climate change” resulting from fossil fuel generated CO2.

The misuses of naturally-occurring coral bleaching are legion among the doomsayers. A great example comes from John Brewer Reef, part of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. A famous 2022 photo in The Guardian shows a mostly-bleached coral near the reef’s surface. “It’s depressing to think about,” says Dr. Terry Hughes, who in 2017 was lead author of a paper in the journal Nature that fits the “coral bleaching is global warming” false narrative.

Thankfully, facts still matter to some, like Dr. Jennifer Marohasy, a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne-based think-tank, the Institute of Public Affairs. Just a year after The Guardian article, Marohasy took her 50 years of ocean experience out to John Brewer Reef to check on the now-famous coral patch. As you can see in this video she made, the coral patch is now doing just fine, as are most of the corals on John Brewer Reef.

Rather than get emotional about unprovable doomsday fantasies, real scientists like Marohasy verify the claims the doomsayers make by simply observing the real world. And the real world tells a different, and much more positive story! The real story is that coral lives in a harsh and highly variable environment, and can handle a lot of stresses. Yes, we can do very bad things to coral reefs, like these fools from China who allegedly poisoned a coral reef with cyanide just so fishermen from the Philippines couldn’t use it. We need to steward coral reefs well, constantly reevaluating our efforts to find the best balance between too much protection and not enough conservation

https://cornwallalliance.org/pbs-and-the-false-narrative-of-slowly-dying-coral-reefs/

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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)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

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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‘Evidence not ideology’: Major overhaul of the NSW high school curriculum

Wlll they be taught that Hitler was a socialist? Will they be taught that the "stolen generation" was just social workers doing their job? I suspect not. A balanced curriculum would include mention of those dreadful thoughts but would creete a politically correct storm of outrage if it did

High school students will be taught about Indigenous Australians’ experience of colonisation under a sweeping rewrite of the history curriculum that will also mandate the study of civics and the foundations of democracy.

The biggest overhaul of the state’s history syllabus in a decade will also include compulsory study of the Holocaust as part of a new standalone topic on World War II.

A revised year 7 to 10 history syllabus, released on Thursday, will be rolled out under major reforms to the NSW curriculum that include more facts and aim to spell out the core knowledge students need to master before finishing school.

New high school geography and visual arts syllabus will also be released this week, while the revised HSC maths and English syllabuses will be finalised before the end of the year.

Paul Cahill, the executive director for curriculum at the NSW Education Standards Authority, said the updated history curriculum “explicitly articulates” the knowledge students need to learn in each year of schooling.

“Our syllabuses are steeped in evidence, not ideology. Students will have the tools to critique ideas and understand differing perspectives – which are important for identifying disinformation and misinformation in the contemporary world,” he said.

“We have identified what students need to know so they understand the people and events that have made us who we are today.”

The new year 7 to 10 history syllabus includes five core areas: the ancient past, the medieval world, the era of colonisation, the making of the modern world and the post-war period.

For the first time, all NSW students in years 7 and 8 will study Aboriginal peoples’ experiences of colonisation in Australia. The unit will include Aboriginal perspectives and experiences of colonisation, significant conflicts during initial contact, the Frontier Wars, the Myall Creek massacre and the reasons for expansion over the Blue Mountains and into Tasmania.

Students will be taught more detailed history of the Holocaust, the significance of the Nuremberg trials and the creation of the UN Genocide Convention in 1948. Experiences of Jewish survivors in post-World War II Australia will also be included in the new mandatory study unit.

Head history teacher at North Sydney Girls, Michelle Kennedy, said students could previously “go through the whole of school without being taught about the Holocaust”.

“The impact of Nazi Germany on minority groups are also now explicitly referenced,” she said.

While many NSW teachers would elect to cover the Holocaust as a school developed study, the new syllabus provides much clearer guidance on what students need to learn, she said.

Cahill said the approach to the new history syllabuses was chronological, starting in year 7 with the ancient world, covering the era of colonisation, and in years 9 and 10 moving to events that shaped modern Australia.

Jenni Wenzel, who advises NESA on Aboriginal education, said the syllabus changes would mean Aboriginal students would see their cultures reflected in the curriculum.

“All students need to know about the history of Australia, and truth telling and presenting multiple perspectives is an important part of that,” she said. “For the first time in my life I’m confident that my grandchildren and future generations will be taught the full history of Australia at school.”

Civics and citizenship will become a mandated study area in high school, with students to learn about the development of Australian democracy, the separation of powers, features of the constitution, referendums and voting in elections.

Kennedy, who has taught in NSW public schools for 28 years, said one of the jobs of a history teacher is to “create informed citizens who have an understanding of politics, the Australian political system and how democracy works”.

Under the previous curriculum, students studied the constitution if they took a commerce elective.

“This change ensures all students get that grounding in Australian politics, which is vital for a country with compulsory voting.”

The consequences of imperialism and changes in Asia leading up to the end of World War I will be included, while World War II will be a standalone unit, with students to focus on causes of the war and the reasons for Australia’s involvement.

The changes follow political turmoil that erupted in 2021, when former federal education minister Alan Tudge said the history curriculum might encourage students to hate rather than love their country.

“I think things change and vary depending on the contemporary political climate,” said Kennedy. “History can be weaponised by people with a political agenda. Young students need to be equipped with the skills to critique dominate narratives and explore multiple perspectives.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/evidence-not-ideology-major-overhaul-of-the-nsw-high-school-curriculum-20240910-p5k9j5.html

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Censoring kids

I am concerned about the rise of misogyny among young boys due to the disturbing reach of Andrew Tate-like figures. I am equally concerned about body image, for both boys and girls, and I worry about cyberbullying and the impact on mental health. All real and well-publicised risks with social media. And yes, as the PM said, there is no map to direct us through the minefield.

That said, implementing an arbitrary age ban for social media, based on an assumption that all kids reach the same level of maturity once a particular birthday ticks over, is not the answer. I’ve no doubt a ban would help parents set rules, but the focus should be on educating us and our kids on how to use social media safely.

Albanese jumped on an age ban after his South Australian counterpart, Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas, last weekend said his government would force social media giants to block children under the age of 14 from their platforms or face hefty penalties. The prime minister had no choice but to take the lead. The states, including NSW, were yapping at his heels, and the Coalition had already announced a similar policy earlier in the year.

Albanese says Australia will move before the next election to a national system to force tech platforms to enforce age verification. No final age has yet been settled but is likely to be within the 13- to 16-year-old range. The announcement was vague, but was designed to show that Albanese was being decisive.

How would a social media ban actually work?

Malinauskas told ABC Sydney on Wednesday that “social media addiction among children is doing them harm. It is happening, it is real.” Joining him on air was NSW Premier Chris Minns, who described social media as a “global unregulated experiment on young people”. The pair, who formed a strong bond as opposition leaders, will host a combined two-day social media summit next month, with one day in Sydney followed by another in Adelaide.

Malinauskas has already shown his hand. Based on a report by former High Court justice Robert French, which concluded that social media giants should take “systemic responsibility”, Malinauskas has promised an age ban. Minns, too, has enthusiastically backed South Australia’s proposal, as well as Albanese’s announcement.

I want to keep my kids safe, happy and healthy. I want them to hold on to their childhoods for as long as possible. But I also accept that the digital age in which they were born is vastly different from the world I entered. Social media is not going to disappear, so rather than take the very Australian approach of slapping a ban on a problem, we should be working to educate.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Joanne Orlando, a digital literacy researcher at Western Sydney University, said: “banning children from social media isn’t going to fix the problem of online harms faced by young people – it’s only going to put the problem on pause.” Orlando argues the best way to help young people safely navigate the digital world is by improving their social media literacy.

But that digital literacy, she says, is serious lacking, and Orlando likens it to how young people were once taught about sex. “But that has started to change,” Orlando wrote, “and now there is more of a focus on teaching young people how to have sex safely and with consent.” The same should be done with social media, she argued. Not annual cyber safety talks, which highlight the dangers of the online world, but specific classes within school.

Albanese said what parents want to hear. “The safety and mental and physical health of our young people is paramount,” was his message. “Parents want their kids off their phones and on the footy field. So do I”.

