Australian Politics
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
Calls for 'class quotas' in Young Labor to bolster party's blue-collar ranks
What an air-headed proposal! How would it work? Are they going to get working class kids by the collar and drag them along to Labor party meetings?
That most young Labor members are kids from affluent families going to elite universities, means that it is hard to see how anything could change. The plain fact is that conservative parties now have most appeal to the workers. That is particularly seen in the USA where Trump mopped up most of the working class vote
Youthful inexperience still does ensure that most young people do vote Leftist but it is unlikely that that tendency will flow through to party membership. The cultural climate in meetings dominated by rich kids would leave most working class kids very uncomfortable
Labor must fill its ranks with more working-class young Australians and TAFE students to help it reconnect with suburban and blue-collar voters, the head of an ALP-aligned think-tank says, proposing a major overhaul of the party's youth wing ahead of the next election.
The federal opposition has been plagued by infighting during the past 18 months over attempts to turn around its electoral fortunes following three successive poll defeats and to balance its climate change credentials with attempts to win back its traditional base.
Nick Dyrenfurth - executive director of the John Curtin Research Centre - says the party should introduce new quotas for Young Labor (representing ALP members aged between 15 and 26) to recruit and retain more non-university students into its ranks.
Dr Dyrenfurth, who was the ALP's national policy forum secretary between 2016 and 2019, said there had been no effort to recruit "actual working people" such as tradies, assembly-line workers, train drivers, cleaners, retail employees or plumbers into the party's membership.
He said the narrowness of the party's membership had contributed to the cultural problems and electoral weakness at the federal level.
"Labor was once a working-class party that needed middle-class votes to win elections; it has since become a university-educated, socially-liberal, white-collar party that needs blue-collar, non-tertiary educated, precariously employed votes to win," Dr Dyrenfurth writes in The Tocsin, the centre's quarterly publication.
Young Labor draw upwards of 95 per cent of its members from university campuses, mainly from the top-ranking institutions he writes, and not from the 72 per cent of non-tertiary degree holding Australians.
Dr Dyrenfurth wants a Young Labor membership ratio of one-third university students, one-third TAFE and vocational students and one-third young workers not studying by 2022.
"Such an approach would bolster the role of Labor's affiliated trade unions, which currently shoulder the load in keeping the party connected to its working-class base but find themselves all too often ignored by an arrogant parliamentary wing," he writes.
"Too many Labor MPs and especially its young activists look and sound the same as their ostensible Greens rivals: university-educated, socially liberal and likely non-religious or atheist, and destined for white-collar, higher-income secure work, living in the inner-cities."
Former Labor minister Craig Emerson, who now chairs the ALP-aligned McKell Institute, backed Dr Dyrenfurth's idea but with some reservations.
"The idea of getting more young people from working class backgrounds is fine and quotas have been effective in the past, especially in relation to getting more women into Parliament," he said.
"But I don't think that it's a good idea to tell university students they are [worth less] ... A lot of university students come from working class backgrounds. There are a lot of first-in-family university graduates and I wouldn't want to be signalling to working-class kids who want to go to university they are less valuable [to Labor] for doing so."
Emma Dawson, executive director of progressive think tank Per Capita, said she agreed with the aim of broadening the party's membership but quotas were not the way to get there.
"It's really important the Labor Party remains a labour party, but you can't coerce people into joining a political party," she said.
"The key thing is to devolve some of that decision making and some of that gatekeeping and listen more responsively to what people need, and that's different in different parts of the country."
Long-time frontbench MP Joel Fitzgibbon quit shadow cabinet this week after 18 months of disagreement over climate and energy policy, which he said had alienated its blue-collar constituency and cost it millions of votes outside capital cities.
He said the party had provided too much focus on progressive issues while ignoring its traditional base and the policies that working people need to "help them meet their aspirations and the aspirations for their families".
Labor's post election review found the party had moved to address political grievances of a vast and disparate constituency during its time in opposition and warned working people experiencing economic dislocation would lose faith if they do not believe the party was responding to their needs.
Low-income workers swung against Labor at the May 2019 election with the review finding its ambiguous language on the Adani Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland, combined with anti-coal rhetoric, devastated its support in the coal mining communities of regional Queensland and the Hunter Valley.
But it found higher-income urban Australians concerned about climate change swung to Labor, despite the effect Labor’s tax policies on negative gearing and franking credits might have had on them.
Labor's assistant climate change spokesman Pat Conroy said on Friday the party could only govern when it unites it two bases of working class Australians university educated, progressive voters. "We're at our best when we represent both of those groups," he said.
Newly elected Perth mayor and Channel Seven star Basil Zempilas doubles down on his radical plan to 'forcibly remove' homeless people from the CBD
Newly-elected Perth mayor Basil Zempilas has spoken out about his radical plan for a 'safer, cleaner, friendlier city' ahead of his swearing-in on Monday.
The high-profile Weekend Sunrise sports presenter and former Channel Seven host was voted in as Lord Mayor of the city on Saturday night.
The father-of-three sparked outrage early in his campaign when he said he'd 'forcibly remove' homeless people from the CBD, calling them a 'blight' on the city.
Despite backtracking during the campaign, Mr Zempilas on Sunday doubled-down, saying dealing with the homeless was a 'huge issue' for ratepayers and visitors to Perth, and vowing to bring up the topic with the State Government.
'My view is, the situation at the moment, it's not fair on the individuals themselves and it's not fair on the City of Perth and we need to find better interim solutions for those people who are homeless,' Mr Zempilas told The West Australian.
He also revealed he will work with Queensland based organisation Beddown, who turn carparks into temporary shelters for the homeless.
'They take empty or unused spaces ... They roll out bedding ... and instead of people sleeping on the streets, they sleep in a safer environment where they can get a good night's sleep and get some extra support,' he said.
On what he wants to achieve in his three years as Perth's leader, Mr Zempilas said he wanted to fix the issues which were keeping people away from the city.
'I just want people to feel like it's a more welcoming environment. And right now, there are a number of reasons why people don't necessarily come into the city to either work, to shop, or to live.'
Other priorities mentioned on Sunday where Premier Mark McGowan's hard border policy in response to the coronavirus pandemic, in which Western Australia remains closed to eastern states.
He said he wants to see the borders open as soon as possible, adding that a wider number of compassionate cases could be looked at first.
A tactic of softening of the hard border stance on a number of smaller cases and seeing how that goes is the position he said he would like McGowan to take.
Industry experts have previously said Perth CBD businesses and hotels have collectively lost hundreds of millions in revenue courtesy of the border closure.
He also said factionalism in the local government, an issue which contributed to the previous council being dissolved in 2018, would be addressed.
Mr Zempilas said he expected each newly voted in councillor to abide by their own decision-making and ideas rather than voting for political reasons.
He is expected to continue to juggle his media roles along with his duties as Mayor.
He presents the sports segment on Seven News Perth, writes as a columnist for the 'West Australian' and leads Channel Seven's AFL and Olympics commentary.
He also co-hosts the 6PR Breakfast Show with Steve Mills, but will step down from his role at the end of this year.
On Saturday, he narrowly beat former ABC journalist Di Bain by securing 29.4 per cent of the vote.
Mr Zempilas was behind for most of the count but enjoyed a last-minute surge in support, edging ahead of Ms Bain who finished with 24.94 per cent of the vote.
It marks the first time in two years that voters have elected members of the council after it was suspended in March 2018.
A government inquiry was launched at the time and found 'greed, incompetence and mismanagement' was practiced by a number of councillors.
Mr Zempilas called the latest election a brand new beginning for the City of Perth.
'This is a great opportunity for everyone, and it's a great opportunity for the City of Perth to have the fresh start that it has so desperately been looking for,' he said.
'Everything we do from this point on is for the ratepayers and for the residents of the City of Perth. That's who we are here for and that's who we are here to serve.
Covid rewrites Australia’s future, with huge drop in population signalling challenges ahead
Population growth of 600,000 fewer people in 2022 a sign of major changes for all aspects of life, Deloitte reports
The pandemic has created Australia’s “sliding doors” moment, with the nation now facing a smaller and older population shift, forever altering the future that may have been.
The decision to shut Australia’s borders, made out of necessity to prevent Covid-19 spreading, has pulled the country into a new reality where lower rates of population growth will affect everything from the number of schools that states build to the rate of infrastructure investment, economic consultancy Deloitte Access Economics has found.
“The arc of our nation’s history is bending before our very eyes – a smaller and older Australia awaits us,” Deloitte’s latest quarterly business outlook has reported.
