Climate change drove Australia's record hot year, unofficial report claims

The usual suspects (Steffen, Flannery) are at it again.  Since there is no statistically significant evidence that there has been ANY global warming for 18 years, the claims of change below are simply false.  Steffen is a long-time Warmist extremist. A while back he  described the debate in the media over the basics of climate change science as ”almost infantile”, equating it to an argument about the existence of gravity.

Australia's hottest year on record would not have happened without climate change, according to a new report.

The country experienced its hottest day, month, season and calendar year in 2013, registering a mean temperature 1.2C above the 1961-90 average.

The Climate Council says recent studies show those heat events would have occurred only once every 12,300 years without greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.

"In fact, we can say the 2013 record year was virtually impossible without climate change; it wouldn't have happened," Will Steffen, the author of Quantifying the Strong Influence of Climate Change on Extreme Heat in Australia, told AAP. "I mean, no one would bet on odds of one in nearly 13,000."

Based on analyses of data and model outputs, the report says climate change triples the odds that heatwaves of the 2012-13 Australian summer will happen as frequently as they do.

It also doubles the chances of them being as intense. "We're looking at pretty hard numbers on the odds of those things happening without the underlying warming trend due to greenhouse gases," Mr Steffen said.

"In my view, it's extremely powerful, conclusive evidence that not only is there a link between climate change and extreme heat, climate change is the main driver of it."

Mr Steffen found record hot days have doubled in Australia the last 50 years, and that during the past decade heat weather records were set three times more often than cold ones.

The report also claims heatwaves across Australia are becoming hotter, lasting longer, occurring more often and starting earlier.

2014 was Australia's third-warmest year on record behind 2013 and 2005, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

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Formerly militant TWU eats humble pie

They went close to destroying Qantas before the CEO grounded the fleet and showed them how close they went to losing all their jobs with the airline

Qantas Airways has won a significant victory as part of its quest for all employees to agree to an 18-month pay freeze after workers represented by the Transport Workers Union voted in favour of a new deal that includes the wage freeze.

The enterprise bargaining agreement with the TWU represents 2600 employees, making it the largest single agreement covering part of Qantas's unionised workforce. In total, 70.32 per cent of TWU workers, which include airport, catering and freight employees, voted in favour of the deal. The ballot closed on Friday.

The victory for Qantas means 7000 staff in 11 employee groups have now agreed to the wage freeze, including licensed engineers, short-haul pilots and Jetstar and UK cabin crew. Qantas is implementing the pay freeze as each EBA comes up for negotiation.

"We're really pleased with this result, which came after good faith discussions with the union," a Qantas spokeswoman said. "This is a fair and reasonable agreement which provides both the business and our employees with certainty."

The 18-month wage freeze in the three-year TWU agreement will apply from July 2014 and end on December 31 this year. In 2016 and 2017, the employees will receive a 3 per cent pay rise.

In return for the TWU leadership agreeing to put the deal to a vote of its members, Qantas gave undertakings to improve superannuation and training provisions and better access to long-service leave. It also gave a guarantee that if Qantas splits its international operations to allow a foreign investor to take up to a 49 per cent stake, TWU employees would continue under their existing arrangements.

"The onus is on Qantas to honour their commitment to engage with the workforce," TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said after the vote. "We will be seeking to establish full-time secure jobs during the life of the agreement in return for the acceptance of wage restraint."

He said Qantas's recent financial turnaround would be factored into the TWU's next pay and job security claim. UBS last week said Qantas could report a $1 billion pretax underlying profit this financial year, which compares with a $646 million underlying pretax loss last year.

Under Mr Sheldon's leadership, the TWU has been viewed as one of the most militant unions representing Qantas employees. Mr Sheldon has made harsh critiques of the Qantas management team, including chief executive Alan Joyce. After Qantas last year announced plans to cut 5000 jobs over a three-year period as part of a $2 billion cost-cutting exercise, Mr Sheldon threatened to launch a campaign of "civil disobedience" against the airline. He said he would be willing to be arrested, but in the end, such action never eventuated.

Jetstar pilots represented by the Australian Federation of Air Pilots will next week conclude a vote that would open the door for them to take industrial action against the airline. Jetstar pilots last year voted overwhelmingly against a new EBA which included the 18-month pay freeze, with 95 per cent rejecting the deal. If taken, the industrial action has the potential to disrupt flights.

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Abbott ridicule just a distraction from Labor’s economic mess

IN the great sum of political stuff-ups, Tony Abbott’s captain’s calls to reintroduce dames and knights and giving Prince Philip an Australian award, just don’t make the cut.

They might attract ridicule, justly, but they’re not going to stop the building of a new hospital or a new airport.

That’s precisely why Labor’s mocking mountebanks and media proxies have concentrated their commentary on these inconsequentialities — they remain hellbent on their true task, which is to divert attention from the squalid state of Labor’s stinking legacy.

In addressing the National Press Club yesterday, the prime minister went to themes which the Coalition must constantly repeat from now until the next election.

The economy IS the fundamental concern of the nation. Without a sound economy, there would be no environment for the Greens to infest, no national security for them to undermine, no social benefits for the Labor Party to whinge about, no dole for their supporters to bludge on.

While it is absolutely deplorable that Labor cowardly ransacked the national estate, it would be inexcusable for the Coalition not to try to restore the economy to a sound footing. Abbott is focused on the future as he faces the slings and arrows of an economically delinquent opposition and barbs from a handful of disloyal colleagues.

He dumped his unpopular PPL — not that it was ever going to be passed — which is more than either of his predecessors did with their reeking failures, the catastrophic unwinding of the Howard government’s effective border protection policy and the disastrous carbon dioxide tax.

Rudd and Gillard did nothing but deliver chaotic government and when their failures were reported the Labor Party tried to censor the press.

Abbott addressed the nation not with soaring words and visionary rhetoric but with plain and honest talk about our kids’ future and our grandchildren’s future. He mentioned tax cuts for small businesses, a families and jobs package, a crackdown on supporters of terrorism and he made it clear that in future he won’t be handing out any gongs.

But the core message is about responsibility. Sooner or later, he said, all responsible MPs have to put the long-term national interest ahead of their short-term political interest and there’s no better time to start than now.

He might have added that responsible Australians should be prepared to put the long-term interests ahead of their selfish short-term gains but that may well have offended those who are more interested in a hand-out than a hand up.

The address was a first step in regaining the debate ceded to the sniggering classes. His cabinet needs to pick up these themes and run hard with them.

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Paid parental leave scheme levy without the Paid parental leave scheme?

Tony Abbott has abandoned his enhanced PPL scheme, but word is that the tax earmarked to pay for it (a 1.5% levy on larger company profits) may be kept anyway. This would be bad policy and cynical politics.

The levy came from the book of budgetary smoke and mirrors. It enabled Abbott to appear to deliver on a promise to cut company tax from 30% to 28.5%, while giving up little revenue. In reality, the levy was a company income tax by another name, and would have left company tax at 30% for the larger companies that pay most of the tax. The result would have been a messy two-tier company income tax, with rates of 28.5% and 30%.

The proposal had a particularly nasty twist - denial of dividend franking credits for the levy. This would supercharge the revenue yield from the levy at the expense of shareholders, and quite possibly mark the beginning of the end of the dividend imputation system.

The logic behind the PPL levy was always spurious, but without the PPL it is even more so. I have never liked tax levies for specific purposes because they facilitate higher taxation by drawing bogus links between components of general revenue and expenditure. The link between the PPL levy and PPL was spurious, and the link between the levy and son-of-PPL will be even more bogus.

Making large company profits the target for additional taxation looks more like populist contempt for 'big business' than rational tax policy. There is no economic case for tax policy to distinguish between large and small companies. Policy should focus on the reality that among all taxes, company income tax on firms of all sizes is one of the most harmful to investment and economic growth.

Australia's 30% rate needs to be reduced to a more internationally competitive level, but it may have to wait. The right thing to do now is to set a single company tax rate at the lowest level the budget can afford in the current circumstances.

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Queensland Election: Independent supports Labor to govern

Independent MP Peter Wellington has announced he will "conditionally" support the Labor Party to form government in Queensland.  He has given a commitment that there will be confidence on the floor of parliament, but will be voting bill by bill.

Mr Wellington said his commitment comes despite "significant offers" from the LNP, but the experienced MP he said he would not stand for any illegal activity.

"My support is conditional on the basis that there is no illegal activity, no allegations of corruption, and most importantly, it's about providing stability to govern Queensland," he said.

"I've given a commitment that I'll make sure there is confidence on the floor of parliament, that Treasury will be able to continue to function, but if there is any proposed changes to the laws in Queensland that impact on my electorate, I'll be voting according to how those laws will impact on my electorate.  "It may be the case that on occasion, I will be voting against the Labor party's proposed agenda.

"But at this stage, I'm making it very clear I will be supporting Annastacia if my vote is necessary."

Mr Wellington said he made his decision because a lot of the same people involved in the LNP government's last term were still there.  Mr Wellington said Lawrence Springborg, who he understood to be the official LNP representative in the talks with the crossbench, was being "undermined" by his party.

"Lawrence is one person," he said.  "He is not able to totally control what happens in the Liberal National Party. "I believe he's being undermined by people in his own party."

He blamed an old adversary - Campbell Newman - for the situation within the LNP ranks.  "We have Premier Newman refusing to allow the Liberal-National Party to have a meeting to resolve the issue of leadership and because of Premier Newman's decision to refuse their members to have that meeting," he said.