And so do I, prime minister, but I also accept that we cannot return to the golden days when social media did not exist. The yo-yo is as good as a dodo. So instead we need to accept its ubiquity and ensure kids, and parents, know how to navigate a digital world which is here to stay.

https://www.smh.com.au/technology/the-pm-is-sigma-but-his-social-media-ban-belongs-in-the-skibidi-toilet-20240910-p5k9gp.html

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Violent peaceful protesters, and other hypocrisies

Australians have long watched overseas riots on the telly. ‘Those crazy foreigners, lucky it doesn’t happen here,’ we’d say. Well, those riots are no longer just on the telly, they are happening on Australian soil. Rather than condemning this violent behaviour, the Australian Greens are effectively cheering them on.

The irony of the riots is that the crowd outside the Melbourne Convention Centre, many of them wearing masks and keffiyehs and waving Palestinian flags, were protesting for peace. The Land Forces defence expo had protesters calling for citizens’ arrests of key public figures attending the expo. And then it went sour.

The protestors’ narrative goes that Australia should not be hosting events that promote weapons of war as well as being (somehow) connected to the ‘genocide’ in Gaza. Many of the protestors then went on to become violent, allegedly pelting police and their horses with manure, projectiles, and even acid (‘food grade acid’, according to SBS News).

Victoria Police were prepared for the riots, with a police presence of some 2,000 officers including mounted police and the riot squad. It is the first time a riot of such scale has occurred in Melbourne since the anti-World Economic Forum S11 riots of September 2000.

The cost of the police presence is estimated to be somewhere around $15 million.

Following the first day of the riots, several Greens MPs accused police of using excessive force to prevent the expression of legitimate criticism against the ‘War Expo’.

And state-owned media, SBS News, reported the protests were:

‘…sparked by the government’s stance on the conflict in the Middle East with many weapons on display inside the convention used on civilians in Gaza.’

But Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said of the protesters:

‘The only way I can describe them is [as] a bunch of hypocrites.’

The ‘holistic’ mix of protestors ranged from pro-Palestine supporters to pro-Hamas and Hezbollah cheerleaders to radical Marxist provocateurs. Their collective involvement in the weekly anti-Israel rallies over the last 11 months makes it clear that key to the riots has been the weak response by our state and federal governments to these essentially pro-Hamas demonstrations since October 7 last year.

Freedom of speech has been prioritised over public order in what is replicating the ‘two-tier policing’ that has occurred in the UK. For example, 200 anti-lockdown protesters were arrested in Melbourne following the CFMEU’s construction site lockout. But we don’t recall bins being set on fire in the streets.

On the first day of the riots in Melbourne, despite the omnipresent terrorist sympathiser element, only 42 arrests were made.

Having said that, Victorian Police Minister, Anthony Carbines:

…has accused the Greens of inciting Wednesday’s protest violence, sneering at the party’s call for an inquiry into the tactics and “excessive force” used by Victoria Police.

He also said of the Greens:

‘They played a role here in inciting violence and inciting bad behaviour, illegal behaviour, criminal behaviour by some of the protesters.’

Here we are in a situation where an Australian political party is championing the ideas (From the River to the Sea) of what is essentially a proscribed terrorist organisation.

A bridge too far you might say. Or perhaps we are drawing a long bow?

Yet just before the riots began, a Melbourne art gallery was displaying an inverted red triangle, an art installation that has been described by others as ‘legitimising terrorism’.

This is because the symbol:

‘…has its roots in Hamas’s military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, to showcase in propaganda videos which Israeli targets it would seek to destroy. Its use was recently banned by the Berlin state Parliament.’

To make matters worse, a protestor carrying a Palestinian flag on the second day of the protests was allegedly shouting, ‘Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah!’

This was happening on Australian soil.

While the right to protest is the first point that Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen made when she was interviewed about the violent riots, in the same breath she supported police actions.

Much of this is like the inquiry into antisemitism at universities – one cannot mention antisemitism without uttering in the same breath Islamophobia. It is a way of watering down the fact that we now have home-grown terrorist supporters in Australia, and they seem to enjoy significant support from staff and students of some of our universities.

Things must change and they must change quickly if we want to continue to enjoy the Australia we all know and love.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/09/violent-peaceful-protesters-and-other-hypocrisies/

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Military is happy to buy arms off Israel, says Chief of Army

Israeli gear is the best

Israel’s top arms companies have defied protesters and rising international criticism over the war in Gaza to spruik cutting-edge capabilities at the Land Forces expo in Melbourne, as Australia’s Chief of Army declared he had no problem buying weapons from the Jewish state.

As pro-Palestine protests turned violent outside the biennial weapons fair, Israel’s biggest weapons manufacturer IAI said it was ready to provide the ADF with “whatever they need” at a “competitive price” to deal with advanced threats.

Another Israeli company, ­Rafael, said its air defence systems offered “amazing interception rates”, pointing to the country’s almost complete success in taking out more than 300 Iranian drones and missiles in April.

Chief of Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart said he saw no obstacle to the service purchasing more Israeli equipment if it could protect Australian personnel.

“We’ve certainly purchased a range of (Israeli) equipment over the years,” he told The Australian.

“What we want to do is ensure we’ve got the best possible equipment we can possibly get our hands on to ensure that our people have the best chance of fulfilling their mission … and coming home to their families.”

The West’s biggest weapons companies, including the US’s Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman, and Britain’s BAE Systems, are among hundreds of exhibitors at the three-day Land Forces expo.

BAE used the event to unveil its newest unmanned system, an eight-wheeled armoured drone with a 25mm canon that automatically finds and tracks its targets, but requires a human to pull the trigger.

BAE Systems Australia managing director Andrew Gresham said the Autonomous Tactical Light Armour System (ATLAS), which is yet to go into commercial production, would give soldiers an “unfair advantage” on the battlefield.

“It will help the soldier outpace, out-manoeuvre and out-think conventional and unconventional threats,” he said.

Amid criticism of the Australian government’s slowness in procuring killer drones, General Stuart declared: “We’ve got to be conscious about our resources, and you’ve got to pick the point at which you invest.

“As Chief of Army, I would always like more (uncrewed systems). There’s no doubt about that,” he said.

But the development of uncrewed weapons was a case of “evolution” rather than revolution, General Stuart said, adding that he was confident Australian industry and key international suppliers could rapidly deliver new capabilities when they were required.

IAI Australia managing director Yonatan Segev said the company’s lethal drones and air defence systems were among the world’s best, and offered good value for money for the ADF when compared to US-made equipment.

“We are able to provide a means to deal with advanced threats,” he said. “IAI is in the forefront of technology, both in air defence and strike systems, and we are closely following the trends and the technology development in those areas.”

Rafael Australia managing director Golan Ben-Giat said the company’s missile interception systems were “the most accurate, precise weapons in the world”, and “more affordable than any other competitors in the market”.

“Our concept is not to have any holes in the air defence area,” he said. “We can’t allow any missiles to get through and penetrate into the ground. So our aim is to intercept 100 per cent.”

The Australian Army is already equipped with Rafael’s Spike anti-tank missiles, while Israeli company Elbit’s sensors will be incorporated into the service’s new Korean-designed infantry fighting vehicles.

However, the Albanese government has been at pains to emphasise since the start of the Gaza war no Australian-made weapons are being exported to Israel.

Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said the ADF would not get the new capabilities it needed without a major budget boost from the government.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/military-is-happy-to-buy-arms-off-israel-says-chief-of-army/news-story/fae72d241903b3f68bf9e3462112d14d

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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)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

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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Wild moment ABC reporter is swarmed by anti-war protesters as chaos grips Melbourne for the second day in a row

Being "anti-war" is childish. These "anti-war" protestors are just egotists doing self display under the pretence that they are saying something original. As a former army psychologist, I think I can can assure everyone that soldiers are anti-war too. They get shot at in wars. But like most people they can see that wars and preparations for war can be needed for defence and are prepared to do something about that instead of closing their eyes to reality

Protesters gathered for the second straight day on Thursday morning to rally against the Land Forces Defence Expo being held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

After wild scenes on Wednesday, which saw protesters clashing with police, throwing horse manure and rocks, while officers made arrests and swung batons, tensions were high on day two.

