Seven Aboriginal women killed by partners in NT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*************************************************

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

**************************************************

Two approaches to energy — which will the nation choose?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***************************************************

Private schools ‘targets of Labor hostility’, says Coalition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

****************************************

All my main blogs below:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***********************************************