“That isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s definitely big. It will reshape the nation’s future in a bunch of ways.”
The international border closure has meant Australia’s population growth statistics, which are used to plan future infrastructure, communities and spending, have been thrown completely off course, with Deloitte forecasting the nation’s population will grow by at least 600,000 fewer people than had previously been estimated for 2022.
Australia has relied on population growth – mostly through migration – to shore up economic growth for the past three decades. Deloitte is not alone in its predictions – the Treasury, based on an assumption the international border would reopen by late 2021, predicted Australia would have 1 million fewer people than anticipated in two years time.
That not only means changes to infrastructure and growth plans – it also cuts down on the amount of revenue governments across the country had anticipated on receiving, putting increased pressure on already stressed red-line budgets.
“If demographics is destiny, then our destiny just got a lot more challenging,” Deloitte said.
“That loss of migrants will have impacts for many years; it weighs on the pace of recovery, slowing everything from housing construction to the utilities. And, combined with a slumping birthrate, it will change the outlook for school numbers.”
And it’s not just spending. Australia’s existing population includes about five million baby boomers. Younger migrants of working age have traditionally been used to boost the workforce as the older generation retires. Deloitte forecasts the absence of migrants from the labour force will “cut into longer-term growth relatively more than just the overall slowing in growth might suggest”. Deloitte predicts Australia’s net migration arrivals will shrink by 20,000 in the 2020-21 financial year and only increase by 20,000 the next.
And that, the analysts say, is the best-case scenario, based on predictions the rest of the world, not just Australia, will have a handle on the coronavirus sometime in the next year.
“While the risk that countries around the world will shut their borders for an extended period of time seems to have eased somewhat, we can’t ignore the risk that further waves of the pandemic here or overseas will slow that process, and that net migration rates could remain suppressed for more than the two or three years that we currently expect,” Deloitte said.
Combined with a slump in the domestic fertility rate (a downward trend Treasury predicts will continue for the next decade), Australia is looking at a substantially older population than was forecast just a year ago. The substantial drop in migration will further compound Australia’s birthrate – fewer migrants also means fewer mothers giving birth.
“That’s two-thirds of a million missing Australians,” the analysts said.
“The coronavirus will leave behind a huge hangover – we see an Australian economy permanently be more than 3% smaller than our pre-Covid forecasts, mostly as closed borders mean our population will be similarly smaller.”
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported Australia’s population was 25,649,985 at the end of March, with 61.8% of the annual growth rate (357,000 people) due to net overseas migration.
Australia had previously been forecast to hit 30 million people by 2029.
BoQ to expand branch network bucking trend of larger rivals
BANK of Queensland plans to expand its branch network by almost 20 per cent as the same time as its cross-town rival Suncorp shutters scores of outlets.
BoQ, which on Wednesday announced a better-than-expected annual profit, said it had ambitions to open about 30 branches across the country as it built on its successful owner-manager model.
Brisbane-based BoQ currently has about 165 branches, including 98 in Queensland, making its network considerably bigger than larger competitor Suncorp. Suncorp last month announced it would close 20 branches, leaving it with 93 stores.
BoQ chief executive George Frazis said that while the bank’s digital initiatives were proceeding, physical branches remained vital. Many of BoQ’s branches are owned and operated by its managers.
“Our branch network is a key point of difference for us and that is why we are looking at growing,” said Mr Frazis. “Our owner managers are small business people who are well connected with the community and passionate about what they do.”
BoQ will resume paying dividends after a COVID-19 deferral, shrugging off a sharp decline in annual profit as it prepares for higher loan losses.
The bank declared a full-year dividend of 12c per share, reflecting 6c for each half. Against the backdrop of the pandemic and strict regulatory guidance, the payment reflects a 81.5 per cent cut on 2019 dividends, which totalled 65 cents per share.
Cash net profit tumbled 30 per cent to $225m for the 12 months ended August 31, compared to the prior corresponding year.
About 21,000 of the bank’s customers have claimed loan repayment deferrals during COVID-19 but that number was declining.
Mr Frazis said the Queensland economy was well placed to recover from the pandemic shutdown with positve signs already seen in some sectors such as health care.
“We have a large exposure in the medical profession and a lot our Queensland customers are back to pre COVID levels,” he said.
BoQ’s result beat analysts’ expectations, which were for BoQ’s annual profit to print at $213.5m.
Sausage sizzles back at Bunnings stores around NSW today
Good news. I like Bunnings' sausages myself
Not everything is back to normal yet — but the prospect of a snag in the sun is a step in the right direction, with Bunnings’ iconic sausage sizzles returning.
The hardware chain suspended most barbecues outside stores in March as the coronavirus pandemic hit Australia. Over the past few weeks, the barbecues have been cautiously rolled out across stores in the ACT.
Saturday’s snag comeback means customers at about 40 stores across NSW will be able to enjoy a sausage and support a community group or charity.
Bunnings chief operating officer Deb Poole said stores hosting barbecues this weekend included Padstow, Alexandria and Blacktown in Sydney, as well as Wollongong, Albury and Orange.
Ms Poole has previously said 130 community groups were lined up for the first weekend in NSW, including community fundraisers for the Lions Club, the Rotary and various sports clubs
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Monday, October 19, 2020
NSW Liberals back down on koalas
After a bruising political battle that saw Gladys Berejiklian impose her authority over state Nationals, NSW Liberals have quietly backed down, supporting a bill to weaken planned reforms designed to protect koalas on privately-owned farmland.
Simmering tensions between the coalition partners exploded in September when Nationals MPs complained new laws to protect koalas after the bushfires introduced by Liberal MP and Planning Minister Rob Stokes would cut the value of farm land.
Mr Stokes had argued the new Koala State Environment Planning Policy (SEPP) and its expanded definition of habitat was needed to prevent koalas becoming extinct. He said it responded to warnings from the NSW Audit Office, Natural Resources Commission and an Upper House Inquiry - which said NSW's koala would be wiped out by 2030 without urgent action to increase protections.
But by September NSW Nationals Leader John Barilaro had threatened to withdraw his party from the Coalition unless the laws were changed. He said the koala SEPP was a "noose around the neck of farmers that will cause a slow and painful death".
At that time, Mr Stokes dismissed Mr Barilaro's claims as "mistruths" and argued farmers could still "engage in any routine agricultural practice".
Premier Gladys Berejiklian stood firm and threatened to sack Nationals Cabinet Ministers unless they supported the policy. Mr Barilaro backed down and Liberals hailed it as a victory over the bombastic Mr Barilaro.
But this week the Nationals introduced the Local Land Services Amendment Bill to Parliament, supported by the Liberals, which will exempt private rural landholders from having to recognise the new, expanded definition of koala habitat.
Environmental Defenders Office head of law reform Rachel Walmsley said the changes would prevent expansion of koala habitat protection on private farmland into the future.
"This bill is trying to freeze in time the small areas that are currently mapped, whereas it's clear from the science we need to protect more habitat," Ms Walmsley said.
Nationals MP and Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall spruiked the proposed changes on Thursday this week.
"There is already a strong framework in place to regulate agricultural land in NSW and what this legislation does is ensure farmers continue to be regulated under that framework – rather than the planning system," Mr Marshall said.
Mr Stokes said on Friday he was "pleased to say we have hit the mark" and the Nationals' bill showed there are "often important robust and passionate discussions as part of the decision-making process".
The current Koala SEPP is limited in its impact on farmers and mostly only affects significant property developments that require local council approval. Land clearing and routine agricultural activities are still permitted on farmland.
Significantly, protections only kick in if a local government has developed a Koala Plan of Management. But removing koala habitat isn't barred, rather the developer is required to get an expert ecological assessment.
The Nationals' amendment bill kicks in where local governments develop a koala plan of management.
There are only five local governments with plans of management mapping koala habitat in place - on the NSW North Coast - and they would be unaffected by the proposed changes.
But if any local government develops one in the future, the bill guarantees private rural landholders are exempt and the protections could only apply to public or peri-urban land.
Independent MLC Justin Field said he was "disappointed that the Liberal Party has given in to yet more anti-environment brinkmanship from the Nationals".
Free COVID-19 mental health clinics seeing 'amazing results'
No surprise that the greatest need is in Victoria
Clare Groves, who runs a COVID-19 mental health clinic in Brunswick East - one of the 15 rapidly set up with $26.9 million in Commonwealth funding last month - said she was already seeing "amazing results" in patients who would otherwise end up being admitted to psychiatric wards.
"Previously, the only gap-free care available was as a hospital inpatient, and that's not what's best for people to recover," she said.