Violence was sparked when ABC reporter Stephanie Ferrier and multiple security guards were interrupted by protestors during a live cross.

It marks the latest instance a journalist has been caught up in the protests after a Daily Mail Australia journalist was shot with rubber bullets by police.

During the ABC live cross, a protester walked in front of the camera and was pushed aside by a security guard.

The protester then appeared to swing a punch at the security guard.

A second security guard then stepped in and appeared to shove the protesters.

Another attendee at the rally could be seen breaking up the fight and urging the pair to 'calm down'.

'At the moment, we're obviously trying to report on this and we're getting a little bit of difficulty here,' the reporter says.

As the reporter attempted to move away from the crowd, more people follow her.

The tense scenes come after Channel 7 Sunrise reporter Teegan Dolling was swarmed by protesters on Wednesday.

One female protester put her hand over the camera lens, Dolling pushed her arm away and what appeared to be private security guarding the reporter stepped in, but the protester managed to put hands on the camera at least one more time.

'That's not on if people are actually mishandling our reporter,' host Natalia Barr said from the studio.

In the hours after the protest, she penned a piece for 7News where she described the protest as 'vile and violent'.

'First there was the stench of OC spray in the air, then came the overwhelming smell of vomit, as protesters threw water balloons filled with sick at police, delegates and media,' Dolling wrote.

'Ducking for cover as padlocks, apples, chairs and horse manure were hurled towards anyone the activists assume held different views.'

She said Melbourne had once been the most liveable country in the world and has seen many protests, but 'none this vile and violent'.

'The aggression came in waves, as police surged towards the 2000-strong group to remove them from the road, escort members of the public to safety, or to extinguish flames,' she wrote.

Ms Dolling said protesters did not heed directions to move and reacted with attacks on police and cruelty towards horses.

It was the city's largest protest in 24 years and resulted in 42 people being arrested.

Disrupt Land Forces say they will continue to protest during the remainder of the conference this week.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13840671/ABC-reporter-anti-war-protest-Melbourne.html

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Labor pulls new green bill from Senate after business backlash on mooted climate trigger

Labor has pulled its controversial Nature Positive bill from the Senate notice paper following a backlash from the business lobby which has claimed it would devastate the economy if a climate trigger was included in the proposed laws.

The bill was listed earlier this week for the Senate on Thursday but was pulled this morning after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek signaled that the government was in discussions with the Greens to get support for the laws.

The peak business lobby this week launched a blistering attack on the federal government, warning Anthony Albanese his economic credentials would be trashed if Labor struck a deal with the Greens to pass new environmental laws with a virtual climate trigger that it claimed could devastate the economy.

The Australian understands the government had alerted business leaders late on Wednesday that it would bring on its Nature Positive bill for debate in the Senate as early as Thursday and it was close to a deal with the Greens, in a show of ­political brinkmanship to the Coalition and the business community that it intended to get the laws passed despite their concerns.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics-latest-first-parliamentary-delegation-in-five-years-to-visit-china/live-coverage/4f0a9748cf0efca811a65e410a6ec928

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Methane cuts on track for 2030 emissions goal

This concern about methane is nonense. Water vapour blocks all the frequencies that methane does so the presence of methane adds nothing

Australia’s methane emissions have decreased over the past two decades, according to a new report by a leading global carbon research group.

While the world’s methane emissions grew by 20 per cent, meaning two thirds of methane in the atmosphere is from human activity, Australasia and Europe emitted lower levels of the gas.

It puts Australia in relatively good stead, compared to 150 other signatories, to meet its non-binding commitments to the Global Methane Pledge, which aims to cut methane emissions by 30 per cent by the end of the decade.

The findings were revealed in the fourth global methane budget, published by the Global Carbon Project, with contributions from 66 research institutions around the world, including the CSIRO.

According to the report, agriculture contributed 40 per cent of global methane emissions from human activities, followed by the fossil fuel sector (34 per cent), solid waste and waste­water (19 per cent), and biomass and biofuel burning (7 per cent).

Pep Canadell, CSIRO executive director for the Global Carbon Project, said government policies and a smaller national sheep flock were the primary reasons for the lower methane emissions in Australasia.

“We have seen higher growth rates for methane over the past three years, from 2020 to 2022, with a record high in 2021. This increase means methane concentrations in the atmosphere are 2.6 times higher than pre-­industrial (1750) levels,” Dr Canadell said.

The primary source of methane emissions in the agriculture sector is from the breakdown of plant matter in the stomachs of sheep and cattle.

It has led to controversial calls from some circles for less red meat consumption, outraging the livestock industry, which has lowered its net greenhouse gas emissions by 78 per cent since 2005 and is funding research into methane reduction.

Last week, the government agency advising Anthony Albanese on climate change suggested Australians could eat less red meat to help reduce emissions. And the government’s official dietary guidelines will be amended to incorporate the impact of certain foods on climate change.

There is ongoing disagreement among scientists and policymakers about whether there should be a distinction between biogenic methane emitted by livestock, which already exists in a balanced cycle in plants and soil and the atmosphere, and methane emitted from sources stored deep underground for millennia.

“The frustration is that methane, despite its source, gets lumped into one bag,” Cattle Australia vice-president Adam Coffey said. “Enteric methane from livestock is categorically different to methane from coal-seam gas or mining-related fossil fuels that has been dug up from where it’s been stored for millennia and is new to the atmosphere.

“Why are we ignoring what modern climate science is telling us, which is these emissions are inherently different?”

Mr Coffey said the methane budget report showed the intense focus on the domestic industry’s environmental credent­ials was overhyped.

“I think it’s based mainly on ideology and activism,” Mr Coffey said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/methane-cuts-on-track-for-2030-emissions-goal/news-story/158452c7e44f9cd17288498f97b65dda

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Why King Charles won't be doing 'walkabouts' during his Australian tour

King Charles has scrapped the traditional 'walkabout' ahead of his upcoming royal visit to Australia to avoid offending Indigenous Australians.

Charles III, 75, and Queen Camilla, 77, will visit Sydney and Canberra from October 18 to 22 before the couple end their tour in Samoa on the 26th.

The 'walkabout' was first coined by the late Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip during her majesty's royal visit to Australia and New Zealand in 1970.

It refers to an informal way for members of the royal family to meet with the public.

The phrase in Indigenous culture describes a time period symbolic of change, meditation and grief when a person travels to the bush on foot.

The official itinerary indicates that the 'royal walkabout' will instead be replaced with 'an opportunity to meet the public'.

The King and the Duchess of Cornwall are still expected to interact with hundreds of well-wishers in both Australia and Samoa during their short visit.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13840519/Prince-Charles-Australia-tour-walkabouts.html

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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)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

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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Violent turn by pro-Palestinian movement a strategic mistake as police crush strong-arm tactics

Victoria Police has sent the clearest possible message to pro-Palestinian and anti-war protesters, with a series of deafening blasts and front-foot policing designed to contain violent extremism.

For the first time since the pandemic unrest, police have pulled out the rubber bullets, batons, teargas and stun grenades to put protesters back in their collective box.

By doing so, police are flagging to protesters that violence against officers and their horses will not be tolerated, regardless of the cause.

While the Land Forces 24 conference was the purported target of the protesters, the 2000 or so people who marched were united under the banner of supporting Gaza.

However, the strategy, fuelled by hard core socialists, relied heavily on violent resistance. This was a mistake.

Throwing acid, tearing down security walls, hurling stones and horse manure at police and their horses triggered the firmest anti-riot response in years.

The decision to adopt violent protest tactics was a sharp shift from the past 11 months, when most of the public pro-Palestine rallies have erred on the side of peace.

Wednesday’s rally changes this dynamic.

For much of the battle in the late morning, protesters gave the police the moral authority to strike back with force.

The protesters also lost the strategic war.

While they were hurling projectiles at police, the delegates to the conference were quietly walking into the Melbourne convention centre through a front door 150m away.

Present at the protest was Nasser Mashni, president of the Australian Palestine Advocacy Network, who lent his support to the Gaza cause but had no involvement in the violence.