"You have now got Lawrence [Springborg] put forward as the official voice of the Liberal-National Party, you have Steve Dickson the minister and member for Buderim running around, you've got Scott Emerson out there, you've got Fiona Simpson and you've got some other parties who I am not going to name, who are also out there jockeying for various groups.  That is not a recipe for stability.  "We need stability and I have made a decision.

"The Katter boys at the moment are saying wait another five days.  In five days time they might say, wait another five days.  Look, quite frankly, I can't speak for the Katter boys.  I have made a decision.  We had discussions yesterday, I spoke last night, it is up to them as to what their decision may be."

Mr Wellington said he had been promised that under a Labor government the limit for undeclared political donations would be returned to $1000 from $12,800, a key priority for Mr Wellington since the LNP altered donation legislation mid-term.

"I have a promise from Annastacia that she's agreed to," Mr Wellington said.  "More importantly, I've asked Anastasia if she would look at when those donations are being made that the donations have to be revealed there and then to the Electoral Commission," he said.  "Real time. Real time. That is  important. We need to make sure that there is no more of this secret donations to candidates or political parties.

"The whole range of issues that I have been consistently lobbying for Anastasia has agreed with and it part of her commitment."

Mr Wellington said the LNP had made "significant" offers in exchange for his support, but would not elaborate.  "There have been some very significant offers made from the Liberal-National Party not just to myself but to the members of the Katter party," he said.

"I'm not going to go into that but can I simply say my decision has been made and what I believe the right decision for Queensland.

At this stage, neither party has enough votes to form government.  The two Katter MPs have asked for more time, saying any declaration was "premature".

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Greenies versus bushfire control

WESTERN Australia needs to have more controlled burns to curb the risk of out-of-control bushfires, the premier says.

FIREFIGHTERS have been working for a week to save lives and homes in the state's south from a bushfire surrounding Northcliffe.
The blaze has burnt more than 80,000 hectares of karri and jarrah forest.

Fewer controlled burns have been done in WA since 2011, when two prescribed burns at Margaret River and the Perth Hills destroyed more than 100 homes.

Premier Colin Barnett said on Thursday that more controlled burns were needed in vast forest areas despite opposition from local communities.

"I think we need to take a stronger stand," Mr Barnett told Fairfax radio.  "In those areas of vast forest, it's a natural phenomenon. You will get lightning strikes and you will get bushfires. It's been going on for millions of years."

Northcliffe resident Brad, who lives on a bush block and has held out until Thursday to leave town, told ABC radio he did not agree with prescribed burning because he did not believe it worked.

He said he would rather be forced to leave the forest-enveloped town and live with the risk of big fires than have authorities clear it every few years so the area resembled parkland.

"I think the loss of habitat, flora and fauna is far more destructive than what we've seen for the odd big fire that comes through," Brad said.

Roger Underwood, chairman of prescribed burning advocacy group Bushfire Front and veteran firefighter, told AAP this week that WA was the world leader in prescribed burning in the 1970s and '80s, but that was no longer the case.

Mr Underwood said Australia was "doomed to savage bushfires" without prescribed burns.

Emergency Services Minister Joe Francis said prescribed burns would not have prevented the Northcliffe bushfire because it was sparked by lightning.

He also said the karri and jarrah forests of the South West were the key reason they were so popular, and removing vast tracts would not go down well.

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Government crackdown on 'fly-by-night' colleges

The Abbott government has flagged a crackdown on "fly-by-night" private training colleges, including potentially banning colleges from luring students into vocational courses by offering free iPads and other inducements.

New Assistant Education and Training Minister Simon Birmingham will tell the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday that rorts in parts of the vocational education and training sector are as bad as those seen in the Rudd government's home insulation scheme.

Private colleges have been exposed for offering free iPads and laptops for students to sign on to ­taxpayer-subsidised courses they often do not complete.

The value of HECS-style loans for vocational students has blown out from $325 million in 2012 to $1.5 billion last year under relaxed conditions introduced by the Labor government – double the expected rate of growth.

"The absence of adequate standards around the recruitment of students, information surrounding their debts and the quality of training provided has seen this scheme abused and some vulnerable Australians taken for a ride," Senator Birmingham, who has responsibility for the vocational training sector, will say.

"Frankly, some of the behaviour is reminiscent of the fly-by-night operations established under Labor's Pink Batts scheme."

The government will consider banning inducements such as free iPads or cash rebates as well as introducing tougher marketing guidelines and enhanced duty of care requirements.

Some students are signing up for "free" courses without knowing there is a loan attached or the level of debt they are taking on, Senator Birmingham will say. 

"Training providers, students and parents have also raised concerns about students signing up for courses of only one unit – a miraculous duration to complete a higher level Diploma or Advanced Diploma level courses," he will say.

Senator Birmingham will single out the "remarkable proliferation" of Diplomas of Management and Business as evidence of the need for tougher eligibility criteria for access to VET- FEE HELP loans (similar to HECS loans for university students).

Enrolments in these diplomas surged by 170 per from 2012 to 2013 and by a further 195 per cent the following year. The 56,000 extra enrolments equates to $770 million in federal government loans.

While the government remains committed to the growth of the loan program, Senator Birmingham says it "will not support abuse of this scheme by people out to make a quick buck at the expense of the vulnerable and the taxpayer".

A Senate inquiry is currently scrutinising private training colleges and their access to federal subsidies.

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Justice Betty King slams Law Institute of Victoria for delay in referring crooked lawyer to police

Your regulators will protect you -- NOT

A SUPREME court judge has slammed legal regulators after hearing it took them years to refer a crooked solicitor who confessed to stealing millions of dollars to police.

Suburban solicitor Alan John Munt, 61, confessed to ripping off almost $5 million from clients to the Law Institute of Victoria in September 2009, but it was not until December 2012 that police were called in.

Justice Betty King today criticised authorities for taking almost six years to bring Munt, who has fully cooperated with authorities, before her.

“Everyone’s got a lot of explaining to do,” Justice King said.  “I want to hear from the Law Institute of Victoria why they sat on it. What business is it of theirs to sit on it? (The victims) have waited an awful long time for it to get here. It’s not good enough.”

Most of the misappropriated money was used on personal expenses, to prop up a failing soft drinks investment, or to pay interest on a Ponzi scheme he was running from his Emerald firm.

Most of the victims were retirees who thought they were putting their savings in to mortgage-back investments.

Munt has declared bankruptcy and many investors have no chance of ever seeing their money.

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RBA cuts interest rate to historic low of 2.25 per cent

THE Reserve Bank has cut interest rates to a historic low of 2.25 per cent in one of the most keenly anticipated central bank board meeting announcements in months.

The decision was welcomed by treasurer Joe Hockey who said a cut to interest rates is good news for business and households.

The Reserve Bank cut the cash rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a new record low of 2.25 per cent.

“This is good news for Australian families and it’s good news for Australian business,” Mr Hockey told reporters in Canberra. “The government is working hard to take the pressure off interest rates by keeping inflation low.”

Mr Hockey said combined with a fall in petrol prices Australians had received the equivalent of a three-quarter of one per cent cut in interest rates.

The treasurer said the Reserve Bank had “more room to move”but that this latest cut would lift business and consumer confidence.  “The shackles are off the Australian economy,” he said.

“I say to Australian business ... go out there, have a go, employ more Australians because the costs of doing business are down.” The treasurer said he expected the banks to pass on the cut immediately across the credit spectrum and not just limit it to home loans.

An International Monetary Fund report due out within days would show global economic headwinds remain of concern, he said.

The central bank’s last move on the official cash rate was in August 2013, with an easing from 2.75 per cent to 2.5 per cent.

Today’s cut means monthly savings for mortgage holders ranging from about $50 on a $300,000 loan to $120 on an $800,000 loan.

After the RBA’s announcement the Aussie dollar took an initial leg lower, and has been extending losses against the US dollar, falling more than 1.5 per cent to below $US0.77.

In its announcement, the RBA said, “The Australian dollar has declined noticeably against a rising US dollar over recent months, though less so against a basket of currencies. It remains above most estimates of its fundamental value, particularly given the significant declines in key commodity prices. A lower exchange rate is likely to be needed to achieve balanced growth in the economy.”

The RBA also noted that the Australian economy continues to grow below-trend, while the unemployment rate is now expected to peak at a higher level than had been previously forecast.

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens said: “Forecasts for global growth in 2015 envisage continued moderate growth.

“Commodity prices have continued to decline, in some cases sharply. The price of oil in particular has fallen significantly over the past few months. These trends appear to reflect a combination of lower growth in demand and, more importantly, significant increases in supply. “The much lower levels of energy prices will act to strengthen global output and temporarily to lower CPI inflation rates.

“In Australia the available information suggests that growth is continuing at a below-trend pace, with domestic demand growth overall quite weak.”

The move is likely to take the typical standard variable mortgage rate down to 5.7 per cent and discounted variable rates to 4.85 per cent — the lowest cost of mortgage debt since July 1968.

Lower mortgage rates have the potential to add some fuel to what are already strong housing market conditions

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An Australian politician has gone off to fight the Islamic State – brilliant

Comment from Britain.  Chuka Umunna is a black British dandy and snob in the parliamentary Labour party

Imagine Chuka Umunna hanging up his immaculately tailored suits and heading off to Syria to do battle with the Islamic State. Or Ed Balls ditching his unconvincing blather about how Labour would resuscitate the British economy in preference for picking up a gun and knocking off some ISIS nutters. Imagine if some of the Labour-leaning laptop bombardiers who pepper the British press put down their spittle-flecked iPads and actually filed off to war against IS rather than filing 800 words about why the armies of the West should launch a war against IS.