The Head to Help COVID-19 mental health clinics opened their doors on September 14, a month after Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced they would be set up under one-year contracts in response to a spike in calls to crisis telephone lines and hospital presentations for self harm.
The speed of the roll-out contrasts with the eight adult mental health centres announced in the 2019-20 federal budget, which are not due to open their doors until next year. Under the $114.5 million plan, one of the centres will be located in each state or territory, including Corio in Victoria and Penrith in NSW.
A spokesman for federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said the data indicates "prolonged restrictions are having a disproportionate effect on people in Victoria" compared to elsewhere and the 15 clinics "were rolled out to ensure that additional community-based support is available to assist Victorians during this challenging time".
The spokesman credited the work of Professor Pat McGorry and other experts for developing the service model for the adult mental health centres, which allowed for the rapid establishment of the Victorian clinics.
Ms Groves said she was given the contract to deliver the Brunswick East service after pioneering the "holistic" model over the past seven years with patients who received treatment under no-gap schemes funded by health insurers and WorkSafe.
"Our data shows we decrease hospital admissions by over 90 per cent," she said.
Patients are given a comprehensive treatment plan to be delivered by a team of experts - psychiatrists and psychologists along with social workers, nurses and occupational therapists trained in mental health - to help address the complex circumstances that may be implicated in their mental illness.
The clinic accepts patients who are triaged through the Head to Help telephone referral service, staffed by intake clinicians who establish whether a person needs to be referred to an acute service in a hospital or could simply be referred for counselling.
Head to Help picks up those who do not fall into either category, often described as the "missing middle" of mental healthcare.
Head to Help intake clinician Belinda Lazarides said she had taken calls from many Victorians who lacked an ability to "navigate the mental health system" and would otherwise "fall through the gaps".
In one case, a man who called for a referral to a financial counselling service was given more significant help after she established that he had overdosed the night before and had family and relationship difficulties.
Anti-vaxxers don’t deserve to be on ballot: Frecklington
LNP leader Deb Frecklington has lashed anti-vaxxer candidates, saying they do not deserve to be on the ballot paper.
The criticism follows the LNP’s move to preference a renowned anti-vaxxer party below Labor after originally saying it would put the ALP at the bottom of the ballot in all electorates.
Ms Frecklington said she was unashamed about putting anyone who risks the safety and health of children last. “They don’t deserve to be on the ballot paper,” she said.
Ms Frecklington had committed to preferencing Labor last due to the Palaszczuk Government’s uncertainty around approvals for an expansion of the New Acland coalmine on the Darling Downs, but left wriggle room, saying a final decision would be made after candidates had been finalised.
An LNP spokesman told The Courier-Mail the party had made an exception to put the IMOP party below Labor because it fundamentally disagreed with its position on vaccines
New NSW schools policy will make it harder for difficult children to be suspended
Parents, teachers and principals have joined forces to fight a proposal that would reduce the length of school suspensions, arguing it would weaken schools’ ability to deal with violent students and blur standards of acceptable behaviour.
Frank Potter, an executive director at the NSW Department of Education, was questioned about the department's draft suspension policy at the Disability Royal Commission's public hearing into inclusive education, which began on Monday.
He said an increased number of students with various degrees of disability were attending the state's schools and more funding was being allocated to them. "It's appropriate that decisions, [and] policies that might have been in place before, are reviewed to the context of the day," he said.
The commission heard the case of five-year-old Sam, who had been suspended seven times in his first 13 months of school. "I can't comment on how appropriate that would be within that context," Mr Potter said. He said Sam would not have been suspended under the new draft policy.
"There is discretion [in the draft policy] and there are opportunities for schools to put in place other strategies rather than resorting to suspension," he said.
Under the present policy, schools must suspend students who are physically violent, regardless of the student's intent.
Junior counsel assisting the commission Elizabeth Bennett asked whether accidental conduct that resulted in serious physical harm would mean a student must be suspended.
"If there was serious harm or impact, yes, I think that's what it would be. That would be my view rightly or wrongly," Mr Potter said.
"Do you see any potential for the policy to operate in a way that disproportionately impacts on students with a disability when understood that way?" Ms Bennett asked. Mr Potter replied "yes".
"Do you think it's right that a policy of the NSW department disproportionately affects children with a disability?" Ms Bennett then asked.
"No policy should have an unintended consequence and therefore it needs to be reviewed," Mr Potter said.
The proposed new strategy would cut the maximum school suspension from 20 to 10 days, and students from kindergarten to year 2 could only be sent home for serious physical violence, and for no longer than five days.
Disability advocates support plans that make it harder for schools to order young children home for bad behaviour or repeated disobedience, but principals have called the rules impractical.
At present, principals must make reasonable adjustments for a student before they are suspended.
Under questioning, Mr Potter said there was no documentation outlining what reasonable adjustments entailed. "My expectation [is] that professional people in schools would clearly understand what was required in order to be in place to support students with disabilities," he said.
"The principal has ultimate responsibility to make a decision."
Ms Bennett asked whether one school principal could take a particularly broad approach of what constitutes a reasonable adjustment, while another might take a narrow approach. "Wouldn't a student with a disability face a radically different experience at those two schools?" she asked.
"That would be possible," Mr Potter said. "I think we do our best with challenges that are before us and the ways in which schools respond to those challenges may well be different, depending on experience and understanding."
Consultation on the draft policy closed on Sunday. The NSW Teachers Federation, the P&C Federation, and primary and secondary principals groups have said schools needed more specialist staff and early intervention to stop unaddressed student needs turning into poor behaviour.
Mr Potter said recommendations from the Ombudsman and royal commission would "also help inform taking that strategy forward, in terms of its development".
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Sunday, October 18, 2020
Peter Gleeson: It’s like we’re in a hostage situation
This column is deadly serious. It is not a parody.
Much has been said and written about the enormous emotional and psychological toll being exacted upon communities around Australia in the grip of this terrible pandemic.
People’s lives have been turned upside down and the mental health impact is just starting to hit home as people reel from months of being cooped up and losing their jobs.
But a strange and mystifying phenomenon is playing out before our very eyes, particularly in Victoria. but every state and territory, to varying degrees, has fallen under this spell.
The kindest psychological analysis is that Australia is in the grip of a real life Stockholm Syndrome scenario. The unkind analysis is that many people have fallen for the Svengali ways of governments that rule best through fear.
How can it otherwise be that in, for example, Victoria, you have a State Government that continues to enjoy strong public approval ratings, yet it has botched a global pandemic so badly that hundreds of deaths can be sheeted home to poor public policy?
In Victoria, you’ve got a government that has seen the demise of its Health Minister Jenny Mikakos and its most senior public servant, Chris Eccles, because of its poor handling of coronavirus, yet the person who is accountable above everyone else, Premier, Daniel Andrews, remains?
Is it brutal to suggest that anybody who still supports Daniel Andrews as premier of Victoria needs to take a look in the mirror?
Of all the KPIs we ask of our politicians, keeping us safe has got to be right up there. The hardened Trotyskites can’t be saved, but surely the average, well educated, free-thinking Victorians must have a slight question mark over this mob?
Stockholm Syndrome is defined as a psychological response. It occurs when hostages or abuse victims bond with their captors or abusers. This psychological connection develops over the course of the days, weeks, months or even years of captivity or abuse.
Psychologists say the victims start to develop positive feelings towards their captors, as they share common goals and causes.
In these most challenging of times, we as a nation have looked to our leaders for support, comfort, reassurance.
The real day of reckoning for our leaders will not come this week, or next month, or even in the first half of 2021.
It will come when the health narrative is replaced by the economic fallout, when JobKeeper ends and the insolvency rates skyrocket among small business. Only then will people start to realise that this was more than keeping us safe from the virus.
Sky News host Paul Murray says rising support for the Victorian government’s handling of the virus from Victorians shows Stockholm’s syndrome is clearly very powerful and is deeply felt “in the communist republic at the moment.”
Real leadership – and Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian are the standouts – is about protecting people’s health, keeping them employed and making sure they have the mental resilience to get on with life.
It’s about making the right call on borders and exemptions, showing compassion and empathy at a time when people are at their most vulnerable.
It’s not about favouring the rich and famous over the average Joe. It’s about releasing the medical advice, so that people can understand decisions.
It’s about showing dignity and compassion to those who have lost loved ones. It’s about doing the right thing by its people, not knee-jerk reactions based on polling.