Free Palestine Melbourne banners were common, as was the Socialist Alternative, the Victorian Socialists and Students for Palestine.

At one point the protesters chanted “the people united, will never be defeated’’, a trusty old Trades Hall chant.

In other words, the protesters were an effective anti-war coalition that mirrored Melbourne’s weekly anti-Israel parades, with leaflets being distributed for Marxism Discussion Groups at Brunswick’s Red Flag Bookstore, hosted by the Socialist Alternative.

In some ways it makes you want to smile.

But there is a danger in what has happened.

The protest leaders have sharply raised the temperature on the Middle East in what is Australia’s protest capital.

It now means that when protesters step out, they will know how to maximise attention for their cause.

This is not something that police or the Victorian or Australian governments will be looking for.

The plan has been for nearly a year to encourage respectful dialogue.

That ended the moment the protesters chose anarchy over peace.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/melbourne-protests-live-violent-turn-by-propalestinian-movement-a-strategic-mistake/news-story/e041be344cff7b50243d90427c74df90

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Anthony Albanese signals social media ban until 16 years under online harm crackdown

I would like to see what the sience is on this ban. It will of course be circumvented

Anthony Albanese has signalled his preference for increasing the minimum age when teenagers can access social media platforms to 16, amid a federal government push to legislate an age-based ban by the end of the year.

The Prime Minister said the right age to impose a limit was between 14 and 16 years with his personal view being that the “higher limit” should be pursued, while stressing the importance of a nat­ionally consistent approach after South Australia backed a ban for 14-year-olds.

Amid mounting concern about a surge in doxxing, online bullying and deep-fake pornography having a negative impact on mental health, Mr Albanese has committed to introducing, before the federal election, legislation barring access to social media platforms. “So the right age is between 14 and 16,” he told Nova Radio on Tuesday.

“I have a personal view. I err on the side of a higher limit … That’s where I’m at. But I want to make sure we don’t end up with different systems in different states. We want a national approach to an issue which is a national issue.”

SA Premier Peter Malinauskas is pushing for children under 14 to be banned from setting up online accounts after his government commissioned a report from former High Court chief judge Robert French outlining a legislative vehicle to restrict access to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said there was a “wide variety of views” on the appropriate age to impose the limit, while leaving the door open to legislating the ban before consultation on the age limit was complete. “That’s an option. We’ll take advice from that as we go through,” she told Sky News.

Opposition communication spokesman David Coleman said he supported legislation being put in place to protect children from social media harm, criticising Ms Rowland for suggesting the government may opt to legislate the ban before an age is decided.

“The bottom line is, you need to know what age you believe it should be in order to even legislate it and they don’t know that,” he told Sky News.

Experts are divided on what age marks the appropriate cut off and whether an age-based ban will be effective, with any social media crackdown likely relying on co-operation from tech giants and parents to ensure teens don’t circumvent the laws.

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller described the plan as “a first bold step at addressing the most concerning of the many harms the tech platforms are inflicting on Australia”. But Mr Miller said platforms must also be forced “to stop running scams and fakes, promoting body shaming and trolling, peddling misinformation and impacting Australia’s democratic way of life” as well as being made to pay for the news content they use.

Women’s advocacy group Collective Shout founder and director Melinda Tankard Reist said she supported the push towards an age limit of 16 in order to delay exposure to harmful content until teenagers had a higher level of development to cope.

“We share the Prime Minister’s view; while increasing the age of access won’t make the platforms safe, it would delay the harm done as a result of exposure to illicit content,” she said.

Heads Up Alliance co-founder Dany Elachi said he believed 18 was the appropriate age for young people to access social media to prevent it harming their “vulnerable psychology, extracting their data, stealing their childhoods”.

“Our view is that it would be 18, so hearing he wants to move to 16 is certainly heartening, it is in the direction we are advocating for,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/anthony-albanese-signals-social-media-ban-until-16-years-under-online-harm-crackdown/news-story/ffd7653ea8ea10621e9905e630fac955

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Victoria – the Pothole State

Judith Sloan

In recent weeks, I have been driving around Melbourne much more than I usually do. As a result, I have become more acquainted with the state of the roads, particularly along the major auxiliary routes that are controlled by the Victorian government.

OMG – there are major potholes everywhere, some so large that I thought I had hit something while driving along. (No, I hadn’t hit anything; I am a good driver, thank you very much.) I’m wondering whether the Victorian government, probably under Dan the Man, had previously engaged some union-linked road resurfacing company owned by a mate called O’Reilly.

But the good thing – OK, not that good – is that there are road signs warning drivers of the upcoming potholes and other assorted damage to the road. Rough Surface Ahead signs are all over the place.

What a wonderful metaphor for Victoria’s future because of the years of malign government under Dan and now Jacinta. It has got to the point that almost every time I see the sign, I let out a little chuckle, but sometimes a tear. This happens while I am trying to veer around the potholes.

Speccie readers would not be surprised when I foreshadow a grim future for my home state. Years of misdirection, overspending and progressive obsession have taken their toll. From a relatively healthy budget position, the Labor government has plunged Victoria into a state of fiscal penury with more pain to come. Net state debt is heading towards $200 billion by the end of the decade. It’s only a matter of time before the ratings agencies downgrade Victoria again.

It’s not as if there hasn’t been the money to keep the roads in tip-top shape; it’s just that other things have seemed much more important, such as embarking on a terrifyingly huge infrastructure building program with nary a thought for the cost-benefit ratios. Keeping the union bruvvers happy has always been a major focus for the Dan/Jacinta administration.

Add in overpaying public servants and awarding them ridiculous conditions as well as embarking on a series of frolics like a First Nations Assembly and suddenly there is no money – or enthusiasm – for maintaining the roads.

It’s still worth asking the question: is Jacinta just Dan without the North Face jacket? Is Allan just another version of Andrews?

They are both from the left; indeed, their power bases are largely centred on the CFMEU and other friendly unions. After the revelations of bad behaviour by the CFMEU – sure, this is a bit of an understatement – and the fact that the feds have put the union into administration, things have become more complicated for Jacinta.

She can’t publicly support the CFMEU anymore, particularly given its clear links with motorcycle and criminal gangs. (Don’t you love the story of the bloke who was released from jail early because of the Lawyer X fiasco – another disastrous event for Victoria – only to be employed as a CFMEU delegate the next week on big bucks?) But she will do everything in her power to ensure that her union pals are still pampered.

A recent deal to throw in an extra $800 million to ensure the completion of the Metro project – an extension of Melbourne’s underground train network – will partly end up in the pockets of the workers. Good one, Jazzy. The Labor government is feelin the need for an opening ceremony and will do almost anything to ensure this occurs before the next election.

There is no doubt that Dan the Man was a hard man as premier; he made up his mind and he was very disinclined to alter his position. Allan looks to be more flexible when it comes to making decisions, always with an eye to the electoral consequences.

The progressive crowd had been baying for some time to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 years of age because anyone aged under 14 doesn’t know what they are doing and is incapable of being forced to act illegally. Sure. In her wisdom – pause for laughter here – Allan saw this as a bridge too far, particularly as youth crime is ravaging parts of Melbourne.

As a compromise, she has opted for 12 as the new age of criminality meaning she pleased neither the woke crowd nor the conservative forces arguing for the maintenance of the current arrangements. My guess is that Dan would have agreed to 14.

Another example of Allan bending with the breeze relates to health funding. The public health system in Victoria is ruinously expensive to run and has become more so since the pandemic. The plan was to save $1.5 billion from the health budget by rationalising certain services and forcing sub-scale regional hospitals – some aren’t really hospitals under the modern definition of the term – to amalgamate.

This process can be politically toxic, with some of the regional centres electorally important to Labor, both at the state and federal levels. Indeed, Allan herself hails from Bendigo and holds the seat of Bendigo East. Locals often seem to love their local hospitals as much as their children.

Allan quickly decided to pull the pin on the whole proposal. There would be no forced amalgamations and patsy Treasurer, Tim Pallas – he seems to have been Victorian Treasurer for half my lifetime and done an appalling job to boot – was simply instructed to find the money elsewhere. How he is expected to achieve this large budget saving in another way is anyone’s guess. It will probably just deepen the shade of red of the bottom line.