Crazy, you say? An unacceptable demand to make of politicians and opinion-formers who have serious jobs and nice homes? Not so fast. For it appears that this very scenario has just unfolded in Australia. Matthew Gardiner, head of the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Labor Party, has apparently gone off to Syria to fight alongside the Kurds against IS forces. Gardiner, who was also secretary of the Aussie trade union United Voice, and is a former soldier who served with the Aus army in Somalia in the 1990s, is thought to have left Australia a few weeks ago after making connections with Kurdish militants online. Where most Western politicians talk a good fight against IS, Mr Gardiner seems keen actually to fight one.

There is much to admire in Mr Gardiner’s reported move. He is, it seems, acting on his convictions, putting himself on the line for what we can assume to be his pretty stand-up beliefs: that the Islamic State is a backward and dangerous force and the Kurds deserve solidarity and help. His alleged actions also expose the shallowness of other Western politicians and observers who talk endlessly about the need to launch wars against evil forces overseas — everywhere from Yugoslavia to Iraq to Syria — yet who would never deign to get their manicured hands dirty by actually picking up a gun. Where earlier leftists trekked to Spain to physically fight for their moral beliefs, the greatest exertion that today’s laughably self-defined heirs of Orwell are willing to undergo is to flick through a thesaurus to come up with the juiciest words possible to describe their anger at the various wicked things happening overseas.

Ours is age in which too many people live vicariously through the military interventionism of Western armies. Bereft of the old, clear politics of left and right, lacking any serious moral or political vision, politicians and observers alike prefer to stage fantasy battles between Good and Evil in far-off fields and then watch them on their TV screens in the hope that they will imbue their sad, anchorless, post-ideological existences with some clout and meaning. And the fact that these interventions make things worse, turning tinpot states into post-states in which all manner of odious forces can take root and take power (think Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya)? Don’t mention that. All that matters is that, for a few weeks or so, Westerners who have watched politics and morality at home fall apart can temporarily reconstruct it on the rubble of someone else’s war and hardships.

Well, Mr Gardiner shows, if the reports are correct, that there is another way. That you can fight on the ground with local forces who might actually make a real difference and create a new, potentially democratic system — something a Western missile is utterly incapable of doing. He has shown that it is possible to get to the Kurds, to train with them, to work with them. So, those Westerners who are relatively young and relatively fit and who have spent years demanding that we Do Something about nasty forces overseas — now your’s chance. Follow Matthew Gardiner. Take up arms. Fight the backward armies. Do something.

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Qld.: Energex whistleblower claims culture of waste, inefficiency

A FORMER insider of state-owned power corporation Energex has given a damn­ing assessment of staffers whiling away their days while collecting paypackets far outstripping market rates.

Energex whistleblower Cally Wilson has made a submission to the federal ­energy regulator alleging a “public sector mentality” was racking up costs borne by consumers through their power bills.

“Energex staffing levels, based on my observations, are excessive for its actual needs,” Ms Wilson, a former treasury analyst before quitting last year, has told the Australian Energy Regulator of her time at Energex headquarters.

“Walking around the building, I saw row upon row of employees spending large amounts of their day engrossed in personal activities while … employees often spend large parts of their days in unproductive meetings.

“Staff are provided exceedingly generous income and benefits compared to commercial standards for the same roles.

“This in itself contributes to an inefficient workplace, as once people are in jobs that provide pay and benefits well in excess of market conditions, employees are more likely to cling to jobs.”

The submission urges the regulator to take a “razor” to Energex’s latest revenue bid, which influences network costs – making up about half of power bills – for the next five years.

An independent review into network costs commissioned by the outgoing Newman government found that an alarming 647 staffers earned more than 1½ times their base salary across the three state-owned network businesses – Ergon, Energex and Powerlink.

And 27 staff doubled their base pay in 2011-12, likely spawning “lower levels of productivity”.

Energex staff are virtually unsackable due to longstanding “no forced redundancy” clauses.

The Courier-Mail spent a day at a coffee shop a short walk from Energex’s $90 million Newstead base mid last year, witnessing a series of laid-back meetings.

One employee was heard joking with three Energex staff: “Don’t rush, you still have another two hours until you have to be back.”

The Courier-Mail revealed early last year that taxpayers were forking out $100,000 a month for more than 100 people whose jobs no longer existed but who could not be sacked.

An Energex spokesman said it was impossible to respond to inefficiency claims before seeing the submission, but blamed overtime for excess staff pay.

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Is mathematics Confucian?

The author below thinks so

Chinese Australians consistently outperform their peers in mathematics and according to QUT researcher Michael Mu this is not only because of pushy parents or motivated students.
                   
Mr Mu's research has found in addition to a strong emphasis on mathematics, Chinese Australians' mathematical achievement is also passed down through generations.

Mr Mu, who is undertaking his PhD through the Faculty of Education, said Chinese cultural identity counted in mathematical success.

As part of his study, Mr Mu surveyed 230 young Chinese Australians relating their mathematical achievement to their level of association with their Chinese cultural dispositions.

"I found there is a trend showing Chinese Australians' mathematics learning is influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by the values and expectations that they get from their cultural identity," he said.

"It's not only about Chinese parents pushing their children at mathematics, or students putting in more effort, or the belief that Chinese students have a great interest in maths, it's much more deeply rooted in their cultural history."

Mr Mu said "habitus" or as it was more commonly understood as structures that generate, but not determine, certain cultural dispositions, was what pushed Chinese Australians to do well at maths - and it could be done consciously or unconsciously.  "The importance of mathematics is steeped in Chinese tradition and culture. It is part of Confucius ideas and beliefs," he said.

"Chinese traditions and beliefs play an important part in Chinese culture and they are passed down from generation to generation. "Despite some possible imperfect intergenerational reproduction, Confucian way of being, doing, and thinking continues over thousands of years.

"This perception becomes the underpinning mechanism that leads to Chinese Australians' putting in more effort in mathematics learning and therefore better mathematics achievement compared to their counterparts."

Mr Mu's study is published as "Does Habitus Count in Chinese Australians' Mathematics Achievement?"

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Queensland election 2015: Pauline Hanson could make political comeback

Pauline Hanson has emerged as a player in the Queensland election result, as preferences indicate the former One Nation leader on track for a political comeback.

After the final count on Monday, Labor was predicted to fall over the line with the required 45 seats, leaving the incumbent Liberal-National Party government in Opposition with 40 seats and still scrambling for a new leader after Campbell Newman's loss.

Counting on election night indicated Ms Hanson was likely to fall short in her bid to win the seat of Lockyer from sitting LNP member Ian Rickuss but early preference counting has favoured Ms Hanson, increasing her chances of winning.

That would leave Queensland with four politicians on the cross bench, including long-time independent MP Peter Wellington and two Katter's Australian Party MPs.

But the result continues to fluctuate, leaving Labor reluctant to claim victory and the LNP hopeful it may sneak back into government, with Katter and possibly Ms Hanson's support.

Meanwhile, a divide has emerged between the LNP executive and parliamentary arm,  with both sides duking it out in a battle for party leadership,

Deputy leader Jeff Seeney had planned on resigning his position at a party room meeting on Tuesday to allow a new leadership team, believed to be Treasurer Tim Nicholls and Health Minister Lawrence Springborg on a unity ticket, to take the party forward.

Mr Seeney said he was falling on his sword to allow the party to heal after the shock election result, which may see the party, which spent 14 years in opposition, back there after just one term in government.

 "I have in the past found that leadership contests are very divisive and if we can avoid that, in this particular situation, that would be a great outcome," he said.

" That is why I have spent all day yesterday and this morning working towards that situation and that is the very reason I am standing aside, because if I stand aside then there is a completely new leadership team and hopefully that new leadership team can take their positions without the divisiveness that those leadership contests produce. "

But just hours after announcing the meeting, it was scuttled and Speaker Fiona Simpson was making a strong play for the leadership.  "I would love the job but this isn't just about what I want," she said.  " I am flattered though by the polls that show there is strong support for me across Queensland and in Brisbane.  "I am consulting with colleagues and I hear from the people of Queensland. "I hope that people see I have been fair in the way I have done that."

While the LNP leadership games play out, Labor MPs have stayed quiet, hesitant to claim victory with the result "so up in the air".

More than 75 per cent of votes had been counted by Monday afternoon, but the electoral commission announced a further 600,000 declaration votes could be added to the count. It warned a result in some seats may not be available until next week.

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Queensland election 2015: Former treasurer Keith De Lacy says Labor not ready to govern after shock result

Former Queensland treasurer Keith De Lacy says the Labor Party did not expect to win Saturday's election and may not be ready to govern the state.

The LNP had been tipped to win the election but has won only 39 seats compred to Labor's 42, with caretaker premier Campbell Newman losing his seat of Ashgrove to Labor's Kate Jones.

Mr De Lacy, who was treasurer from 1989 to 1996 under former Labor premier Wayne Goss, said the inexperience of Labor's potential ministers could have a destabilising effect on the business sector.

"The big concern I think, and speaking on behalf of the business community, is a period of paralysis when very little gets done while the government works itself out and how to take itself forward," he said.

"The very important game in this country, in a democracy, is being a minister and nobody tells you how to do it.

"I remember, a long time ago now, the best part of 30 years, going into the treasurer's office, you know, the big mahogany desks and red leather armchairs and just shaking my head and saying 'what the hell am I doing here?'"