My theory is that our daily diet of sombre statistics and mealy-mouthed spin has anaesthetised Australians to the real issue right now – how we recover and try to get life back to a semblance of normality. While people remain in their own homes, subjected to strict lockdowns and travel restrictions, their only true north is hope.
People desperately want a lifeline and light at the end of the tunnel. The jingoism and state parochialism must end.
Scott Morrison tried to unite us in the fight against this pandemic but the state and territory leaders gave him the middle finger.
People want to believe this thing will be over soon. Even if it means falling in love with the very people that put them there.
Aussie gamblers are betting millions on US President Donald Trump being re-elected
Aussie punters are staking millions in Hail-Mary bets on Donald Trump’s re-election, ignoring polling numbers in the hopes that election history “will repeat itself”.
Trump – the presidential dark horse – yesterday sat as a $2.80 underdog in Ladbrokes Australia’s election stakes after being outperformed by Joe Biden in all key swing seats in the latest polls.
Still, the betting agency is holding around $3.5 million in bets for the incumbent president and “can barely write a bet for Biden”, the $1.40 favourite.
“It has been one-way traffic since Biden was declared as the Democratic Party nominee, and in the past few weeks it has really intensified,” Ladbrokes Australia CEO Dean Shannon said.
“As it stands Trump is a far worse result for us than anything that will run in the Melbourne Cup the day before.
Figures show that in the head-to-head market alone, Ladbrokes is holding eight times more bets on Trump than Biden.
That includes a $100,000 bet from one ambitious punter for Trump’s re-election as well as a series of other bets between $2,000 and $20,000.
Mr Shannon said the Australia betting interest in the presidential election was “baffling”, with Ladbrokes recording 20 times the number of bets on the US election compared to what was held for the entire Queensland election.
It follows a similar trend four years ago from punters who collected huge payouts when Trump, the underdog, usurped rival Hillary Clinton.
“The money was right then and there are plenty of Ladbrokes punters who believe history is about to repeat.”
Minor Australian bank BANS customers from using credit cards on any gambling services including Sportsbet and pokies - sparking backlash as critics ask whether McDonald's will be next
A bank has banned its customers from using credit cards on any gaming or gambling services, sparking backlash from customers who claim McDonald's will be next for selling unhealthy food.
Bank Australia has informed its customers they will not be allowed to make any gaming transactions on their credit cards from December 1.
'Effective from 1 December 2020 we are blocking all gambling and gaming transactions on credit cards,' the 'responsible' bank wrote to customers.
Chief executive of the Australasian Association of Convenience Stores, Jeff Rogut, told the Courier Mail the bank should not be controlling how customer's behave.
'I don't think the companies that are offering the service should decide where consumers are spending their money,' Mr Rogut said.
He said the bank could 'take it to another extreme' by not processing payments for alcohol, tobacco or lottery tickets.
Director at The Centre for Independent Studies, Peter Kurti, said it was 'odd' that a bank would dictate these 'moral decisions'.
'What's next? If you go to Dan Murphys or McDonalds and make four trips in a week is the bank going to say "no it's bad for you"?' Mr Kurti said.
Mr Kurti said if his bank 'did this to him' he would be frustrated and immediately cancel his credit card.
Bank Australia is customer-owned, meaning there are no external shareholders.
'We return our profits to our customers through pursuing our purpose of doing good for people and the planet as well as offering competitive and fair rates, fees and services,' the website reads.
A Bank Australia spokesperson said any money loaned from savings and deposits by customers needs to be used responsibly.
'As part of our commitment to responsible banking we want to make sure that the money we lend is used in ways that minimise potential harm to our customers and others,' he said.
The spokesperson said the bank does not think gambling with funds that are borrowed from other customers is responsible.
He said a 'majority' of the bank's' 165,000 customers supported the new changes.
Customers are still allowed to make gaming and gambling payments on their debit cards.
Australia claims some victories against fire ants
It's the fire ant's ability to move that makes it so hard to get rid of. Fire ants can fly up to 5 kilometres, hitchhike on human transport and float or 'raft' on water.
The dreaded fire ant has been in Australia since 2001, entering the country via a cargo ship at the Port of Brisbane in Queensland.
Since then, the National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program, funded by all state and territory governments and the Federal Government, has been working on a strategy to eradicate the pest from the country.
Graeme Dudgeon, the program's general manager, said they had made inroads in getting rid of the ants from Australia.
"We have eradicated fire ants six times and we've eradicated fire ants in what is the largest eradication of any invasive ant species in the world," he said.
Ross Wylie, the eradication program's science leader, said the "super pest" ants could do large amounts of damage to the environment, crops and wildlife.
It is their propensity to ruin everything they come into contact with that makes fire ants such a threat to agriculture and Australia's way of life.
"Generally when you get pests, they affect one crop or another crop or they affect health or the environment," Dr Wylie said.
"This thing affects everything, so it attacks more than 52 different agricultural crops. It affects the environment, it affects human health, it affects lifestyle, so it's a super pest.
"The biggest problem they give us is that they've got three different ways of moving."
Mr Dudgeon said eradication was the only option for Australia.
"So the countries where they haven't eradicated, it's costing them many billions of dollars — it impacts people's lifestyles," he said.
"They can't have picnics; I've seen photos of people walking around their backyards with buckets on their feet.
"They cause problems with agriculture and they kill people."
Although there have been no reported deaths in Australia, the bites are severe and can cause hives, swelling of the face, eyes or throat, and nausea.
National program has six years to go
The National Red Imported Fire Ant Eradication Program was reviewed in 2016, and embarked on a new strategy the following year.
Four years into the 10-year program, Mr Dudgeon said it was unclear how successful it had been.
"We've put eradication treatments on over 30 per cent of the area and we're currently doing surveillance to work out how effective that has been," he said.
The $400 million program includes helicopters that aerial spray and capture thermal wavelength images, dog detection, and genetic tracing.
"Every single fire ant specimen we've got since 2001 we do genetics on," Dr Wylie said. "We use that to tell us relationships, so we can tell which is the mother nest, which is the daughter nest."
Dr Wylie said the genetic testing could help them understand how far the ants had flown or travelled in a different manner. "If we think it's a movement of product, our compliance officers would use that sort of information, so it's very, very valuable," he said.
Regulations tough on industry
And while industry groups agree that eradication is the best policy, some question the regulations that have followed.
Ian Atkinson, chief executive of Nursery and Garden Industry Queensland, thinks the regulations need to be reassessed.
"We believe that the risks that we pose in terms of moving particularly pregnant queen ants is virtually non-existent," he said. "We have no evidence in Australia of the movement of pregnant queens by containerised nursery stock."
Queensland rural organisation AgForce also wants the program to succeed but is doubtful if an eradication strategy can work.
"A lot of our producers are concerned that this pest, which has never been eradicated from another country, might beat them," policy officer Marie Vitelli said.
Another issue for AgForce's members is education. "We have lots of landholders not connected to social media or not subscribing to the biosecurity updates," Ms Vitelli said. "I'm not sure how they are getting told that fire ants are in the areas."
South East Queensland Hay producer James Radke agrees. He lives outside the eradication zone.
When fire ants were discovered on his property, Mr Radke did not know that he should have had a chemical barrier around his shed, where up to 3,000 bales of barley were stored.
Mr Radke felt it was up to him to notify and educate his neighbours on compliance and regulations. "There's probably been about seven to eight farms that have been basically word of mouth from myself, so now they have implemented the chemical treatments as well," he said.
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Friday, October 16, 2020
Houses in good school zones sell in a flash
This is a case of a virtuous circle. Success feeds on success. Schools that already have good students and teachers attract parents who are very concerned about that and have the money to buy in to a place where their children will be well treated.
And because the school is a good one, that will push prices up in its area as so many people want in.
And a school with well-off parents will generally mean that the parents will be of higher IQ -- and high IQ parents tend to have high IQ kids, So that will keep the school results and standards up -- thus making the school and its area ever more attractive
Parents desperate to get their kids into a good public school have taken to sleeping in swags overnight in the hope of landing a coveted spot.
But it has never been cheaper to buy a house inside a sought-after catchment zone thanks to low interest rates, government incentives and flat house prices.
However competition is fierce, with one house in a sought-after catchment zone going under contract in less than 24 hours.
On Tuesday night, about a dozen parents camped outside the gates of Pimlico State High School, one of Townsville’s top performing schools.
The school, like many other top state schools in the city, is the subject of an Enrolment Management Plan (EMP), meaning the number of students accepted from outside of its catchment area is strictly capped.
Students living within the catchment zone are automatically guaranteed a place at the school.