The point here is that Jacinta Allan is emerging as a Richo-style politician – ‘whatever it takes’. She doesn’t command the (incomprehensible) adulation and support that Dan did and she knows it. Labor is on the skids and would be on the way out were it not for the feckless and ineffective opposition led by John Pesutto. (Who? I’m sure most Victorians couldn’t name him if asked.)

In the meantime, the Victorian economy goes to hell in a handbag. The Labor government is attempting to tax everything that is nailed down and a few things that aren’t. Land taxes are through the roof; it is now extremely financially punishing to own a second home or to have investment properties in the state.

Several private schools are being subject to payroll tax when they were previously exempt. Payroll tax has been raised for all businesses that are not tiny. There are still mental health and Covid levies on businesses, which are absurd.

Both businesses and individuals are fleeing the state – that’s what competitive federalism does – but it doesn’t seem that Allan and her mates care much. The only thing that the state is now good at is attracting new migrants and even that is under threat as the federal government tries to cut the numbers of new international students. Building crappy high-rise apartments is also part of Victoria’s ‘skill set’.

At this stage, enormous sinkholes are emerging all over the state; it looks like a very bleak future for all Victorians who opt to hang around.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/09/victoria-the-pothole-state/

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One state is pushing ahead with an Indigenous treaty… but a 'deeply concerning' act to make it a reality has raised alarm bells

The banning of media from covering discussions on the treaty between Victoria and Aboriginal groups is 'shady' and should be a 'red flag' about the entire process, top Liberal Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says.

The publicly-funded but closed-door 'Talking Treaty' discussion was held by the First Peoples' Assembly in Victoria on Sunday to discuss the creation of a state treaty.

Despite Victoria - and every other state - voting against 'The Voice' referendum, the state is pushing ahead with a treaty in line with the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Senator Price, the shadow minister for Aboriginal Affairs, said the secretiveness of Sunday's event was a worrying sign of how this treaty will proceed and how unrepresentative it will be of public will.

'It's really deeply concerning stuff, and especially when you've got a body that's claiming to be a representative body with such a low voter turnout,' Senator Price told Sky News political commentator Peta Credlin.

'It's like what's under way in South Australia at the moment with their legislated Voice, again, 10 per cent voter turnout. Where's that going to go to?'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was a vocal supporter of the Uluru Statement from the Heart following his election victory in May 2022.

However, after his failed Voice referendum in October 2023, he has been much more vague in detailing his plan to establish its three pillars: voice, treaty and truth.

Credlin suggested if the closed-door meetings were to continue, it would allow the First Peoples' Assembly to fabricate their contents and 'push' its proposed treaty through the Victorian Parliament with false claims of unanimous support.

It could also set a precedent for other states to ram through treaties in private consultations with governments, until the prime minister is compelled to create a national treaty, Credlin claimed.

Senator Price questioned why the Assembly was allowed to proceed with treaty discussions when there were major concerns over its election processes and how representative it really is.

'You can't suggest, that with these sort of shady closed door events, and this inability to provide transparency, that this is actually going to be a true, democratic process, that heads toward legislation in this process,' she said.

'But you know, we all know, that Mr Albanese is sitting in the background waiting for all these states to conduct their treaty processes and then ram it on through.

'Australians should be very concerned. This is going to affect every single one of us.'

The First Peoples' Assembly announced in July it expected to be ready to begin treaty negotiations in November, following community consultation.

'Treaty is not something we enter into lightly, you want to make sure you've actually got the things in place to negotiate properly a treaty,' co-chair Rueben Berg said at the time.

He added the proposed treaty would focus on giving Aboriginal groups direct means to advise government.

'Through treaty, we want to make sure we put decision-making back in the hands of First Peoples,' he said.

'Decisions about mob should be made by mob.

'We also know government needs to be held more accountable for the activities they're talking about First Peoples, that's also what treaty will deliver.'

The Assembly's declaration it was ready to start discussions was entered into the Negotiation Database and a copy presented to the Treaty Authority at a ceremony in July.

Assembly co-chair Ngarra Murray said there would continue to be gathering of feedback from traditional owner groups and Aboriginal community organisations as to what should be in the treaty.

'We're really excited about bringing all their aspirations and all their hopes and dreams into this moment,' Ms Murray said at the time.

Victoria's opposition withdrew its support for treaty in January, citing concerns about cultural heritage laws.

Mr Berg said he was open to further conversations with all sides of politics.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13831233/Jacinta-nampijinpa-price-victoria-peoples-assembly-treaty.html

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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)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

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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ABC finance expert Alan Kohler makes sad admission about owning a home in Australia

The dream is not dead but can be made real by enabling more convenient living a long way from the city centre. Working from home plus faster public transport would be major contribuors to that

Alan Kohler has admitted the Australian dream of owning a home with a backyard 'might be' over for aspiring homeowners as migration-fueled demand has put house prices beyond the reach of many.

The ABC finance expert made the bleak admission on Q+A on Monday night.

A young man named Samuel asked if the 'Australian dream of owning a house with a backyard in a city (is) over for all of my generation?'

Mr Kohler simply replied: 'It might be'.

'The backyard has become really expensive, particularly close to the city,' he said.

'We're in the situation now where if you want a backyard, you're going to have to move a fair way away from the city.'

Housing and Homelessness minister Clare O'Neil said the government is 'trying to do everything' for young home buyers, even as it presides over an unchecked real estate price spiral.

'Maybe if you want more space, you're going to have to move further away from the city, but what we really need is lots of options for young people like yourself,' she said.

'And right now you don't have enough, our government is trying to do everything we can to create more.'

Shadow Minister Michael Sukkar agreed new buyers cannot hope to get a 'traditional 800 square metre block' in a sought-after area and will need to either move to outer areas or sacrifice having a yard.

'It's the province of first home buyers because the construction costs aren't what they are elsewhere.

'No one would see the backyard as being dead, but the truth is it may not be in those absolutely inner-city suburbs as it's been in the past.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13831385/ABC-Alan-Kohler-home-backyard.html

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NT plan to lower age of criminal responsibility to 10 could contribute to ‘child jail crisis’, advocate says

Behind this is the tremendous nuisance caused by Aboriginal boys. They do a lot of breakins and car stealings and make streets in some important NT cities -- such as Alice Springs -- unsafe at night

The Country Liberal party’s plan to lower the age of criminal responsibility back to 10 in the Northern Territory is “really concerning” and part of a “tragic shift” towards more punitive policies nationwide, the head of Indigenous legal services has said.

Karly Warner, chair of National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, is warning that such policies will result in a “child jail crisis” and should be undone or at least accompanied by greater investment in proper prevention programs.

Warner, who is going to Canberra to lobby the Albanese government this week, said it was the responsibility of “all attorneys” to ensure that “really regressive law and order policies” that harm children do not get enacted.

After a landslide victory in the August Northern Territory election, Lia Finocchiaro has promised to overhaul justice policies with repeat and violent alleged offenders to be refused bail and the age of criminal responsibility lowered again to 10.

Warner told Guardian Australia: “Wherever we are around country, there are absolutely signs of a tragic shift back to these punitive policies that obviously lead to more children in jail and more dangerous communities.

“[But] the signal from the new NT government, particularly around abandoning what is set in legislation for the minimum age of criminal responsibility, is really concerning.”

She added: “Law and order posturing about punishment is absolutely not the thing that will create safer communities”.

“They can implement evidence-based policies that will actually make our communities safer … or they can implement policies, look tough in response and create an environment and Northern Territory where crime will thrive.”

Warner cited other examples including: the Queensland government suspending its Human Rights Act to imprison children in police watch houses for adults; the Victorian government backflipping on a commitment to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 14; and New South Wales bail laws.

Warner said the “dangerous” NSW bail laws would see “more children locked up in jails rather than getting the supports they need” and instead facing an “apprenticeship of crime in youth prisons”.

“We fear the worst when it comes to children in custody. We are already seeing an increase, and recent history tells us that the outcomes will be unimaginable and tragic.

“We are extremely concerned that the proven programs that actually work to prevent crime – which have never been properly supported or funded – will now be even further deprioritised.”