He said inexperienced ministers must build strong relationships with their departments.  "There's a lot of intelligent people there with a lot of experience," Mr De Lacy said.  "There's a lot of good advice in the department, make sure you utilise it and consider it.  "Don't surround yourself with 'save the world teenagers' and think you're going to get all the advice from them."

He said Queensland's economy was at a crossroads.  "The resources boom is finished, which way are we going to move?" he said.
"The last thing we need in this state is a confidence shock."

He said Labor must focus on economic growth and paying off the state's debt.  "The two big challenges is the debt and delivering social policies," Mr De Lacy said.  "The only way you can address both of those is with a growing economy.

"But if we get into a situation where we're focusing on a whole range of other issues, rather than economic growth, confidence as a consequence declines, the economy declines, the whole situation deteriorates."

Mr de Lacy said Queensland's debt was a big disadvantage. "If anybody out there believes that we don't have a massive challenge in terms of the budget in Queensland they're living in another world," he said.

"And that means pain for Queenslanders. We've got major problems here in terms of spending. "It's a massive and a major challenge and that's why I keep saying economic growth is the best thing you can have helping you.

"You cannot spend more than you earn, the most fundamental, simple budgetary principal in the human race, yet we haven't woken up to it."

But Labor's Jackie Trad said the Labor party had a very clear plan for Queensland.  "If Labor forms government, what you will get is maturity, you will get discipline and you will get jobs growth," she said. "We will roll up our sleeves and we will get to work, working, listening, collaborating with everyone, business, unions, the community sector, everyone."

SOURCE






Punters bet on banks after Reserve Bank cuts interest rate

Half of my portfolio is in banks so I like this

Investors have increased their bets on bank shares in response to the latest cut in official interest rates, even though lower rates tend to squeeze lenders' profit margins.

Commonwealth Bank shares hit a new record high of $90.67 after the Reserve Bank cut the cash rate to 2.25 per cent on Tuesday, while Westpac, NAB and ANZ Bank shares were also up strongly.

The jump in bank shares reflects a market-wide surge in high-yielding stocks. It comes despite bank lending margins being squeezed as interest rates fall. This is because a bank's interest-earning assets, loans, are greater than its liabilities, or deposits.

If banks reduce rates on their deposits and loans by the same amount, the overall result is lower profit margins.

"Basically, lower interest rates means lower margins," Bell Potter analyst TS Lim said. "You lose more on interest income, as opposed to saving on interest expense."

Shareholder funds held by banks also make lower returns when rates fall.

Despite these headwinds, big bank shares have been star performers in an environment of record low rates.  Research by Macquarie analyst Mike Wiblin this week found the big four banks' share prices had outperformed the ASX 200 significantly during the last cycle of interest rate cuts between November 2011 and August 2013.

A key reason was that the cutting cycle gave the banks an opportunity to "reprice" their mortgage books; lowering their mortgage rates by less than the reduction in the cash rate.

The country's biggest bank, CBA, was the strongest over the period analysed by Wiblin, outperforming the ASX 200 by 30 per cent, while Westpac, the second-biggest mortgage lender, was ahead by 23 per cent. ANZ outperformed by 20 per cent and NAB, which has been challenged by its British business, fared 4 per cent better than the index.

Bank share prices are also benefiting from a broader "search for yield" among investors as returns from bonds and cash are at record lows.

Even at Tuesday's record intra-day high of $90.67, CBA's estimated dividend yield for this financial year is 4.6 per cent, before franking credits.

Lower interest rates can also benefit banks because lower repayments for borrowers can result in fewer bad debts, and can encourage credit growth.

This has been occurring recently; banks' provisions for bad and doubtful debts are at 20-year lows, a trend that benefits their bottom lines.

Housing credit has also accelerated to its quickest pace in four years but it is still growing far slower than before the global financial crisis.

Even with another rate cut confirmed, Mr Lim is doubtful about the chances of a significant lift in lending growth.

Many consumers would continue to pay down debt and banks would be wary of regulators cracking down on lending to housing investors, he said.

Aside from the soft economic outlook, banks also face pressure to hold more capital, which reduces returns.

A report from Standard & Poor's found the big four were outside the top quartile of best-capitalised banks in the world, which is consistent with the the view of the financial system inquiry.

SOURCE







Federal education minister Christopher Pyne praises weird and extravagant new university building



The Education Minister drew audible gasps at the opening of the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building at UTS  when he launched a spirited defence of his government's embattled higher education reform.

"The wonderful thing about this building is that it shouts out that the University of Technology Sydney is in the race for higher education - that it is a real competitor and that it is not content to sit back and receive large government support," he said.

The Education Minister has struggled to gain support for the tertiary reforms which would decrease university funding by an average of 20 per cent and allow them to set their own fees, as well as extending funding to private colleges and TAFE.

Mr Pyne was unable to have the reforms passed by the senate in December, and last week said he had set himself a two-month deadline to pass the changes.

In his speech on Monday Mr Pyne criticised what he said was an unwillingness to recognise overseas competition and the importance of international tertiary students to Australian's economy.

 "That competition is something that governments and Australians can't pretend  is not happening," he said.

Mr Pyne praised the $180 million spent on the Frank Gehry building as showing a focus on quality and innovation as opposed to the university using the funds to build several buildings.

"It's not enough to have 41 very good universities, we must have the best university system but also the best universities in the world," said Mr Pyne.

He said that proposed higher education reforms would mean that university vice-chancellors could charge more if they believed they were providing a better course and facilities. 

"If UTS has the best entrepreneurship MBA in Australia it will be able to attach a real value to that rather than it costing the same as another MBA in Australia-regardless of whether they are the same quality in that course," Mr Pyne said.

The speech was in stark contrast to Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, who did not focus on the reform. He praised the building as the "most beautiful squashed paper bag I have ever seen."

Attila Brungs, a Vice Chancellor of UTS, said: "Just as the Opera House put Australia on the map for the arts, the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building will confirm Australia's place as a global innovative leader."

SOURCE






Former Rudd candidate Samuel Miszkowski donates $200K to Liberal Party

In 2007, Samuel Miszkowski sold his house to contest the safe Liberal seat of Moncrieff on the Gold Coast.

Such was Mr Miszkowski's enthusiasm to join the march of "Kevin 07" as a Labor candidate he cashed in $372,000 in property and assets to finance his own campaign and ran under the slogan "Sam's the Man".

But, less than a month out from the election, he admitted to feeling "neglected" when Kevin Rudd could not recall his name during a media conference.

Mr Miszkowski almost quit the ALP but contested the election, struggling to make an impression on sitting Liberal Steve Ciobo who survived with a muscular two-party preferred result of 64:36 in his favour.

So it might come as a surprise to Mr Miszkowski's former ALP comrades that he is at the centre of one of the largest single donations to the Liberal Party in 2013-14.

He is listed as the financial controller of Mist Consulting, located in the Gold Coast suburb of Bundall. Mist donated $200,000 to the federal Liberal Party, according to returns released by the Australian Electoral Commission on Monday.  Mist Consulting did not donate to Labor.

Contacted by Fairfax Media, Mr Miszkowski said: "I was left hanging like a shag on a rock by the ALP when I ran."

He said he viewed the Liberal Party as having "potential going forward" but after the weekend landslide against the Newman state government he was no longer so sure.

"We might just give up donating at all to either side," he said. 

According to the Australian Business Register, Mist Consulting is the entity behind Friends of Israel (Queensland).

Mr Miszkowski, who is a director of the Ethnic Communities Council of Queensland and a former director of the Gold Coast Jewish Community Council, said that was just a registered trading name that had not been used and the donation had nothing to do with the Israel lobby, as claimed by the Greens on Monday.

Interviewed after his failed election bid, Mr Miszkowski revealed his family's opinion of selling their home. "(They're) not happy – it's not an adventure we'd repeat," he said in 2008.

SOURCE

Another confirmation:  Unusually hot weather in Australia goes back a long way

Australia's notorious BoM has made various declarations to the effect that modern-day temperatures in Australia are unprecedentedly high.  A recent very hot summer in Sydney was particularly targeted as "proof" of global warming.  So it is interesting to find records of Sydney weather centuries ago.  We do of course have the observations by Watkin Tench showing that Sydney had disastrously hot weather in 1790 but other sources of data are obviously very welcome.   We now have a compilation from two other early sources.  See the abstract below.

The compilation was done by Warmist scientists so it is amusing that they make no direct comparisons between average temperatures then and average temperatures now.  From what Tench reported it is a slam dunk what to conclude from that.  The authors do however concede that the general picture of weather events in Sydney in the late 18th century is extremely similar to the picture these days.  So I think it is safe to conclude that there has been no warming in Sydney for over 200 years.  I wonder how global warming missed Sydney?

A climate reconstruction of Sydney Cove, New South Wales, using weather journal and documentary data, 1788–1791

Joëlle Gergis et al.

Abstract

This study presents the first analysis of the weather conditions experienced at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, during the earliest period of the European settlement of Australia. A climate analysis is presented for January 1788 to December 1791 using daily temperature and barometric pressure observations recorded by William Dawes in Sydney Cove and a temperature record kept by William Bradley on board the HMS Sirius anchored in Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) in the early months of the First Fleet’s arrival in Australia. Remarkably, the records appear comparable with modern day measurements taken from Sydney Observatory Hill, displaying similar daily variability, a distinct seasonal cycle and considerable inter-annual variability.