A five bedroom fixer upper at 35 Latchford St was listed on a Thursday and under contract the following day, snapped up by a family with young children.
To put that in perspective, the median days on market in Townsville is 84, according to the latest data from realestate.com.au
Listed for $270,000 negotiable, it was sold by Sibby and Lucy Di Bartolo of John Gribbin Realty, with the contract due to settle today.
“There was a lot of interest in it, from first home buyers and families,” Mr Di Bartolo said.
“Buyers are keen to get their kids into that school (Pimlico) but the suburb also offers affordable houses.
“I wish I had 10 more like it because a lot of people missed out.”
A few doors down is 17 Latchford Street, a five bedroom Queenslander on a 971 sqm block.
It is listed with Julie Mahoney of Ray White Julie Mahoney and will go under the hammer on October 26.
One of its key selling points is the fact it is located within the school catchment.
“Being located in a good school catchment can be a huge drawcard for buyers,” Ms Mahoney said.
“And we have had huge interest in this property, mostly from families and young couples planning for the future.”
https://www.realestate.com.au/news/houses-in-good-school-zones-sell-in-a-flash/
Calls for Australian troops to focus on Asia region as fighting returns to AfghanistanThe region that saw the bloodiest fighting of Afghanistan’s 20 year war has again descended into chaos prompting calls for the Australian Defence Force to pull out of the embattled region.
The Afghan region Australian troops fought and died for during two decades of combat has descended into chaos with a resurgent Taliban campaign forcing 35,000 civilians to flee their homes and prompting fresh US air strikes.
Just a day after Defence Minister Linda Reynolds confirmed another Australian Defence Force withdrawal phase from the embattled Afghanistan, the Taliban moved back into Helmand Province with co-ordinated attacks.
It is here coalition forces fought some of the bloodiest campaigns of Afghanistan’s 19-year war including Australian troops from the Special Operations Task Group and others largely in support of British operations.
The US administration today vowed despite the violence in Helmand – which yesterday also saw nine ANSF troops killed when two troop helicopters crashed – the fragile peace accord between the Americans and Taliban remained.
Senate powerbroker independent Rex Patrick said Senator Reynolds’ confirmation this week the ADF had now wrapped up its training operation of the various Afghan security forces, now was a time for a full withdrawal and an independent review into the effectiveness of Australia’s involvement in the Middle East more broadly.
“Bringing an end to Australia’s remaining deployments in the Middle East is clearly overdue,” he said.
“After nearly two decades of operations in the Middle East, our special forces especially need time to rebuild and reorientate themselves towards possible future operations in Australia’s immediate strategic region. We are entering a new era of competition between major powers focused on East Asia and the Pacific … Australia may face significant strategic challenges closer to home.”
Australia Post may be forced into early return to daily deliveries
Controversial changes to postal delivery services made during the coronavirus pandemic could be wound back before their planned expiry date amid a string of scandals within Australia Post.
Federal Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has written to business leaders across the nation requesting feedback on the temporary regulatory changes the federal government granted to the organisation earlier this year.
The mail delivery service was given short-term regulatory relief in April to move to every-second-day delivery of mail in metropolitan areas until June 30 next year as part of a broader movement within the postal service to cut costs amid COVID-19.
A spokeswoman from Mr Fletcher's office said a review was under way and would determine whether the relief should continue to June 30 next year, incorporating feedback from business and industry. She said the review would be finalised by the end of this year.
Labor and the Greens failed at an attempt to reverse the regulatory changes in the Senate, however Liberal backbencher Concetta Fierravanti-Wells has expressed concern and will again attempt to force changes when sittings resume.
Mr Fletcher said at the time the new standards would give Australia Post the "flexibility to respond to the increased demand for parcels", but there are reports of major backlogs in parcel delivery and delays with deliveries surrounding Father's Day last month, and the postal service this week warned Australians to allow up to six weeks for deliveries ahead of Christmas.
Australia Post invited its Melbourne-based staff to volunteer their weekends or mid-week to help clear backlogs at its Victorian facilities using their own vehicles to help deliver parcels.
Staff were asked to declare they were able to carry and lift up to 16kg of mail and parcels repeatedly through the day.
Australia Post's profits have soared during the pandemic as it benefit from an eCommerce boom fuelled by the pandemic.
Revenue rose a record 7 per cent in the 2019-20 financial year, up more than $500 million to nearly $7.5 billion.
It has increased scrutiny on managing director Christine Holgate's performance despite her decision to take a pay cut and forgo bonuses for the recent financial year.
Australia Post confirmed it paid almost $120,000 for a reputation management consultant as the organisation attempted to defend the changes to delivery times.
In a written statement to the Senate this week, Australia Post said it had advised Mr Fletcher of its decision to engage PR guru Ross Thornton. The contract equated to about $3000-a-day.
A spokeswoman for Mr Fletcher said all questions regarding the hiring of consultants were a matter for the Australia Post board and "should be directed to Australia Post".
Australia Post said on Monday the company, Domestique, was still engaged but not on an ongoing retainer, and "provided advice on an ad hoc basis".
It has told customers via emails and on its website this week it is doing "everything we can" to keep delivering during the pandemic.
"Ongoing challenges presented by the pandemic mean there are still some delays as our business operates with additional safety measures to protect our people and customers," the company said on its website.
"We're also still experiencing reduced domestic and international flights, while processing unprecedented parcel volumes. The majority of parcels are arriving on time."
China steps up trade war ‘by slashing Australian coal imports’
Australia is urgently trying to confirm reports that China has slashed its coal import quota, with analysts warning that Beijing could be stepping up its trade war with the world’s largest coal exporter.
China has already moved to restrict Australian agricultural exports severely, including beef and barley — moves that were taken after Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, led the push in April for an international investigation into the Chinese origins of the coronavirus.
Australian coal analysts said on Tuesday that almost all major Chinese steel mills had been informed of the clampdown on Australian coal, including coal waiting to offload and sitting in China’s port stockpiles.
Australian coal miners could be forced to sell “distressed” coal cargos at cut-rate prices
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Thursday, October 15, 2020
The Great Barrier Reef has lost half its corals
The heading above -- from a Warmist outfit -- is most implausible. If it were true,it would have been widely noted by now but it appears to be the first such claim. And the journal article they rely on contradicts it:
"The relative abundances of large colonies remained relatively stable"
And the reference to"greenhouse gases" is also not in the original report.
There has undoubtedly been some loss of coral cover in some places in recent years but the cause is conjectural. Many things affect coral abundance, not the least of wich is heavy weather in the form of cyclones etc.
One of the largest declines happened during a fall in the sea level in the general area. And that exposed corals to unusual dessicatory and other damage
And, finally, even research by doomsayer Hoegh-Guldberg has revealed that bounce-back of damaged coral is very good. So the mere fears in the article below are unpersuasive
Journal abstract included below
A new study of the Great Barrier Reef shows populations of its small, medium and large corals have all declined in the past three decades.
Lead author Dr Andy Dietzel, from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoralCoE), says while there are numerous studies over centuries on the changes in the structure of populations of humans—or, in the natural world, trees—there still isn’t the equivalent information on the changes in coral populations.
“We measured changes in colony sizes because population studies are important for understanding demography and the corals’ capacity to breed,” Dr Dietzel said.
He and his co-authors assessed coral communities and their colony size along the length of the Great Barrier Reef between 1995 and 2017. Their results show a depletion of coral populations.
“We found the number of small, medium and large corals on the Great Barrier Reef has declined by more than 50 percent since the 1990s,” said co-author Professor Terry Hughes, also from CoralCoE.
“The decline occurred in both shallow and deeper water, and across virtually all species—but especially in branching and table-shaped corals. These were the worst affected by record-breaking temperatures that triggered mass bleaching in 2016 and 2017,” Prof Hughes said.
The branching and table-shaped corals provide the structures important for reef inhabitants such as fish. The loss of these corals means a loss of habitat, which in turn diminishes fish abundance and the productivity of coral reef fisheries.
Dr Dietzel says one of the major implications of coral size is its effect on survival and breeding.
“A vibrant coral population has millions of small, baby corals, as well as many large ones— the big mamas who produce most of the larvae,” he said.
“Our results show the ability of the Great Barrier Reef to recover—its resilience—is compromised compared to the past, because there are fewer babies, and fewer large breeding adults.”
The authors of the study say better data on the demographic trends of corals is urgently needed.
“If we want to understand how coral populations are changing and whether or not they can recover between disturbances, we need more detailed demographic data: on recruitment, on reproduction and on colony size structure,” Dr Dietzel said.