After national cabinet on Friday, the Albanese government announced a five-year $3.9bn national legal assistance partnership, which is $800m more than the previous agreement.

Warner said the funding announcement was “incredibly appealing” but argued it amounted to $500m, or just $100m a year more than its predecessor, once the $300m for indexation and pay parity was accounted for.

“There is no way [that] goes even close to hitting the sides of the phenomenal demands of the legal assistance sector.”

In question time on Monday the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said the package was “the biggest single investment by the commonwealth in the legal assistance sector, ever”.

“Community legal centres, including women’s legal centres, are currently turning away up to 1,000 people per day,” he said. “This investment in legal assistance will ensure that those services can help more Australians.”

Dreyfus said it was “very significant” that the package included “a commitment to ongoing funding”, arguing this would give “confidence for the future” after “the Liberals oversaw a decade of chronic underfunding”.

The independent senator Lidia Thorpe noted the commitment “falls short” of the independent Mundy review call for an additional $459ma year to be provided as a floor from 2025 onwards.

Thorpe said the announcement was “smoke and mirrors” and “mostly a rebrand of existing funding arrangements”.

“Labor’s ongoing failure to properly fund these services will see First Peoples women, children and other vulnerable groups without access to life-saving legal services.”

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/sep/10/nt-age-of-criminal-responsibility-lowered-10-impact#:~:text=After%20a%20landslide%20victory%20in,responsibility%20lowered%20again%20to%2010 .

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Australia’s current recession in perspective
John Humphreys

Australia is in a per-capita recession. This should be big news, but most of the mainstream media remains dedicated to the illusion that our 0.2 per cent growth in aggregate GDP is the more important statistic. This would be relevant if the topic was geopolitical power or war preparation, but if the topic is economic prosperity and wellbeing, then GDP/person (or perhaps even GDP/hour worked) is the relevant metric.

The most recent economic data shows that our current recession has now extended to six consecutive quarters (18 months).

To put this recession into perspective, I went back through the ABS data to compare our current situation with the worst economic performance from the past, always using a period of 10 quarters.

The results weren’t pretty. We are now living through the longest per-capita recession on record (which goes back 50 years), though some of the earlier episodes saw a sharper downturn.

The most recent comparable period was the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) from 2007-09, which saw GDP/person dropping in and out of negative territory, but managed to avoid two consecutive quarters of decline (the most common definition of recession). The current recession is both longer and deeper than the GFC.

Before the GFC there was the infamous ‘recession that Australia had to have’ in 1989-91, which dropped into negative growth several times, including a particularly sharp decline in early 1991.

Going back another decade we had the 1981-83 recession, which was shorter than the current recession, but is the deepest on record, with GDP/person falling nearly 5 per cent in the 1982/83 financial year.

The earliest recession recorded was the 1974-75 downturn, which included a couple of sharp drops followed by quick recoveries.

The interesting thing to note about these last three examples is that they were all directly linked to a change of government. The 1970s recession preceded the fall of the Whitlam government, the 1980s recession saw the end of the Fraser government, and the 1990s recession marked the end of the Hawke government. It seems that people don’t enjoy getting poorer.

The exception to the rule was the GFC, though that occurred directly after a change of government, and never saw two consecutive quarters of decline.

Albanese should be worried.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/09/australias-current-recession-in-perspective/

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Labor’s $32bn housing pledge built on shaky foundations

Less than $3bn of the Albanese government’s claimed $32bn housing plan has been disbursed for the direct construction of new homes, with no new dwellings understood to have yet been completed after more than two years in office.

The Australian understands no disbursements have yet been made from the centrepiece $10bn Housing Australian Future Fund established for the construction of 40,000 new social and affordable houses.

Nor has the government been able to confirm whether any money has been provided under the $2bn on concessional loans available under the HAFF.

No data exists for how many homes state and territory governments may have commenced under the $2bn provided to those governments through the social housing accelerator.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil’s claim that the Albanese government was presiding over a $32bn housing spend includes the almost $5bn in commonwealth rent assistance that is designed to alleviate rental price pressures rather than build new homes.

At least $6bn worth of spending under the programs has yet to be legislated, including the Help to Buy scheme, which is stalled in the Senate.

A $3bn new homes bonus doesn’t start until 2028 and while projects have been announced under the $2bn housing support program, it is understood no money has been provided as yet.

The government could not confirm whether $1bn under the Northern Territory housing scheme had yet been provided, or how much of the $1bn infrastructure facility had gone out the door.

The Australian put a series of questions to Ms O’Neil relating to the $32bn claim, namely how much had actually been spent and how many new homes had been completed.

It is estimated that around $8bn in funds have been provided, but the bulk of this relates to the commonwealth rent assistance scheme, with the remainder being payments to the states and the ­territories.

The opposition has seized on the claims by Ms O’Neil that Labor had claimed it was spending $32bn on housing, accusing the government of presiding over a “political fraud”.

“The Albanese government has dragged its heels for more than two years on addressing their housing crisis and misleading Australians with farcical ‘new’ funding announcements,” opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar told The Australian.

“Billions of promised dollars are tied to policies that have yet to even pass the parliament.

“The reality is, it’s no new money, no new ideas, no new homes, nothing for first-home buyers, no initiatives for renters – just the same Labor housing crisis.

“It’s now time for the Housing Minister to level with Australians and explain how many homes as of today that so-called $32bn has built under Labor.”

Anthony Albanese’s pledge of building 1.2 million homes by 2030 has been criticised by the sector, with new construction starts already at decade-low levels.

Mr Sukkar claims not a single new house has been completed under the Albanese government despite the pledge or through any of the facilities announced since the last election.

Housing Industry Association’s Mike Hermon outlines the “worst performers” of Australia’s housing planning system.
The government conceded that at least $5bn of the $32bn was in rental assistance, which was not a policy designed for the construction of new homes.

And the $6bn included in the overall number used by the Albanese government has yet to pass the parliament.

Ms O’Neil accused the ­Coalition of having presided over a lost period of action on housing and accused the Liberal Party of siding with the Greens to block the government’s housing agenda.

“The Albanese government invested more to build homes in our 2024 budget than the Coalition invested in their nine years in office,” Ms O’Neil told The Australian.

“We’ve delivered $2bn to states and territories to build 4000 more social houses, fast, and in addition we’ve invested $10bn into the Housing Australia Future Fund to establish a stable and consistent stream of funding for 40,000 new social and affordable homes,” Ms O’Neil said.

“We’ve delivered more than $150 million as part of our $1bn commitment to improve housing for Indigenous Australians living in remote areas.

“We have increased Commonwealth Rent Assistance by $4.6bn over the next five years, the largest increase in 30 years – because we know that renters need as much help as possible right now.

“We want to invest more in housing more quickly, but the Liberals and Greens are teaming up to stop us doing this.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/labors-32bn-housing-pledge-built-on-shaky-foundations/news-story/b60c4b6fa42cd27f4263dde9933ab2af

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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)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

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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Single-sex schools ‘discriminate’, says principal

This is an old debate with no clear resolution so it is a pity to force it on to anyone. Single sex schools do seem to be good for academic results and don't seem to diminish the enthusiasm of boys and girls for one-another

The principal of a southwest Sydney boys high school, soon to merge with its neighbouring girls school and become co-ed, has referred to single-sex education as “a discriminatory structure”, as the institutions aim to bring together their distinct cultures and ways of teaching.

The principals of both Liverpool Boys and Liverpool Girls high schools are supportive of the merging of their government institutions to become co-ed by 2027.

Principal Michael Saxon, in a report by Western Sydney University, commissioned by himself and Liverpool Girls High School principal Kirstine Gonano ahead of the amalgamation, said it would be a positive step towards diversity and anti-discriminatory practice.

“I think that co-ed will give us back the richness that should exist in every school, and that sense of diversity,” he told researchers. “Single-sex schools are really a discriminatory structure, not sure how they comply with discrimination laws. Co-ed structure gets rid of that discrimination, and we get much better balance in terms of gender and sexuality diversities.”

The 141-page report looked at the differences between teaching practices and culture at the schools ahead of the merger to determine the best way forward and to ensure all stakeholders were represented. Researchers surveyed a small sample of students and about 25 per cent of teachers.