To assess the reliability of these early weather data, they were cross-verified with other data sources, including anecdotal observations recorded in First Fleet documentary records and independent palaeoclimate reconstructions. Some biases in the temperature record, likely associated with the location of the thermometer, have been identified. Although the 1788–1791 period experienced a marked La Niña to El Niño fluctuation according to palaeoclimatic data, the cool and warm intervals in Sydney over this period cannot be conclusively linked to El Niño– Southern Oscillation (ENSO) conditions. This study demonstrates that there are excellent opportunities to expand our description of pre-20th century climate variability in Australia while contributing culturally significant material to the emerging field of Australian environmental history.

Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Journal 58 (2009) 83-98

Disappointing result for minor parties in Queensland

THERE is only one minor party with a presence in Queensland’s new parliament and for all his money and bluster, it’s not Clive Palmer’s.

The 2015 election was almost as bad for the minor parties as it was for the Liberal National Party.

Katter’s Australian Party has managed to keep two of its three MPs, but Clive Palmer’s lofty political aspirations failed to eventuate.

At one point in the lead-up to the election, the federal MP proclaimed his party was out to win government.  He told voters he’d stand candidates in all 89 seats, and take on his once beloved LNP to end its allegedly corrupt and damaging reign.

But that was before the only two MPs in his party jumped ship. In the end, the federal MP’s party fielded just 50 candidates and managed just five per cent of the vote.  And its star candidate, John Bjelke-Petersen, fell dismally short in his efforts to unseat Mr Palmer’s arch enemy, Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney.

As for that other federal political brand that’s so often reached into Queensland, well she did better than expected. Pauline Hanson’s bid to win the seat of Lockyer, west of Brisbane, wasn’t the complete disaster some had predicted. She managed a respectable second. At last count she was trailing the LNP’s Ian Rickuss 46 per cent to his 53, after preferences.

Perhaps the real surprise in terms of under performance was the Greens.  They ran a strong campaign, primarily hung off threats to the future of the Great Barrier Reef, but despite that the swing towards the party was just 1.1 per cent.

The Greens were never going to win a seat in the Queensland parliament, but MPs had been hoping the focus on the reef would translate into a bigger jump in support.

Still, the Greens can rest content in the knowledge their preferences helped defeat the LNP. And the Greens senator for Queensland Larissa Waters tweeted that it was the party’s best ever result at a state election.

As for the three independents who were recontesting their seats, only one has survived, with Peter Wellington living to serve another term in Nicklin.

But Alex Douglas and Carl Judge - the two former LNP MPs, who jumped ship to the Palmer party only to abandon it to become independents in the run up to this year’s poll - well they’re looking for new income streams.

SOURCE





Pervasive corruption in the NSW police

As the state's top police officer prepares to take the stand at a sensational police bugging inquiry next week, questions have emerged about his possible role in a shadowy taskforce set up with the intention of spying on a journalist.

On September 9, 2012, Fairfax reporter Neil Mercer published explosive details in The Sun-Herald about Strike Force Emblems, a long-buried internal police report into Operation Mascot, an anti-corruption surveillance exercise that controversially involved the secret bugging of more than 100 police officers and civilians on the back of suspect warrants and allegations.

It can now be revealed that nine days after the story was published, the force's professional standards command launched Strike Force Jooriland to monitor the veteran reporter and hunt down the police whistleblower leaking critical information to him.

When NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione appears before the parliamentary committee on Wednesday, he is likely to be grilled on how the operation came to be approved.

Mercer had remained oblivious to Jooriland until last Friday when he appeared as a witness before the  inquiry.

"I am completely gobsmacked," he said on Saturday, adding: "You're exposing allegations of serious wrongdoing and criminal offences.  Their response is, let's shoot the messenger and then screw the whistleblower."

MEAA chief executive officer Paul Murphy also expressed alarm, stating: "The professionalism of a journalist and the ethical responsibility to protect confidential sources needs to be respected at all times, regardless of the type of inquiry."

As Mercer was left to nervously dwell on the nature - and extent - of the surveillance, biggest questions surround the broader roles in the bugging affair played by Commissioner Scipione and NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn - who at one stage was an acting commander of the special crime and internal affairs unit (SCIA).

"We can't comment on matters that are currently the subject of an investigation by the Ombudsman," said a police spokesman when asked who had triggered the hunt.

On Friday, the inquiry heard explosive allegations about a mass cover-up that blanketed the police corruption investigation, Operation Mascot, which ran between 1999-2001.

Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas was a central target of the surveillance operation, which he testified had ruined the careers of many officers and triggered a suicide.

Ms Burn had been a senior officer within the operation which at one stage, was commanded by current Commissioner Scipione. The hearing heard that some affidavits presented to NSW Supreme Court judges had contained no information to justify surveillance, and some content was false. It emerged that during the operation, Ms Burn's unit had secured a warrant to bug Mr Kaldas and his family - despite no evidence of any wrongdoing.

Against the wishes of the NSW government, the inquiry was established last year in response to complaints about the amount of time taken by NSW Ombudsman Bruce Barbour to investigate the scandal. On Friday, Mr Kaldas launched a scathing attack on Mr Barbour, about his treatment. "We, the police, could not treat criminals this way and neither should we," he said.

Mercer had earlier published details of the secret Emblems report which showed Ms Burn had come under investigation, following a string of complaints relating to the investigation. While the report stated there was no evidence to bring criminal or disciplinary charges against her, it noted inquiries into those complaints had hit a wall after access to crucial documents and witnesses was repeatedly denied. It was also revealed that in November 2001, Commissioner Scipione, then commander of SCIA, had been warned some officers within the branch were concerned about the legality of the telephone taps and the release of  "fictitious information" to gain listening devices. The inquiry resumes on Tuesday.

SOURCE






An education theorist goes practical

 Education commentator Jennifer Buckingham is no ivory tower researcher. For five years, she’s worked closely with a school in Raymond Terrace, a low-income town near Newcastle NSW, in an effort to improve its students’ results.

Jennifer Buckingham is a prominent advocate of school choice. She’s middle class and strongly believes parents should be able to choose where they send their children to school. So which primary school did she choose for her two daughters?

Raymond Terrace Public School, located in the low-income town of the same name, just north of Newcastle in NSW. More than half its students are from the bottom quartile of socio-economic rankings and about a fifth are indigenous, both indicators that are statistically linked to lower academic outcomes.

Buckingham says that when her eldest daughter, who has just graduated from year six, started at Raymond Terrace in kindergarten it was perceived by many in the town "as a school people wouldn’t deliberately send their children to".

What makes her choice of school all the more interesting is that Buckingham is an education policy specialist and research fellow at a right-wing think tank, the Centre of Independent Studies (CIS).

From her perch at the CIS, Buckingham is a strong advocate of private schools and their role in providing wider choice to parents. Yet she chose a struggling public primary school for her daughters. Why? "I could see the potential at Raymond Terrace Public School, and thought that I had something to contribute,"she says.

Buckingham and her husband, Scott Chapman, both grew up in Raymond Terrace, which sits on the banks of the Hunter River half an hour north of Newcastle, and it’s where they now live. Chapman actually attended Raymond Terrace Public School, but both the school and the town were then quite di fferent. In the years since, there’s been an infl ux of public housing and the level of wealth has fallen.

"None of my old friends sent their children there," Buckingham says. For the first year or two after her eldest daughter started kindergarten in 2008, she didn’t dare reveal to school principal John Picton that she worked as a think tank expert in education policy. "Working with the CIS, you don’t necessarily know how sympathetic a school principal is going to be," says Buckingham now.

For his part, Picton says he had no idea that one of his school mothers was a well-known education policy specialist and was shocked when he found out. He knew Jennifer, at that time, not as Buckingham but by her married name. "At kindy orientation, I wasn’t introduced to this educational researcher," Picton says.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT

But along with the right to choose, another part of Buckingham’s education credo is that parents should be able to be in fluential in their children’s schools – and that is exactly what she has done. With Picton at the helm, and plenty of input from Buckingham, Raymond Terrace has seen a remarkable lift in performance.

In 2008, Raymond Terrace’s Naplan results were level-pegging with similar schools in the area. The latest available 2013 fi gures show it is signi ficantly ahead of its peers. It is also well ahead of the three other primary schools in the town – two public, one Catholic.

At a time when Australia’s schools are seen to be failing – with literacy and numeracy standards falling against comparable countries, and a sharp ideological divide over the Gonski funding scheme and the national curriculum – Raymond Terrace stands out as an example of what can be achieved in an individual school by a committed principal who has solid support.

The Raymond Terrace story is also notable on another level. Buckingham is an education commentator who walked the talk and enrolled her own children in a failing school she intended to help improve. What were the secrets to lifting the school’s performance?

For Picton, the discovery that he had a school parent who was not only a respected education researcher but also wanted to be more involved with the school came at the right time. He had spent most of his teaching career in low-socio-economic-status schools, and when he arrived at Raymond Terrace nine years ago there were many problems. "The place didn’t have good results and the staff were negative about what the expectations could be of the kids," Picton says. "That was the pedagogy that they were introduced to and were using."

Once he knew Buckingham’s background, the pair started talking about how to improve things. "I realised that John was interested in what I had to say and vice-versa," she says. "My getting involved in the school didn’t necessarily send it on a di fferent path. It was already on that path. All I was able to do was, with my contacts and connections, provide some extra support and external guidance than might have been available otherwise."

One key development was a visit from noted educational reformer John Fleming in 2010. Fleming’s 10 years in charge of Bell eld Primary School in Melbourne is one of the celebrated success stories of turning around a failing school, and last year Fleming was appointed by federal Education Minister Christopher Pyne to be deputy chair of the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership.