“We used to think the Great Barrier Reef is protected by its sheer size—but our results show that even the world’s largest and relatively well-protected reef system is increasingly compromised and in decline,” Prof Hughes said.
Climate change is driving an increase in the frequency of reef disturbances such as marine heatwaves. The study records steeper deteriorations of coral colonies in the Northern and Central Great Barrier Reef after the mass coral bleaching events in 2016 and 2017. And the southern part of the reef was also exposed to record-breaking temperatures in early 2020.
“There is no time to lose—we must sharply decrease greenhouse gas emissions ASAP,” the authors conclude.
https://www.coralcoe.org.au/media-releases/the-great-barrier-reef-has-lost-half-its-corals
Long-term shifts in the colony size structure of coral populations along the Great Barrier ReefAndreas Dietzel et al.
Abstract
The age or size structure of a population has a marked influence on its demography and reproductive capacity. While declines in coral cover are well documented, concomitant shifts in the size-frequency distribution of coral colonies are rarely measured at large spatial scales. Here, we document major shifts in the colony size structure of coral populations along the 2300 km length of the Great Barrier Reef relative to historical baselines (1995/1996). Coral colony abundances on reef crests and slopes have declined sharply across all colony size classes and in all coral taxa compared to historical baselines. Declines were particularly pronounced in the northern and central regions of the Great Barrier Reef, following mass coral bleaching in 2016 and 2017. The relative abundances of large colonies remained relatively stable, but this apparent stability masks steep declines in absolute abundance. The potential for recovery of older fecund corals is uncertain given the increasing frequency and intensity of disturbance events. The systematic decline in smaller colonies across regions, habitats and taxa, suggests that a decline in recruitment has further eroded the recovery potential and resilience of coral populations.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1432
Lockdowns are favoured by rich elitists at the expense of the youngAustralia has been stress tested by the pandemic and the results are mixed. There is good news. With the diabolical exception of Victoria, our systems of government and public health have proved to be mostly competent and well-organised. In international terms, this turns out to be rare. But there are some harsh lessons.
Before the next crisis, we need to have a frank conversation about managing risk. A disease can be controlled by shutting everything down and placing your citizens under house arrest but it’s hardly ideal. It might be necessary if everyone faced a similar threat but, in this case, they did not. No society can guarantee everyone’s safety so the goal must be the old-fashioned notion of seeking the common good: the greatest good for the greatest number. That should be weighted to the future because, through history, most societies have preferenced their young as a simple matter of survival. In this pandemic, we reversed that. It was a bad decision.
Alas, we have lost the ability to have frank conversations. There are many reasons for this but let’s poke one highly sensitive bear: the most ardent lockdown enthusiasts come from privileged classes who don’t live and work in the front-line suburbs where their daft decrees fall hardest. They work in white-collar jobs and many are in the public sector where their wealth has grown as they worked from home. That is not something cleaners, security guards, cooks or factory workers can do. As ever, the poor suffered most.
The Morrison government has had a, mostly good, pandemic but its real test lies ahead in the transition from financial life support to economic reboot. It succeeded in building a safety net under most of the economy, but the budget is the dividing line between triage and recovery.
A fascinating political battle is now afoot with Big Government conservatives lining up against Bigger Government Labor and money is no object. One wants to pump billions through the arteries of taxpayers and business to reboot the engine of private enterprise, the other sees government itself building a shining new light on the hill.
Scott Morrison starts as favourite. He has proven to be a pragmatic and flexible leader who learns from his mistakes and adapts. This makes him a formidable foe and Labor needs to stop underestimating him. It also needs to ditch the cul-de-sac obsession with identity grievance and return to its roots.
In the looming battle, Labor’s text has already been written: “If the movement can make someone more comfortable, give to some father or mother a greater feeling of security for their children, a feeling that if a depression comes there will be work, that the government is striving its hardest to do its best, then the Labor movement will be completely justified.” The lesson? Be more Ben Chifley and less Ben Affleck.
The pandemic has starkly revealed the structural weakness of the Commonwealth in the federation. It pays the big bills, but it has been frozen out of some of the big decisions. The Commonwealth’s preference was always for a short hibernation to fortify the health system, suppress but not eliminate the virus, and return to something like normal as swiftly as possible. It wanted schools and borders to say open. It lost most of those fights. Nothing spoke more eloquently of the Commonwealth’s impotence than the Prime Minister calling a radio show in a failed bid to get the Queensland government to let a young woman out of quarantine to attend her father’s funeral.
National cabinet has yielded mixed results. It was a good co-ordinating system early on when there seemed to be a shared goal. But, when pressed, some premiers proved they have little regard for the idea of Australia. This is deeply disturbing. It is simply ludicrous that the borders in the European Union are open when Australia’s internal borders are shut.
If a state premier's success is measured by a low disease count and high approval ratings, then most did well. But to protect their virtue they have strapped an elimination chastity belt on their jurisdictions. That demands extremely limited international intercourse, the potential to swing state lines open and shut and eternal border vigilance.
And we need to talk about experts. Wise governments seek the best advice, but it should be drawn widely. Even the health experts’ views on how to manage this disease are divided and when the proposed solution is shutting society down then many voices must be heard. In the end, it is the politician’s job to decide and wear the consequences because it is both undemocratic and the height of gutlessness for a leader to say she/he has outsourced responsibility to a bureaucrat.
An arts/humanities degree has long been the butt of predictable joke but there's another side
Of course I have an arts degree. How could you tell?
I've always said that an honours degree in art history is the most useful preparation you can ever get for the kind of daily journalism and broadcasting I do: it's not until you truly understand the imagery and meaning of a Renaissance painting of a crucifixion that you will ever make sense of a federal leadership spill.
The blood; the sorrow. The weeping and rending of garments. And that's just on the Coalition side.
Yesterday the Federal Government revealed that the humble arts degree was now going to be nailed to the cross, with fees set to soar for humanities subjects from 2021.
An arts degree has long been the butt of many a predictable joke, but the other week a senior employment recruiter shared with me on air what organisations were telling her they wanted to see in new employees, and there was a familiar echo in what she had to say.
As AI replaces more and more of the jobs we once assumed our children could grow up to do, this recruiter's research with leaders across several industry sectors identified the most important character traits needed in a post-COVID-19 workforce. They include adaptability, emotional control and resilience, persuasion and negotiation skills, relationship building and “skin or soul in the game”.
Let's say your infrastructure firm needs to persuade the Queensland Government of your construction agenda. You had better check the above list. Or say you're an economist advising the loans division of a bank or the manager of a medium-sized business dealing with suppliers. Imagine you are a primary producer scouring for a new export market: check the list.
That list above describes my four-and-a-bit years at uni, travelling in and around art history, English, Russian literature and Australian history. It describes the self-reliance, organisational skills, critical and comparative thinking and sheer enthusiasm for new and challenging ideas that those years fostered in me and my peers.
Despite the Federal Government's announcement yesterday, they clearly get this too: indeed the Education Minister, Dan Tehan, was the one who funded and opened a new centre at RMIT in Melbourne last year to investigate the ethical use of emerging AI technologies. Humanities, eh?
Is 'job-ready' the goal?
I'm not going to bang on here about how our shared and contrasting human histories and experiences, and our emotional connections to and understanding of the world, are almost entirely contained within the study of the humanities — after thousands of years of human civilisation that much is clear.
One Vice Chancellor — with double degrees spanning the sciences and creative arts — remarked to me that viewing university education as fundamentally about turning out "job-ready" graduates misses the point.
The question now is what the consequences of this de-funding will be?
The late essayist and quicksilver intellectual Christopher Hitchens once argued that "above all, we are in need of a renewed Enlightenment … and this Enlightenment will not need to depend, like its predecessors, on the heroic breakthroughs of a few gifted and exceptionally courageous people. It is within the compass of the average person".
For many, the universality of the humanities degree is the most democratic expression of this ambition.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-20/arts-degree-humanities-university-fees/12375334
Spending on childcare is already very highJosh Frydenberg has confirmed the Morrison government, fresh from bringing forward some tax cuts slated for 2022, still plans to lift the top marginal tax rate of 47 per cent to $200,000 in 2024.
That may not happen if Labor gets to implement its universal childcare policy, born of the absurd idea that the federal budget handed down last week was anti-women.
The government already spends more on childcare as a share of GDP than socially democratic Germany, The Netherlands and Austria, and about the OECD average.
Federal spending on childcare, supercharged by the Coalition’s 2017 reforms, is on track to rise 30 per cent from last financial year to $10.3bn by 2024, according to the budget.