Numerous teachers at LGHS expressed directly to their female students pessimism about teaching male pupils, and about the merger, according to students, with warnings it may “exacerbate the complexities of the transition”.

In a section about the girls’ views on the merger, researchers wrote: “Negative commentary from teachers about boys in general, and about the school merger specifically, is circulating and spreading among the students at LGHS and may entrench stereotypical views about gender and learning”.

One LGHS year 12 student said: “We’ve had teachers complain that they don’t want to teach boys … if not all our teachers, almost all our teachers.”

Ms Gonano told The Australian many teachers’ opinions had changed since the survey was done earlier this year, just after the government confirmed the merger.

She said some of the comments were reflective of the general fear of change, which included the fact there would be 2000 students, up from 1200, and a new high-rise school building. “The co-ed thing isn’t really a thing,” she added.

The NSW government has made a commitment that every student in the state will have guaranteed access to a co-educational public high school by 2027. It previously said 56 per cent of future Liverpool High School parents stated a preference for a co-educational school, and the merger was celebrated by local MPs.

Throughout the study, staff at LGHS argued that what makes the school unique is that it is extremely multicultural and single-sex, which “empowered” its students. “As the school is very multicultural it is essential that the school shows the girls from different backgrounds that there are a wide range of roles for women in society,” the report noted.

Ms Gonano told The Australian: “Our teachers are very committed to school culture and teaching our students, but whether that’s about single-sex education or about empowering the young females in our school … they’re two very different views”.

Boys and girls at both schools also had mixed views about the merger, their main concern being increased distractions in the classroom. Other students believed it would expand their opportunities and resources.

Researchers recommended school management expand “respectful relationship education” ahead of the merger to address issues such as sexual harassment, misogyny and homophobia – with the latter described by students as a “massive issue” – and to introduce gender awareness training, and boost availability of counsellors and mental health resources.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/education/singlesex-schools-discriminate-says-principal/news-story/3c3174fbe532dea9715e64ee5dfda77c

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Victorians can keep cooking with gas after Allan government backflips on net zero road map

Victorian households with existing gas stovetops can continue cooking with gas after the Allan government moved to exclude the appliances from the state’s net zero road map.

The Premier confirmed the policy backflip on Monday morning, and said that gas cooktops and stoves that reach the end of their life would be able to be replaced with new gas appliances.

“We know that gas is a diminishing resource which is why we will always help those households and businesses who can, to go all electric,” Ms Allan said.

“I’m going to be really clear today … that Victorians can continue to keep cooking with gas.”

While homes can opt to continue using the gas appliance, Ms Allan confirmed that new homes will still be prohibited from connecting to gas.

Victoria has the highest use of residential gas in the country, with about 80 per cent of homes connected.

The government was previously considering a plan to phase out gas cooktops from existing homes, potentially by forcing people to replace their gas appliances with electric alternatives if they were broken or needed replacing.

“This is important because we’ve listened to Victorians and they’ve asked for this certainty to be provided, and we’re providing that today,” she said.

“It also gives us the opportunity to have conversation with the Victorian community about our future energy mix and our future energy needs.”

It comes as the state Labor government will this week introduce legislation to support new offshore gas storage projects.

“We’re continuing to provide support and certainty for the gas industry,” the Premier said.

“The (energy) minister has undertaken extensive consultation with industry and the industry was seeking greater legislative and regulatory certainty around offshore gas storage projects.

“We already have gas storage here in the state and we have a project proposal from Beach that has been through a vigorous planning and environmental approvals process and it’s just about ready to go.”

Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell called the government’s move “another cowardly political decision” and said gas cooktops are terrible for the climate and health.

“We’re in the middle of a climate crisis caused by burning fossil fuels, yet Labor wants to pour more fuel on the fire and encourage more offshore gas projects in Victoria,” Ms Sandell said.

“We’ve seen backflip after backflip from this Labor government. Instead of listening to climate science and the experts, Labor is pandering to the ring-wing conservatives and fossil fuel lobby groups.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/victorians-can-keep-cooking-with-gas-after-allan-government-backflips-on-net-zero-road-map/news-story/f244eb22f69ddb85faaf572aaa436474

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‘Big trouble’: Farmers to descend on Canberra to protest live sheep export ban

Anthony Albanese has been accused of “kicking agriculture in the guts” as farmers prepare to descend on parliament house to protest Labor’s live sheep export ban.

The Prime Minister this week insisted the ban, which has sparked outrage from the farming industry but was welcomed by animal rights groups, would go ahead and would not be revisited.

The Export Control Amendment Bill 2024, presented to the public in May this year and passed overwhelmingly by the House and Senate, will phase out the live export of sheep over four years by May 1, 2028 and offer affected farmers a $107 million “transition package”.

Desperate farmers are now “having to make business decisions about their merino flock”, with backlogged abattoirs unable to process the animals, according to WA livestock truckie Ben Sutherland, vice president of the Livestock and Rural Transport Association of Western Australia and key spokesperson of the Keep the Sheep campaign.

“The merino job is in big trouble, they’re taking flock reductions here … [the financial impact] has been absolutely massive,” he said.

“They’ve been taking a hit for the last month, especially with lamb prices, mutton prices at some of their all-time lows. It’s really hard to get rid of sheep through abattoirs. Some people are overstocked by 10 to 15 per cent still and they’re needing to reduce sheep numbers. Things are not looking great.”

Nationals leader David Littleproud said in July, after the ban was passed by parliament, that there were already anecdotes of farmers shooting their sheep, which they believe will be rendered “worthless” by the bill.

“That’s at the feet of Anthony Albanese, RSPCA and Animals Australia – dead sheep in paddocks – from farmers who are desperate and can’t afford to [process them locally],” he said.

Mr Sutherland said the farming community was “disheartened” by the decision, which was already having ripple effects through the WA industry after a dry start to the year.

“As a transporter, 30 per cent of our annual bottom line is starting to happen now,” he said.

“At the moment I’d say we’re in the tightest margins we’ve ever seen. We’re only at 2 to 3 per cent, that’s likely to go to 1.2 to 2 per cent. It’s not good, especially with rising fuel prices, road user charges, insurance, it’s really looking a lot like it’s anti-agriculture.”

Mr Sutherland said in all his years “I’ve never seen people so disenchanted with the federal government”.

“There’s no competence in them at all,” he said. “Everywhere you turn they’re kicking agriculture in the guts, kicking us in the teeth.”

He accused Labor of “bowing down to animal activists” and endangering the food supply chain.

“I think it’s a combination of both ideology and incompetence,” he said.

“They never consulted the industry, they have not spoken to people in the supply chain and got our perspective.”

The National Farmers Federation has called on farmers and supporters to join a rally outside parliament house in Canberra on Tuesday, September 10, to oppose what it calls “anti-farming agendas” of the federal government.

The rally was initially organised by the Keep the Sheep campaign but has been broadened to highlight a range of other concerns, including new taxes, water buybacks and energy infrastructure.

“We’re seeing a growing number of decisions being driven by anti-farming activism, not evidence,” NFF president David Jochinke said in a statement.

“We’re being drowned out by the noisy minority who want to shut us down.”

A recent survey by the NFF found fewer than one in 10 farmers say the federal government was listening to their concerns or had a positive plan for their future.

“Australian farmers are the best in the world,” Mr Jochinke said.

“We consistently deliver the highest quality produce for Aussie families. We want policymakers to work with us to grow more in Australia. Too often it feels like they’re just working with our detractors. The common thread in every issue we’re facing is that they’re all driven by niche interest groups who don’t understand or support Aussie farmers.”

Mr Jochinke said a rally was an “unusual step” for the peak body “but we hope it will send powerful message to decision-makers ahead of the next election that these decisions need to stop”.

“We just want a return to common sense,” he said.

“We want policies informed by farmers’ lived experience and designed to grow the industry, not diminish it to appease activist agendas. Whether you’re a farmer or not, I encourage you to join us to celebrate the positive story of Australian agriculture in the heart of Canberra.”

Mr Littleproud said on Friday that the Nationals “100 per cent” supported the rally.