Fleming came to Raymond Terrace to o ffer his advice. It was a turning point in Picton’s willingness to engage with Buckingham. "Had John Fleming been a waste of time, I probably wouldn’t be here talking to Jennifer today,"says Picton. It led to three "pillars" – principles set then which the school still operates by.

One is explicit teaching, where the key skills of reading, writing and maths are taught explicitly and directly to students and then practised repeatedly until testing shows they have got it. This is in contrast to still-popular education theories in which children are expected to master these fundamental building blocks of knowledge by exploring for themselves.

Another is building a relationship with the children, and expecting teachers to get to know each child well and understand what they are capable of, with the aim of boosting self-esteem.

Last, there is creating high expectations, in which children and parents are encouraged to aim for the best.

LITERACY EARLY INTERVENTION

Buckingham was also instrumental in bringing to the school an early-intervention reading program for children whose literacy was lagging. She had heard of the work that Macquarie University’s Kevin Wheldall and Robyn Beaman had done in developing a phonics-based instruction in which children systematically learn the sounds for each letter and how to join the sounds into words. They turned their work into two programs for schools to help struggling readers – MultiLit and MiniLit.

When Buckingham discovered that Wheldall was looking to do research in a school, she seized the opportunity. "I thought, that’s a way of tapping into this program which has been getting such great results," she says. The result was that MultiLit, MiniLit and a bevy of researchers came to Raymond Terrace to work with the children who were falling behind.

Buckingham joined in, deciding to do a PhD on literacy and social disadvantage with Macquarie University, drawing her research data from the school. She completed the doctorate last year.

At this point, there was another positive development for the school – more money. Five years ago, it was given $400,000 extra annual funding for four years under the federal government’s then national partnerships program. Picton says when he heard the news, he went straight to Buckingham and said: "We’ve got $400,000. What would you do with it?"

Drawing on Buckingham’s advice, Picton decided to spend half the money on a mentoring scheme. He employed two new teachers so that two of the school’s experienced teachers could become full-time mentors. It was a risk, says Picton. "We thought that sta ff might have been quite reluctant to open themselves up to observation and demonstration of lessons. But because of the credibility of these particular teachers, it was taken on board early," he says.

The intense mentoring of teachers was the key to embedding Picton’s "three pillars" across the school. When a child moves up a year, they are taught in the same way using the same terminology. "You can go into your next class and roll on with it using the same language,"says Picton.

Based on his experience, Picton fi rmly believes that low-income children are not condemned to perform poorly at school. It’s all about expectations, he says. "If you set high expectations, if you build relationships with your kids, if you trust in their ability to be able to learn, you will get the results from them. There’s no reason why they can’t."

"If you listen and observe the dialogue and interaction of the kids in our school compared to five years ago, it’s amazing," Picton says.

Naplan scores bear this out. In 2008, Raymond Terrace was in the middle of the pack of schools from similar socio-economic areas for numeracy, reading, writing, spelling and grammar plus punctuation.

In 2013, Raymond Terrace is either at the top or close to it for all five skills in both years three and five. Nationwide, more and more students are being withheld from Naplan, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that some schools keep poorly performing students out of the tests in order to improve their results. But that’s not how it is at Raymond Terrace. "Every child is encouraged to participate,"says Buckingham. "It’s a really big thing not to game the scores. It’s important for every child who can do the test to do the test."

That includes children in the school’s classes that cater to special needs – Down syndrome, autism and hearing problems."It does have an in fluence on our scores,"says Picton. But he says Naplan is an important diagnostic instrument. It tells teachers how students are performing and whether they need special attention.

More HERE

ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG has a suitably gruesome toon on the Queensland election result






Comment on the Qld election from a Toowoomba correspondent



The major theme of the Qld ALP election campaign was not to sell off government assets. But here's some background from a Leftist site in 2009: 

"On May 21, Ipswich MP and transport minister Rachel Nolan told state parliament that QR was “not for sale”. Twelve days later, on June 2, Bligh announced the sell-off, which she hopes will raise $15 billion to balance the state’s budget. The government will also scrap the eight-cents-a-litre fuel subsidy to save $2.4 billion over four years. The Bligh government is pushing full steam ahead with privatisation with barely a hint of party room dissent. Only two MPs in the 51-strong Labor caucus, Evan Morehead and Jo-Anne Miller, opposed the plans.

Union opposition was so weak that the former Liberal-National Party leader, Lawrence Springborg, who had floated ideas of privatising QR during the election campaign, could make a show of criticising them from the left.

None of the leaders of the railway unions will countenance proposals for industrial action to oppose the sell-off.

Many government assets have been sold since Labor won office in Queensland, with little or no opposition: the SGIO, now Suncorp (1998); the Totalisator Agency Board (1999); the Dalrymple Bay coal loader (2001); the retail arms of the Energex and Ergon electricity companies (2006); the Golden Casket state lottery agency (2007); Cairns, Mackay and Brisbane airports (2008)."

My reaction is utter disgust at the ill informed  Qld voters who have believed the Labor liars and will now have a Premier who didn’t know what the GST percentage was.   She is in the same vacuous mould as the other feminasty frightbat Labor politicians.  Most older voters know that the Socialists have been working on dumbing down the Australian population for over 30 years and they are now getting results.  A dumb, lazy population who cannot see the wood for the trees.  I don’t know why the Coalition politicians don’t call the left wing traitors out for being Communists and why they did not list all of the assets the Bligh & Beattie Governments sold off to pay off their wasteful debts.

However, the Coalition parties need to be able to reach down to these voters because they now have the power to topple Coalition Governments who are working hard to fix up the financial morass those same dumbass Labor Govts have left them. 

The only consolation is that now Qld Labor will have to work out how to pay off the massive $80 billion debt they left behind.  And the dumb voters could not even remember why they kicked them out last time. The media largely ignored these sales.  So the voters even re elected Labor has-beens who contributed to the mess. 

I despair for Australia now.  I am getting ready to compose a vitriolic letter to that old Queen Alan Jones who sold out his conservative audience.   I am going to distribute his e-mail address for others to do the same.

At one stage at our booth in Toowoomba  we had 9 Unionists in their green T shirts standing at the gate handing out those Don’t sell our assets cards.  In fact they took over almost the whole fence with a huge banner saying the same. 

As for the whole left wing media, print and TV -- plus Clive Palmer and Alan Jones -- they are despicable, selling out Australia by aligning with Labor.   The LNP have retained almost all of the seats in South West Qld although there may be a recount in Toowoomba North where we think we will win when postal votes are counted.

I am over TV news – I cannot stand to see the same old Labor traitor faces gloating in conjunction with their commie mates in the media.  As for Tony Abbott I think he is like Mr. Magoo.  I hope his colleagues misplaced loyalty does not translate into the same disaster federally.

If Federal Labor pull the same collusion with all of the other minor parties and win Federally then we can expect the hordes of Islamic boat people to return in their thousands as Labor and the Greens work to completely wreck Australian society as we know it.

How can one party hope to win with every other party plus the left wing TV, ABC, SBS, Ch 7, 9, 10, the print media (the majority of all newspaper) and radio media (ABC and SBS and now Alan Jones and Clive Palmer) conspiring to bring down elected Governments from the day they are elected?  God help my country.






Queensland election: State wakes to new political landscape

A new political landscape will greet Queensland, with Labor set to take back power after just three years.  Three seats, Mansfield, Maryborough and Whitsunday remained undecided on Saturday night, but Labor was expected to pick up enough to form a majority government.

Even if Labor falls short, it is likely to have support of both Katter Australia Party and independent Peter Wellington in a hung parliament.

It was a result no George Street player had predicted, with even Labor insiders conceding a win was almost impossible at the outset of the campaign.

LNP members quickly dubbed Annastacia Palaszczuk the "accidental Premier", noting that not even federal leader Bill Shorten had expected the Inala MP to pull off what has become a political comeback for the history books.

While the LNP looks back at what went wrong, with many pointing to federal issues, potentially signalling the end of Tony Abbott's prime ministership, Labor, which campaigned on a "no asset sales" and "united Queensland" platform, which was light on policy detail, was looking forward.

"One thing is for sure, we won't be moving into the Executive Building within hours of the result," one source said.

"You may have noticed that she [Ms Palaszczuk] said grace, dignity and humility a bit during the campaign.  I think she is on notice that we will have to follow that.  We've seen what happens."

Given the shock result, cabinet positions are still unsure, with Ms Palaszczuk now bound by her promise to reduce the ministry from 19 to 14 spots.

LNP government decisions will now come under review, potentially placing some projects, like Queen's Wharf, in doubt, but Labor insiders were keen to push that no decisions had been made yet.

State sanctioned ceremonies for same-sex couples are expected to be reinstated, while acting head of the Crime and Corruption Commission, Ken Levy, has been put on notice.

Beyond that, Labor will have to walk a tightrope, between their promise to be economically responsible and maintain the LNP's fiscal spending, and improve frontline services, without off-loading the state's assets.

Having run a campaign on "modest"  campaign promises, many are now wondering how Labor will pull it off, without increasing the state's debt.

They have committed to consolidating the state's power assets with no forced redundancies, something which was investigated under the Bligh Government, but ultimately discarded.

"It's going to be tough and we will be feeling our way forward," one Labor staffer, who didn't want to be named said.

"But I think we all know we have to just keep talking to people. A lot of mistakes were made during the last government that we can learn from."

Ms Palaszczuk, speaking to "true believers" in Richlands, part of a move to take Labor back to its roots, said she wanted to "put the past three years behind us".

"Who would have thought three years ago, we would have been making history tonight," she said.