That’s not enough for Labor which, we learned in Anthony Albanese’s budget reply speech, wants to increase the subsidy per dollar families spend on childcare from 85c to 90c.
Reflecting its base among high-earning public sector workers, where two incomes easily lift household income above $189,000 a year, Labor would scrap the cap of $10,500 per child a year that applies at that level of household income. Households earning below $530,000 a year — basically all of them — would receive a subsidy.
The government screamed “upper-class welfare” but it was crossbench senators David Leyonhjelm and Derryn Hinch who imposed a modicum of discipline on the Coalition’s own childcare reforms in 2017, capping support at household income of $350,000.
We are well past the optimal quantum of childcare funding, which increasingly forces the childless to subsidise the career ambitions of well-off parents who would have had children anyway.
It’s understandable high-income earners advocate universal childcare, making all sorts of fabulous arguments about how it’s good for the economy and GDP. While formal childcare can pay developmental dividends for children in single-parent or lower socio-economic households, for children in other households it’s glorified childminding.
Of course putting children in childcare adds to GDP: parents caring for their own children don’t count in the formal economy. Fees to childcare centres do, as do wages earned in a job. But this says nothing about prosperity.
Advocates overlook the cost of raising the funding: the distortion of higher taxation and the goods and services those taxpayers would have bought instead.
But it’s worse than that. Excessive childcare subsidies create childcare jobs that wouldn’t have existed otherwise. They can lure parents into work that — even with the taxpayer subsidy — pays little more than childcare workers earn, implying it would be better if they swapped jobs and left the poor taxpayer alone.
And, naturally, childcare centre owners cream off as much of the public subsidy as they can, knowing government will pick up the bulk of the fees charged.
Childcare funding is really about ideology, not economics or fertility. It’s about socialising child-rearing and “empowering” women.
Labor is opposed to the third stage of tax cuts, for instance, which would return years of bracket creep for those earning above $180,000, yet it is happy to give the same households sizeable handouts for childcare.
The great increase in female workforce participation — and collapse in fertility — occurred in the 1970s, long before significant childcare subsidies emerged.
Scandinavian nations spend double what we do and have similar female workforce participation and fertility rates. Even if childcare did boost fertility, with almost eight billion people on Earth (up from 4.4 billion in 1980) the case for subsidising people to have more isn’t obvious.
Economics has long considered work a disutility, something you avoid if you are fortunate enough to be able to. Childcare advocates see having women in paid work as desirable in and of itself, independently of what women themselves want.
If families want to use childcare that’s fine, of course, but why should others — including families that choose to look after their children — pay for it?
Government could make childcare more affordable by paring back the so-called National Quality Framework, which micromanages supply.
If parents don’t care whether staff have Certificate III, let them pick a cheaper centre that doesn’t care either.
If there’s to be a bias in the system it should be towards parents caring for their own children, the most efficient transaction of all, even if it’s ignored by GDP — one sustained by love, not money.
Taxpayers already fund primary and high school education, and a multitude of other payments and benefits in kind. Can we draw the line somewhere, please?
In economic terms, children once had the characteristics of an investment from the perspective of the parents: more hands to work on the farm, daughters to sell off for dowries, and for some help in old age, and so on. But today they are more akin to consumption.
“A very young child is highly labour-intensive in terms of cost, and the rewards are wholly psychic in terms of utility,” Nobel prize-winning American economist Theodore Schultz noted.
“From the point of view of the sacrifices that are made in bearing and rearing (children), parents in rich countries acquire mainly future personal satisfactions from them.”
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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
https://heofen.blogspot.com/ (MY OTHER BLOGS)
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Wednesday, October 14, 2020
The public hospitals with no doctor
The pub with no beer was a joke. This is no joke. A hospital with no doctor is not a hospital at all.
The pretence that you can rely on consulting a doctor over the net is an absurdity. There are many ways in which a doctor has to feel the patient. The nurse can no doubt undertake such a routine task as taking the patient's blood pressure but much else will be beyond her skill level. Palpation is important in dignosing a lot of medical problems and you can't pull that through a computer monitor.
The classsical solution for country medicine was to have a resident GP who was paid a retainer by the government but who could also do some private practice. That does of course run up against the reluctance of most doctors to work in country areas. But the solution to that is money. And that is where the problem lies, as is reported below
But the problem is not the total overall funding. It is funding allocation. And a major drain on funding in all States is a corpulent medical bureaucracy. Fire a few health bureaucrats and you will have plenty of funding to expand your coverage of country areas. Health bureaucrats don't cure people. Doctors do
A woman bled to death in the emergency department of a regional NSW hospital that had no doctors physically present because authorities had replaced face-to-face doctors with treatment via videolink outside business hours.
Doctors and patients have voiced anger and alarm over the moves to treat critically ill patients via teleconference in at least seven hospitals across the Western NSW Local Health District, which spans 31 per cent of NSW.
In another example of the practice, a non-verbal patient who turned up to an emergency department in central-western NSW was offered a video conference with a doctor in Switzerland.
Some postcodes targeted for the changes have large elderly and Indigenous populations and extremely high rates of disadvantage, with preventable deaths up to 31 per cent higher than the state average and mortality rates up to 94 per cent higher.
"We couldn’t believe this is what a community has to live with," said Hayley Olivares, whose mother died from haemorrhaging while being treated by a doctor over teleconference in Gulgong Hospital, near Mudgee.
Dawn Trevitt, 66, was rushed to the emergency department – where only nurses were physically present – last month with dangerously low blood pressure.
She died within an hour.
Ms Olivares, who lives in Canberra, was stunned to discover the doctor had been treating her mother remotely when it was mentioned in passing by a police officer.
She said the case was referred to the Coroner because the doctor wasn’t comfortable signing off on the cause of death, which was ultimately determined to be a gastrointestinal bleed that sent Mrs Trevitt into cardiac arrest.
Mrs Trevitt, a school teacher, has been remembered as a "lively and funny and energetic woman".
Her family is tormented over whether the outcome could have been different had there had been a doctor on site.
"I really don’t want to see another family have the same experience," Ms Olivares said.
A spokesperson for the Western NSW Local Health District said it offers sincere condolences to Mrs Trevitt’s family and would undertake a review.
Gulgong has not had a doctor inside its hospital walls since June, when the town’s doctor was informed his contract with the hospital would not be renewed by the health district.
The health district has also failed to renew the contract of Rural and Remote Medical Services (RARMS), a non-profit organisation providing doctors to hospitals at Bourke, Walgett, Lightning Ridge, Brewarrina, Coonamble and Collarenebri.
The health district put the contract to tender last month, revealing it would now allow a mix of face-to-face doctors and telehealth in the hospitals.
Under new "minimum requirements" in the documentation, doctors will have to be physically present between 8am and 6pm on certain weekdays. Video conferencing can be offered at all other times.
A doctor will have to be present at least one day a week in Collarenebri, two days a week in Brewarrina, three days a week in Lightning Ridge and Coonamble, and five days a week in Bourke and Walgett.
Walgett is the largest of the towns, with a population of 6100.
Dr Phillip Jolly works in Lightning Ridge, servicing both the medical practice as a GP and the hospital.
He warned the "dangerous and inappropriate" changes could cost lives and would take "further resources away from an impoverished health system".
Dr Jolly said the initiative appeared to be being introduced by stealth as the new normal for rural communities.
"Telehealth should be a service for places that can’t get medical staff, not a service that replaces medical staff," Dr Jolly said.
"If we’re going down the path of hospitals not having doctors physically in them, that should be a policy discussed at a political level."
Another doctor with knowledge of the system, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said patients would have to hope to have "your heart attack between nine and five".
"It’s much easier to service Bourke from a doctor sitting there in Balmain on his bum and leave the nurses to deal with a difficult patient with half a leg cut off, or a spear in his leg, or a car accident," the doctor said.
A spokeswoman for the Western NSW Local Health District rejected suggestions the services were being cut back.
She stressed each hospital would continue to have full-time access to a doctor, whether physically or virtually, and the on-site hours were an "absolute minimum".
The aim of the tender was to secure sustainable access to medical services for the hospitals, the spokeswoman said.
"The use of innovative telehealth technology is commonplace in health facilities around the world," the spokeswoman said, noting it had been used in facilities much larger than the hospitals covered by the tender.
She said the health district had been successfully operating a virtual service to assist on-site staff for years, and it would be available to the successful tenderer.
A woman, who asked not to be named, turned up to the Gulgong Hospital’s emergency department earlier this year with a family member who was in severe pain and unable to speak.