“This Labor government has decimated our farming and agriculture industry,” he said in a statement.

“It has been over 40 years since farmers last felt so aggrieved to protest against a government. It’s easy to understand why our farmers are fed up, after being constantly attacked by Labor and its anti-farming policies, from water buybacks to reckless renewables and its senseless phase-out of our live sheep export trade.”

Mr Littleproud said the Nationals were demanding 10 key changes by Labor, including reinstating the live sheep export trade, fixing the PALM scheme “mess” and stopping the “truckie tax and vehicle efficiency standard”.

“These 10 key areas are crucial to farming, agriculture and regional Australia,” he said. “The Nationals will not stop fighting until common sense prevails and our farmers get a fair go.”

Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash claimed the Prime Minister had “sold out WA farmers by banning the live export of sheep — destroying an entire industry in the process”.

“More than 3000 Australians work in this industry,” Ms Cash said on X last week. “They face losing their jobs, and families under financial stress will have to leave country towns.”

The Prime Minister visited Perth this week to introduce Trish Cook as Labor’s candidate for the new electorate of Bullwinkel, home to a number of regional communities affected by the live export ban.

Asked whether he had met with any industry representatives to discuss the impact of the ban during his visit, Mr Albanese said he had “met with industry reps in Canberra, and I’ve also met families in Kalgoorlie when I was there”.

“This an industry that’s worth $80 million [in] exports a year,” he said.

“The money that we have on the table is at least $107 million for adjustment. We want communities to be looked after. I think that this is an industry, if you compare $80 million for live exports with $4 billion which is what the sheep meat export industry is worth, I think that indicates where the industry needs to go. We want to make sure that people are looked after and we want to work with industry on that.”

Mr Albanese insisted Labor’s focus was on job creation.

“And that’s why, in transitioning away from the live sheep meat export trade, towards the sheep meat export trade, we can create more jobs,” he said.

“One of the things about when you process, just like value adding a future made in Australia across the board, I’m for value adding in Australia whenever you can. And that’s how you create more jobs, not less jobs. The big trade in the sheep industry in Australia is for sheep meat export.”

The Prime Minister acknowledged “adjustments are hard, which is why we have that support available, and why we are engaging”.

“But to be clear, the legislation was passed overwhelmingly through the House of Representatives and through the Senate,” he said. “This is a decision that I believe has the overwhelming support of the Australian population.”

Mia Davies, the Nationals candidate for Bullwinkel, told The West Australian the Prime Minister’s comments were “flippant”.

“The Prime Minister is flippant, and it’s a disgrace when it comes to talking about this industry [that] directly supports 3000 people’s jobs,“ she said.

“He’s talking about creating new jobs. How about we keep the jobs we’ve already got?”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/other-industries/big-trouble-farmers-to-descend-on-canberra-to-protest-live-sheep-export-ban/news-story/6e8c6acc798333d430e50566e44e0dba

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Greens poisonous alchemy

How do you make a wealthy and democratic country into a poor and despotic one? One Australian Greens policy at a time.

American journalist and satirist H.L. Mencken once quipped that, ‘For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.’ This sentiment aptly describes Greens housing spokesperson Max Chandler-Mather’s proposal to address housing affordability by making every Australian poorer.

Chandler-Mather, who is often wrong but seldom in doubt, has indicated that the Greens’ housing policy objective is to reduce the value of housing in real terms. Said Chandler-Mather, ‘I think our goal, our stated goal, is to stop house price growth, so zero per cent growth, to give wages a chance to catch up.’ This policy hinges on the expectation that wages will rise and not fall as a consequence of implementing this and other Greens policies.

The Australian property market faces significant issues and distortions, notably the growing difficulty for young Australians to buy a home or afford rising rents. These problems are leading to major social, economic, and national security concerns. However, the affordability crisis stems from a long fermenting cocktail of poor policies across all levels of government. These complex issues cannot be resolved through simple slogans or superficial policies, regardless of how passionately they are presented.

Oblivious to the broader consequences, Chandler-Mather has proposed ‘a combination of phasing out tax handouts for investors, rent caps and government-built affordable homes.’

If the goal is to improve housing affordability, government-built homes are not the answer. Historical evidence shows that government construction does not provide lower-cost, higher-quality ‘affordable’ housing when compared to the private market. In fact, there is substantial evidence indicating that the unholy matrimony of government with the CFMEU in construction projects only increases timelines and costs. Costs which are borne by taxpayers further burdening Australians with higher taxes for longer.

Imposing rent caps would result in a significant reduction in the number of properties available leading to increased rents and reduced maintenance. Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck famously said that, ‘Rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except for bombing.’

As to the tax policies proposed, phasing out negative gearing and abolishing the capital gains tax discount, are nothing more than massive tax increases with equally massive consequences.

The so-called capital gains discount is in fact not a discount but rather an administrative simplification of accounting for the effects of inflation. The abolition of the capital gain tax discount would thus require asset owners to pay a tax on asset price increases caused by inflation, and would not just affect property assets but all capital assets including shares, bonds, businesses and farms. This would lead to a decimation of the savings and wealth of all Australians.

The impact on the financial system of property price deflation (in real terms) would also be significant as banks and other lenders would be reluctant to provide loans against an asset declining in value. A collapse in lending would follow with a financial crisis almost certainly to ensue. Interest rates would spike. Businesses would collapse. Unemployment would soar.

No doubt the Chandler-Mather and his Greens comrades would blame and further punish the middle-class Kulaks when the market did not behave as demanded.

Perhaps such policies won’t ever be implemented, but the social damage caused by raising false expectations for short-term political gain is unconscionable.

The factors contributing to young Australians’ struggle to afford housing are multiple but include Australia’s high levels of immigration, the labyrinthine layers of regulation, and the usurious levels of tax in Australia necessary to finance Australia’s bloated bureaucracy and middle-class welfare industrial complex. All policies supported by the Greens. Over one-third of the cost of a newly built home is tax; collected to feed the bloated, inefficient, and ineffective administrative and bureaucratic leviathan.

It is emblematic of the problem that a family with a combined annual income of up to $533,280 can access the government’s childcare rebate or that a family on a combined annual income of up to $302,000 can access the government’s private health insurance rebate.

NDIS waste and fraud coupled with perverse incentives have also placed the current $49 billion scheme on track to consume the entirety of all Commonwealth government revenues within 25 years.

The Greens offer no policies to address these issues. Policies to enhance young Australians’ disposable incomes through tax cuts, thus increasing their property purchasing and renting power are absent.

Similarly, the Greens offer no pro-productivity policies, such as regulatory or tax reform, to put downward pressure on inflation and interest rates, thereby improving young Australians’ ability to purchase homes. On the contrary, the Greens propose more taxes and more anti-productivity measures.

Chandler-Mather, who previously worked as a childcare worker, call centre employee, and organiser for the National Tertiary Education Union, appears to conflate the concepts of housing price and cost. Housing prices are determined by supply and demand dynamics, and effective policy should address the underlying factors influencing these prices rather than attempt to manipulate the end price through government force.

On the demand side, rents are impacted by the number of people seeking accommodation, which is rising and will be further exacerbated by the government’s plans to maintain high levels of overseas migration, plans supported by the Greens.

On the supply side, rents are effected by the volume and growth of premises available. In a normal market, rising prices are an invitation for more supply, but there are significant barriers to development, which limit and slow the construction of new premises. These include complex and onerous approval processes, imposed by local and state planning authorities, often in electorates represented by Greens.

American economist Thomas Sowell once observed that humanity’s natural state is poverty, not prosperity. Therefore, Sowell emphasised the need to study the reasons why people are rich, rather than why they are poor. Axiomatically, wealth creation should be encouraged and incentivised rather than poverty subsidised.

Chandler-Mather and his colleagues advocate for policies that have been proven to be economically destructive and which would exacerbate rather than solve Australia’s problems.

The Greens’ policies will not improve the state of housing affordability in Australia. The Greens’ policies will not improve the state of anything in Australia. The Greens’ policies will only increase the size and power of the state in Australia ensuring only more poverty and more social division. Which is possibly their true objective.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2024/09/greens-poisonous-alchemy/

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