SOURCE







How Victoria's ALP leader made a road rod for his own back

Stuck with undeliverable policies due to dishonest claims and  promises

If there is one lesson to heed from Tony Abbott's ongoing woes, it is that voters have little tolerance for leaders who say one thing and do the opposite.

Daniel Andrews knows this well. In the lead-up to the Victorian election - as Abbott's unpopularity began to rub off on Denis Napthine's campaign - Andrews would occasionally reflect on the public's intolerance for politicians and broken promises.

If elected, the Labor leader declared, an Andrews government would be different. It would "deliver on each and every one of the commitments we've made". It "would not waste even a single day" in office. And it certainly wouldn't follow the path of the embattled Prime Minister, whose latest missteps appear to have trapped him in a downward spiral of his own making.

"I think Tony Abbott is living through the consequences of breaking your promises and I will never provide that sort of leadership, because it's no leadership at all," Andrews told an audience of 100 undecided voters at a debate in Frankston, days out from November's poll. "That's my commitment, that's my bond and that's your choice."

Two months later, Victoria's new premier and cabinet have made a solid start. But by setting such a high benchmark - presenting as a leader of conviction, whose government could deliver on just about everything - Andrews has created a first-term straitjacket with little room to move. The Coalition, now led by a fired-up Matthew Guy, will no doubt exploit this at every opportunity.

Take Labor's transport policies. When Treasurer Tim Pallas admitted the Metro Rail Link would be difficult to deliver in the current economic environment, the opposition accused the government of backing away from one of its signature election policies.

When figures this week suggested an $180 million discrepancy in the costings of Labor's West Gate Distributor, the opposition claimed Andrews had blown out the price tag and lied about the truck project being "shovel ready".

And when Andrews declared on radio that the federal funding for the East West Link ought to be redirected or "we can't remove 50 dangerous congested level crossings, we can't improve public transport and we can't improve a suite of local roads", the opposition said this proved Victorians were misled about Labor's policies being "fully funded and fully costed".

The problem for Andrews is that not only did he talk a big game during the campaign but, by slaying a one-term government, he also showed what is possible when small-target oppositions relentlessly apply the blowtorch of scrutiny against their adversaries.

Now in office, Labor is starting to feel the heat, with its biggest transport promise - abandoning the East West Link - likely to prove the most challenging.

Andrews can't renege on his word and build the road, because doing so would be political suicide, particularly in the inner city where the Greens have already captured two lower-house seats, Melbourne and Prahran.

He also can't afford to spend too much money paying out the consortium, as this would leave the government exposed to ongoing claims it misled voters by insisting "there will be no compensation paid" beyond the initial costs of tendering and preparing the project.

And he can't even take the extraordinary option of legislating to void the contract without the support of the Greens and micro parties in Parliament's new upper house, where Labor has only 14 out 40 seats.

In other words, the government is in a genuine pickle over a contract it repeatedly claimed "isn't the worth the paper it's written on". Its main option is to negotiate a way out of the deal with minimal pain to taxpayers - but even then, the consortium might want more than the public deems palatable for a non-existent road. How much is too much?

Based on a complex formula written into the contract under the former government, compensation could reportedly be up to $1.1 billion - more than half the $2 billion the state would have spent building the first stage of tunnel. And even if the final settlement turns out to be somewhat less (Arnold Bloch Leibler lawyer Leon Zwier and banker John Wylie have been hired by the government to negotiate a deal) it's still likely to be viewed as an outrageous waste of public funds for a project that won't be built.

Abbott wasn't far off the mark when he described the situation as "insane" but both sides of politics ought to share responsibility for the mess we're in. Labor backflipped on the East West countless times before finally opting to abandon contracts in an attempt to wedge the Coalition before the election. The Napthine Government, buoyed by Canberra's support, charged ahead with little regard for the public's right to know whether the road stacked up. As the business case has since revealed, it struggled to stack up at all.

The former government could reasonably argue it had a right to proceed - after all, the 2013 state budget revealed contracts would be signed by October last year, so the timing was hardly a surprise. But what doesn't wash is the secrecy surrounding the project, the way in which voters were duped by spin, and the appalling "side letter" guaranteeing a hefty payout to the consortium if the contract was cancelled. Given that opinion polls suggested for months that the Coalition was likely to lose the election, you can't help but question the motivation of those who sealed the deal.

But that's partly the point. Melbourne's population is soaring, yet the city's transport needs continue to be thwarted by political bickering, reckless decisions, and under-investment. Labor may have won the election, but broader infrastructure challenges remain, and Andrews will be expected to confront them. After all, he promised a lot - and we all know what can happen to first-term governments that over-promise and under-deliver.

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A leaflet

The following leaflet was put into letterboxes in Prahran, Melbourne.  Very educational, I think:  How to win enemies and fail to influence people.



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A conservative loss in the Queensland State election

A good government will be replaced by a very vague one.   Even ALP governments do at times govern quite conservatively in Qld so we can only hope that some solidity lies behind the very vague undertakings of the Qld. ALP.

The loss is clearly due to Mr Newman not communicating well.  He needed to constantly drum in the huge debt that the previous ALP government had left behind for Queenslanders.  Every time he announced some cutback he should have constantly stressed why.  He did not and now Queensland will pay the price.

The ALP have no program for the budget and have ruled out asset sales so there will have to be even more borrowing.  We will get to the point where more of the state revenue is spent on interest payments than in providing services to Queenslanders.  Fortunately, interest rates on borrowings are very low at the moment but that may not last as the international economy revives






Prince Philip is a great bloke who deserves this knighthood

Prince Phillip was first recognised by ex-Prime Minister Bob Hawke and was not ridiculed.  Our journalists need to do some research so that people are presented with facts

It was with joy that monarchists young and old around the country woke to the news that Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, was named a Knight of the Order of Australia in the Australia Day Honours.

This singular honour is much more than a fancy golden trinket; it is a uniquely Australian way of recognising pre-eminent service to the nation and humanity, and it is only right that Prince Philip, a person who has devoted his life to the service of the Commonwealth and the people of Australia, be honoured in this way.

The Prince has visited these shores 23 times ... criss-crossing the nation and meeting people from all walks of life, his last visit being in 2011 at the age of 90. 

Some republicans and social media obsessives, upset and bewildered at the dwindling support for a republic in Australia, have criticised the fact that a non-resident has been recognised with an Order of Australia. This is absurd. Many incredible people, including Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa, have been recognised for their outstanding contributions to humanity with an Order of Australia, even though they don't call Australia home.

Was it not Bob Hawke, a republican prime minister, who recommended that Prince Philip receive what was then Australia's highest honour? It is rare indeed for anyone to show the level of commitment to service of Prince Philip, and the award announced on Australia Day was entirely appropriate, recognising the service of a great bloke to a great nation.

Duty and service have been the hallmarks of the life of Prince Philip, whose vitality and enthusiasm throughout his long life have helped immeasurably to contribute to the success of the hundreds of charities which have him as their patron in Australia. His passionate commitment to humanitarian endeavours and conservation has won him respect and admiration worldwide.

Prince Philip made his first visit to Australia in the 1940s during World War II while serving in the Royal Navy, and he has made it a regular port of call ever since.

The Prince has visited these shores 23 times (seven of them flying solo), criss-crossing the nation and meeting people from all walks of life, his last visit being in 2011 at the age of 90. He has been central to pivotal events in the life of our nation, including the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the 1962 Perth Commonwealth Games, the opening of the Sydney Opera House in 1973, and the bicentenary in 1988, just to name a few.

Never one to shirk the responsibility of service to the community, Prince Philip founded the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme in 1956 which has helped tens of thousands of young Australians reach their potential and encouraged them to serve their community.

As the husband of the Queen of Australia, Prince Philip has been a constant source of strength and support, and together they have served the people of Australia with dignity, compassion and good humour for more than 62 years. This is one of the reasons why support for a republic remains at record lows (particularly among the young) and why the royal family's popularity is undiminished.

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Strange days indeed for a ridiculed prime minister

TONY Abbott will deliver a make-or-break address at the National Press Club on Monday. It will be the last chance he has to begin any recovery from his self-inflicted wounds before the Liberal Party room meeting on February 9 and the beginning of the parliamentary year

Despite the many sound initiatives and reforms his government has achieved — from stopping the boats to pointing the nation toward economic recovery — he has proved to be a greater danger to his own prime ministership than Bill Shorten, or Clive Palmer, or any other figure from the Labor Party or ranks of the whacky cross-benchers. His decision to bestow a knighthood on Prince Philip, a trivial matter really, has been seen by many as an indication that a character trait that was once dismissed as a somewhat odd but acceptable quirkiness actually reflects an unacceptable dissonance with community sentiment.

Abbott should have been thinking of modern Australia on Australia Day — something he obviously did with the appointment of anti-domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty as Australian of the Year — not about a distinguished but ageing member of the Royal family.

After the ridicule his ­ill-advised reinstatement of knights and dames attracted last March, the disbelief and hostility that greeted the announcement of the Duke’s honour was always going to be magnified.

It was seen as provocative at best, offensive at worst, and lacked any strategic insight. There was no conceivable political gain for Abbott or the Liberal Party.

Nervous Liberal backbenchers are doing the numbers but they cannot decide whether Julie Bishop or Malcolm Turnbull or Scott Morrison hold the key to their future, or even whether the very act of political assassination would in fact be an act of political suicide.

A hardcore of Abbott supporters, including Christopher Pyne and Scott Morrison, believe the situation is not yet irrecoverable. Others are not so certain but hope that the party room meeting will see a resolution and that, over the next nine days, Abbott can radically demonstrate change.