They were put onto a teleconference with an Australian doctor who was in Geneva, Switzerland.
She said the nurses and the doctor were doing a "brilliant job", but she was concerned for non-verbal patients who did not have a relative to advocate on their behalf.
Sharelle Fellows, who has been circulating a petition against the move, stressed Gulgong was popular with tourists and grey nomads and did not have a dwindling population.
Qld election 2020: Palaszczuk’s border policy frustrates most powerful but it’s working at home
It’s been slammed by the rest of the country as “cruel”, but the Queensland Premier’s harsh border move is actually a stroke of genius.
Australia’s most powerful politicians lashed the Queensland Premier this week for her refusal to open her state’s borders to New South Wales.
The Prime Minister, the NSW Premier and NSW Health Minister have all accused Annastacia Palaszczuk of putting her own re-election bid ahead of the lives of her constituents.
And it seems a large portion of the country agrees.
But in an expansive state that covers rough outback plains and unruly tropical heat, bucking national trends flowing from the south is commonplace and people take pride in delivering shock federal election results.
“Is she for jobs or not?” Scott Morrison spat on Thursday morning, accusing Ms Palaszczuk of forgoing her primary election pledge.
“The number of people who have come back in to jobs in New South Wales since we hit the pit of that COVID-recession is a 70 per cent increase. “In Queensland, it’s 44 per cent.”
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said her Queensland counterpart was unfairly shifting the goalposts on the requirements to ease border restrictions, while the boldest rant came from NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard who said Ms Palaszczuk’s policy was simply a “political agenda”.
“The date she keeps mentioning is the date straight after the election,” he told the ABC on Friday morning. “Why would it go straight after the election? Well, there is only one reason, because she’s focused entirely on the political outcomes. She believes it’s a political advantage to her.
“This is a completely reprehensible, uncaring and cruel approach by the Queensland Premier.”
All three, of course, sit in opposing political camps to the Queensland Labor leader.
Within the Sunshine State, the Premier has been greeted at campaign stopovers with placards declaring their gratitude for holding firm.
Her management of the coronavirus crisis led to a surge in popularity from just 29 per cent in February to 57 per cent in the YouGov Poll released earlier in the week.
According to the The Courier-Mail poll, Labor now leads the Liberal-National Party 52 per cent to 48 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
“The border policy is undoubtedly popular,” said Tracey Arklay, a senior lecturer with Griffith University’s school of government and international relations.
“There are some parts of Queensland who don’t like it as much, particularly those who live down near the Gold Coast border.
“But, in the main, the overwhelming sentiment is that it is popular.”
Dr Arklay says it isn’t a crafted strategy curated to ensure her government is re-elected, it’s a “considered evidenced based approach to how to handle this COVID-19 situation”.
She said the political agenda was more likely from the Liberal side of politics, who are lobbying to get their colleague, Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington, into the Premier’s chair.
“The absolute attack that seems to be happening on Queenslanders, as opposed to Western Australia for example, is telling,” the government relations academic told NCA NewsWire.
She said interstate political operators had a proven record of misunderstanding the “broad church” of Queensland voters, evidenced in the shockwave of support that delivered victory to the Coalition Government in the 2019 federal election.
“People up in North Queensland don’t particularly like people from Brisbane telling them what to do, let alone someone from Sydney,” Dr Arklay said.
The border policy may not have the universal support among the inner-city voters in the southeast of the state, but it has support where it matters, the senior lecturer said.
Particularly in the three tightly held seats in the northern hub surrounding Townsville where it’s widely believed the October 31 election will be won or lost.
The incumbent government holds the central Townsville electorate and Mundingburra by 0.4 and 1.1 per cent respectively, while its more dominant margin in the outer and semirural Thuringowa — 4.1 per cent — is expected to be aggressively contested by both One Nation and Katter’s Australia Party (KAP).
Dr Arklay said, if anything, the outside lobbying over the border dispute from Liberal Party elites had a damaging effect on Ms Frecklington’s campaign, whose stance on the controversial topic has become blurred.
“It’s coming across as a bit unclear,” the Griffith University senior lecturer said.
“She wanted the borders open and then she supported the borders staying shut and she is now saying the borders should be open as soon as possible.”
Brisbane transport business BajAIR can’t lure new workers
A transport business veteran run off his feet with work has been unable to find new staff despite Queensland’s unemployment rate topping 7.5 per cent.
BajAIR owner Brett Johnson, whose company builds refrigerated transport vehicles, has recorded a significant increase in work due to the Federal Government’s Instant Asset Write-off scheme.
Mr Johnson has months of jobs ahead for his 30-strong workforce, but a recent search for qualified and apprentice motor body builders and refrigeration mechanics has proved fruitless.
The 30-year veteran of the transport industry believes people are accessing JobKeeper and remaining at home for a similar amount to apprentice wages. “I advertised for qualified tradespeople and I didn’t get one application,” he said. “I got nothing, not even a response.
“JobKeeper is the biggest killer because it’s given to the wrong people.”
Mr Johnson fears the reliance on JobKeeper - paid at $1200 per fortnight until January 4 and then $1000 until March 28 - will leave thousands of people without an income when it ends.
“There will be an absolute nightmare of people who can’t find work,” he said.
If you dare to tell it like it is, you’re a racist
Mike O’Connor,
If you want to express an opinion that is in anyway contrary to what is seen as politically correct in this great land of ours, don’t expect anyone to stand up for your right to freedom of speech.
Kerri-Anne Kennerley is the latest person to incur the wrath of the self-righteous following her acceptance of an offer to play the role of Pippin in the upcoming Gordon Frost Organisation’s musical of that name due to open in Sydney next month.
Her decision was immediately denounced by prominent theatre director Richard Carroll who said that the decision to cast Kennerley demonstrated that the musical theatre industry was not willing to change.
Pardon? Well-known performer lands acting gig? Where’s the problem and what hasn’t changed?
Kennerley’s sin was to air the view on television last year that people protesting to have the date of Australia Day changed were ignoring the alleged rape of children and women in the Outback.
“Has any single one of those 5000 people waving the flags saying how inappropriate the day is, has any one of them been out to the Outback where children, where babies and five-year-olds are being raped, their mothers are being raped, their sisters are being raped. They get no education” she said.
“What have you done?” she asked of the Invasion Day protesters. “Zippo!”
Predictably she was howled down for stating an obvious truth, the announcement of her role in Pippin firing up social media harpies who immediately cried “racist!” and demanded she be removed from the show.
It seems that for voicing her views, she should now be ineligible for future employment. How dare she expose the shallowness of urban activists who rant and chant and tell each other what a great job they’re doing and through indolence, ignorance or self-absorption, do nothing about the real problems in society.
Kennerley, bless her, is not one to fold in the face of criticism. “It matters not,” she said. “I am delighted to be doing Pippin. it’s wonderful to have jobs back for the theatre industry.”
I don’t place much credence in Australia Day awards, given that they are frequently handed out to people who have merely done what they have been well paid to do but if the gong givers want to give one to Kennerley next year for having the courage to speak her mind, that’s fine with me.
The outrage, however, has not been confined to Kennerley.
Performer Gabrielle McClinton has also been given a role in Pippin, having previously appeared in the Broadway production of the same musical.
The catch here is that not only is McClinton an American but he is also black.
“This is an opportunity for the Gordon Frost Organisation to formally acknowledge the lack of inclusion in our industry and adopt cultural competency in their productions,” said the actors’ union.
“It is important GFO recognises that moving forward there needs to be a formal agreement to ensure transparency and inclusion.”
Cultural competency? What precisely is that? Sounds like racism to me, denying Mr McClinton the role because he is a black American and not an Indigenous Australian.
This is another way of saying that theatrical producers should not be free to give the job to the person they feel to be best qualified but to a local whom they believe to be less qualified.
It’s their money they are risking. Surely they should be able to decide who they hire without being accused of lacking “cultural competency.”
The Gordon Frost Organisation has said that it looked for an Australian person of colour to fill the role but it couldn’t find anyone could with the requisite level of singing, dancing and acrobatic skills.
Giving jobs to people who are not qualified to perform them doesn’t do anyone any favours.
Moves gaining traction to force companies to have gender equality on their boards, now being made mandatory in California, are equally flawed.
Once you throw merit aside, the whole system becomes debased. The only winners are the underqualified.
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Also see my other blogs:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com (TONGUE TIED)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
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Evelyn Rae, a conservative Australian political commentator
Margo Robbie -- a beautiful australian
My son Joe at ANU
One of the happiest pictures ever -- Cleo Smith, aged 4