Some of those speaking out are opportunists, some are permanently angry people, none so far has indicated firm support for a chosen successor yet, and the real proxies for possible replacement candidates have not revealed themselves.

Not that the party’s problems can all be sheeted home to Abbott. Treasurer Joe Hockey has also failed to cut through with the critical message that the nation’s economy could not survive another period of Labor government and that unless there is bipartisan support for urgent reform now the economic future of our children and grandchildren is absolutely imperilled.

One thing does appear certain and that is the PM’s chief of staff Peta Credlin is unlikely to be moved (though she could opt to take another position), no matter what Rupert Murdoch, my employer, may wish. Abbott is not of a mind to be seen to be beginning to kowtow to the tweeted comments of any media proprietor, no matter how much he may personally like or respect that person.

Faced with a feral Labor Party, fickle cross-benchers and jumpy colleagues, his challenge is to lay down a clear, coherent agenda that is acceptable to the public — and he must sell it.

He knows he must present strong arguments to his party before advancing any policy and that he must have third party endorsements ready before ideas are rolled out to the public.

He has to convince voters that the blame for ongoing disheartening political stagnation lies with the recalcitrant Labor Party and the intractable senate.

He has to convince his colleagues that he fully understands the gravity of the situation, that he knows that it extends beyond those whose intellect struggles to reach the 140-letter count of the Twittersphere.

He can’t ask his party for forgiveness again if he makes a capricious Captain’s Choice without seeking permission or fails to communicate a policy reversal.

When he speaks to the nation on Monday, he has to admit to the problems and outline his solutions.

He should demonstrate his determination to ensure national security is a main priority, that the Lindt cafe siege and the Paris slaughters have given him even greater resolution to fight Islamism here.

His remarks on the economic outlook, taking into account the falling oil and commodity prices, should be to the ordinary taxpayers and those who rely on those taxpayers for their social security assistance.

He will know within the week of delivering the address whether or not time has run out.

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Prime Minister Tony Abbott to dump Paid Parental Leave Scheme

TONY Abbott’s $20 billion Paid Parental Leave Scheme is expected to be put on ice next week until the budget is back in surplus to help pay for a family package that will focus on boosting childcare.

The move by the PM to effectively jettison one of his signature policies — which has little support among colleagues — comes as several senior Cabinet ministers conceded next week was now regarded as "make or break” for Mr Abbott’s leadership.

With nervous ministers now privately warning the discontent among backbenchers was potentially uncontrollable, a major shift on paid parental leave is regarded as a critical circuit breaker.

"It is that bad,” one minister said. "Next week has to be very good for him, or no one can guarantee what will happen.”

Mr Abbott yesterday insisted he would "absolutely" lead the Coalition to the next election, as he sought to reassert his political authority.

Visiting businesses in Colac, in the marginal Victorian seat of Corangamite, Mr Abbott sought to turn the debate back to the economy, after days of destabilising complaints from colleagues sparked by his decision to award a knighthood to Prince Philip.

He also firmly backed his beleaguered chief of staff Peta Credlin.

"I absolutely accept that there was a bit of dismay over a call I made earlier this week. I understand, but look, others might be distracted by this — I’m not," he said.

"I’m sure if I went into the pub to talk about it, they’d say it was a stuff-up. I’d take that on the chin and then we’d discuss other subjects"

While no serious number-crunching is under way and Mr Abbott’s position is in no immediate danger, a predicted bloodbath in today’s Queensland election for Campbell Newman’s LNP will be partly blamed on him.

Mr Abbott said he was "thrilled" to have strong colleagues like Mr Turnbull and Ms Bishop, who polls have shown are more popular than the PM.

"It’s a very strong team and one of the reasons why so many members of the team are able to perform so well is because they have got a very good captain," he said. "It takes a good captain to help all the players of a team to excel.’

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Did a crooked cop skate?

Ex-Gold Coast police chief Paul Wilson left service with unresolved findings of misconduct against him.  The Gold Coast cops are notoriously corrupt

The former chief of police on the Gold Coast left the Queensland Police Service (QPS) last year with unresolved findings of misconduct against him for inappropriately disclosing confidential police information.

The ABC can reveal Assistant Commissioner Paul Wilson was facing a Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) recommendation for disciplinary action when he left the service in January 2014, with a formal send-off and a Commissioner's Award for Meritorious Service.

The ABC understands he also received a significant severance payout.

Court documents show that three weeks before his departure, the CMC found Mr Wilson had inappropriately disclosed police information, leading to the identification of a Crime Stoppers informant.

The documents, which emerged in civil litigation in the District Court in Brisbane, include a letter from the CMC describing an investigation into allegations Mr Wilson had abused his position as a senior officer to gain an advantage in a bitter family dispute over his mother's estate.

They show other senior QPS officers became involved in an investigation of Mr Wilson's brother Robert after anonymous complaints to Crime Stoppers that Robert Wilson planned to murder his mother to get his hands on her money, and had previously murdered his father.

Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au
Nothing was found to substantiate the allegations against Robert Wilson and he subsequently complained to the CMC about his brother's conduct.

The CMC's acting director of integrity services, Darren Brookes, wrote to Robert Wilson on December 24, 2013 telling him the anti-corruption body had found there was insufficient evidence to warrant the recommendation of any criminal charges against Paul Wilson.

"However, the investigation did find that AC Wilson had inappropriately disclosed information and QPS documents ... resulting in the Crime Stoppers informant being named and identified," Mr Brookes wrote.

According to the letter, the CMC investigation had also found that, based on the available material, Paul Wilson was in breach of procedural guidelines for professional conduct relating to conflicts of interest and rules regarding "improper use of QPS information".

"Therefore, we have recommended to the Queensland Police Service that consideration be given to taking disciplinary action against AC Wilson for misconduct under the Police Service (Discipline) Regulations 1990," the CMC official wrote.

"Accordingly, the CMC has referred the matter to the QPS for that purpose."

The QPS confirmed it received the referral, telling the ABC it was handled by Commissioner Ian Stewart.

By the time the CMC letter was sent, the QPS had already announced Mr Wilson's departure from the service, making this public on December 19.

A QPS spokesman told the ABC it had first learned of the CMC investigation in October 2013.

Asked if the CMC misconduct finding or investigation had had any bearing on the timing or nature of Mr Wilson's departure, the spokesman said: "Any response impinges on the privacy of Mr Wilson."

The QPS declined to reveal details of any severance payment to Mr Wilson.

Wilson siblings in long-running dispute over mother's estate

The CMC letter is attached to an affidavit filed by Robert Wilson in a long-running dispute with his brother Paul and sister Joan Clifford over the estate of their mother, Kathleen Wilson, who died in April 2014.

The documents include police memos and Crime Stoppers logs that originated in an earlier case relating to the mother's competency in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT).

Paul Wilson had filed in QCAT logs of six Crime Stoppers calls in which a confidential informant had claimed Robert Wilson planned to murder his mother in order to defraud her estate.

The memos show Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett had briefed the then head of the QPS Organised Crime Group, Detective Superintendent John Sheppard, about the allegations against Robert Wilson in January 2012.

Detective Superintendent Sheppard wrote in a May, 2012 memo to Assistant Commissioner Mike Condon - head of State Crime Operations Command - that he had uncovered the identity of the Crime Stoppers informant and interviewed him.

He found the informant "was not aware of any specific act or incident that could be interpreted as (Robert Wilson) threatening or committing violence towards his mother".

"He offered no direct evidence of any offence that may have been committed," the detective wrote.

Detective Superintendent Sheppard wrote that he had then briefed Paul Wilson.

"He was appreciative of what had been done to that point. He also accepted the difficulties that the criminal investigation into his brother's actions was facing," he wrote.

Detective Superintendent Sheppard told Assistant Commissioner Condon that he had discussed the matter with the head of the fraud squad, Detective Superintendent Brian Hay, and recommended the file be passed to him.

The Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) told the ABC its predecessor, the CMC, had written to the QPS on January 8, 2014 "to report on the outcome of the investigation and to recommend the consideration of disciplinary action against Assistant Commissioner Wilson and the provision of managerial guidance to two other officers".

A spokesman for the CCC said it would be inappropriate to name the other officers.

"Disciplinary action is the responsibility of the QPS," the spokesman said, adding that the timing of Mr Wilson's departure from the QPS was "a matter for Mr Wilson and the QPS".

Robert Wilson fails in bid to block eviction order

Robert Wilson was his mother's carer prior to her death and had been living in her house in the Brisbane suburb of Tarragindi for the past three years.

Last week, he failed in the District Court to block an eviction order in favour of Paul Wilson and Ms Clifford and left the house on Thursday.

As the eviction deadline passed, the ABC witnessed Paul Wilson - accompanied by a crew of removalists - greet police officers who were checking the building had been vacated.

Paul Wilson chairs the Brisbane Central committee of Crime Stoppers and was a director of Crime Stoppers between 2005 and 2007. He is also a director of the Police Credit Union.

He began his career in the QPS in 1974, working as a senior detective in the Whitsundays and as the divisional commander in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane before taking the reins on the Gold Coast, where he was responsible for 1,400 sworn officers.

His last posting was to the Police Academy, from where he was given a send-off at which Commissioner Stewart presented him with a Commissioner's Award for Meritorious Service.

The QPS said such medals were at the discretion of the Commissioner.

Mr Wilson's website, paulwilsonconsulting.com.au describes him as "one of the truly great leaders ... a hypnotic storyteller and enthralling voice on modern leadership".

Mr Wilson did not respond to emails and calls from the ABC.

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